Austin, TX (and Surrounding Area) – March 2002 (Part Two; Killeen, and Downtown Austin)

UNANNOUNCED VISIT TO KILLEEN DAILY HERALD

I asked Chaz how close of a drive was Killeen, and he asked why would I even want to go to that crappy place.  One of the books I paginated was the Killeen Daily Herald, and they continuously had problems getting the layout the way they wanted it.  I suspected the root cause was their point person communicating with Tribune’s person who wrote the work orders, neither of which actually had hands-on dealing with the book’s actual production.  If it wasn’t too far, I thought it’d be fun to pop in and say hi.  It might make my job easier if I met my phone contact there in person.

From where the house was in northwest Austin (nearly the southern edge of Cedar Park), it would only be about a 90 minute drive (including the time it’d take to get over to Interstate 35 to make the bulk of the trip).  Chaz had some time off, so he was able to be my chauffeur for this.  We got a laugh as we saw a truck hauling what appeared to be snowmobiles, and wondering where the hell would those be used in the area.  After we passed the truck, we realized those were actually ski jets.  Chaz didn’t know of any major lakes in the area (as the city’s “Town Lake” is actually a narrow river that bisects the urban area).  Still, not sure where this person was headed.

My first impression of Killeen was that it’s a rather unimpressive place.  It was flat and brown, as opposed to the green hills of Austin.  Even the section where the paper was located didn’t appear to be in the best section of town.  Because I’d brought the address with me, we’d been able to print out the location from MapQuest, so that made our journey easy.  It was a bright sunny day, and Chaz didn’t mind waiting in the lobby as I went inside.  I didn’t expect this would take too long.

I asked the receptionist for my Kristie (my contact), and she called her.  I chuckled when I heard the receptionist say “No, he’s not on the phone, but up here in the front.”  Kristie came out, and we did a formal greeting.  I did let her know I was down here on holiday, and this was about as unofficial visit as it could get.  Kristie escorted me in, and showed me around their production floor, which was nice to see the process on their end.  She also introduced me to her manager, John, who was happy to see me.  The three of us sat and talked for about an hour.  Seeing how the data was received and used on the client end gave me some ideas on how better to prepare it on the provider end, so I took a bunch of notes to bring back.  A lot of brownie points were scored here because I took this opportunity.

On the drive back to the house, we noticed the traffic backed up a bit on the interstate.  There were some side roads which paralleled the highway for local use, called the frontage roads.  Those drivers who saw the delays soon enough exited the highways for the frontage roads.  Obviously some people were in quite a hurry, and didn’t wait for an exit, as they simply drove across the grassy median.  As all the offenders were pick-up trucks, Chaz referred to that as a Texas Off-Ramp.

A side note (no pun intended) about the frontage roads here which I found quite different than what I was use to in New York.  One, there are no such things as frontage roads.  When you exit a NY highway, you are deposited on a brand new street to access local things.  New York highways are designed to bypass most of the urban structures, as opposed to slice right through them.  Also, I’d seen frontage roads when driving to South Carolina years ago, and they didn’t work like they did over here in Texas.  Also, any other highways I’ve ever been on, the traffic entering or leaving the highway had to yield to the local traffic on the side roads.  Not here.  The cars on the frontage roads had to stop to allow those exiting (still usually going 60 miles an hour) to tear on by.  That was a good fact to keep in mind so we wouldn’t get creamed at an intersection where we thought we had the right-of-way.

One additional note about the visit to Killeen; which I didn’t learn about until my return to Glens Falls.  After my visit, John commented to someone at his office that he thought it was really nice that someone cared enough to stop by.  This was communicated back to Tribune’s sales staff, who knew none of their people were there, so they assumed the paper had been visited by our competitor(s).  Apparently this set off a firestorm of panic as to who’d visited this client (which was in danger of not renewing Tribune’s service).

When I came back into the office the following week, my manager (Rich) asked in a roundabout humorous way if I happened to visit any place in particular while I was in Texas.  I visited a lot of places, Rich, what are you looking for specifically?  He told me corporate sales were all upset about someone who claimed to be from Tribune visiting the Killeen Daily Herald, and they assumed it was from another business.  I told Rich what I did, and how a lot of ruffled feathers had been smoothed over because of that (and all the work orders I’d be writing from the notes I took).  Rich got a good laugh out of it, because all the upper-level people had gotten worked up over nothing.

DOWNTOWN AUSTIN

Chaz and I parked his car downtown, so we could walk around the area a little.  The other purpose of doing that was so I could drop a resume off at Austin American-Statesman, as I figured the local paper was a good place to start looking for a job (“Yes, I can paginate anything you need me to do.”)  We also spent a short time wandering up and down the walking path next to the river (which was the “Town Lake” which bisected the city).  This was a great opportunity to see the city in the daytime, and note what interesting things were here.

Close to the Statesman building (on Congress Avenue) was a modern art sculpture which was shaped like a giant bat.  Chaz explained there was a bat colony that lived somewhere in the city, hence the “bat love” this place had, but he wasn’t sure where the roost was.  Later on during the week when we were downtown after dark, I was able to get a shot of this.

Heading up Congress Avenue, Chaz and I walked towards the state capitol, which looked suspiciously like the country’s Capitol.  Chaz noted it was made that way on purpose, as the original white Texas settlers were American homesteaders, and this was paying respect to the country they left when they formed their own country.  There were a handful of people coming in and out of the building, but we didn’t go inside, as the guards at the entrances gave us dirty stares when we were looking at the place.  I’m sure it was more post-9/11 paranoia, but enough that we didn’t ask to go inside.  In my previous experience I’d seen New York’s state capitol was only open to visitors “by appointment,” so just assumed it was so here too.  We wandered around the grounds a bit, and noticed there were a lot of statues and monuments displayed here.  Normally this would be stuff I’d take pictures of, but after the reception we got from the guards, I put my camera away for the duration.

