Roaming With Carl

South Padre – 21 Nov 2009

After driving for 5 hours in the rain from San Antonio to Harlingen yesterday; today is a beautiful morning! Great bird watching weather. Unfortunately my binoculars are still on the table back home. 

So I am reduced to bird watching with the camera’s telephoto function.   I don’t have the hang of it yet.  I did get a chance to survey the new World Birding Center on South Padre.  An overabundance of Brown Pelicans and some Reddish Egrets were there; but otherwise nothing remarkable.  The Ranger said to come back at sundown.  I did but it was bust.  I did see what might have been a Red Tail Hawk sitting on a light pole on the way to the center.  

I do have some photos of the main drag of South Padre that I won’t post (yet).  I’ll go out again tomorrow and take some with more thought. 

I’ve been to here a couple of times before but have never stayed on the island.  This time I took friends recommendations and stayed at the Sheraton.  It is an older facility and a tad pricey but it is worth it.   Friday night is a seafood buffet that is quite extensive with both hot and cold sides. Well worth the experience if you are in the area.  Apparently the buffet is also patronized by the locals; based on eavesdropping on the next table.

Binghamton New York

This post covers the drive from Malta New York to Binghamton New York, mostly by IH-88, through the Susquehanna river valley on 9 June 2008. The tourist stop on this leg was the Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

Trip details

Back roads. None - Interstate Highways all the way.

Trip Miles & Gas info: 165 miles. Acura performance averages were 54 mph and 31 mpg. Premium in Vestal Park NY at start of the day, was $4.06.

Dining experience: Of interest today is Cacciatore's, Italian Restaurant, recommended by the clerk at the Hampton Inn. This may have been a local chain but it certainly had the air of a local mom & pop "Cheers" type of place. The place has a full bar and had a waiting line, with what appeared to be locals in groups of four to eight. Being by myself I got seated almost immediately at an isolated two top against the back wall squeezed in between two groups of six. I had the Beef Ravioli special and it ranked up there as a high 9.+ out of 10. It does not have a web page but does have some good reviews in Trip Advisor.

Motel: A Hampton Inn at an "other side of the interstate" suburb of Binghamton called Johnston City. It was physically located on the back side of a large destination shopping mall area. As I followed the navigator through a bunch of warehouses and light industrial buildings, to the Field street address I wondered how a first timer without a navigator would have found the place. After you arrive it turns out to be in a rather pleasant park like area.

Technorati Tags: Travel, Johnson City NY, Cacciatore's Italian resturant

Baseball Hall of Fame - Cooperstown

Going to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Monday, 9 June 2008, was a "You are here - you gotta go" stop. I am not a baseball fan and this was reinforced by this visit. I more interested in the drive to Cooperstown and the location of the Hall than I was of the contents. Unless otherwise noted the links in this post are to pictures that other people have made publically available through various web sharing sites; or the link is to one of related National Baseball Hall Of Fame web sites.

Cooperstown New York is an out-of-the-way place in the Allegheny Plateau fall off towards the Mohawk Valley. According to Google Maps it is approximately a one hour and fifty minutes from Saratoga Springs. For those interested in making the trip from the Big Apple, it is a four hour, one way trip. A bit much perhaps for a day trip but it would work nicely for a weekend out and back.

Here are snapshots of my approach into Cooperstown. The Baseball Hall of Fame itself is just a large building off of Main street.

I had two items of interest.

• One was the member who was also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame but I had a senior moment and had the wrong name in my head. There is no shortage of docents in so I asked one for Carl Hubbell. He showed me how to find the individual plaques in the hall and I went strolling off to the stated location. When I got there I realized that he was not the guy I was interested in. I was pretty confident that my man was an umpire. Found another docent who was able to tell me I was looking for Cal Hubbard. (More on him when I post the Football Hall of Fame)
• The other item of interest to me was to see another trivia answer of who is in the Hall of Fame who never a professional ball player, umpire, executive, owner, or baseball writer; who never had anything to do with professional baseball. The answer used to be pretty simple. Abbot & Costello doing their "Whose on First" bit. The video player was broke so the bit was not playing. The link is to one of the several that are on You Tube. This one is appears to match the script that is at the Baseball Almanac.

