Monthly Archives: May 2014

May9

A New York-style Deli roadtrip: Driving down to Pennsylvania

Posted on by
Standard

25-Apr-2014 through 27-Apr-14

 

My friend Emma and I wanted to see Fallingwater – a very famous Frank Lloyd Wright house.  Unfortunately, it’s very far away.  But we still wanted to do a roadtrip… so let’s go toward there anyways!

*Note: A danger to driving a standard transmission is that I’m really the only one who can drive it easily.  So I did all the driving for this adventure – Emma knitted literally 50% of a sweater though… half the time with the top down and the wind howling.  Impressive.

Friday, 25-Apr-14

  • Emma meets me at the office, mid afternoon.  Throw her gear in the can, and we roll out onto the probably-gridlocked road.
  • Turns out, Emma’s a good luck charm when it comes to traffic… somehow we make the run to our rendezvous with my Aunt Tovah in barely 2.5 hours.
  • We all have dinner at Julio’s pizza; dinner takes forever to arrive, but it’s delicious once it does.  Ahh pizza… it’s nice; we eat slow, hang out and chat for a while after eating
  • After dinner we head back to my Aunt’s house.  She gives a quick tour, then we go out back to the barn to visit the goats!  Emma get’s to feed baby Violet, who’s only a few months old yet has an amazing mohawk.  And I got to see Sweetpea again – she grew!
  • Chat some more, then finally head to sleep

 

Saturday, 26-Apr-14

  • Wake up early… why can I always wake up on the weekends, but not weekdays?  Excited for the upcoming day, I suppose…
  • Get dressed, Chat with my aunt while chowing down on an excellent breakfast, and then we head out to feed the goats again and poke around the garden for a bit
  • Hang out and chat, playing with Einstein for a while.  I get to read through a few of her articles, and we roll out ~10:30
  • Emma’s luck has failed us, and we start hitting more and more traffic
  • Late lunch at Harolds, a very ‘murican new York style diner.  I mean… all I wanted was a Reuben, ok?  I couldn’t have one.  Why, you may ask?  Why could you not have a reuben at a New York style deli, the one place that should always have a Reuben?  Because their Reuben is huge.  It costs $60, and feeds 4-6 people.  Wtf America.  This is not necessary.
  • Whew… too much food.  We split a bacon cheeseburger (that had literally 12 slices of bacon on it) and french toast.  It was amazing, but we could barely move afterward.  Sitting in the car and reading, for the win!
  • Keep driving; it’s actually quite nice out, so we cruise well… even when theirs traffic.  See a Maybach on the road… yep, we’re near New York City.
  • Once we arrive at Emma’s folks place, we’re ready for a bit of relaxing.  Chill, chat, and wait for her dad to finish making roast.  It.  Is.  Amazing.
  • Eat, relax, and play card games that are a bit confusing.  But it’s a very fun night, an immense change from the insanity of living in the city.
  • Crash at a mostly-normal time, if not a bit early.  Driving takes more out of you than you’d think – the constant awareness and focus is tiring, I guess. So I could use the rest, and sleep like a log.

Sunday, 27-Apr-14

  •  As per the correct nature of a Sunday, we start out slow.  Head out to dinner in town, where Emma’s folks keep her up to date with all the family adventure, and I get to hear a bit about how her dad’s business has been doing – it’s actually pretty interesting, since he works with a lot of similar companies to those I work with.
  • Hang out around the house for a bit more, before having a light snack and then getting back on the road.
  • Driving driving driving driving… I actually really enjoy these long rides.  Even when we hit a lot of traffic in Amish Country.  <shrug>
  • Let Emma choose the music… It’s actually not so bad.  I’m definitely not that used to MIA and such.  Makes for fast driving tunes though.
  • Stop in at Rein’s Deli for an early dinner – ohh man.  See, THIS is a good Deli.  No massive portions, just really good food.  And sane, human-sized reubens for sane, human-sized prices!
  • Keep pushing through, driving along the long and not-too-full highway
  • Ohh man, is that a street-racer?  IT IS!  I chase the street racers for a while.  Three of us tearing down I-84; it’s really fun.  Not going crazy-fast, but just fast enough that it’s interesting and just slightly challenging.  The two others take turns leading, and there’s just enough traffic that you can’t just stay in one lane the whole way.  Safe Merging is cool, kids!  We make a 40min drive in maybe 25min though, so that’s nice.
  • As we pull up to the toll, each driver goes their separate ways.  We pull up next to each other one last time.  Look left, *nod*.  Look right *thumbs up*.  A moment between driver-bros is exchanged, and then in an instant it’s gone.
  • The rest of the drive is relaxed, and we find out way back into the city before midnight even strikes.
May2