As we headed back down the street to where we parked, I could see elements of how the city’s motto of “Keep Austin Weird” had come about, from strangely-colored trees to the occasional oddly-painted car.  There were also street people playing instruments for money, and some beggars looking for hand-outs, which was no different than any other large city I’d ever been in.  I stopped within one of the stores to buy a couple shirts and souvenirs to bring back.  This was where I got the second of the post-cards I’d sent to Pete.

MORNING STAR

This is more of a continuation of interesting things noticed in downtown Austin, but it was funny enough that it deserved its own entry.  Chaz and I had gone to dinner (Brian wasn’t feeling well that night), and we’d headed over to this “good Mexican place” he’d heard about.  Chaz commented there were two places with similar-sounding names that were next to each other.  We pulled into Pappadeaux’s, and found it was a 45 minute wait.  Since the other place, Pappasito’s, was right up the road, we’d go over there to see what the wait time was.  Since there was only a hotel in between the two places, I suggested that we just walk across the hotel’s lawn to get to Pappasito’s, instead of moving the car.  Pappasito’s ended up having a five minute wait, and that was the place we were looking for initially (Pappadeaux’s was a Cajun seafood place).

After dinner coming back to the car, it was now dark.  I stood for a few moments at the edge of the hotel’s lawn, which had the busy frontage road in front of it (no sidewalk).  It was just interesting to be this close to an interstate, since the major highways in New York generally circumvented the cities.  I also wondered how many drunk people stumbled across the lawn and into traffic.

As we headed back to the house, Chaz commented there was a gaming & comic store called Dragon’s Lair that he’d heard about, but hadn’t gotten to yet.  He thought it was on a particular road, so he wanted to see if he could locate where it was.  Didn’t make a lot of sense at the time, since being after 9 pm, it would most-certainly be closed.  We drove down the road, and looked on either side in an attempt to see if we could spot it.  After passing a number of blocks, we were sure it must be on a different road.  Chaz then was looking for a place to turn around, when I happened to look in the right direction and spotted Dragon’s Lair.

When we found a place to pull into so Chaz could do his three-point turn, I noticed something else.  Since we were in  parking lot, he could stop a moment as I pulled my camera to quickly snap a picture of a blue neon upside-down cross with the words “Morning Star” written across it.  Was it a Satanic church?  With all the weird stuff that could be in Austin, who knows what this could’ve been.  We didn’t go further to investigate, only because the section of the town didn’t look the safest, thus we weren’t going to stay parked for very long.

Later investigation in the daylight showed the neighborhood was old, but not bad as it originally appeared, and that “Morning Star” was a tattoo parlor.  Still it was something which gave us an amusing chuckle until we saw what it really was.

For current information on the places visited (or mentioned):

Killeen, TX:  http://www.killeentexas.gov/

Killeen Daily Herald:  http://kdhnews.com/

Town Lake:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Bird_Lake

Austin American-Statesman:  http://www.statesman.com/

Congress Avenue Bat Bridge:  http://batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/visit-a-bat-location/congress-avenue-bridge.html

Austin State Capitol:  http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/SPB/Plan/Tours.htm

Keep Austin Weird:  http://www.keepaustinweird.com/home.html

Pappadeaux’s Seafood Kitchen:  http://www.pappadeaux.com/home/

Pappasito’s Catina:  http://pappasitos.com/home/

Dragon’s Lair:  http://dlair.net/austin/

            ###  30  ###

Austin, TX (and Surrounding Area) – March 2002 (Part One; Post Cards from the Edge of Insanity)

ARRIVAL IN AUSTIN AS SXSW ENDS

In many previous instances, I’d take my vacation and hang out with Brian because he didn’t live in the same area I did, so it was nice to get away from home.  Other people I knew from college or online weren’t local (meaning within a reasonable driving distance), and it’s not cheap to fly.  Now that I was back at college taking classes part-time (in addition to my full-time job), available money was still tight.  Brian had moved to Austin the previous November to become Chaz’s house-mate (who had gone down about a year-and-a-half before that).  So when Brian invited me to fly down, I figured I could swing the cost this one time.  Considering the sequence of classes I was looking at doing (to increase my marketability to potential employers), I’d be in college for a bit, and didn’t expect I’d be able to swing any other trips like this for awhile.

I scheduled this visit to happen on the week of “spring break,” and coordinated that time with my job.  It just made sense to have both happen at the same time (as opposed to being off from class one week and still going to my job, and vice versa).  Travel arrangements were made through AAA (as that’s why I have a membership).  The only available flights were real early in the morning, or at noon.  I opted for noon, even though it meant I’d be having dinner during layover, and arriving in Austin at 11 pm.  Yeah, I was going to blow one whole day of my vacation in travel, and that was just getting there.

Many times I’d gone to the airport to pick someone up or drop them off, and I’d be able to escort them to the gate (or be there waiting for them, whichever the case was).  Now with new security measures, it was weird once I’d gone through the checkpoint, the airport was pretty barren.  The only people beyond the security gate were ticket passengers, and there still weren’t a lot of people flying in this post-9/11 world.  I had to chuckle when I thought back to some of the items people considered their “carry-on” only a year ago (specifically seeing a hockey stick and a freakin’ huge white pumpkin come to mind).

My layover was in Atlanta, and I used the opportunity to stretch my legs and explore the airport.  I also used it as part of a practical joke (more on that below).  It was interesting that the book I happened to be reading (Wild Cards, Volume 6: Ace in the Hole) was set during the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta.  I didn’t choose that time to read that particular one, but that’s just where I happened to be where I was in reading the series.

The flight from Albany to Atlanta was about half-full, and the flight from Atlanta to Austin was less than a quarter-full.  A plane which could normally hold a hundred-something people had only a fraction of that.  I spent a lot of time looking out the window to see the city lights over the dark country.  Delta had assigned seats, and the guy across the row looked like he didn’t care to fly much.  He kept holding his head like it was going to explode.  I just hoped he didn’t hurl.

