I was driving Joyful to work yesterday in her car, so I could hit up the weekly Standard tournament for a box at Mana Core. As we got on the highway the car (98 Mazda 626) smelt a little funny. Like coffee. It almost smelled like when they forgot to tighten a hose clamp on my bike and the radiator fluid leaked all out. I didn't really think anything about it though as this car has something like 180,000 miles and I don't want to spend anymore money on it. We got to Warwick fine, I went to the tournament (2nd place but Top 4 split so we each got 9 packs, I also got 6th place on Friday out of 34 people at Arkham Asylum in CT but it was free so didn't win anything), and got back to CT fine.
This morning Joy bursts into the room and says something about her car being messed up and I need to drive her to work. She says it with urgency though, the tone in her voice implying that I should have jumped straight out of bed and been readily instantly. But of course I am a little tired, its not quite nine, and I don't usually get up for 2 hours. I sit up and try to process the situation. Apparently the car was smoking and it was really hard to turn the steering wheel. She didn't even make it up the driveway. Hmmmm, power steering fluid? Strange that it was fine yesterday. After a few minutes I am ready to go and we speed off in the Orange Crush which hopefully will live a few more years.
When we returned to CT after a hard days work, well at least for Joyful, I checked out the Mazda. The cap where you put coolant in was off...strange. The power steering fluid was full though. I started it up. No smoke, but the steering was still messed up, so I turned it off and looked underneath the car. Did we run some small animal over and it has massive claws (and sharp fangs!) and tore a hole in something? What is that sticking out and touching the ground? I reached underneath the car and pulled out a belt. A broken belt. Great. It looks like it may be user replaceable. Time for some research. If I can replace it, great, if not, well then it becomes decision time. Joy needs to get proficient on my car so she can drive that and I can ride the bike, at least while it is still warm out.
Connecticut is starting to grow on me. We live in the "country" but Norwich is ten minutes away. It is serene, peaceful, and quiet out here, with forest all around and a bubbling brook in the back. Yet if I want KFC/Taco Bell (an awesome combination), need something at Walmart, or want to go to the card shop, it is all right there. Then there are the great motorcycle roads. Lovely two lane back roads with a canopy of trees over head. I could ride for miles through these roads, passing farms and country stores. Lastly, there appears to be many cool state parks to explore. One such park is Devils Hopyard State Park.
We rode up to the Hopyard on Friday afternoon for a picnic lunch and to check out the waterfalls. The falls were pretty sweet and I daresay RI does not have falls like these. I could be mistaken though. There are several trails but being in riding gear we only did a short loop around the waterfall, including a short scramble up wet rock. A cool place that I want to explore more of, if I didn't keep getting up so late. Left to my natural state, I am obviously a night person. We ate lunch at some picnic tables on a grassy area right by 8 Mile River and it reminded me of our campsite on the second day of our AT trip. It was so peaceful and very beautiful. I immediately missed being on the trail, although I wonder what would have happened with the hurricane and all the rain. But such is life.
This Labor Day Weekend beheld no adventures for Joyful and I. Unless you count Joy and I, well mostly Joy, taking care of my great grandma the whole weekend. They have an old farm house, not much farm left, though there are some original buildings left. At any rate, no wireless and a poor cell signal, so we spent a lot of time watching TV and such. I did attent a tournament on Friday night. It was standard format for 4 of a card worth $100. 25 people showed up and I was in 4th place after the swiss. There was a cut to top 8 and I lost in the first round sadly. Top 4 split the prize, so if I just made it one more round I would had won 1 $100 card and 5 packs for my $10 entry fee. So I just won 5 packs. The Top 8 started after midnight, turning "Friday Night Magic" into Saturday morning magic, and since I had risen at 5:30am that morning, I was a little tired to say the least. In the second game I almost lost due to a mistake, but managed to win anyways. In the third and final game I don't recall making any mistakes, but who knows. When playing a good opponent you can not make any mistakes, and my opponent was very good. I just looked and he is ranked 12th overall for the state of RI. At the Grand Prix Trial I did beat him in the Top 8 so I guess it was payback.
