Road Trip!
 

Since NEPA has less going for it than Central PA, we have to schedule the occasional road trip. I thought we could list recomendos for worthy destinations here.

Last weekend, we shot up to Syracuse, with another couple, for our annual Dinosaur BBQ.

http://www.dinosaurbarbque.com

They work hard to make blues and bbq fit under one roof and are pretty successful. Saturday night we ate many pounds of dead animals of several species and sampled the Guinness and Sierra Nevada. We wandered around town so my wife could see her old college stomping grounds and returned to the BBQ for the blues portion. Phil Petroff and Natural Fact are a really tight gritty band who know how to connect with the audience. Phil plays his own music on classic electric guitars, mainly an old Fender Stratocaster, along with some T Bone Walker and SRV. We chatted with him at the break and found him to be a really charming guy, something you don't always find in extemely talented musicians.

On the downside the place is a hair too successful so expect to wait for a table and expect the band to start late say 11:00 or so.
I give them three out of five smileys. :) :) :)

http://www.national66.com/photos/031oldrd.jpg
Get your kicks on Route 66. Or take the virtual road trip.

Here's a fella worth tripping out for. He's a great guy, touring a lot all over, but heading to the Dinosaurs come June...

http://www.garyprimich.com

Rho and I drove up to NYC a few weeks ago. Actually Griff, we started by heading up your way (we were in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre for a bit), then I didn't feel like going back to Philadelphia yet, so we took I-80 east and headed through the Lincoln Tunnel into NYC. It's pretty much back to normal--almost got killed by a bus cutting me off in Times Square. Got lost in the Bronx and on Staten Island. Weird. It was my first time driving along the streets of Manhattan...and I don't plan to do it again for a while. :)

When I lived in St. Louis, I lived near what was the old route 66 in South St. Louis. I've probably driven a good chunk of it from Chicago to near Tulsa. Hopefully someday, I'll cover it out to Los Angeles. From what little I've driven, it IS a fun drive.

Hey Brother Syc! Its good to see yah back. You really need a navigator in NYC. Last time I was down there, my signals were not working in the pickup and I was going sign to sign, I thought the locals were being typical New Yorkers.... imagine my embarassment when I realized what was up. Typical rural .........

Gary Primich- If Charlie Musslewhite says he's a talent, I'd bet he is all that and a bag of chips.

Route 66- I wonder what the best vehicle would be for that trip? Maybe a mid sixties GM soft top if traveling as a crew or an old Harley if you are setting off alone?

Gracias Señor Griff. Manhattan in and of itself is generally easy to figure out in terms of just where you are at on the island. But it's when you get to the other boroughs that things get wacky. Staten Island seems to have this one road that just circles it. Queens and Brooklyn are befuddling as well.

Good choice. I always think of one of those old-school Cadillac convertibles (a la the one in the new CTS commercials). I drove an '88 Caprice...not quite the same effect. ;)

Binghamton and Old Time Hockey
 

Binghamton NY is the closest significant town to my homestead and has for several years suffered from a serious lack of serious hockey. No longer the case! Instead of the International Hockey League (I think thats the league) Iceman, all fight no skate, next year brings the AHL Senators down from PEI (sorry Canada but thems the breaks). Binghamton will have the smallest arena in the league so this may be a temporary joy. I believe the league average attendance is a little more than capacity for the arena. Binghamton is a hockey town, note the role she played in both important hockey movies Slap Shot (the original) and and in Mystery Alaska as the home of the Rangers AHL franchise, back when the screen play was written.

Comrade!
AHL! Hockey is good fun.
You'll get to see lots of talented young players. Will they take on those Hershey Bears? Sounds like a great old barn of a rink- bet they have a cheezy organist that can play "Eye of the Tiger" and that watery rink hot chocolate too! I get sentimental...

Our State Highschool Hockey tourney is on right now, broadcast across the state - the kids get to mouth "hi grandma" on the TV. And there is always that small town, way up north, like Roseau, where every kid on the top two lines is a sibling or cousin, that you just have to cheer for.

I hope they get the old organist back from the days of the old AHL franchise,...I'm trying to remember his name... I dunno but he had game! Right now its bad, just 10 second cuts of pop music punctuated by a stick to the head. I saw a game where the seat in the penalty box was never cool for three minutes. I think they'll play Hershey/ Scranton Wilkes Barre (Flyers)/ Kentucky (Thoroughblades) the old Binghamton Ranger franchise I think. I forget where the Whalers moved to but rivalries will be established... good times coming, must start agitprop for the old organist good thinkin!

