Category Archives: Roadtrips

Nov21

Adventures in Connecticut

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08-Nov-13 through 10-Nov-13

 

Friday, 08-Nov-13

  • Leave work a bit late, drive down to CT
  • Grab some snacks in Waltham, but from there just cut and drive the whole way to Danbury
  • Park, Link up with Big T, and grab some dinner at a solid Mexican place down the street
  • Hit up a bar nearby for reunion drinks.  Yep.  That’s Jack Daniels.
  • Hang out, play some Halo 3 and Lego Lord of the Rings, then watch an episode of Avatar: Legend of Korra
  • Fall asleep like a log

Saturday, 09-Nov-13

  • Up early, head out to Dreads apt. with Amy
  • Grab some food first
  • Good drive… if a bit frigid
    • Hang out at the Salon, actually arrive early for once
    • Hair gets done; it’s horridly painful, as usual… but it looks good!
  • Roll out, and drive in a random direction
    • Hey, “Hazardsville” looks cool.  Let’s go there
    • Hike a bit, read a bit, wander a bit
    • As I’m driving, my hands are freezing and I wish I had driving gloves… cue a Harley Dealership, so I stop in and buy a pair of motorcycle gloves.  They fit perfect, and keep my hands nice and toasty in the cold.
  • Drive around a bit more, and head into Hartford for a walk along the river
    • Try to find a place to park and/or a coffee shop.
    • Nope, cannot find either.  Literally.  No coffee shops in Hartford.
    • No parking spots either it seems…
    • Finally head to the pub that we usually go to when we go to the convention – Steam Brew pub
    • Great Mac and Cheese with Chicken and Bacon and YUM
  • Head out, and meet up with T at his place again
    • Grab some snacks, watch an episode of Avatar, and chill
  • Head out to his friends place for a party
    • Drinks, chill, toasts, the usual small house party
    • They’re fun, and it’s a cool vibe in the house
    • Drink maybe a bit too much… I admit to nothing
  • Head back, watch an episode and play Lord of the Rings, then crash

Sunday, 10-Nov-13

  • Wake up slowly and painfully
  • Grab some advil
  • Grab some Breakfast!
    • First place isn’t actually a diner
    • So we wander
    • Second place?  Totally a diner.  And they have GOOD food
    • And good coffee
    • <drool>
  • Chill for a bit, relaxing and shooting the breeze.  Watch another episode or two, and generally just sit back and enjoy our hangovers
  • Roll out to a state park nearby, called Bear Mountain Reservation
    • Do a bit of walking around… one could even call it hiking
    • Fields, lakes, and abandoned buildings.  Fun times.
    • Shoot the breeze and somehow it’s like we’re back in college, wandering around on a Sunday after a big dorm party
  • Finish up the trail circuit and head back
  • Roll out to my Aunt Tovah’s house up in Roxbury, CT.  It’s about 30min of excellent top-down driving away.
    • On the way I notice a Volvo following me… and an arm waving out the window!  It’s my Aunt Tovah behind me, which is excellent because she stops me from taking a wrong turn, heh.
    • Visit with Tov for a while, hanging out and feeding the goats, seeing the gardens, etc…
    • Relax and chat for a few hours, until it’s late enough that I really should be rolling out
  • Start in on the final leg of the trip
    • Take a break in Terrysville, at a small deli called Sunrise Deli.  For some reason I’d passed a ton of other small places, but this one called to me…For good reason – the guy behind the counter was chill, and we shot the shit for near-on 45min as he made up a sandwich for me.
    • Fun guy, talked about traveling in Europe, Polish food, etc…
    • Why Polish food?  Well – this deli stocked fresh Pierogi.  Of which I purchased more than a few.  Apple Bacon Ranch.  Yes.  Excellent
    • Eat the sandwich in the car as I read a bit more… it’s amazing!
  • Drop the top down again and roll out!
  • Put the top up before I get onto the highway, and hit the long and boring road home
  • At one point the computer systems in the car crap out, and it takes a hard stop-and-reset to bring them back online again.  Otherwise, an uneventful drive.
Sep29

Weekend of 20-Sep-13 through 22-Sep-13 – Adventures in Camping

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Weekend of 20-Sep-13 through 22-Sep-13 – Adventures in Camping

Friday, 20-Sep-13

  • Got home from work Friday night and started packing up for the weekend!  Plans had fluctuated a lot over the week, but the current path was to drive out to a campground that I’d stayed at before, hang out Friday night and Saturday morning, and then link up with Daniel and Co. at Crow Hill for a day of climbing.
  • Instead of packing and leaving though… I fell asleep.  It was a good sleep… though rather concerningly strange dreams were had.
  • Once I got mobile again I checked in with the campground to give them a heads-up that I’d be late, packed the car up, and hit the road.
  • After a quick stop at the grocery to grab food for the weekend, I was on my way down Route 2, with the top down and the music cranked.  It was a glorious drive – not a cloud in the sky, and it was just cold enough that I turned the heat on.
  • Arrived at the campground, and shot the breeze with the owner for a while.  He’s an interesting guy, who collects small mechanical devices in a gallery in the back of the office.  It’s huge, and has tons of very interesting little machines.
  • Don’t even bother setting up my tent, and instead just have a quick dinner around the fire.  Again – glorious.
  • Sleep out on the ground in my sleeping pad, directly under the stars.