Fort Ticonderoga

A three hour stop on 8 June at Fort Ticonderoga was and adventure due to the 85 degree temperatures.  I don't know what the humidity was but it was high.  There is no air conditioning in the supporting service buildings so the roar of fans was a constant background in the museum, shops and restaurant.  Fort Ticonderoga is not a Park Service site but is owned and supported by the, not for profit, Fort Ticonderoga Association.  It has a normal web site providing all information that a family would need to plan a full day visit to the site.  For somebody like me, who is looking for a introductory overview, I prefer the descriptions in Wikipedia and especially the abbreviated version reached through Answers.com.  I highly recommend both of these with the usual caveats about Wikipedia being wholly unofficial.

The Geezer (Senior Citizen) admission was $13.50 which appears to be in the band ($6.00 – $14.75) for this year's charges.

When I entered the Fort grounds it did not feel "right".  It took me quite while to figure out what the problem was but I believe the site is badly "over gunned" and that detracts from its authenticity.  It appears that Fort Ticonderoga Association has accepted every vintage artillery piece that needed a place to be parked and stuck them anywhere they could find space.  In the supporting information about the collections they brag about it. "The museum's collection of eighteenth century artillery is the largest collection of its type in the Western Hemisphere".  

It appears that every embrasure has a big gun in it even if there is nothing to shoot at.  (An Example).  Another example is the placement of the guns on the Southwest Bastion pointing towards Mount Defiance.  Two big boomers are placed at 90 degrees to each other so that the recoil from one would knock the other over.

What I gained from this visit.
The site focus on that conflict known as the "French & Indian War" emphasized my own lack of comprehension of this world wide event.  There is an excellent high level description at the Fort Ticonderoga Association timeline.  In those American history classes that I took back in the 1950s the subject was described from the point of view of the British colonists and did not attempt to bring out the world wide political and strategic viewpoint.  While almost every history buff is aware of the American Revolutionary war exploits of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys and Henry Knox and his "Great Train of Cannon" some of the other important events around this important location have faded into the mists.  There are organizations, such as the Fort Ticonderoga Association and it's associated reenactment groups who keep the information alive, if not in the forefront of our consciousness. 

Technorati Tags: Fort Ticonderoga, 18th Century Artillery, Site Visit, French & Indian War

Champlain Valley & Lake George

On 8 June I started my return to San Antonio. This was a short driving day, what with a stop at Fort Ticonderoga which will be the subject of a separate post. Here are some "window" shots of the Champlain valley with the bonus of a view of the Adirondacks across the lake. The valley landscape was open and green with Industrial size dairy farms. Looks real nice but could not help but think what it looks like when the snow is on the ground.

There was a large motorcycle rally underway that I ran into at the Larrabee Point ferry. They were coming from New York to Vermont and I sat there watching as they motored off the ferry and up the road and like a dummy I did not take a single picture. On the New York side it looked like at least two more ferry loads were waiting when I got across. BTW during the winter the Ferry is closed.

After leaving Fort Ticonderoga, I proceeded south along the west shore of Lake George. Not much of interest to see since the dense forest shutoff almost all views of the lake and lakeshore and lake front points of interest.

Trip details

• Back roads. All the way today. Leaving from Williston / South Burlington Vermont headed for the Larrabees Point ferry crossing. Going south on Vermont highway 22A on the Vermont side of Lake Champlain down to Shoreham to Vermont 74. Crossed into New York on the ferry and after a three hour stop at Fort Ticonderoga continued south on New Your 9N along the west shore of Lake George. A short 38 stretch on I-87 between Ft. William Henry NY and Malta NY
• Trip Miles & Gas info: 197 miles. Acura performance averages were 32 mph and 24 mpg. Premium at the end-of-day top-off was $4.46 in Ballston Spa N.Y.
• Dining experience: Nothing to Report.
• Motel: A Fairfield Inn at a sprawl suburb of Saratoga Springs called Malta. It was a "conference" Fairfield located in a office park. Other than that it was nothing remarkable.
Technorati Tags: Travel 2008, Vermont, Champlain Valley, Shoreham VT, Larrabees Point Ferry