So once I exited the gate to baggage pick-up, Brian and Chaz were there waiting for me.  We drove up from the airport into downtown, so they could show me the hysteria of the final night of this music conference which had been going on all week in the city (something called “South By South West”).  As we got closer to the city, I looked across at the skyline, and liked how some of the edges of the taller buildings had some lights to enhance their outlines.  Leaving the highway, we dipped down to street level, and drove past a bunch of clubs and bars which had masses of people gathered around.

It was a Saturday evening nearing midnight, so the revelry wasn’t anywhere near dying down yet.  I was bushed, as sitting all day in travel somehow is draining.  Chaz asked if I wanted to check out any clubs, and I had no desire at this point.  I did get excited when we passed a Goth-looking place called Elysium.  As I was running two Vampire: The Masquerade campaigns back home (and “Elysium” is the name for the havens where the bloodsuckers hang out to be safe from normal humans), that got me really excited.  I said I wanted to go back and check this place out at some point this week.

THE BBQ THAT DIDN’T REALLY HAPPEN

The next morning when I got a better look at the house, and the neighborhood that Chaz and Brian lived in.  It was pretty, and had more trees than I expected.  That made a lot of shade in this suburban housing development.  The backyard wasn’t very big, and the other residences were pretty close on all sides (a lot closer than I liked, but I wasn’t living here).

Chaz had purchased a portable BBQ pit which was shaped like a steel drum (and even looked like it).  The plan for the evening was to grill up some good steaks to celebrate my arrival.  This grilling apparatus had just been obtained a few days earlier by Chaz, and we ran out to get the charcoal for it at the same time we were picking up the steaks.  I was used to the grill that Dad had at the house, so I didn’t think anything of this.  I assumed everything had been all set.  Once we dumped the bricks into the barrel and lit them up, Chaz commented how this was the first fire this was seeing.

At that point, I let him know this was something that needed to be “primed” first by making a fire, letting it rage for a bit, and then burning out.  Brian pointed out that a tag on the grill happened to say the same thing.  The steaks were finished in the oven as the grill was being primed.  We’d just have to try again another day. 

POST-CARDS FROM THE EDGE (OF INSANITY)

When I made the arrangements to spend the week in Texas, the only people who really knew were my co-workers, my room mate (John), and my parents.  This wasn’t by design, but they way things worked out, as I hadn’t seen some people to tell them.  I didn’t tell Pete at our monthly lunch meeting before this, because I saw an opportunity to play a fun prank.

Pete and I are big fans of the British show Red Dwarf, and have read the novelization (which gives some show background).  In the novel, the main character (Dave Lister, who lists his occupation as “bum”) gets drunk one night in his home 23^rd Century London, and wakes up on Pluto Colony with no money or ID, and wearing a gingham dress.  At that point, Lister signs on to the mining ship Red Dwarf in order to get back to Earth, and thus the events of the series begin.

I brought Pete’s address and some stamps with me on my trip.  During my layover in Atlanta, I saw there was a mail drop-box within the airport.  I bought a post-card, and wrote on it that I’d gone out drinking Friday night, and woke up a day later in Atlanta with no money or ID, and wearing a gingham dress.  I sent it out there, so it’d have the Atlanta post-mark.  A couple days later, I bought a post-card in Austin, and wrote on it that in my haze I’d mistaken the “Austin” gate for the “Albany” gate, ended up in Texas, and was still trying to make my way home.

Pete told the events from his point-of-view when I got back home.  He said that his wife (Colleen) had come in with the mail, and mentioned they’d gotten a post-card from me.  When Pete asked where I was that I’d been sending a post-card from, she said “Atlanta.  Apparently he got drunk, and ended up there wearing a dress with no ID.”  Pete’s response was this was the tip to a very interesting story (as he got the reference).  When they got the following post-card a few days later, Peter said the story has now become very more interesting.  We got a good laugh about it when I filled in the details for him.  This just confirmed with Colleen that both of us were nuts. 

For current information on the places visited (or mentioned):

            Austin, TX:  http://austintexas.gov/

South By South West:  http://sxsw.com/

            ###  30  ###

Toronto, Ontario (Canada) – May 2001

A TRIP ON A WHIM

The first semester of my return to college completed, and after a nine-year break I done pretty good.  Now I had time to go places and do things again until classes resumed in the fall.  I took another drive out to Rochester to have a long weekend with Brian, where we’d do our normal stuff of eating out, watching movies, and playing cards.  While I was there, we decided to make a day trip to Toronto, simply because we’d never been there before.

What I know of this city was from watching Forever Knight, so it seemed like a nice place to go.  I’d been to other Canadian cities before, but not this one, so it’s be an adventure into new territory.  Now let’s get one point of geography clear first, there is no direct way to Toronto from Rochester.  Even we could drive “as the crow flies” and go straight there (ignoring the fact we’d be going across Lake Ontario), it would still be a couple hours to get there.  Once we passed through customs at Buffalo, it was still about ninety minutes to swing around the western edge of the lake.

To me, driving in Canada is like driving in a different state.  Everything is familiar.  Sure the road signs have different silhouettes, and the license plates have a different color, but that’s exactly what I’d see when crossing into Vermont, Pennsylvania, or wherever.  The big thing to keep in mind is the speed limits are in kilometers, and the “short form” developed by Bob & Doug McKenzie (which is to double it, and add forty, eh) doesn’t really work.  Most modern cars have both miles and kilometers on the speedometer, so you just be have to be sure you’re paying attention to the right one.

