Vermont waterfall weekend

    An extended weekend trip to northern Vermont and Quebec was a theme drive, during which we searched for dozens of waterfalls and covered bridges.

   Chose to show these quiet waterfalls as misty, serene streams by using slow shutter speeds.

    We still were able to see plenty of damage from Hurricane Irene, most apparent with all the new pavement on roads parelleling the rivers. It was strange seeing huge logs laying in the middle of farm fields where they were floated and then left when water receded. Debris was still stacked against bridges and now-tiny creeks were crawling through the center of shredded farmland.

    It was hard to imagine what these quiet streams must have looked like during Irene.

 

The Tattooed Rosies, a group of 22 local women with tattoos, are putting together a calendar to raise money for a yet-unknown charity of their choice, but they are also trying to change the image of women with tattoos, they say. It's rather tawdry.

Funny, I don't have a problem with women with tattoos. Aren't we beyond making judgements by someone's appearance? Some of my favorite people in the world have tattoos. People like Cecily, Kate, Jackie, Anastasia.

New York and Adirondack Mountains weekend

 A few photos from the weekend in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. Was raining hard when we stopped, but the rain soon quit, giving up a beautiful rainbow, and a hint of a double. The picture at bottom left is from Ausable Chasm, a place my family visited often when I was young.

Anyone for wild boar and cranberries?

A few more photos from Montreal.  Went to one
of the fabulous markets, and discovered that not knowing French could really get your taste buds in big trouble, or maybe introduce them to an adventure.
Chevreuil-au-vin-rouge is venison with red wine.
Sanglier aux canneberges is wild boar with cranberries
Fromage de chevre is goat cheese. 
Cari and champignons is gratin curried mushrooms on croutons
Dinde brie and poire  is turkey.
Miel and ail is Honey Garlic for sore throats, colds and allergies. (At least, that's what Google says.)
Canard is duck.
This particular market was making sandwiches as well, and I was hoping to try one of the above sausages. Unfortunately, all the lunches were only of hot, medium or mild sausage. Basically, it was a hot dog.
 
(All translations from Google.)


At right is inside the Montreal basilica.

The World Series of spectator sports

My sincere apologies to my baseball-fan friends who are certain that what I'm about to write is sacrilegious.

I find baseball boring.

The pitcher throws 100 pitches over a two or three hour stretch, and the batters hit six. Yes sir, that's excitement. My heart can't take it.

A former co-worker, Pat Abdalla, knows more about baseball than most men know about their wives. He's amazing, but even Pat's vast library of knowledge didn't help.
I enjoy photographing baseball, not watching it.


Baseball is America's game. For that reason, if no other, I've tried to like watching baseball. Really. First, I can't sit in one place for that long-- a good reason for getting up to find another hot dog. And, I fall asleep. In hockey, players at least skate up and down the ice a few times before they sit down. That's Canada's game, and I don't feel un-American for not watching hockey.  I've sat through dozens of gawd-awful 1-0 soccer games too, but at least there is some action somewhere on the field. And that's Europe's game.

Trying to understand baseball fans' love of the game, I've read a few baseball books. "Three Nights in August", is a book about St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa taking his team through the 2003 season. Once finished, I was convinced I could manage a major league baseball team. Or so could my four-year old neighbor kid, a hunk of granite or my cat-- if it could speak in f-bombs.


Then I read Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson's "Sixty Feet, Six Inches". That didn't help either. Apparently, baseball is played by big, physical tough athletes who can't play football.


In the interest of true disclosure, I admit I thoroughly enjoyed some baseball films. "A League of Their Own", "Bull Durham", and "Field of Dreams" are among my favorites. I'll see Moneyball soon. Maybe baseball is shown best not on a baseball field, but in one's imagination on a big screen.

I remember my grandfather sitting in front of the television watching Cleveland Indians game, and listening to it on the radio (he didn't like Cleveland's TV announcer). He logged a lot of games with names like Rocky Colavito, Sudden Sam McDowell, Bob Lemon and Early Wynn.  He enjoyed the complete relaxation of it all. I wonder if he ever fell asleep.

Anyway, I visited York Revolution Darrell Henry's home Thursday night to listen to him think out loud. Explain the intricacies of the game, the strategy, the hidden Mensa logic behind it all. I listened, videoed his thoughts and the game. His wife Kristyn and six-week old daughter Peyton fell asleep watching the game. I understood.

I really want to love baseball, just like I love Mom and apple pie. But it's not happening.

A strange and interesting place, Montreal

Montreal's downtown has a strange feel to it, coming from the United States. It feels safe, despite the surprisingly open and plentiful homeless or panhandlers. One might assume that if they have no money, they'd take it from you-- it happens here. But the panhandlers in Montreal are friendly, almost mannerly. They give directions to lost tourists, suggest that they have a nice day and, by the way, if you have some change, he'd be happy to take it off your hands, but only if you want to give it.