Saturday, 21-Sep-13

  • Get rolling, pack up my gear, and head out to meet everyone at the climbing spot.
  • They’re running late… so I’m in no rush.  Good.  Means that I can explore for a bit.  Which I do –
    • I find a cool little coffee shop and get a breakfast snack, along with a pumpkin-spice chai latte.  Yep.  Typical fall in New England.
    • Eat breakfast under a small little bridge that I find.  It’s calm and nice, though I guess it’s near a hiking trail, because I got “found” by a random dog running around in the woods.
    • From there I moved on, just driving around the back country roads.  It’s beautiful, and I was quite happy to drive slow and enjoy the relaxation.
    • I found out that one of the towns nearby was having its annual “yard-sale day”… every few houses there was a massive multi-family yard-sale… so I stopped in and picked up a few odds and ends that were missing from the house.
  • Everyone finally arrives, so we start with the climbing
    • Time passes!
  • After climbing and dinner, head back to the campsite and sit down with the owners again.  Chat for a while, hearing about when he used to run a trucking company and telling him about my trips in New Zealand.
  • Head back to the campsite – the firewood I didn’t use last night is still there, waiting for me!  Woo!  Start up that fire!
  • As the fire’s burning, I head to the car and set up the tent this time – it’s been looking like rain all day, so I’m thinking this is a good idea.
  • Relax by the fire, have a drink, and zone out for an hour or two
  • Head to bed under the stars again.
  • And… I’m glad I set up the tent.  At some point it starts drizzling… and by the time I’m in the tent it’s full-on downpouring.  Continues through the night in epic fashion, and I learn the hard way that my tent isn’t completely waterproof… unfortunately.  Fortunately it’s only a small leak, so I sleep through it with only a sort-of wet sleeping bag to show

Sunday, 22-Sep-13

  • Up and at ‘em, say my goodbyes to the owners, and get on the road!
  • Nothing really to be said here – packing away a wet tent and sleeping bag is never fun, but sometimes it’s what needs to happen :/
  • Grab a “skillet breakfast” at a diner outside of town.  It’s excellent – potatoes, eggs, bacon and sausage with cheese melted over it.  Definitely something I’ll make again at home.
  • From there, move on to the Kayaking place, and then home for a relaxing Sunday evening
Aug23

Daniel’s Quarter-Century Birthday weekend

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02-Aug-13 through 04-Aug-13

Since it’s Daniel’s birthday weekend, we decided to work with his tradition of going camping in New Paltz, and doing some climbing at the Gunks.  This year it was just a small group of us climbers: Daniel, Erin, myself, and two new friends I’d met through my hunt for a roommate – Anna and Meghan.  The trip was clean and simple: drive up Friday, camp, climb, do dinner at a local brewery, and then climb some more on Sunday before driving home.

Friday, 02-Aug-13

  • Instead of driving into work and leaving direct, I got the chance to bike thanks to Anna and Meghan, who were driving out to New Paltz with me.  We were all meeting at my place around five, and for once actually got on the road fairly quickly – we didn’t rush, but still had the car fully packed up by 5:30, and we hit Route 2 by 6:00.
  • We take the simple road – Route 2, to 95, to I-90.  Clean… but kinda boring.  Thankfully the traffic is intermittent and sparse
  • Stopping for dinner… Ohh man.  We are not good at this
    • First attempt: Amherst exit.  Looking for a small-town diner style place… no luck.  Instead we find murdertown.  Seriously, pretty sure that this tiny random town is, in fact, named murdertown.  Because they’ll murder us.
    • Move on down the highway, and pull of at the next legit exit.  Find a cool pub-style place and go in.  Instead of normal food, it’s all seafood (Which the girls are not down with) and is entirely populated by 65+ year old people.  Singing Karaoke.  Singing karaoke poorly.  We bail.
    • We give up, and stop in at Friendly’s.  It’s not horrible, but after 20min we fall into the “friendly’s zone” where we can’t think, are tired and lazy, and are incapable of doing the basic math required to give a tip.  It’s horrid.
  • Finally get back on the road, but keep the top down due to the cold and the rain.  Booooo
  • The drive is long, and full of boring.
  • Finally arrive!  Run into (not literally) Erin as we drive into the campground.  Give her a ride to the bathroom in return for directions to the damn campsite.
  • Find campsite.  Set up tents.  Acquire sleep.