It was Sunday when we decided to make this drive, which shows the plan wasn’t well thought-out on our part, as most of the museums in the city were closed.  We put the car in the parking garage, and set out to wander a section of the area in the vicinity where the CN Tower was located, as that was the most easily recognized landmark.  The CN Tower rises much, much higher than the city skyline.  From driving around, most of the buildings were three to four stories, except those clustered in the Financial District (which were a dozen or so); and the CN Tower is double or triple that.  Since it was the highest point in the area, it seemed to be the best bet to head towards.

While walking the streets, we happened to stumble upon the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation building.  Keeping in mind that I worked in the television industry, it was mildly amusing to have a shot taken outside CBC.  I have nothing personal against them, it was just a fun picture.

Brian and I stopped at a sidewalk café for lunch.  Next to each of the patio tables were tall, columns with squat, wide, cone-shaped top.  We didn’t see any light bulbs, and we were outside, so not really sure what these were for.  They were too frequent to be simply decorative.  Our waiter showed us these were actually space heater designed to give each individual table some warmth.  Being the middle of May, there was still a little chill in the air, so we said yes when the waiter asked us if we wanted it on.  Within only a few scant minutes, we felt the heath radiate down on us.  I had to take my fleece pull-over off (and thus be back down to my t-shirt) just so I didn’t get too hot.  Those heaters were pretty stylin.’

CN TOWER

After we ate, and had travelled a few more blocks, we’d made it to the base of the CN Tower (also known as the “Canadian National Tower”).  Completed in 1976 to be a communications tower, it rises over 1,800 feet into the sky, and is the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.  While an icon for Toronto, it’s also a symbol for Canada.  Since it was open to visitors today, we paid to go up to the top.  We were herded into a small dark confined space, which they told us was the elevator.  There was a quick sensation of motion as we shot upwards.  Considering the height, I wasn’t surprised the ride would be quick.  What I didn’t expect was a few second into the ride, the city skyline opened up to us.

Because the base of the structure is much wider than the tower, when we went inside to get the elevator, we just assumed it ascended up the interior.  The fact we were in a little glass bubble shooting up the exterior was a fabulous sensation.  Within moments, the nearby buildings had dropped away, and everything reduced in size.  Already the view was spectacular, and I hoped there would be place at the top where I could get some panoramic sweeps.

The first stop for the elevator was the lowest level of the viewing area, known as the Space Deck.  The upper level had a restaurant (“Top of Toronto”), and other places you could get a near three-sixty view of Toronto.  I took a couple of shots of the area to juxtapose the short buildings which make up the largest sections of the city with the cluster of taller buildings on the lake shore (which is the Financial District).  I’m not a big fan of urban sprawl, but I much rather have the city spread outwards as much as it can, as opposed to reaching upwards.

We found something rather interesting on the lower level (besides the gift shop); something which appealed to my twisted sense of fun.  Near the outer edge of the Space Deck area, there was a large glass plate set into the floor; it had the dimensions of about six feet by six feet, and was about three or four thick.  Looking over the edge, the glass gave a straight down view of the plaza far, far below (so none of the Tower’ base was in the way).  There was a video camera and TV monitor set above the plate, and aligned so none of the edges were within the frame of the shot.  People were standing on the plate and looking upwards, as it gave the illusion of them floating in air.

There wasn’t anything to stop you from walking out on the plate, but as people had already been standing there waiting to step out on it, I patiently waited my turn.  It gave me the opportunity to observe how most would take their first steps on to the glass very lightly, like stepping on ice and testing to make sure it would hold your weight.  I looked around and saw there was no sign that said anything like “maximum weight,” and there was no guard and/or attendant making sure that a limited number were on at any one time.  That was a clear indication (coupled with the design of it), that this glass plate had been engineered to hold a huge amount of weight at any time; probably far more than the couple dozen people that could squeeze within the boundaries of the plate.  If there was the slightest chance of having “too much weight” on it, then someone would’ve been standing there to make sure of that.

My twisted humor knew exactly what to do.  When it was my turn, I stepped to edge just before the glass began, and made sure there was enough room to do what I planned.  With a quick bend of the knees to get some power behind it, I did a forceful leap out on to the plate.  I then jumped up and down hard for a few moments, completely secure this thing would hold me.  The other visitors around were obviously less-secure, as they went white when they saw what I did.  Most people quickly cleared off the glass.  Across the way, towards the gift shop area, I could see some of the Tower employees getting a good laugh about this.  When you work at a tourist place, it’s improper to frighten the guests, but it’s funny when another visitor does it.

With the glass cleared, I was able to get a picture to show how far down it was (without any feet in the way).  This was an awesome view, and it was worth it.  Other people then started to venture back on, as they realized this was safe for them to stand upon.  A few toddlers did a couple similar jumps like I did, before quickly being scolded by their mothers.

After Brian and I had seen all we wanted to up here, we took the elevator down.  We could feel the G-forces building on the descent down, but there was a nice smooth stop (not jarring in any way) at the end.  It was the early afternoon now, and unfortunately there wasn’t anything we knew off that was still open.  Without having stopped at the Visitor Center for appropriate information, they only other way to see what was open would be to drive around the city going from place to place.  That’s not practical any time, and we were many blocks away from the truck to start with.

THE RICKSHAW RIDE

I don’t have any problem walking long distances, but it was more than what Brian was used to.  We looked at getting a cab to take us back to the parking garage, but we got an offer to do something different.  In an effort to be environmentally-conscious, Toronto has (during the warm weather only, of course) a fleet of young people pulling rickshaws.  These were college kids doing this, not immigrants, by the way.  A rickshaw is a two-wheeled cart (essentially a chair on wheels) which is pulled by a person running (although some are also done by a bicycle).  These are common in Asian countries where the population density is high.

We told our “driver” where we wanted to go, and he said that would be $20.  He didn’t specify if that was in American dollars, or in the less-valued Canadian currency.  I figured if it was in Canadian money, I’d just had him an Andrew Jackson and let the remainder be tip.  This would work better if we didn’t say we were Americans, then we’d be certainly charged this in our own currency.  I want to note the price per ride, or “$X per Y distance unit travelled,” wasn’t written on the side of the rickshaw like it is on most city taxis.