A spur-of-the-moment trip to the Loj

Posted on by
Standard

What to do on a Friday night, when I don’t have any plans until Sunday… why not go to the Loj?

Friday through Sunday, 18-Apr-2014 through 20-Apr-14

Friday, 18-Apr-14

My favorite part about being on the Loj committee is that I can always escape the city if I want to, and go up to the Loj.

So when I found myself bored on a Friday evening, with no plans to meet people or do anything until Sunday afternoon… well, it doesn’t take long to pack a quick overnight pack, put my tent and sleeping bag in the car, and start out onto 93 Northbound.

First stop on the road to adventure was Chilis, for some delicious baby back ribs.  Since it’s passover, burgers were right out… same with Nachos, I’m afraid.  unfortunately the chef was a little mistake, and didn’t put any of the delicious into the ribs when I showed up; fortunately, I had Farenheight 451 with me to read, so that distracted me from the fact that the ribs were horridly dry.  I think I’m going to start cooking my own ribs, from now on…

(Ed note: look forward to Ben posting a babyback rib recipe soon!)

From there, the highway called.  So tunes were cranked up, the top was put down, and I roared off toward Gorham.

Saturday, 19-Apr-14

The night before I had set up my tent out back, in my usual little spot, and spent a bit of time chatting and catching up with the folks who’d showed up to the Loj.  From there, and after a bit of breakfast, I started walking out toward Shelbourne-Moriah…

  • I’d found a pair of snowshoes near the Loj, evidently just now thawing out from the winter.  Nice.  Took them along, because I heard rumor that the snowpack was pretty deep up near the top of the trail.
  • Getting across connor brook was… interesting.  The snowmelt had raised the river, so I had to do a bit of dramatic rock-hopping to make it across.
  • Honestly, the rest of the hike blends itself together.  I stopped by the river for an early lunch, and then followed the trail up into the woods as far as I could go.  Snowshoes became necessary when I went above the melt-line, but aside from that it was just a standard-issue relaxing hike.
  • Read some more of Fahrenheit 451; it’s a good book, once you get pack the excessive prose.
  • Didn’t get all the way up, thanks to losing the trail in the snow, but it was still a quite successful day of walking and relaxing and eating.
  • headed back to the Loj, arriving with a few hours to spare before sundown, and relaxed around the fire until it got dark, finishing up 451 and moving onto my next book – a Warhammer novel that my step-dad lent me.
  • Dinner consisted of a variant stir-fry; apples, chicken, onions, pinapple, and some other extras thrown in on top.  Quite delicious.
  • Evening spent relaxing before bed, then heading back to the tent.
  • Sleep was… difficult.  The pad was comfortable enough, but unfortunately I was leaving early in the morning to meet a friend… which meant sleeping early.  But I was the only one aiming for that – I’m pretty sure there was some full “ritual of spring” going on at the Loj that evening.  Whatever it was, it required large fires, lots of pots and pans, and definitely kept on into the night…

 

**continued below**

 

Sunday, 20-Apr-14

  •  Woke up early, and made myself a nice light breakfast for the road.  The goal was to be leaving before 8:30, and I was walking down the trail by 8:35. Not bad.
  • Took a few things of trash – the advantage to a convertible is that it’s really easy to haul stuff like that, as long as it doesn’t leak.  Thankfully, none of them did… but I made sure to put a small blanket down first, just in case.
  • The drive back to Boston was ideal – relaxing, warm, and sunny.  I enjoyed myself immensely.
  • Once home, relaxing and working in the garden.  Crysee was supposed to meet me around 14:00, but unfortunately she got sidetracked meeting up with some friends… which was actually nice, since it gave me some more time to work through the front yard, getting it ready for the coming summer…