It was certainly Against the Odds to find this magnificant home with a view while attempting to correct a missed turn!

We were driving home from Boston and thought it would be fun to go the back way. We didn’t have a navigator or GPS so we were figuring out directions the old fashioned way- a map.

We decided we had missed a crucial turn and needed to turn around. Because we were in the country, we decided to take the first turn we could and maybe turn around in someone’s driveway, and “ta da” we would be back on track.

When we turned onto the road that was heading up a mountain we noticed a sign that said Olana and an arrow pointing forward. Not knowing what that meant, we continued to look for a driveway to turn around in and continued up the mountain.

We came to a small parking lot with an attendant in a booth. We thought, finally a place to turn around! We told the attendant we had made a wrong turn and asked if it was ok to just go in and come right back out again. He suggested that we might like to stop and take a look at the beautiful view of the Hudson River since we were so close. There was no charge for that, but if we wanted to tour Olana there would be a charge.

Olana we learned was the home of landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church. Once we walked up to the home we decided a wrong turn never turned out so right. I highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in the area!

This is the view from the porch- The Rip Van Winkle Bridge