Category: Travel

Eat and Runs

Posted on by chappyshi

There was a fairly interesting article in the Washington Post Travel section, “Spud Mountain or Bust: A Jersey Diner Diary,” on 13 April 2008. The author, John Diener, took a drive with a buddy and reported on gourmand experiences at at least four diners on Rt. 130. He noted that New Jersey was the “diner capital of the world” having about 600 state-wide.

Interesting that his name is Diener and he is reviewing diners. Bizarre that his name is “John Diener.” Does that mean he eats at toilets? Even stranger was the Travel section “Message Center” submission titled “High on Diners” by Maribeth Lombardo Hobgood dated 20 April 2008. She notes that her family is from central Jersey and she returns on a regular basis.

Apparently, they used to refer to the diner visits as “eat-and-runs.” Doesn’t sound too nice to me! I wonder if those places are anything like what the Greaseman used to refer to as “choke and pukes?”

Mad Skiing

Posted on by chappyshi

I am on the road again, this time for myself instead of work. I drove up to Avoca, PA, on Saturday where I visited with my old Navy buddy, Terry Boone, and his boys. We went out to a good pizza, pasta, and salad buffet in Wilkes-Barre which pretty much left us worthless afterwards. We all watched and laughed at the movie “Dumb and Dumber” when we got home then Terry and I then went out for a few dollar drafts at a local club. We kept it sane this time and made it back to the house at about midnight instead of the 3:00 AM debacle from the last visit.

Sunday I left early for Vermont to see my friends the Devinos. I whipped up my second batch of chili in two weeks. It went over quite well! We had a bunch left…the recipe make about 8 quarts of chili…but most of it had been eaten by last night and the complements kept rolling in.

Yesterday I skied at Mad River Glen, the idea of which had always intrigued yet intimidated me. Their reputation is that of a ski area that appeals to hard core, expert skiers. They do have some of the most challenging mogul fields I have ever seen as well as lots of forest/glade skiing that I have little desire to try out.

The area, however, was much more novice and intermediate friendly than their reputation implied. Be advised that I am talking about Vermont where novice and intermediate are two different worlds from novice and intermediate in the mid-Atlantic resorts. I know quite a few beginners who wouldn’t touch the greens at Mad River.

Nonetheless, I had a great time. The atmosphere brought me back to the my days of learning how to ski at the likes of Underhill and Middlebury College Snow Bowl when I lived in Vermont and was learning how to ski in the 70’s. Nobody used lockers…they were all Vermonters…and treated and respected each other as such. People were friendly and informative.

Each lift, and each stage on the lifts, was playing different music according to who was operating the devices at the time. A NASCAR race was on at one place, heavy metal at another, bluegrass elsewhere…you name it. The lifts all came down to one spot so you never found yourself a mountain away from where you thought you should be.

Trails crisscrossed the mountain like streets in a city. You could start out down one trail and cut off on to ten others making for a wide variety of ways down the mountain. The conditions were a bit slick in a few places but I think that they rely on natural snow and minimal grooming so I couldn’t complain. Having new skis with serious edges helped also.

Vermont breweries, Otter Creek and Long Trail, were on tap in the lodge which was sweet. I had a Wolavers IPA (brewed at Otter Creek) with a nice stew in a bread bowl for lunch after two hours of power skiing down the mountain right onto the chair. I did the same thing after lunch and then called it due the fact that my leg were turning to jello. They are a bit sore today but should be good for Killington tomorrow.

I am settled into my motel, the Chalet Killington, about a mile from the slopes as I write this. I am going to head down to get drink shortly. Conditions tomorrow should be awesome, given I can see. It has been snowing all day and is supposed to continue on until tomorrow evening. Predictions in the mountains are anywhere from 9′ to 30″. WTF? Almost March it is, eh?

Here are some pics from Mad River Glen.  The full set of pictures is here: Mad River Glen 2008.

