We drove through the villages of Inlet and Old Forge on our way up to Long Lake as we do every year but this time something was very different. Our rental cottage was Saturday to Saturday as it usually is every year but the actual 4th of July was Saturday and the official holiday weekend started on Friday.
The traffic on the thruway was very sparse for a Saturday during the summer. We thought that maybe people weren't traveling because of the pandemic but the probable answer was that most people traveled on Friday or earlier for the long holiday weekend. We were stunned by the large crowds of people walking around Inlet and the then Old Forge. There were also cars everywhere. The towns were mobbed. We were also shocked by the large numbers of people in both places walking around not wearing masks and not maintaining social distancing. People were shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalks, in the parks, on the porches and patios, Seemingly everywhere. We did see some folks coming out of stores and restaurants wearing masks which they promptly took off when outside.
We also saw many lighted road signs on the thruway and on the roads leading to these communities stating "Wear Masks" "Covid is still a threat" "NY Tough". As we made our way along route 28 we saw many of the other smaller villages with large crowds and cars everywhere. It made us think that perhaps every 4th of July was like this but later that day while watching fireworks on Long Lake we heard a couple of local guys talking about the especially large crowds seen in Inlet and Old Forge over the weekend.
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