The Civil War In Four Minutes

The Civil War in Four Minutes. When this link first showed up three/four years ago, I accepted it as a clever curiosity. After seeing run on a larger than 40 inch High Definition Television in the Walters Art Museum I realized the view of the strategy presented in this map display is unique. If you have some understanding of the Civil War, this display map clarifies the strategy employed by the Union. While everybody is familiar the great battles between Army of the Potomac and The Army of Northern Virginia, those battles, as terrible as they were, are only defensive operations to keep the Union Capital of Washington out of the Confederacy's hands. Washington had great symbolic and psychological value it's loss would probably not have put the Union out of the war.

The Union won the Civil War in the West. It wasn't easy, as the difficulty the Union had in getting control of Chattanooga, is clearly visible in this display. Grant's operations against Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had the strategic purpose of keeping troops pinned down around Richmond and away from the critical fronts in the South. I have heard of the "Cincinnati Meeting" which took place between Grant & Sherman and perhaps others from the Armies of Tennessee & Cumberland. And maybe even some representatives from the War Department. Supposedly It was at that meeting where the grand strategy was settled. A decision on the level of "Europe First" in the Second World War. I have always wondered what map did the Generals use in that meeting? My guess would be it was a railroad map of some sort.

This map is belongs to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield Illinois The last I have heard they have not approved any web distribution, but it still shows up occasionally. Hopefully this link holds up for a while.

 

Technorati Tags: Civil War, Civil War Strategy

Vermont - Feet On The Ground

Why go to Vermont? Because you got to have some goals, even if they don't make sense. In my case goals tend to emerge only when they might be reachable. Vermont was the last of the 50 states that I had not actually set foot in until today 7 June 2008. Guess it's an accomplishment of some sort. As noted in a previous post there is no minimum duration for the visit to count.

Trip details

• Back roads. None - Interstate Highways all the way. But I did find out what the Berkshires looked like and IH-85 took me through the Green Mountains. I couldn't tell the difference between the two. Both looked like the Ozarks, just greener.
• Trip Miles & Gas info: 310 miles. Acura performance averages were 58 mph and 31 mpg. Premium in Montpelier VT. was $4.20.
• Dining experience: Two Items today. A lunch stop off the Enfield Connecticut exit of IH-91 at a place called Rickford's. A haddock sandwich with a side of sweet potato fries. Never had either one before. The haddock sandwich I might do again. But not the sweet potato fries. Dinner was at Pub 99; evidently a northeastern chain. Interesting layout in that about 50% of the place was a bar and the rest a family steak house. The special of the evening was prime rib. Maybe 2.5 stars out of five. Ambience was a zero stars due to the large number of screaming and bawling kids who should have been at Chuckee Cheese.
• Motel: A Fairfield Inn at a sprawl suburb of Burlington called Williston. It was a typical Fairfield but it was close to the Interstate however the "complimentary" breakfast sucked. It did contribute Marriott reward points to start rebuilding the pot that was largely exhausted in northern Virginia.

Technorati Tags: Travel 2008, Visit 50 States, Vermont

Northern Virginia to the Catskills

On 6 June I left my Washington D.C. operating base and departed on my return leg to San Antonio via the rust belt states. My course for the next two days is to finally put feet on the ground in Vermont. There by completing a goal of visiting all 50 states at least once, no matter how briefly. Today's trip was deliberately planned to take "back way" from Falls Church to Wilkes Barrie / Scranton Pennsylvania with a revised RON planned for Fishkill NY. There were multiple reasons for this choice but the main one was to avoid the BosWash megacity.

Going against the inbound commuters on IH66 from Falls Church at 10:00 convinced me again that there are still too many people going into Washington to work. All inbound lanes (Including the rush hour only lanes) were bumper to bumper for at least 10 miles beyond the Washington Beltway where I left IH-66.

