All the statewide issues that involve some 58 chapters are discussed, along with the national trends and how they affect us all. It starts usually with a cocktail hour, followed by dinner, then a meeting that starts at 8:00 pm and continues into the night. Generally speaking, I am too tired after such proceedings to do anything but go to bed. The problem lies with the bar that stands between the conference room and my room, as I leave!
My two amigos: do not help the cause any, since we all agree a ‘night-cap’ would be appropriate to end the day’s proceedings. We all are ‘light’ drinkers, never in the dark, and take these things very seriously. 
The drive up to Albany can be long and boring, except we laugh all the way up, telling stories and jokes to pass the time away. There are the two gentlemen I mentioned: Jim, a retired schoolteacher of high school English, and Ken, a financial expert with the old Morgan Stanley Smith Barney firm. In our itinerary, we plan out carefully the road stops going and coming from Albany, this being essential since our heads are so full of NYSARC, we need desperate relief! So we treat ourselves to well-deserved rest stops.
The first stop going north is the Hickory House, overlooking the Mohonk Valley, (Mohonk means ‘lake in the sky’) under the mountains from which we can see an observation tower I once climbed to the top of. There on a porch, under a bright sunny and perfect day we had lunch, and continued our important talks. Highlevel stuff, you know.
Then after the meetings the next day, we check out of our rooms and shoot down to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, the new Little Italy, and stop off at Zero Otto Nove, where we partake in a glass of wine, a nice lunch, finishing off with a double espresso and canoli! Believe we are discussing important stuff (high level you might say)!Then all three get calls from our wives, wondering where we are, telling us, as we can hardly think of food, that we have dinner engagements that night!
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