No, we didn’t take many pictures the first day since our tent broke and Ennie had to go to Walmart (shudder) to pick up a new one. We didn’t finish getting things set up until after dark.
The tent pictures are the remnants of the broken tent. 
Wisteria seems a lot like Brushwood in many ways. Though there are some big differences as well.
The biggest is flush toilets versus portapotties. Brushwood has a few places with flush toilets. over here there are portapotties. You are never too far away from one, but they don’t flush.
It also doesn’t get as cold here overnight. Walking around at night doesn’t get my feet wet. It gets as warm during the day which is good or bad depending on your view. There are also showers here so that makes the camping that much more enjoyable.
The bands last night were great. We had Tommy Amoeba with Phat Man Dee, Andrew the Impaled, and the Evolution Control Committee.
I’ve seen everyone except ECC before at previous X-Days. Two words: Live Mashups. Awesome on a stick!
It’s that time of the year again: time to figure out where to go for the summer vacation!
The best we can think of at the moment is to head east to the coast then follow the coast up to Acadia National Park up in Maine then spend some time touring around up there.
As an added bonus we can visit Cynthia, one of my good friends, who’s up there in New York City (“New York City? Get a Rope!”) and have a look around there. We’ve not been there to visit since around 1999 or so for a Rocky Horror convention that was up there.
Beyond those two destinations does anyone have any other ideas?
As the weather is finally warming up I realized that I never posted the last day of pictures from the trip last summer. Doh!
The final day of the trip wasn’t really supposed to be the final day, but that’s the way it turned out. We were going to ride on the “Tail of the Dragon,” but that road had been closed due to some land slides earlier and they were busy fixing things up.
With that road closed we faced a choice: circumnavigate the park one last time or head for home. We figured that just going around the park for the hell of it wouldn’t really lead to a whole lot more adventure so we got on the highway and headed back north.
It was a long haul up to Cleveland, but we soldiered on with the help of some Red Bull and Snickers bars. Yaay sugar rush!
The treat at the end of the road: Mexican!
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I’m writing this sitting in a tube at FL380. (Pilot speak for 38,000 feet above sea level at a normal pressure)
This is no way to see the world; no way to see America.
I’m about an hour and a half from my destination: San Francisco, California. I’m guessing I’m above Wyoming or something.
I keep thinking back to the Alaska trip in 2008. It took days to get there, not hours. By flying I’m missing out on all the things down there. All the places… all the people…
I’m missing see Devils Tower. I’m missing out seeing the biggest ball of twine. Of the Spam museum.
When you only go from place to place with no sense of time and space it’s almost like teleporting. Not seeing the scale of this country for what it is.
A blast from the summer — when the leaves were on the trees and the days were long.
This day we went from Balsam Mountain Campground to Cades Cove. This was our second day in the Smokies.
It’s been a long, long week last week. Flying out of Cleveland to San Francisco and staying a few days there working then moving to the offsite in Tahoe.
The offsite was fun but a lot of work with nearly every second being accounted for.
Flying back from Reno to Cleveland was the real killer. Bussing from Squaw Valley to Reno for an hour then waiting for another three for the flight. Then waiting in LAX for six hours was nearly maddening.
A few bright points stuck out to make things easier. Talking to Ruth in Reno about hew working on the airlines for the past 30 years made me realize how much has changed in the airline industry. Back then all the stewardesses were nurses and gave out Valium to folks that needed it — in the piano bar of the 747. Not any more. The other cool thing was dinner at Ruby’s Dinette at LAX. Normally I don’t think airport food is good, but this was actually pretty good!
At this point I’m still just recovering from the week.
And I think I’ll drink a whole lot less to make up for the Quinebreation that we all had last week!
It was a fun day over at Catawba Island. It’s not an island, but that’s OK.
We spent most of our time wandering over at East Harbor State Park. It was just a few miles away from our Hotel and we had a lot of time to look around.
It’s a great place. We didn’t camp there, but it seems like a great place to spend a night or two. The camp ground is the biggest state campground in the ohio. While the water level has been low due to the hot dry summer so the wetlands weren’t very wet, but it was a great place to walk about. Looking at the damage from the storms of the 70′s was a real eye opener — the beach had been washed away from half the “island.”
Beyond the beauty of park it was fun to just take in Catawba Island and the Port Clinton area. When we first landed we were too early to check into the hotel. En found a flyer for the Perch, Peach, Pierogi and Polka festival put on by the Knights of Columbus. (I still don’t really know if they really are knights) It was a fun way to spend an hour or two!
That night we went back to Port Clinton and had dinner at McCarthy’s. A great place with some great food. We started off with the Scotch eggs — Yummy. For the main course I had the Shepherd’s Pie. It was a great stick-to-your-ribs pot of goodness. En had a burger with a Guinness BBQ sauce. I could taste the Guinness if I tried, but it tasted like a BBQ burger. It was well executed though. The chips that came with the burger were second to none though!
After dinner we went across the street to Rum Runners. We were sent there to find out about the “penis jar.” The barkeep showed us a jar labeled that, but he didn’t know what it was for.
While taking a picture we were flagged down by a couple in the window. We spend the rest of the night shooting the shit with Jeff and Sharon. He really reminded me of another friend of ours: Eggplant — which is a good thing BTW. It was a cool place to hang out and we made some new friends. Karaoke was also going on and En and Jeff went up for a couple of songs. Thankfully I did not.
This morning we went to the 2nd Street Diner for breakfast. One word: Amazing! This is some of the best diner food I’ve had. The biscuits and gravy were the best I’ve had and I was exposed to the wonders of grilled mush: where have you been all my life? We took a couple of home made donuts from them to the beach to savor the experience even more.
To recap the thing we learned is that we should’ve gone out sooner! It seems to be a great place and we need to explore the islands for ourselves as well!
Catawba Island. It’s not actually an island. I want my money back. LOLz.
We’re here until Monday at some point. Already did a K of C lunch thing Perch, Perogies, Pizza and Polka (they had other “P” things there too… next up: something nature-y.
Next weekend is Labor Day weekend. We already have something planned for Saturday. (actually, we have two things independently planned for better or worse) So, given the vacation situation I have (the non-existant vacation problem), I was wondering if anyone has a Sunday/Monday trip idea?
Some things that came up are taking a trip out to Catawba area… maybe going to the island, maybe not. Another idea I’ve heard many moons ago was going to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.
We can go either by motorbike or car and are planning on just hotelling it for the night somewhere, so no need for campgrounds.
We really just want a change of scenery for the most part.
Does anyone have any other suggestions for a short-notice weekend trip?
