Tag Archives: Roadtrips

May10

Another adventure in Connecticut

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Weekend of Friday, 02-May-14 & Saturday, 03-May-14

This weekend was a bit of an ecclectic one – lots of little adventures.  Let’s start out with driving down to Connecticut again…

 

Friday, 02-May-14

  • Bike to and from work, have a nice ride each way, especially since I get to leave work a bit early
  • Relax at home for a spell, have a snack, it’s all good
  • Pack the car up and RIDE!
  • Long and relaxing drive, somehow missing like 90% of the traffic
  • Link up with Big T in Danbury, and we head out for mexican down the street from him
  • Eat, drink, and be merry… though i also forget my credit card at the restaurant.  Damn.  But on the upside, they have some extremely good nachos, and really solid chicken tacos.  So it’s sort of a wash, in the long run.
  • Head back to his place, and tear through a few episoded of “The Angry Videogame Nerd”, followed by Avatar, the Legend of Korra, followed by beers and chatting.  I always forget how quickly one’s alcohol tolerance goes down though – we only have four or so drinks each, but they hit me pretty hard.  In my defense, they were really good / strong beers, but still.  No excuses, I need to brush on on my drink-workouts before I head to France…

 

Saturday, 03-May-14

  • I’ve got a hair appointment this morning at 9:00, and I’ve been a bit late each time I have an appt. there.  So I make sure to set a lot of alarms before going to bed, and even crash a bit earlier than originally planned…
  • Nope, it doesn’t help.
  • I finally wake up in one of those horrid, semi-hungover states… shit I’m late!  Again!  GUN IT!  Get donuts first!  Try to get my card back first!  Ahh shit get on the highway!
  • Finally make it in about an hour late, but thankfully I shot her an email before leaving, and she sort of expects it of me by now, so we’re all good.  Get everything done and then head back into Mass to have a relaxing afternoon with my folks before heading home to the city…

 

May9

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

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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.
May3

27-Feb through 06-Mar-13 – Buying a new car.

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Wednesday, 27-Feb

 

One of my goals in life had been to own a Mustang convertible. I decided on that specific car while on a roadtrip in 2011 – Spring break actually. I’d rented one, for various reasons, and had completely fallen in love with the car.

My plan was to buy one new, direct from the factory. And through a whole series of events, I found myself sitting alone at a desk at Watertown Ford, waiting to talk to a salesman about the car.

Honestly, this wasn’t at all what I had expected. I was buying a new car, damnit, and not a stock one at that. I’d called ahead, yet I was still sitting bored for nearly an hour while I waited on the person from the phone.

I never met that person – instead I got a salesman who had no idea what I wanted, and through a whole long conversation I came to the inescapable conclusion that I could neither afford to buy a car here, nor had the desire to discuss it with them any further. I’d expected a bit of give-and-take, maybe some thoughts and options. Instead, I simply got blank stares and a monthly payment insanely over my budget.

It’s the downside of looking the way I do – having dreadlocks, even when wearing a work suit, makes people take a certain attitude toward you. So, I left.

I was bummed out.

So when I got home I jumped onto the computer, looking for some other options. And I found one, in a place I didn’t at all expect. See, I’d given up on buying this car used, because no dealerships stocked what I wanted (manual transmission, convertible, premium package) in my area.

But when I checked my email, there was a notification. A short message saying that a new car had come up on Cars.com. One that fit my requirements perfectly, and was easily within my price range.

I looked it up, assuming there was something wrong.

There wasn’t.

So, I called my buddy Chirag, and set a date to go buy the hell out of it.

 

Sunday, 03-Mar

2013-03-23 10.41.06

Bright and early Sunday morning saw Chirag and I finishing up breakfast and driving North, to a dealership right inside the New Hampshire state line.

Late morning saw us test driving a beautiful black Mustang, top down, tearing up and down the highway.

Early afternoon saw me locked in battle, arguing the value of the car with the dealer.

Early afternoon also saw me somewhat winning the argument, using my desire to buy a new Xbox to haggle the owner down $500 on the price, to just below the official estimate resale value of the car.

Once the late afternoon rolled around I had signed away the largest sum of money I’d ever signed for, and we were driving back down toward Cambridge. And by “we”, I mean “Chirag”. I was still in too much shock to drive at that point.

I’m 25, and I just bought my dream car.