Saturday, 03-Aug-13

  • Anna had said that she would be awake by 6:00, and we would have all the breakfast we could eat.  She was not telling the truth.  We do all get moving by 9:00 though, and Daniel is kind enough to scramble up some eggs… after a bit of prodding and my promise that I’d brew tea.
  • Tea is sipped.  Eggs consumed.  A slow breakfast and morning is enjoyed by all as we pick what gear to bring, what gear to leave in the car, and what foods should be brought with us for climbing sustenance.
  • Finally move on the climbing – Meet Matt and Mike at the visitors center, pay for our day passes, and start up the thighmaster
    • Note: thighmaster.  When parking at the visitor’s lot at the Gunks, you must train on the thighmaster.  It’s a staircase.  That goes up a few hundred feet from the parking lot to the climbing area.  It’s horrible.  And amazing.  And now, after traversing it, I have thunder-thighs.
  • Daniel’s picked out a pretty solid place to start in on – some toproped 5.7’s near the beginning of the climbing area.  It’s a bit of a walk from the stairs, but it’s a good cooldown after the stairmaster workout.  I watch the gear while the rest of the crew goes up top to set anchors and rappel down.
  • Climbing on a Saturday!
    •  Katzenjammer (5.7) – Top Rope – this was a fun face climb… nothing too crazy about it, but it was a solid climb for people to really cut their teeth on.
    • The Brat, Direct (5.7) – Top Rope – Kinda straightforward if you’re used to the gunks… hellish if you’re not.  Daniel ended up speed-climbing it in 45s… some of the others didn’t even make it.  It’s kinda impressive how much technique and being used to a route helps!
    • Some random bouldering was had around the base, but nothing too much.
    • No Picnic (5.5) – Trad Lead – Daniel took this one as his birthday climb… and damn was it awesome!  Really good climbing with solid protection from what I could tell – really good juggy moves, though there was one big disconnected block halfway up that was more than a bit sketchy.
  • After a full day of climbing, we head back into town – Gilded Otter time!  Since it’s Daniel’s birthday, a few other people have driven up too; we all link up at an outside table and order up a bounty of food.  It’s amazing, and good times are had by all.
  • Shots are bought for Daniel.  Daniel consumes shots.  Daniel is either lying about his consumption of shots (doubtful, since we all witnessed it) or he somehow has gained a tolerance for booze.  Either option is concerning.  More shots are bought.
  • Dessert is eaten, plates are cleared and a bill is paid.  From here, some people leave for their warm homes, while the rest of us head back to the campsite.  Anna, Meghan and I stop for firewood on the way, but still manage to beat Daniel and Erin back to camp.
  • After arriving back at the camp, I set to the task of building an epic birthday fire… a first worthy of a drunken Daniel and a bottle of scotch.  I succeed, as one should expect, almost exactly as Daniel and Erin arrive and park next to the campsite.
  • We all hang out, relax, chat, and have a merry time.  Erin gives Daniel his birthday presents, one of which is a flask.  The flask is enjoyed in combination with my fancy bottle of scotch and a few oreo cookies before we all give up and go to bed.
  • Instead of sleeping in the tent though, I unroll a sleeping pad and sleep next to the fire.  It is perfect and heavenly.

Sunday, 04-Aug-13

  • We start the day out a bit later than previously – since we’re not meeting anyone at the cliffs we’re in no major hurry to get moving.
  • Camp gets packed while breakfast cooks.  It’s the usual eggs and tea, but Anna, Meghan and I head to the campground store to get us all some coffee… it’s much necessary, and quite nice.
  • Once camp is fully shoved back into the cars we get a move on – parking down at the visitor’s center lot again, and starting the long trek up the thighmaster toward the climbing area.
  • Today, we’re aiming for some of the routes we’d missed the day before, specifically…
    • Easy Keyhole (5.2) – Trad Lead – Daniel took this one… sort of.  He took forever.  It was sad.  But in all honesty, the route was kinda manky and strange… no really good holds from what I could tell (I never got onto it), and the gear placement left much to be desired
    • Black Fly (5.5) – Trad Lead – I lead this one… but not with our group.  We were next to a cool European team who ended up bailing off right near the end, so I was able to run up the bottom and finish it out, bringing their gear down right before some rain spatters hit.
  • From here, the rain pushed Meghan, Anna and myself to cut to the chase and head home – Meghan needed to be back before it got too late,  so we said our goodbyes and gave Daniel a final happy birthday, and then hit the highway back to Boston.