Super Shuttle

I never quite mentioned it, but I did make it to Denver after my road trip West. That being said, I'm currently sitting in the Denver International Airport ready to leave Denver for the holidays.

The Super Shuttle found my little house on our barricaded street and picked me up early. After narrowly avoiding spinning tires on the ice, we rolled out of my neighborhood only to pick up a woman with lots of baggage, an artificial knee, and one of those early morning demeanors where you know she is not used to getting up this early but she has to talk nonstop about the fact that she was all ready to go even though the driver got to her house early and how she's going to Mississippi and how the driver needs to slow down on those turns because the roads are dangerous out there and oh, was that the jazz music or her little dog crying? She had a little dog with her which the driver graciously asked if he could throw in the back with the luggage (it was in a little carry on bag and did not look like a dog at all). Needless to say, the Jazz and the heated van were the highlights of the trip.

My second favorite public artwork in Denver, the rearing Bronco, greeted me with its beady red eyes as we drove up to DIA. Surprisingly, there were no lines at security and I checked my bag "curbside" for the first time ever so I didn't have to wait in a line at the counter. Now I sit with the friendly Southwest employees telling me to look at the lunar eclipse. Lovely!

Missouri Mania

Where is your ideal Labor Day destination? Is it Manhattan, Kansas? Perhaps you've booked your hotel room and used up all of the gas at a roadside Conoco! If so, you win! You beat us. That's right, our attempts at another hotel room with a bedside jacuzzi (or any hotel room) were dashed because of Labor Day travelers. Likewise, we attempted to pump gas at a station completely devoid of the oh-so-necessary fuel! Good thing we had enough gas and Kate just remembered she knows someone in Lawrence, KS!

So, after Kate thinking we were in Kansas during most of our drive through Missouri, we arrived in Kansas City (Missouri). It was pretty, especially the lightning in the backdrop. Big ole raindrops were not so welcoming however. Afraid my car would stall out or I would hydroplane in standing water, we pulled over 10 minutes away from meeting our college friend at our destination: Eden Valley. Finally the rain subsided and we met our friend and my juggling grandfather (the person who taught the person who taught me how to juggle!), Greg! I hadn't seen him in at least 5 years!

Sadly we will miss the Kansas City site that my Grandpa suggested: Subtropolis. It was closed for Labor Day weekend, which makes sense because, although it's completely underground, it is an industrial hub! Next time I pass through this area I also want to visit the Insect Zoo in Manhattan, KS. Perhaps I'll even splurge on a guided tour!


Only one more state to go!

Winding my Way West

When you think about Nashville, you think about country music. But, the question is, do you think about Andrew Jackson? Amanda, my college friend and Murfreesboro tour guide, drove us to The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's estate. They had a lovely audio walking tour (yay for not having to stop and read things when you are pressed for time!) and gardens with some of my favorite plants: zinnias and oregano!

Rear of The Hermitage

This morning, Kate and I left Amanda and hit the road to Missouri! Half way along the way, we finished our YA audiobook and returned it at one of the millions of Cracker Barrels we've seen along the way. Our adventures in MO have been among my favorite on the whole trip. I tried some genuine St. Louis pretzels and Frozen Custard at Ted Dewes, BUT best of all, I rode a little pod car with four other tourists to the top of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (aka the St. Louis Arch or the Gateway to the West). So cool! We were 630 ft. in the air with a great view of the Mississippi (which we crossed a whopping 3 times today!), the baseball stadium (where a game was being played!), the Old Courthouse, and the St. Louis Cathedral.

View of stadium and the Old Courthouse from the top of the 630 ft arch!

Apparently we are in the West now!

Kentucky Kindness

Day three began with a futile attempt at finding the Purple People Bridge crossing the Ohio River from Cincinnati, OH into Kentucky. After driving in circles for 45 minutes throughout Cincinnati, we drove across a different bridge. It was neat, though sadly, the bridge was not purple.

Once on the open highway, I immediately decided that I liked Kentucky more than Ohio. It had many more trees, was less flat, and it had a 70 MPH speed limit that people did not abuse to an extreme! In fact, it felt like traffic went slower than on highways with a 65 MPH limit. Speaking of highways and driving... I found another trucker friend! We traveled for an hour, maybe more, passing each other out when the need arose. He honked. I waved. It was a special relationship. In fact, he was driving a Kenworth and it might just have been the "Kenworth of my dreams..."

