Second part of The Bartender’s Skills with a Manhatten’s drive through zombie towns in the Hudson River Valley. BSWAM says…
As the hills draw nearer, one heeds their wooded sides more than their stone-crowned tops. Those sides loom up so darkly and precipitously that one wishes they would keep their distance, but there is no road by which to escape them unless you had a rocket. 
Across a covered bridge one sees a small village huddled between the stream and the vertical slope of the mountain, and wonders at the cluster of rotting gingerbread roofs bespeaking an earlier architectural period than that of the neighboring region and a greater acquaintance with flash floods.
It is not reassuring to see, on a closer glance, that most of the houses are deserted and falling to ruin, and that the broken-steepled church now harbours the one slovenly free-style dance academy of the hamlet.
One dreads to trust the tenebrous tunnel of the bridge, yet there is no way to avoid it. Once across, it is hard to prevent the impression of a faint, malign odour about the village street, as of the massed mould and decay of centuries.
It is always a relief to get clear of the place, and to follow the narrow road around the base of the hills and across the level country beyond till it rejoins the Taconic. Afterwards one sometimes learns that one has been through Mellinsville. Or not. Depends on if you have GPS.
And then…
Worst Talk
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The Definitive Ranki… on Kalamunda, Australia’s u… AHC McDonald on The Montegiallo School of… Anonymous on Alexander The Great’s… Anonymous on Mr Fist Anonymous on The Montegiallo School of… Blood on Review: “The Montegiallo Schoo… Anonymous on Alexander The Great’s… Anonymous on Alexander The Great’s… Anonymous on Alexander The Great’s… Online Now
The Asia Beat- Museum of Winds Opens
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The Worst of Perth 
Awesome work, pic 4 – is that really a covered bridge surrounded by the bodies of those who had earlier attempted to pass?
Also, tenebrous. Today I learnt.
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I was born a cunctatious man.m going to Albany today. I wish it was more like Mellinsville.
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Be sure & stop for a slide in Katanning. Its the last remaining too high steel slide in captivity.
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Albany is plenty like Mellinsville!
Oh, wait.
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Just stumbled over a YouTube clip of Resnais’ “Providence,” which, while set nominally in the Rhode Island city of that name, features Albany as a location. At 4:29 and again at 9:27, portions of Albany’s State Capitol Building are used as the film’s courthouse. A creepier public building in the US does not exist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IcIrVvG51c&feature=relmfu
In keeping with the eldritch abomination theme, at 27:40 there is a great sequence in which Dirk Bogarde drives down Benefit Street in Providence, RI, catching sight of, among other places, the library where Edgar Allen Poe courted the “Helen” of the poem of that name; H. P. Lovecraft’s house; and a view of the Capitol dome mentioned in many of Lovecraft’s stories, including “The Haunter of the Dark.” The horror, indeed.
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We should be so literary.
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The film is pretty ghastly, although Gielgud has fun with his character and I love the photography.
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Well, there is Allen Park.
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Then I wish Al-bany was more like All-bany.
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Does Mellinsville have a Dog Rock ? Well, does it !
Nevertheless, HRV is now indelibly etched onto my bucket list.
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Me too. I wouldn’t have known about it otherwise.
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Or a wombat lodge?
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If you do stop in Katanning, perhaps a photo opportunity at the xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Worst place I have ever eaten – had to wipe all the cutlery and the table with Wet-Ones before I chose NOT to eat what they had served me. LOVED the Mellinsville Horror. Wish I was there now!
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Why would you take the Katanning Road to Albany?
But if you choose to add 90 kilometres and another hour in travel, worsting awaits in Broomehill.
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I agree orbea, more so when a simple woogle maps look tells me that it was Kojonup and, the slide has been removed, probably by the BER. Which is sad.
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Hudson River Valley looks like it needs some Royalties for Regions cash.
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or a DEC ‘controlled’ fuel reduction burn
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