China, Maybe, Upstate NY Beer Trail, Plan B

My stomach is tighter than a fiddlehead fern, just on the inside. My mood changes like the recent winds swirling around Ulster County. I know that traveling often requires mega bursts of patience, but the truth is I am not a patient person, even under the best of circumstances. Character flaws also tend to be brought to the surface when a traveler. Two days till my departure to China and due to the changes to visas requirements said to be because of the swine flu; I sit and impatiently wait, perhaps pace fits better. I need a visa!

In my mind I go over what I could have done differently, short of being a diplomat or related to the Premier of China, very little. I pick up the new issue of National Geographic Traveler in the hopes of a calming read on the back deck. The gods are laughing at me I realize when I thumb straight to an article called Are Your Papers in Order by Christopher Elliott. I love his pieces but bummed when he hit on visas and how quickly the rules change. My peaceful period on the porch is done.

As often happens when on the road something good pops out of nowhere, a plan B forms. The same issue had in the Cutting Loose section a piece about the beer trail in Upstate NY. Local brewer Tommy Keegan and his fine ales from Kingston get a lot of well deserved praise. Okay I think if my visa doesn’t get here in time, I will hit the beer trail. No visa required and I can base in an old farm house dating from 1845, my own. I’ll get to see my wife nightly and go back to the newly reopened restaurant at the old stone Hasbrouck House just down the road. I think about what Max said at the NY Times Travel Show, start local. Old habits die hard and the lure of China strong, the wind and mood have changed, the road calls and I need to answer.