Without needing to drive for too many hours on end today, Kate and I were willing to do a bit of exploring. You can imagine how pleased we were when we saw the sign for the "Kentucky Bourbon Trail" The "spirits" led us to the Jim Beam distillery, right off the highway! Pulling in, Kate commented that the establishment looked like the mining operation in Zorro. The visitor's center and outbuildings were lovely, however. We didn't have time for a tour (Nashville traffic at rush hour? I don't think so...), but an employee personally introduced us to two bourbons: Booker's and Red Stag.

Booker Noe, sixth generation distiller, eternally enjoying his bourbon

We hit Nashville well before rush hour and searched in vain for a nearby battlefield. Thus, the saga continues...

Really Riveting Roadtrip: Day 2

I eagerly await the next time I'm in the car. I know... a little strange after driving at least 8 hours today. But, we have a book on CD! It is an amazing young adult title called The Virals about teenagers, scientific experiments on secluded islands, murder, monkeys, and the hope that high school students will morph into wolves! Tina, thanks for the suggestion of renting an audiobook at Cracker Barrel! You rock! We will be saving a Western/Romance audiobook (with a cowboy on the cover!) for Kansas!

The audiobook was the most exciting aspect of our slightly more flat journey down the length of Ohio. However, I was also fairly pleased to be saluted for my driving skills by a trucker today! I've heard that truckers represent the best (and worst) drivers out there. Apparently, I let him merge into my lane, hung back so I wasn't in his blind spots, and then passed him appropriately enough that he honked and gave me a thumbs up, sticking his whole hand out the window!

The day was really completed with a driveby of Grandpa's Cheesebarn (where they also sold fudge...) and a visit to a luxurious gas station/Starbucks/mini grocery store with amazing bathrooms!

Layover in the Little Leagues

Irene was ever present as a backseat driver throughout day one of our road trip to Denver! Kate had to take a detour on the way to Albany from Boston and the beginning of our trip from Albany through Binghamton also involved detours! A thruway attendant at the start of the thruway claimed that our route was now completely open, while the attendant at the end of the thruway, said that, no, in fact we cannot travel that road! Lack of communication resulted in some handy map reading on our parts! Paper maps will always be my friends (plastic coated, paper maps included!).

We passed through some beautiful country littered with small towns. But, alas, the sun did set and we needed to find a spot to rest our traveling heads! Kate had written down some info from hotels located in Williamsport, what I assumed was a small town in PA. The only rooms we could find were suites with jacuzzis! We wondered, why would those be the only rooms available... Then Williamsport turned out to be a bit bigger than we assumed and we saw signs for baseball this and Little League that... We discovered the  Williamsport where the Little League World Series was held, just held! I bought postcards, though I must confess that I only saw the hotel/fast food region of Williamsport!

And that is how we ended up in the honeymoon suite at the Comfort Inn in the Little League Capital of the World!

Irene visits the ADKs

My cousin and recent hiking partner just emailed me this story about the impact of Irene in the Adirondack Mountains (where we just went hiking) and I had to share.

Check out this article and take a look at this following picture. There totally used to be a bridge over the dam!

Irene Update

Still have power (knock on wood!). Still raining.

I'm supposed to start my road trip tomorrow but this is dependent on 1) my friend Kate venturing across the great state of Massachusetts and arriving safely in Albany and 2) driving conditions in NY and PA. The Thruway has been closed at several points and the Mohawk and Hudson rivers won't crest until tomorrow afternoon. More flooding could result, limiting mobility. In addition, apparently I will be traveling along one of the most flood prone areas in the United States: the Susquehanna. But, trying to discover which roads are open and which are washed out is ridiculously complicated. (Any librarians out there know of a magical database I can use for this purpose?) Hoping to overcome all obstacles and expecting the ground to be a bit soggy tomorrow, we plan on splurging on a hotel room in PA! (Of course, I would probably get frustrated trying to figure out which campgrounds were open and which were closed anyway...) This trip is turning out to be an exciting adventure, possibly worthy of the blogosphere, after all!

I'll leave you with a scene from Troy:

Mudslide in Troy - News 10 WTEN: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports

My Hurricane Post

Ever since flying into Denver, I've complained about how brown everything is. The grass is brown, the mountains are brown, and the riverbeds even seem devoid of water and brown most of the year. I have been pretty hard on Denver in regards to its parched earth, so Mother Nature is ensuring that I see my fair share of water while I'm home.

