In West Kill, about 40 miles west of Hudson, another former Brooklynite, Casey Scieszka, just opened the nine-room Spruceton Inn. “I think what most former New Yorkers up here have in common is a desire for freedom,” says Scieszka, who runs the hotel with her husband. “Which can seem like a funny thing to say is lacking in NYC, but I’m talking about a freedom to build something for yourself that will be more than a tiny drop in a huge ocean, to live life at the pace you please, to feel like there’s something more important than the rat race.”