The real adventure was going to the DVM. No, actually it was very boring. But they do have a cafe at the new place so we got lunch while waiting for an hour and a half so Joy could get her motorcycle permit. Too bad it is supposed to rain the rest of the week.
Joy passed her motorcycle class and can now get her permit! If she can stay incident free on a motorcycle for 30 days she can get her license! I would like to get her an older Ninja 250 that she can ride around and play with, but that probably won't happen for a while. To celebrate we went to the Kamelot concert up in Worcester. Well we actually bought the tickets before she signed up but it works. It was a small venue, maybe only 300 people, but the show was good. They are considered "symphonic metal" and even had some female vocals from guest singer Simone Simons of Epica. A small venue means standing or leaning all night and that gets tiring. We used to hike all day and standing for four hours is tiring...guess I am losing it.
We left Worcester, MA after twelve and had an hour drive home. Joy was in her car and I had my bike (taking it "home" to CT). We had not eaten much so we wanted to stop at a gas station for some snacks somewhere along the way. I remembered a rest stop on 395, I had no idea if it would be open late, but it was worth a try. But of course it was closed, like closed for repairs or renovations. It seems like whenever I am on the bike all the rest stops are closed! Not to worry though, we hit up a gas station fifteen minutes from home. They had just got their power back! Crazy that after 4 plus days people and businesses don't have power! I am thankful we got ours back the next day, but 4 days! This can't be good for the economy! Granted on the trail I went sometimes 5 or 6 days without electricity, but it fits the lifestyle. When I am in civilization I want electricity so that I can drink cold soda!
Speaking of the trail, I miss the simpleness of it. We have been looking at apartments, I should say apartment complexes, and they are going like crazy. A spot opens up and its taken the next day. We found a great place in Coventry, all utilities included, a town house. We could afford it when we start working, but you should see the application for the place. They want to know everything about you! BCI, credit, bank accounts, credit cards, renting references, last 4 pay stubs, etc, etc! Well its kind of hard when you have no job to apply for that sort of place so we will have to wait until we have worked a little bit. Too bad because we really would like our own place again. I knew this would happen when getting back, off the trail that is. Getting re-situated, re-civilized, is the hardest thing. Job, home, life, etc. Getting past all the bureaucracy is not fun. But if you want to have nice things, houses, cars, entertainment, health care, you have to play the game. You have to join the man. The trail is so simple. There is a shelter, do you want to stay there? Is there an empty spot? Ok, you can stay in the shelter or you can camp there. You don't need paperwork or a credit check. Hike, eat, sleep, repeat. Get gear and food when you need it. Have fun and don't get hurt. Well I guess I will have to start feeding the machine soon...
Our power went out close to 7:30am on Sunday morning. At that point the storm had been downgraded to Tropical Storm Irene but the weatherman, with all their hype, had actually been right. The wind still caused lots of damage, mostly in the form of downed trees that took out power for a lot of people. A lot of RI and CT was out of power.
I decided to check out the storm's intensity, or lack thereof, at noon at Sunday. There was some light rain and some decent wind gusts, but nothing to scare me. I have hiked up Mt. Washington when the wind was steadily blowing 60mph and gusting much higher than that. I have camped on top of mountains where trees where creaking and groaning all night long and our tent was flexing in the wind, when there was a tornado warning and a wind blown branch ripped a big hole in the tent next to us. And I have surivived for days at a time without electricity, modern plumbing, tv, or a shelter like a house. I don't mean to boast, just to say that for anybody who has done serious hiking and backpacking, it was not at all life threatening or something that couldn't be handeled.
We did our part though, stocking up on food and bottled water, filling the tub etc. We got out our lanterns, headlamps, and our camp stove. The latter being used by my grandma to make her much needed coffee. Spam was even had for lunch! But back to going outside. The road was covered in debris and there were some downed trees. I hiked up to "The Ledge", a cliff a few hundred feet up that gives a nice view of the surrounding area. There was some wind blown rain and strong wind gusts, but the storm was leaving our area. After the ledge I helped my uncle and cousin clear some trees from the road before heading back inside.