It started raining a little while ago and it will continue raining all day tomorrow. Hurricane Irene will be visiting upstate NY. For the first time in my memory, the residents of the Hudson Valley, are under a Tropical Storm Warning. The Weather Channel says we are in the extreme threat zone and some models of the hurricane path place the storm directly overhead. We're about two hours North of NYC and Troy is the northernmost point of the tidal estuary. The Hudson was already high and who knows how much rain will fall (estimates range from 5-8"). I usually get pretty proud when Albany is displayed on a map broadcasted on national television, but perhaps a hurricane isn't the best reason to be on the map.

So, the main threat at my house, just like with any storm we've faced, is our trees and whether or not they will remain vertical. I'll leave you with a picture of the "Great Tree Accident of 2003." At midnight on a summer evening, one of the trees across from our house keeled over, unprovoked, landing on our front yard, knocking out power, and completely blocking our road.

Great Tree Accident of 2003

We're so lucky we don't live near the ocean or directly along the Hudson. And my thoughts are with those who do, especially my friends in the City. Here's hoping that the rest of the storm is a complete bust. In the meantime I can't stop singing, "Come on Irene," (not intending to be provocative, mind you!).

Navigating Nazareth

My sister, Kylie, is now successfully settled into Nazareth College in suburban Rochester, NY! After so many years of leaving my family to settle into a dorm room, it was strange leaving Kylie behind. Now I understand what she meant about the car rides back home being eerily quiet. Below are some pictures highlighting the journey!

Van packed and (finally) ready to go!

Rochester is about four hours away from Troy and we expected to leave around noon. After about 8 hours of packing suitcases and loading the van, we hit the road to ROC at 5:30 pm!

Egg and cheese on a biscuit, eh!?

Tim Horton's (aka Timmy Ho's) is my favorite fast food breakfast chain. I rejoice in traveling to Western NY (and Ontario) for egg sandwiches and hot chocolate. Yes, we were the annoying tourists who ate at the same restaurant 3 days in a row and got their picture taken in front of the sign... Sadly we could not get our picture taken in front of the standard plaque dedicated to Tim Horton usually found in the dining area of each restaurant. There was none! Whatever is becoming of Tim Horton's legacy!?

Saying "So long"

When I was a freshman, I had about 3 days to say my goodbyes to my family. Nazareth gave us twenty minutes AND, they told us not to come back (until family weekend that is). I almost had a Nicholas Sparks moment (see below definition), but refrained from any emotional outbursts that might embarrass any one in particular. So now, my little sis is a member of the Nazareth College Class of 2015! "She's all growed up!!"

Nicholas Sparks Moment: When one is overcome by sadness and begins crying at the climax of a film written by Nicholas Sparks, BUT then realizes the ridiculousness of crying at such a bad movie and then begins hysterically laughing at the same moment. Also, the behavior exhibited by all Welsh women watching said films.

Meliora Memories

Once upon a time in the Albany-Rensselaer Train Station, I got talking to a college admissions counselor. He asked, "Why did you decide to go to college at the University of Rochester?" Easy answer: the library. The library on campus presented itself as a massive institution of learning and the inscriptions on the exterior (see below) reinforced that. The building itself represented my romantic ideal of acquiring knowledge, transforming that knowledge into wisdom and therefore becoming a better person for having "learned." I guess that's why I also liked our school motto of "meliora," meaning "always better."

As my sister and I get ready to drive to Rochester, this time to drop her off at college for the first time, I thought I'd post some pictures of my beloved Rush Rhees Library on the University of Rochester campus.

Rush Rhees Library, River Campus, University of Rochester

To the left of the main entrance: "Here is the history of human ignorance, error, superstition, folly, war, and waste recorded by human intelligence for the admonition of wiser ages still to come."

The Doors of the Past: "The doors of the past open to those who seek to know what has been..."

"... the history of the stars, the earth, sunlight, life, and man's long journey."

Doors of the Present: "The doors of the present open to those who seek to know what man can do..."

"...to master his fate by science, sustain his spirit by art, and guide his life by wisdom."

Doors of the Future: "The doors of the future open to those who wonder what life may become..."

"...when men are free in body and in soul loving all beauty serving in many ways one God."

To the right of the main entrance: "Here is the history of man's hunger for truth, goodness, and beauty leading him slowly on through flesh to spirit from bondage to freedom from war to peace."

So much information... so many possibilities! To find out more on the Rush Rhees Library visit the library website and to find out more about the inscriptions click here.

Mt. Marcy

I'd like to think I could walk anywhere, for however long I needed to and for whatever purpose. This is the philosophy I abide by in Denver, especially to and from the grocery store, and in the woods. After 19 miles of hiking and two mountains later, I am reworking this philosophy.