Because it’s considered a vehicle, the rickshaw is used on the streets, not the sidewalks, so we were right in the thick of traffic.  Our driver got a short break when we had to wait at a light to cross an intersection, but the rest of the time he kept a high pace stride the entire time.  Doing something like this would certainly build up your endurance.

The ride lasted about fifteen minutes, which was far quicker than even I could’ve walked the distance we went.  Once we pulled up to the parking garage, that’s when things got interesting.  This had been a fun experience, and I’d gotten the money ready before the trip finished (including a couple extra bucks for tip).  I started to exit first, and handed the driver the fare.  He then said that was $20 each.  Brian and I looked at each other in surprise.  The novelty of this was worth $20 for the ride, bit it had been said beforehand it was for every passenger, then we wouldn’t have done it.  Brian still needed to pay the parking garage for his truck, so I dug out another Jackson out of my wallet.  There was a dirty stare from the driver, followed by a moment of an uncomfortable silence, and then the rickshaw departed.

Brian and I talked about this, as he was digging out the last of his pocket cash to pay the parking garage.  We confirmed with each other that the driver had not said $20 each.  We’d been taken for a ride, in more ways than one.  Sure we could’ve not paid the other $20, it’s not like he could’ve reasonably brought us back to where we started.  What we didn’t know what options the driver had available for if someone stiffed him on a fare.  A set up like this in America would be connected with the Teamsters, one of the best well-known mob-connected unions there is.  Our driver knew the area, and we didn’t.  He had the high ground in this fight, so it was easier (all things considered) to pay him and be done with it.

We left the Toronto, and heading back towards the U.S. Border (as we’d cross near Buffalo).  Did we have a good time?  Yes.  Was there more we could’ve seen?  Sure, if we’d thought this trip out a little better.  Yeah, there was one annoyance experience, but we didn’t let it sour the entire day.  In the end, all things considered, we got to go someplace we hadn’t been before and see things we hadn’t seen before.  Toronto was a nice city, and one that I wanted to return to, so I could give it the proper exploration that it deserved.

APPALACHIAN TRAIL (CARLISLE, PA) – MAY 2001

After spending time with Brian in Rochester, instead of driving back to Glens Falls, I took a southerly route towards Harrisburg, PA.  The second part of my vacation was going to spent hanging with Cara, and doing another hike on the Appalachian Trail.  Getting off the main highway to pick up the side streets which would take me to Mechanicsburg, I noted how familiar the area was (even though I’d only been in this section one other time).  I tend to drive my memory (“This looks familiar, so I’ll turn here”), with knowing the street names for a general idea of where I was.

Cara wasn’t living at the Trail barracks any more, as she had an apartment in nearby Carlisle.  She was still close enough we were able to access the trail-head near Boiling Springs.  She let me know the name of the Boiling Springs high school sports team was the “Bubblers.”  I shuddered to think what their mascot was.  We were able to take a nice day hike, and as usual the views were worth it.

Part of the reason for coming down was to partake in another round of the “Red Dwarf and Curry Party.”  An event is exactly what it says it is:  We fixed up a couple different types of curry dishes, and watched a couple episodes of the British series Red Dwarf.

The time I was able to spend down here this time was limited, so we didn’t spend a lot of time wandering around the city.  We did go up and down the main streets, where there were a lot of local cemeteries, which were of local interest, but not anything that had my attention.  I’d come down here to see my friend, and enjoy a great hike.

RETURN TO CAMP (NEAR CAPE VINCENT, NY) – JULY 2001

I got a little bit more nature views in July when I was able to get back to the Cape Vincent area, to spend a long weekend at the Camp.  The rest of the family had been continuing to go here on a regular basis, but various circumstances had kept me from getting up there for nearly a decade.  (While much of that time was due to having to work when the family was planning on being here, there were other instances of people I was with having no desire to make the trip.)  My last visit to the Camp was back in the Fall 1989 semester, when we hauled ass out of Plattsburgh to get here before Hurricane Hugo let loose on the area.

Now that thing in my life had changed, I looked forward to spending a lot of time in this area again.  Most of the weekend was spent reacquainting myself with these places of my youth, as well as being introduced to areas which had been discovered by the family in my absence.  One of the nice places was called Mud Bay, which was a shallow, narrow stretch which made a natural “wave pool” with the currents that rolled off Lake Ontario.

As the Camp was a few miles off the main drag, it was a short drive to Porky’s Corner Store to get the morning paper.  Usually whoever went for it would get a box of donuts too.  It was a nice Saturday morning, only an hour after dawn when I let Mum know I was heading out for the paper, and would be back in a bit.  About a half-hour later Dad grabbed his keys and mentioned he was heading to get the paper.  Mum told him I’d already gone for it, and Dad noted my car was still here.  Mum’s response was that I probably walked for it.  I did, as it was a nice stroll along a country road with a view of the water.

The only pictures I took of the area were right off the front of the Camp, which was on Chaumont Bay (also off Lake Ontario).  I didn’t need to take anything else, because this was a second home to me (for all intents and purposes).  I spent the weekend relaxing and reconnecting with the family, which I enjoyed very much.  I looked forward to spending more time here in the future.