I can't imagine life without electricity...I got bored pretty quickly. So Joyful and I decided to take a drive and see what was going on. We saw many down trees and the first few stoplights were not working. As we drove further into Norwich though, the electricity was flowing. There were some gas stations open, so of course I had to stop and get a COLD SODA. PapaGinos was also open so we thought of maybe getting dinner there. Everybody was out and about as well, like they had no power and were bored. Wow, sounds like me! We stopped at the Marina in Norwich and there was a big yacht there, the Thrirteen. It looked ridiculously big in such a small area. Norwich is on the Thames river, not the ocean. At any rate we headed back, didn't get pizza, and instead went to dinner at my Aunts. Grilled chicken and cake over candlelight. It tasted very good. Mmmmm. But still no power.
I had thought the power had come back on as I awoke early the next morning, but I was mistaken. My Grandma suggested breakfast at Friendlys so we hopped in her car and drove there. But it appears everybody else without power had the same idea as we tried 2 Friendlys, 2 McDonalds, a diner, multiple Dunkin Donuts, and Burger King, and they all had lines out the door. By then it was around 10 and my other Aunt called, saying we could come there for food as they had a generator. So we obliged and headed to their farm, finally eating at 10:30. They raise sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, and I think thats it. It was our first time and we got a tour and saw the animals. Wow the pigs are big! This one pig knows how to open his "pigpen", he did once while we were there! Smart animal.
By the time we got back, the power finally came back, but we had to go to RI once again. Joy is taking her motorcycle classes on Tues. and Wed. and they start at 7:30am. So rather than driving over really early, we are sleeping over my parents house the next two nights.Then on Wednesday night we get to see Kamelot in concert.
Big Boat in a small marina
The Road less Traveled
View from the ledge
Baaaaaaaaa!
Three not so little pigs
Here are some other bonus videos...now that I know you can upload them
The hurricane approaches...and will destroy us all!!!! Are you prepared?
Here in Connecticut, there was some rain, some calm, some more rain when Joyful and I were taking a walk, and now more calm. I think the brunt of the storm will miss where we are but we are still prepared with our buckets of water, plenty of food, bottled water, camping stoves, headlamps, etc. We shall see in the new few hours how it goes. Being out in the country our biggest fear is probably power loss...
Which means I can't use my computer that I finally hooked up! Its nice to have a big 22" monitor to view the inter-tubes instead of Joyful's netbook or my droideka.
Joyful and I had a wonderful day at sea, sailing off of Fishers Island in CT with my Aunt on her 27 (or was it 28?) foot sailboat. We took a launch (correct term?) from the marina piers to where her boat was moored and ate lunch as she explained some of the terms and showed us the boat. She just started sailing herself but is still very capable. We used the motor to get out a little bit before spreading out the jib and mainsail. At first the wind was light but then it picked up and we were moving along at a speed of up to 7 mph or around 6 knots (the GPS we had measured in MPH). We had a good heel going and it was a lot of fun cruising along. Joyful and I each took turns at the tiller and helped with the sheets and such.
You will notice that I am trying to use a lot of technical sailing terms. If you want to be a sailor, you have to learn the language! It also helps that I have been reading the book series that the Master and Commander movie (with Russell Crowe) was made from. That takes place during the Napoleon War when English had the great ships of the line. The books are fascinating and I have grown to love the Age of the Sail and the great ships. Those ships were amazing. They could travel all around the world without using any fuel! They used wind, a renewable energy source! And even if the wind is blowing in the direction you want to travel, you can always tack and get there eventually. Then there are the great navy battles, tactics, and commanders such as Nelson. I also failed to mention the physics of sailing, ships, navigation back in the day, etc.
Granted our little one masted boat with two sails did not have any cannons, but it was all fun nonetheless. The feeling of gliding along on a beautiful day, with your sails full of wind, was amazing. Hopefully we can go out with her on some more trips on the boat!
In other news, Hurricane Irene is coming our way! The weather people are saying that this could be the worst storm the Northeast has seen since the 1930's! We could lose electricity and then what would we do? Well it is simple really. Joy and I will take our tent and live in the woods. We will purify water and cook on our stove, just like we were back on the trail! Ok, we have a bed here, so we won't be staying in the woods. And we have plenty of extra food and water but we could get water from a brook and purify it if necessary. It is good to be a backpacker and have some survival skills! Bear Grylls would be proud!