Yesterday, my cousin, a friend, and I ventured into the Adirondack wilderness with the goals of hiking Mt. Marcy, Mt. Skylight, and Gray Peak, the highest, fourth highest, and seventh highest mountains in NY. The underlying goal was to make it back to the car and, eventually, to our campsite.

My friend, cousin, and me at Indian Falls on the way to Mt. Marcy.

I made it up Marcy and Skylight, knocking two more of the 46 high peaks off my list (I still have 41 to go... oh my). The hike was tiring and amazing, goal-oriented, yet picturesque, but towards the end it just became hard. In fact, to be honest with myself, it was probably the most challenging feat I have accomplished with my own two feet. I thoroughly believed we had no more than 5 more miles left when we approached a sign that stated that I was delusional. In fact, we had 6.3 more miles to go. This was so mentally incapacitating, that I immediately ran through my shelter building and fire-by-friction skills. I evaluated how much water we had left and pondered the low temperature of the evening, convinced I wouldn't have the energy to make it out.

Well, long story short, my friend hiked on ahead (he was much faster) and my cousin and I passed the source of the Hudson River (Lake Tear of the Clouds), Lake Colden, Avalanche Pass, and Marcy Dam, finally arriving back to the car. My cousin and I made it out of the woods, headlamps glaring, at 10:15 pm.

Lake Tear of the Clouds, the source of the Hudson River.

However, our adventure was not quite over... we noticed that my friend's car was still in the parking lot (::dun dun dun::). He had not signed in at a trail register since Lake Colden, about 6 miles from the parking lot, where he noted he would call us as soon as he got reception. We assumed that he simply forgot to check in at the other registers, but knew that he should have been out of the woods, in his car, and on his merry way well before 10:15. But, come to think of it, he didn't have a headlamp or a map. Did he have extra clothing? Anything to start a fire with? Food!? The only items we knew he had in his gym bag were two small water bottles and a filtering pump.

I must say that I am a proponent of my tax money being spent on the salaries of NYS forest rangers (if that is, indeed, what my tax money is spent on)! We called the emergency Department of Environmental Conservation hotline, chatted with some optimistic dispatchers ("The low is only going to be 47 degrees! No problem!"), and spoke with the ranger who was charged with the initial search phase (preliminary search at night, extensive search in the morning). Trained professionals would go out into the woods to look for my friend, just in case. What more could we do?

We could eat. Don't you find it disappointing when diners, traditional havens of 24 hour, greasy comfort food, are in fact imposters, not diners at all, but instead... traditional restaurants with normal business hours!? We encountered just such establishments in Lake Placid and Wilmington. At 12:30 AM, my cousin and I arrived back at our campsite, with loot purchased at a 24 hour grocery store (a Lunchables meal, a donut, goldfish crackers, etc.), and ate our dinner in the car.

What a day. It didn't truly end until this morning when I got a phone call from my friend saying that he was alive. The rangers couldn't find him because he had fallen asleep looking at the stars on a flat rock in the middle of a creek. I decided I would ask for details later.

"Magnificent Mud at Midnight," the alternate title of this blogpost.

Molly Maguires by the Mohawk

After signing the petition to save my local post office, fueling up at my favorite local gas station ($3.79/gallon! score!), and running various other errands, my family and I found ourselves on the shores of the Hudson. Or was it the Mohawk? Let's just say we found ourselves beside the Erie Canal in Waterford, NY, the oldest incorporated village in the US. It just so happens that the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers converge in this apparently very old village.

The Waterford Harbor Visitor's Center happened to be celebrating the 10th Annual Irish Heritage Day (or something momentous of the sort) and my very favorite Irish American band, Hair of the Dog, was the featured act. This was especially exciting since I missed them playing at Irish Night at our local baseball stadium last week. The band was stationed on an old barge (see below), a fairly appropriate stage in this instance...

So, in my dad's endless endeavors to secure future employment for me, we began talking to a National Park Service employee who entertained my dad's hopes that there may in fact be library positions in the Department of the Interior. I found the ranger's stories of traveling the NY canal systems and the possibilities of exploration by water much more fascinating. I'll leave you with our federal employee friend's comments about setting "sail" from Waterford: "If you dump in here, you can go anywhere in the world."

Mesomorphic morning: Making it to Midway

So, you know you fly too much if you recognize the TSA officer examining your boarding pass, remembering that the last time he looked at it, he commented on your final destination and recalled the time that he was in Albany, NY.