For current information on the places visited:

            Toronto:  http://www.toronto.ca/

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:  http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/

CN Tower:  http://www.cntower.ca/en-ca/home.html

Appalachian Trail:  http://www.nps.gov/appa/index.htm and http://appalachiantrail.com/

Carlisle, PA:  http://www.carlislepa.org/

Cape Vincent, NY:  http://www.capevincent.org/

Chaumont & Three Mile Bay, NY:  http://www.chaumontchamber.com/

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Prospect Mountain and Lake Placid (NY) – August & October 2000

PROSPECT MOUNTAIN (LAKE GEORGE, NY) – AUGUST 2000

Even a place you’ve been a lot before serves as a good place to go again, especially when you’re hosting an out-of-town guest.  Since Alison had come in for the weekend to hang out and explore the area, what better way to show off the Glens Falls region than making a trip up Prospect Mountain?  Okay, you can argue that it would show off the Lake George region, but its close enough.  Prospect Mountain rises only to a little over 2,000 feet, which is pretty small considering the other peaks in the area.  The draw is the view is being able to see a sizable distance of the surrounding Adirondack Park.

Another reason why this is so popular is having two different ways to be able to reach the top.  For those who wish to have a more leisurely pace (and when this seasonal route is open) to reach the top, you can take the Veteran’s Memorial Highway.  This road starts off of Route 9 (south of the village of Lake George), crosses over Interstate 87 (aka “The Northway”), and then snakes up the backside of the mountain.

Alison and I wanted a more sensory experience, so we took the hiking trail up.  This four-mile trail works its way up the front of the mountain, and is an easy trail to navigate.  Starting within the village of Lake George, this is a more fun way.  During the hike, we passed some remains of the old cable car system (which ceased operation in 1903).  When we arrived at the summit, we could view the Bullwheel, which was a major component of the Old Cable Railway.

The Highway was built in the 1960’s to allow reasonable access to the summit, and costs $10 to take.  That goes the cost of maintaining it, but the hiking trail is free.  Rarely have I driven up the mountain, as most of the time this was a great day hike I took with the Scouts.  But for an out-of-town visitor, or even a local resident, the view is spectacular.  To give you some idea for scale, in the picture below the snaking road on the left is Interstate 87 (we’re looking south).

Views like this are worth a little sweat.  But knowing this is easily available to all during the summer months (when the Highway is open) makes this something that all should enjoy.  We did.

LAKE PLACID, NY – OCTOBER 2000

Here was a weekend away, and what better way to show it off to someone who hadn’t been in the area before.  The Adirondack Park has what they call “peak periods” when the foliage is in full swing, so an Autumn visit to the Lake Placid was a great way to show that off.  I’d gone directly from the Albany Airport and straight to Placid.

Upon arriving, we took some time to wander around Lake Placid village and soaking up the international feel of the area.  Walking down the streets there’s the same small restaurants, ice cream parlors, and used book stores you’d see in most communities, coupled with shops selling official Olympic-themed souvenirs.  Keep in mind this is not a big city; it never has, but a small town that’s had the opportunity (twice) to be focus of the world’s attention.

Some places in the Adirondack’s see their population double during the summer with the influx of tourists, and then become a ghost town during the winter months.  Lake Placid is not that.  Because there are many competitions which are done here (which are necessary to even qualify for an Olympic team), athletes are always here.  Although they’re the largest number, it’s not just Americans.  People from all over the world still come to train here.  What better way to be inspired than at a place where history’s been made?

Talking to the vendors, there is some concern present about the upcoming 2002 Winter Games to be held in Salt Lake City.  Once the games are over, they’ll now be a larger, more accessible city, that people could go to train at, and the local merchants wonder if some who’ve previously come here will now go to SLC instead?  It’d make more logical sense for those on the West Coast to go there, but those on the East I think would still come to Lake Placid.  SLC might have newer facilities and infrastructure, but a larger city also means more things which are potentially distracting.  I don’t think the store owners’ fears are unfounded, but I don’t ever see Placid being no longer used.  The venues used for the previous games are still just as usable today.

One example is Whiteface Mountain, which was the prime venue for the alpine skiing events during the 1980 Winter Olympics.  As this was during the autumn season, it was a nice opportunity to see the foliage of the Adirondack Mountains.  Other visits I’ve taken to this area have been in the summer (when everything is very green), or in the winter time (when everything is covered with a blanket of white).

One thing we found was the ski-lift was active, so we were able to ride that to the top.  Jeanne had the video camera out, taking sweeping shots of the foliage-covered peaks.  I told her not to drop it, because once it stopped rolling down the face of the mountain, I doubted we’d be able to locate it.  Whiteface Mountain has two portions to it.  One is the very top (“the summit”), which can only be reached by driving up the Veteran’s Memorial Highway up the backside of the mountain (which was currently closed for the season, otherwise we would’ve gone up there).

The other is what is called “Little Whiteface,” which only rises up about 3,600 feet.  This contains a small plateau area around the top of the ski-lift, and an observation section in order to view the surrounding area.  It was a little breezy up here, but not to the extent that it was at the summit.  I grew up in the mountains, and spent many times hiking some of these during my time in Scouts, but I never get tired of looking at their beauty.  Beyond the observation area, there wasn’t much up here, especially as there were no events currently going on.  Even though it would’ve taken a half-hour or so, being able to walk down the mountain sounded like a fun idea.  The lift-operators thought so too, but they discouraged it, as they didn’t have the resources available to keep an eye on every person who wanted to do so.

There was an interesting place nearby that I wanted to check out, and as we still had some of the afternoon left, it made perfect sense.  A short distance down the road (in the direction of Lake Placid village) was High Falls Gorge.  As the Ausable River flowed over here, it first created, and then widened and deepened the gorge.  A series of catwalks and stairs have been securely constructed on to the inside, which allowed us to walk down inside it.  The railing and wire mesh wasn’t very high, so it didn’t obstruct being able to clear pictures of the falls.

The catwalk goes downriver for a distance, while descending closer to the water’s edge a bit, and then crosses over to the other side.  At that point it snakes back upriver, and brings us back to the ground level a short distance from the building we started this trek from.  The walk through the trees, with the roar of the nearby falls filling the air, was nice.