This trip took me up over the Allegheny plateau which I had to study in detail in my days as a Geography major back in the mid 1950s. We humans may still build everything over it but the terrain still comes through. North bound on IH-81 looking out the window going by Wilkes Barre & Scranton still looked like the old USGS Quadrangles I remembered as a student

Trip details

• Back roads. Planned to be mostly limited access roads. The only portion that qualified as "back road" as a 30 mile stretch from the intersection of US 50 with James Madison Parkway (US-15) across the Point of Rocks bridge to Frederick.
• Trip Miles & Gas info: 448 miles (Includes 142 miles during the 8 day stay in Northern Virginia). Average 54 mph & 26 mpg. Fuel costs are also averaged for this leg at $4.30. A curiosity this time was there was no Premium available at the Exxon in Frederick MD. So a half a tank top-off with intermediate grade at $4.199. No obvious ill effects from the mixture. The top-off in the morning of 7 July in Fishkill was premium at $4.399 a gallon
• Dining experience: il Barilotto, a Four Star Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar in downtown Fishkill.– Since I don't do wine I got off pretty cheaply with a $41.50 dinner tab. The entrée was Monkfish medallions with Golden Eagle potatoes and fresh tomato sauce. It was worth it. The presentation deserved a picture but I didn't want to blow my cover.
• Motel: A new Holiday Inn Express again. It was up to standards I've come to expect and had the advantage of being the low cost place in this cluster of motels immediately off IH-84.

Technorati Tags: Back way from No. VA to Catskills, Travel

Bad Day in Northern Virginia

This is a catch-up post.

Today, 4 June, was a forced change of plans. Rain last night made the mall unpleasant for walking. The weather forecast was for more rain today. About noon there were strong indications that the forecast was going to be right. Decided to return to base and catch up on some blog posts. Was working away when the Internet connection became flaky. Little latter a heavy rainstorm with big winds blew in and the power went out around 3 PM. Here is a Wash Post link covering the event. The area I was in was the 290,000 without power in Fairfax county. There is a full service restaurant bar in undercover walking distance that has a large outside patio. I stayed there until it was time for the Residence Inn's free evening snacks. Obviously no hot stuff but plenty of cheese & veggies.

Power stayed off until around 11 PM. (It was 11:11 when I set the clock on the microwave.)  I had a mp3 book to listen to after the sun went down. I had started listening to Murder on the Leviathan before but there was still about 4 hours left.  The book wasn't all that bad. It reached a little with the number of plot flips but It got me through the black out.  It's been a long time since I've set in the dark an listened audio coming over a radio.

Tomorrow is planned to be a clean-up day before hitting the road for Vermont on Friday. I have three posts in draft that I'll try to finish off tomorrow.

 

Technorati Tags: Travel 2008, Storm in Fairfax Co.

Arriving in Falls Church VA.

Today (29 May 2008) was a perfect blue sky with scattered high clouds. I arrived at my Washington D.C base of operation in Falls Church VA during the early part of the rush hour.

I took opportunity of backtracking 21 miles to the New River Gorge Bridge. Took a couple of pictures at the view point, but passed on the 1200 steps down and back to the river bottom. The picture from there is on the West Virginia Quarter, so no big loss. In any case there are some pretty good pictures available on Google.

Trip details

• Back roads. None - All limited access roads
• Trip Miles & Gas info: 331 miles. Average 54mph, 31mpg, premium $4.339 in Summersville WV, $4.098, in Staunton VA.
• Dining experience: In Falls Church went to my favorite Chinese restaurant from my time there in the Seventies. The Peking Gourmet is still in the decaying Culmore shopping center but it has definitely gone upscale. Now reservations are required in the evening and they have to be made a day or two in advance. As good as they are, Chinese is still Chinese and not worth a reservation in IMHO. According to the on-line food pages in the Fairfax Register, It has become a place for the Oriental movers and shakers to see and be seen.
• Motel: Residence Inn off of Gallows Road and Arlington Blvd in Falls Church. All those Mariott rewards points I collected over the years are getting cashed in on this stay. They are paying for this stop until 5/6 June I'll only have about 3000 points left in the account.

Technorati Tags: Travel 2008, Establish base in Washington DC area.