FORT WILLIAM HENRY (LAKE
GEORGE , NY
One of the main attractions in Lake George is Fort William Henry, which is a re-creation
of the English fort which fell to the French in the late 1750s. (The French demolished it, and the area was
never rebuilt until this replica was done in the 1950s.) There’s always some sort of re-enactment or
event going on, so any given weekend day of the summer you can find something
interesting to see. We were up in Lake George , and heard the cannons going off. That right there was worth checking out.
As much as the out-of-town tourists
annoy me, the fort isn’t shooting live ammo.
They’re not even shooting blanks, but something which make a lot of
smoke and noise. It still gives you an
idea of how loud that shit was when it went off. It’s a wonder the enlisted men could hear any
orders given by the officers.
The re-enactors suggested that
visitors, who were not wearing the ear plugs they were, to stop up their ears
as much as possible in order to minimize any hearing damage. These guys do this multiple times a day, for
a large number of days in a row, so yeah they were protection (but at least it
blends in with the period garb, as not to be noticed). This was just a day trip, but a good way to
note what can be found if you look around in your home area.
APPALACHIAN TRAIL (MECHANICSBURG ,
PA
Now that I was single again, it was
time to renew some old friendships which hadn’t been able to be maintained.
It’d been a while since I’d seen Cara, but we still corresponded via
email. She worked as one of the people
that got to maintain the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. While that meant a lot of environmental work
to keep erosion from wiping out the trail, it was a job which had her outside
frequently. Her base was in the small Harrisburg suburb of
Mechanicsburg, as there was an access point to the trail not far from
there. Arrangements were made, and it
was a good long weekend trip for me.
Brian didn’t live in Harrisburg
anymore, but I took the same route to get to Cara as I’d taken a few years
early to get to his place.
The base were Cara lived was a
barracks area behind a farmhouse. The
farmhouse had year-round caretakers who lived there, and that’s where the meals
were cooked. All the trail workers
prepared and ate together, even though their assigned time at this location
varied. While there was some privacy
within the barracks due to small walls, it was generally set up with guys on
one side, and girls on the other, with the bathrooms to one side. A few bunks were available, but many just
slept on mattresses on the floor. It had
been years since I’d gone camping, and this was a nice way to re-acquaint
myself with it.
We drove a short distance to the
trailhead, and did a nice all day hike.
Cara chose an easy trail because she was used to doing this, and I
wasn’t. Simple fact my job was in front
of a computer, so no harm in admitting it.
The trail wasn’t a cakewalk that’s for sure, but I wasn’t dying trying
to complete it. Once we reached a nice
area, I was able to climb out on to the rocks to get a better view of the
scenery. Every time I get to see green
mountains, I find them fabulous.
Cara maneuvered herself off to a
rocky precipice to one side so she could get a shot of me with my own camera. She’s always been rather sure-footed. I’m not too bad, no where near her
level. My situation has always been heights,
or more specifically, the scaling thereof.
I was fine hanging out there on the rocks, because I knew I wasn’t going
anywhere. So I’m not scared of the
heights, but the fall that could occur.
And if you want to really technical, it’s not the fall which I’m afraid
of, but the sudden stop at the end.
I do much better tackling these
heights when I know right where to place my feet, and all I need to do is look
up. The portion of the trail we used to
get up here was steep, but I had no problem scaling it. My knees shook a lot when I was coming back
down. Call me a weenie if you’d
like. In order to capture the section of
the trail I found most difficult, I took a shot of what it looked like once I’d
reached the bottom of it.
Now compare that to the shot I took
right before I went down the bloody thing.
The shot from the bottom gave the
illusion that it was longer than it was high.
The shot from the top made it appear that it was straight down, when the
actual slope was of a more gentle angle (but not by much). It was a good hike, and I enjoyed it.
We spent the rest of the weekend
catching up, wandering around the rather small city of Mechanicsburg
(which was probably about the size of Glens
Falls , being generous), and tried out a few good
pubs. It was a great way to renew the
friendship.
Brian asked if I wanted to go to a
football game with him. My favorite
sport is hockey, but since he’d scored some pretty good tickets, I decided why not. Brian’s team was the New York Giants, and he
had no vested interest in who won the game specifically. I’d been a kinda fan of the Jacksonville
Jaguars, who the Buffalo Bills would be hosting. Since Brian was living in Syracuse ,
so I drove out there, we’d hop in his truck, and then cruise the rest of the
way to Buffalo . I’d never been to a football stadium before,
so I figured it’d be just as rowdy as any hockey crowd was. Hockey is placed in an enclosed arena, and
most are located right within a decent-sized urban area. For some reason, my mind pictured a football
stadium would be located we our in the middle of no where.
It wasn’t. The stadium (known officially as the Ralph
Wilson Stadium) was located in the Buffalo
suburb of Orchard
Park
The seats we had were the third
row, although way over towards the end zone.
While it was hard to see the progress of the game from where we were,
large monitors on either side helped us keep up. And when the game (which was being televised)
went to commercial, the screens played various short segments designed to
inspire the home team. The ones I found
most memorable were of Flintstones, with Fred & Barney in their “Buffalo
Lodge” hats. One advantage of being that
close to the action was the nice view we’d get of the cheerleaders when they’d
go bouncing by.
Watching the people in the stands
was as interesting as watching the players on the field. Hockey fans may be rabid, but they’re not
nuts like football fans. One guy was
decked out in a pink bunny suit (he must’ve lost a bet), and others had a lot
of variations of the red & blue team colors. A lot of people were waving around these red
cereal boxes, which I didn’t understand at all.
Brian explained the Bills’ star quarterback was Doug Flutie, and there
was a cereal made with him image on it, called Flutie Flakes. This was more than shameless self-promotion,
as proceeds from the sale of the cereal went towards a charity design to seek a
cure for autism.
The game ended with a Buffalo victory, but not
by much. Since the weather was nice, we
just hung out in the truck a bit to let the traffic thin out, and then we
headed back towards Syracuse . Attending a live football game is a
recommended activity, even if it’s just to feel the pulse of the crowd.
For current information on the places visited:
Mechanicsburg: http://www.mechanicsburgborough.org/
Buffalo Bills Stadium: http://www.buffalobills.com/stadium/
Flutie Flakes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flutie_Flakes
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