One of the things I did here was purely for amusement purposes, as Jeanne was video-taping the trip to be able to show her friends back in Maryland what the Adirondacks looked like.  After taking a few sweeping shots to establish the size of the gorge (and figuring out the zoom feature), I started commenting how much I’d like to go for a swim.  I quickly moved the camera off from Jeanne in a sideways motion, and aimed it over the catwalk, with was followed by a quick extreme zoom-in.  Keeping the turbulent water in frame, I then proceeded to rock the camera around while making gasping sounds.  This only lasted a few moments before I smoothed out the shot, panned back, and returned Jeanne (who was standing there laughing) to the frame.  That little bit of footage should be fun for her friends to watch later.

We then returned back to the hotel, and got cleaned off for an early (and light) dinner.  I’d gotten tickets to watch an exhibition game of the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team, and we spent a little bit of time in the Olympic Museum before it started.  There weren’t too many people in the arena this evening, so it was pretty relaxing to be able watch the event, although the pulse of the crowd was missing from the games I’d normally go to.  Just sitting in the stands was an awesome feeling, as this was very place were the underdog U.S. Men upset the heavily-favored Soviet team back in 1980 (known as the “Miracle on Ice”).  I watched that game on TV, because I couldn’t get anywhere near Placid when games were taking place.  I still have the commemorative poster I go a few months later with the tagline of “America’s Greatest Moment.”

The exhibition was part of the process of deciding the final roster of the team that’d be going to SLC, and it still a fierce match.  Once the game was over, some of the players were sitting at a table outside the Herb Brooks Arena so they could sign autographs.  I’ve run into famous people before (both on the local level and national scale), and I tend not to shove my camera in their face.  It’s nice to be a fan, and let them know you think of them as a person too.  I’ll look forward to watching their performance in the games coming up in a few years.

We had to check-out the next morning by 11 am, but Jeanne’s flight didn’t leave until 5 pm, so we had a lot of time to kill.  On the drive back to the Northway, we passed (the Adirondack Museum, at Blue Mountain Lake), which would’ve been great to check out.  I’d been there before, and knew it was a pretty extensive area, but not something you want to get into right before you have to make a flight.  Having lunch in Saratoga at the Parting Glass ate up a good chunk of that time.

Back at Albany Airport, once past the security check-point, we sat at the gate awaiting her flight.  Normally this wouldn’t even be worth a mention, excepting for what we saw people walking up with as their “carry-on” items.  One teenager was carrying a hockey-stick, which we were surprised was even allowed past security in the first place.  And a woman was carrying a rather huge pumpkin, which she could barely get her arms around.  (Let’s paint a picture here, if this pumpkin was carried under a sufficiently large shirt, you’d believe this woman so extremely pregnant.)  We wondered where the hell would this pumpkin even go?  It was clearly too big to fit under the seat or in the overhead bin.  Was it going to be belted in the chair next to her?  It didn’t look very comfortable to have it on your lap for even a short flight.

So this was just a weekend trip to scratch the surface of the wonders what were in the Adirondacks.  Even though I’d be returning to college part-time in January, we talked about me coming down in the spring or early summer.  Jeanne lived close to Burkittsville, the town which was supposed to be the setting for The Blair Witch Project, so we thought it might be fun to explore the area around there.

For current information on the places visited:

            Prospect Mountain:  http://www.lakegeorgeguide.com/regional-area-info/have-you-seen/prospect-mountain/

            Adirondack Park:  http://visitadirondacks.com/

            Veteran’s Memorial Highway:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Mountain_Veterans_Memorial_Highway

Lake Placid:  www.lakeplacid.com

Whiteface Mountain:  www.whiteface.com

High Falls Gorge:  www.highfallsgorge.com

US Women’s Ice Hockey Team:  http://www.usahockey.com/Template_Usahockey.aspx?ID=22896&NAV=TU_02

“Miracle on Ice” (1980 Winter Olympics):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nfgTJaT_Vs

Adirondack Museum, at Blue Mountain Lake:  http://www.adkmuseum.org/

Burkittsville, MD:  http://www.burkittsville.com/

            ###  30  ###

Cape Cod – May 1999 (Part Three; ZooQuarium)

SEA LIONS, AND LLAMAS, AND TURKEYS, OH MY!

When travelling with others, you should check ahead to see what attractions are out there, so you can plan what you want to see in order to maximize your time at a location.  I’ll say I didn’t have much of a hand in planning this, as the others said they knew what was there.  I was rather content to go with the flow.  I have to say there were many other local places (some historical, some not) which we probably could’ve checked out.  A stop at the local Chamber of Commerce (which usually has a Visitor’s Center) is an invaluable resource.  Having everyone in the group agree on wanting to see the same things is also good.

One of the places we heard about nearby was ZooQuarium.  From the name, it sounded like a mixture of a zoo and aquarium.  While not strictly a zoo they way we’d think of it, it was more of a refuge for regional animals (both land and sea), with some notable imports.  I consider areas like this to be game preserves.  This was founded originally in the late 1960s as the “Aquarium of Cape Cod” and “Aqua Circus” as a haven for tropical fish and dolphins.  The place re-branded itself to its current name in the late 1980s when they replaced the dolphins with sea lions, and added other critters.

We wandered around one of the buildings and saw this sitting up on a roof looking at us.  First we thought it was sneaking in for a meal, but then we figured it was hanging out on the top of its habitat.

Because of a current running joke we had in the Pagination Department at work, I had to take a picture of the llama in the petting zoo area.  Brian commented about the way Chaz was walking around, with his chest all puffed out, it was like a peacock showing off its feathers.  So when we found the turkey here, it seemed appropriate to Chaz’s picture next to it.  When looking at the shot, we couldn’t tell who was the bigger turkey.  >grin<

The main thing we’d come to see was the sea lion show.  Performing animals are always interesting.  Since it was the middle part of the day, there wasn’t that big of a crowd.  The sea lion plopped into the pool, and did a number of laps in order to build up speed.  The trainer had set up some hoops which the sea lion jumped through.  Each successful trick earned a fish treat.  The sea lion might be living in captivity, but it seemed to enjoying himself.