I met Dave there, and a charitable group had just dropped off some food to a few of his friends. As he packed it away for a later snack, he lit cigarette after cigarette. In the 15 minutes or so that I talked with him, he puffed his way through three. He blamed his government for his problems; he spoke in circles about food, jobs, money, food, jobs and money.

Street musicians are common here as well. A saxophonist played for coins in old town, but he said he was heading down to the Canadiens' opening game-- there's always money to spare there, he says.  He sits outside the arena as fans leave the game. His repertoire is somewhat limited; I heard a Theme from a Summer Place a half dozen times. He said he could make about $80 in two hours here. His reed was tied on with some sort of string, not clamped with a ligature. Nearby was a drummer and a clarinet player.

Sleeping on a bench along the water was another man. Don't know if he was homeless, a panhandler, or just tired. Maybe he just needed a nap.  His bike was locked to the bench on which he slept.

York billboard headed to Kansas City

Consolidated Freightways trucking company has been out of the York area for nearly a decade, and the neon-lighted sign at its truck docks has been dark for that long as well.

Now, the American Truck Historical Society (you didn't know there was such a group?) is going to refurbish the sign-- one of only two made by the Bellows Electric Sign Company of Akron, Ohio-- and put in it the Kansas City Museum. It will be refurbished in Cincinnati and then moved to its permanent home.

The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati is reopening at a new larger location and is one of those unusual places that is on a long list of places to see.

Some fall color on the way to Montreal

 A few scenics shot from along the road on the way to Montreal. Strange thing, the colors in Montreal generally weren't as advanced as the color in northern New York. Maybe it has something to do with the altitude, or something?

Vice President Biden visits York

Vice president Joe Biden answered questions Tuesday from fourth grade students at Goode Elementary School about his pets, his job and his favorite food. That done, he dived into his jobs bill, explaining to the kids how he and President Obama hope to return laid off teachers to payrolls.

They might not have grasped the complexity of it all, but Biden ended by handing out a plush souvenir "Champ" to each student. Champ is Biden's German Shepard given to him by his grandkids.

Biden's next stop was the library, where teachers, board members and politicians listened to the same--but more detailed-- story.

Montreal's Cosmo Diner attracts a crowd

There's not much I don't like about Canada except maybe that it's too far away.  Of course, I don't have to pay the taxes our friends up north pay, but I don't have paid health insurance, so maybe it's a wash.
An extended weekend trip to French-Canadian Montreal included a visit to the Bio Dome, old town,  French language menus and street signs and hours and hours trying to decipher what the GPS unit was trying to tell us about making our way through this beautiful city.

Even with cameras, I wasn't rolled, beat up, hassled or harassed in center city. It was refreshing, wandering through a major city's downtown without feeling like a walking cash register. With all the cameras hanging around my neck, downtowns are generally not places in which I feel safe. Montreal, a little larger than Philadelphia and the second largest in Canada, boasts a pedestrian friendly old town section and never did I feel uncomfortable like I often do in downtowns, even in downtown York.

I like diners.  Really.  Would rather have breakfast at a diner than a classy restaurant any day.  Maybe the atmosphere is too antiseptic, maybe the wait staff seems a bit snobby. Maybe the prices are a bit much for a handful of potatoes and pair of eggs.

Whatever, the Cosmo diner was one of the highlights of the trip, as strange as that might sound. It was just a nice place. Rose Labelle's husband died a few years ago, and she went out to find work. She tried out as a waitress at Cosmo, and six years later she's still there. Only ten stools crowd the breakfast bar, and #11 customer waits until something opens up. Bubbly Niki Koulakis runs Cosmos, and put Niki and Rose together, mix in a few comedian customers, and the breakfast bar becomes a theater.

Some customers have been stopping in for 30 years, some are rookies--but only for a day.  I jokingly asked for my 'usual', after stopping for the first time the day before, and Niki promptly served up two eggs over easy with potatoes and brown bread. No one writes anything down; she figures the bill in her head.

The Cosmo isn't for everyone. If you're a germaphobe, or a U.S. health inspector, the Cosmo isn't for you. As my mother used to say, "It's clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy."  

Fall Foliage Excursions on the Ma and Pa Railroad

The Ma and Pa Railroad Heritage Village fall excursions take only about 45 minutes, but it's a nice way to spend Sunday afternoons at quaint Muddy Creek Fork and learn York County history.

Trains are a great way to see massive amounts of color without getting cold doing it. Check this web site for more train foliage excursions throughout the U.S.


Admission to the museum and mill is free, and adults pay only $5 for a work-train ride alongside the Muddy Creek, and kids are $3.

Mark and Lana Blevins of Red Lion and 10-year old son effervescent  Teddy volunteer every other week at the railroad, running the train, leading tours through the mill, or as cashier at the museum/refreshment bar. 