This is the entrance:

Mad River Glen Entrance

Here’s the single chair.

Single Chair Ride

Here are some mogul pictures including one action shot of someone unknown. Amazing I caught it on my old digital camera:

Mogulocity1

Mogulocity2

Mogulocity3

What Has Brown Done for You Today?

Posted on by chappyshi

I was in LA on Wednesday, 5 December, with an old friend to see The Cult at the Wiltern Theatre in LA. The Wiltern and adjacent 12-story Pellissier Building are an Art Deco landmark, according to Wikipedia…read more. They are on Wilshire Boulevard at the western edge of Korea Town. That should have been good for my buddy and I since we have both spent a fair amount of time in Korea.

It wasn’t. We got into the city early to beat the traffic…it is as a bad as you have heard it is.  Nonetheless we got perfect parking and had time to kill so of course we went looking for a bar. As I noted earlier, we were in Korea Town. There was not a bar within six or eight blocks east or west of the Wiltern on Wilshire that was open. Finally, in some kind of DT brain flash, I see a UPS guy moving some parcels down the sidewalk. I figure a UPS dude probably knows a fair amount about places on his route be they eateries, bars, clean crappers, or whatever. Sure enough, he sends us right around the corner to the Caffe Brass Monkey .

Little did we know it was a karaoke place. There was some talent but the action started at 4:00 in the afternoon and the drinks, $5 for a Bud at that time, are reported to double after 9:00 PM when things really get hopping. Google it for more info. Supposedly there have been, and might be more, sightings…of Hollywood talent.

Anyhow, we dropped some coin for a few drinks and headed back down Wilshire to the venue. The concert was awesome. I was like a fifteen year old screaming and singing. Got my voice back about two days afterward.

Bottom line though…I owe it all to Brown for directing us to a place where we could get a beer to start with.

All Awash….Excerpt from On the Road to Vermont, Fall 2007

Posted on by chappyshi

I just started kayaking this year and haven’t done much open water kayaking. I am mostly into rivers and small lakes where I can get about a four or five mile paddle in without whitewater or white caps. I have been on the Potomac River and tributaries of the Chesapeake bay at some pretty wide spots but stayed close to shore.

I could see when I put in that my trip was going to be challenging. All the waters I was heading out to where exposed to the northwest from where the wind was blowing. I don’t have a splash skirt but will definitely have one before I venture out on Lake Champlain again.

I headed out of the inlet I was in to increasingly rougher water. The chop started out at about .5 to 1 foot without whitecaps. I was out in fairly open water for about 45 minutes and really had to watch the wave action and be sure I didn’t get broadside to it.

I tried to work the journey so that I could keep myself heading into or getting pushed by the waves. I did not come close to foundering at anytime but definitely caught some serious bow or side splash. I was pretty well wet from the waist down by the time I pulled in. The last two stretches of the paddle were headed into or followed by 1.5 to 2 foot swells. I was happy to get in but probably would not want to try that again by myself.

Getting Paid Poorly to Ride My Motorcycle

Posted on by chappyshi

I rode the scooter up to Youngstown for work last Wednesday. It is nice to get paid to ride but I don’t think I am getting paid enough. I am out at our Ohio plant with the local tech and one of our guys from the Data Center doing a network and server migration. What a ball buster. We fine tuned our plan Thursday and Friday hoping to have the cut done on Saturday so we could go to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland today (now yesterday) but it wasn’t meant to be.

Thankfully it was a nasty raining day that would have made for not the nicest of days in Cleveland. As it is we have put in 30 hours in the last two days and tomorrow is not likely to be much better. To cap the day off, we got to the beer store at 11:50 PM thinking we were just under the wire only to find out you can’t even buy beer on Sunday.

There should be signs when you enter the state, or county…who knows, that announce this fact, “No booze sold on Sundays.” Youngstown is so close to Pennsyltucky, the beer stores there must have a field day on Sundays. Oh well…too tired to even get a good rant going.