One trick that was done I thought was really cool.  A yellow ball was suspended about a dozen feet above the level of the pool.  The trainer told us what was coming next, but it was still impressive to see.  After getting a couple laps under his belt to build up some momentum, the sea lion launched himself out of the pool and knocked the ball around.

The sea lion show was the highlight of this area, but it was worth watching it.  Afterwards, we got to meet the star of the show.  Chaz may have simply been going up to get an autograph, but I think he ended up with its phone number.  At least one of us made some headway in a casual relationship this weekend, so what if it was with a different species completely.

HALF-A-LOBSTER

We stopped at a place to get dinner, and it was one of the nicer venues we’d gone to.  Everyone talks about how good Maine lobster is, but I’ve always been partial to lobster which has come from Nova Scotia (thanks to Shawn’s yearly family trips).  I really don’t think there’s much of a difference, because it’s for the most part the same water they’re being brought up from.  When ordering a lobster from a restaurant in Cape Cod, it’s going to be pretty similar.  Lobster is good, no matter where I have it.

I ordered what was listed on the menu as “steak and half-a-lobster.”  It seemed pretty descriptive enough, so I didn’t think I needed to ask any questions about it.  We continued with whatever conversation we were having until dinner arrived.  When my plate arrived, I was surprised, because what I saw didn’t match in my mind what I’d asked for.  For some reason, I just assumed I’d be getting a lobster tail, which is still half of the lobster.

What was sitting on my plate was half of the lobster, the right half.  It looked like the lobster was cut length-wise on a ban saw.  There was half the head, half the body, one claw, and half of the tail.  It provided us a bit of amusement.  Eating it was easy, because I didn’t have to break through the shell to get at most of it.  The meal was good, and when I mentioned to the server what I thought I was getting, he got a chuckle out of it too.

After we returned to The Cove, I didn’t feel like playing any more cards.  It was too nice to be indoors.  The resort was packed full of people, many cute college students, and none we’d had much interaction with.  We’d been informed about the nearby Mill Hill Club, which was a dance club a lot of the area young people went to.  To me that wasn’t a very feasible prospect.  While it was no further from The Cove than Davidson Brothers was from my apartment, I know those streets well-enough to traverse them after dark.  My level of stupidity only goes so far, thus I won’t wander around in familiar areas after dark.  So I decided to take a walk around the grounds to see what interesting things I could stumble upon.  This was different, as I could maintain some control of my surroundings by staying on the resort grounds.  Since it was after sunset when I started my sojourn, I didn’t bring the camera with me.  I was more interested in the social interaction I could find than taking any pictures.

The grounds of The Cove were pretty varied, but there wasn’t an actual “walking path” which would take me around the complex.  Some times there were sidewalks, but most of the time I was wandering across grass, and occasionally between some shrubs.  The buildings weren’t that far from the inlet, so water was close by.  It didn’t appear to be designed as a beach or swimming area, and I certainly wasn’t going to attempt to wade in an unfamiliar area after dark.  Whenever I heard sounds of louder music, I went by and investigated.  I wasn’t going to simply crash a party, but if someone invited me in, it’s not crashing.  I turned out to be a pretty relaxing walk.

There was one instance of a girl standing out on an upper balcony waving to me.  She commented she was bored at the gathering she was in, and I suggested I could come up and chat in an effort to make her less bored.  A shadowed form then came to the patio door and called her back inside, which she reluctantly appeared to do.  I hung out there for a few moments to see if she returned, as it wouldn’t be too difficult to locate the room if there was an invitation.  I didn’t want to be too much of a lurker, and when it looked like she wasn’t coming back out, I finished my walk around the area.

DARK CITY AND A PHANTOM MENACE

Face it, we’re geeks.  Not only did we play cards in the evening while we were there, but I ran Brian and Chaz through a short RPG adventure so they could be woven easier into the TORG campaign I was running.  The plan was to be back for that week’s gaming session with my regular group, and the Game Master always wants to work in guest players as seamlessly as possible.

Half way through the week, we tipped over to the local movie theatre because a certain “long awaited movie” we thought was opening that night.  It turned out we were a couple days too early, so we found a movie that we did want to see.  Dark City with Rufus Sewell and Keifer Sutherland was pretty good, even though we guessed the major revelation in the end.  There was hardly anyone in the theatre with us, so we spread out along the seats a bit.

When it was time to leave The Cove, and had Bete Noire packed, it was a bright sunny day.  Having another day here would’ve been nice, but the way Brian’s time-share worked was only specific days to specific days.  Hey, it was a good location to spend a week, and use as a base of operations to explore the area.  There was so much here, we were only able to scratch the surface of what’s here.

We got back to Albany, and delayed the northern leg of our journey back to Glens Falls for just a couple hours.  Since Crossgates Mall was nearby, we shot over there to watch our “long awaited movie.”  It had opened the previous night, so the theatre was still full, but we were able to find seats.  Hearing the familiar John Williams theme coming from the big screen again was awesome, and the rest of the movie was decent.  That provided grist for debates on the drive back to my apartment on what the point of Jar-Jar was, and what the Jedi Prophecy could mean.  Brian felt the prophecy skipped a generation, as it was Luke who ultimately brought balance to the Force.  It looked at it in a more literal way; since there were only two Sith at any one time, bringing balancing means killing all the Jedi but two.  A wanted to note a funny part when the movie ended, someone in the crowd said loudly “Do I have wait another twenty-five years for the next one?”

Because The Cove was within Brian’s family, and it was a nice area, the three of us talked about returning there next year.  Now knowing what was in the area, we would be able to see more things next time.

For current information on the places visited (or mentioned):

ZooQuarium:  http://zooquariumcapecod.net/

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