Sullivan County's Fall Festival a victim of flooding

The Annual Sullivan County Fall Festival in Forksville, Pa., was a victim of late summer/early fall floods, and the annual event that was scheduled for this weekend was cancelled. The festival usually attracts thousands of people because of the area's spectacular fall color (therefore, the Flaming Foliage Festival the weekend before), an art show, lumberjack competitions, kids activities. The You Tube video above shows the roaring waters from Hurricane Irene near Forksville and the town's covered bridge. The photo above shows nearby Ricketts Glen State Park, still my favorite for color and a day's exercise, hiking up and down the glen.

This from the website--"Take the Falls Trail and explore the Glens, which boasts a series of wild, free-flowing waterfalls, each cascading through rock-strewn clefts in this ancient hillside. The 94-foot Ganoga Falls is the highest of 22 named waterfalls."

The falls trail was closed for a period because of flooding, but is now open. Snow usually happens early on the Ricketts Glen mountain, making for a beautiful contrast of color and pure white snow.

Lake Williams down 15 feet

Work is beginning on the Lake Williams dam, but the state-mandated improvements were delayed somewhat because of hurricane Irene and the drenching tropical storm Lee. The dam is in perfect working order, and the work is strictly for future flood protection. The 15' foot drawdown of the lake provides some interesting images, looking somewhat post apocalyptic or something from the dry American southwest.

From the York Water Company's web site--
"The State DEP is requiring that all large dams must have a spillway capacity so that the “Probable Maximum Flood” or PMF will safely pass thru the dam without damage. Lake Williams spillway currently has a capacity of 35,000 Cubic Feet per Second (CFS) and Redman 65,000 CFS. Both dams must be able to pass a 135,000 CFS flood event. For perspective, Hurricane Agnes was a 16,000 CFS flood at the dams.

The whole project will take about 2.5 years. We’ll start with minor work in August, 2011, such as drain work. We will need to lower the lake 15’ for a period of about 4 weeks in September, 2011 for this work."

At top-- fisherman David Flint, York, watches a boater finally get his boat into the water after a long, extended walk from the Lake Williams docks. The lake is down about 15' for dam maintenance; the docks are dry and a long way from the water's edge.

Below left-- Calvin Brooks, Jacobus, spends a lot of his free time fishing, he says. With Lake Williams drawn down about 15', he finds access to parts of the lake he's not had before unless he was in a boat.

Say you win a life-size bobblehead doll...

Chad Neiman won the life size bobblehead doll of the York Revolution mascot Downtown.  It weighs about 150 pounds, barely fits through the doors.

What does one do with the prize?

Holler hoppin' in Brown County, Indiana

Finding a site from which to hang a zip line in flat Indiana is a challenge, but Team Effect strung a few cables over some hollers in the southern end of the state to start what they hope is the newest, best thing-- Holler Hoppin'.

Biking through Cleveland and Philadelphia

Now, this is impressive--
Finished up a road trip on Sunday, after biking (peddle, not motor) through Cleveland, Philadelphia, Charlottesville, Spring Grove and Dublin. Not so impressive-- Sharing names with larger cities throughout the world, these tiny burgs are scattered along U.S. route 40 from Richmond to New Palestine, Indiana.

Now, brother-in-law Mike and I aren't spandex-clad, $2,000 bike demons. We are a step below recreational bikers, and we wander and struggle, rather than zoom. The nearly 70 miles in one day shocked us both. North of Indianapolis, the state is flat as a table top, but the south is covered with hills, none of which are big enough to notice while driving a car, but definitely something to be climbed on a bike--at least by bikers at our level of conditioning. 

Later in the week, we visited Story, a tiny town of just a few buildings, built around the Story Inn. From the website--

A quaint village founded in 1851, nestled in the hills of southern Indiana, a place known for its weather-beaten barns, clapboard churches, covered bridges and splendid fall foliage. In its heyday (1880-1929) the village supported two general stores, a nondenominational church, a one-room schoolhouse, a grain mill, a sawmill, a slaughterhouse, a blacksmith’s forge and a post office.

 The Inn is indeed weather-beaten, with antique gas pumps at its front porch (still showing 40-cents per gallon), attracting the trendy set, weddings and other special occasions. The sheet metal front is rusted and worn, and paint has apparently never touched the building front. The dinner menu boasts bison and duck (the least expensive entree choice at $22), artichoke dip and mussels. Definitely not for those of us with Wendy's or Olive Garden budgets or appetites. Plenty of picturesque antiques and old buildings make the site worth visiting.

Not far from Story is Pikes Peak, Indiana. Legend says a citizen of nearby Columbus was headed to Colorado's more famous Pikes Peak to homestead, and wrote on the side of his wagon "Pikes Peak or Bust". He 'busted' at present-day Pikes Peak, Indiana-- less than 20 miles away. Colorado's Pikes Peak elevation is over 14,000 feet, Indiana's is only 600 feet. Don't look for Pikes Peak, Indiana on most maps-- it's not there. Some words, like 'Pikes Peak' and 'Indiana' just shouldn't go together.

Leaf peepers will begin to flood into the area soon, but spots of color are already found in Brown County State Park.