I would imagine that the AHL average attendance numbers are swayed by the Phantoms, i.e., Philly, because they play at the Spectrum (where the parent club used to play, the Flyers) and I believe they even sell it out?

According to the AHL site, Philly draws 8000 a game, although I have heard of the Spectrum getting pretty full for some of their games. Providence and Wilkes-Barre draw slightly more. The league average is 5701.

I like the AHL for the fact that it not only plays in major cities (Philly, Chicago, Houston), but also in far flung small cities (St. John's, NF; Manchester, NH).

hmmm... if the phantoms are the Flyer club, I wonder who S/W is affiliated with or if they still have a club at the FU arena.

It's really the Scranton-Wilkes Barre PENGUINS. (I hadda look it up.)

UT already answered that...the Pens' farm team plays there. Although, it is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. ;)

According to the AHL, the PEI team was "inactive." I'm assuming that means that the team just wasn't cutting the mustard in Charlottetown, and they pulled the plug on it.

Speaking of "local" hockey teams, I completely forget that there is an ECHL team in Trenton, as well as one in Reading. They both draw well, and Trenton is in first place in its division by 10 points.

Heh heh, Timing is everything. Wilkes / Scr must be a different town ;)

MN highschool hockey championship update:

The Academy of Holy Angels 'Stars", making their first state tourney appearance and playing up with the big schools, takes the gold in a offensive, end-to-end frenzy with the Hill-Murray Pioneers. The game was played in the NHL Wild's arena and broadcast on TV statewide. Highlighted in opening introductions was "Shiner" the Star's mascot- a suited-up angel with a halo and a black eye. Noted in the stands was one AHA teen holding a placard which exclaimed, "We've given up losing for lent!" Indeed!

cool
 

Apparently hockey is to MN what basketball is to Indiana?

My high school soccer team made a run at the PA state championship back in '82. I was making myself comfortable on the pines when Bethlehem-Freedom did us, under the lights, to the tune of 7- nil (in the quarter finals?). ouch... On the up side the press got the score wrong so it looked like we showed up that night.

The guy who is trying to bring AHL back the Binghamton is having trouble getting financing, not good. We do however still have AA baseball. The Binghamton Mets will open April 7 at NYSEG (don't ask) Stadium a really nice little park. The Mets always seem to be bringing good pitchers through the system, who they trade for worn out position players when they reach the bigs, of course I root for the Yankees so that bothers me not a bit.

Yanks? humph. Cubbies!

O!
R!
I!
O!
L!
E!
S!

(Well... maybe not this year, but hope springs eternal!

Speaking of road trips ;) Camden Yards is a great place to watch bazeball, well worth the trip, especially for Yankee fans. (sorry couldn't help myself) According to my Uncle the Os have taken care of the one thing that prevented them from succeeding, so now that they've retired their albatross, how far can they go? Actually, one of my friends did some custom window work at his house and Cal couldn't have been nicer.

Really?? Peter Angelos has retired?? That's wonderful news!

Eh, the year Brady hit 50+ homers was their year and they blew it. If they were ever gonna win the series, it was that year. They've since traded away all talent. I don't even watch anymore. :)

Angelos--putz in every sense of the word.

I would love to see the O's win...but it's not in the Cards. :)

Yahoo! What a terrific park, they did it right. Not a bad seat, but you gotta root for the Os there. Under the spring sun, dafodils blooming all over town, I will always remember the vendor writing my name in mustard on my dog. - ha-what a sentence, a beautiful set-up to be soundly spiked!

Yeh. Like on my 9th birthday, where I waited outside until 5 in the morning to get his autograph and he didn't come out. I was told by some other fans that he does that to avoid the crowd. I got just about everyone else's autograph, but not his. As a big O's fan (until a few years ago), I felt pretty dissed.

Cal Ripken == penis.

Heh heh, Cal = Actually thats what my Uncle says, because Cal always got special treatment team unity went out the window. I didn't wish to provoke the wrath of Hubris.

It didn't look (actually sound) that way yesterday.

Steering the thread back to topic
 

To celebrate Putt-putt's passing emissions test, we took a short jaunt down to Atlantic City via US 40 and the Atlantic City Expressway. No gambling was done...just driving for the hell of it.

US 40 is a nice little drive through South Jersey. It makes the state of New Jersey actually LOOK nice. I kept seeing a bunch of cars for sale on the front lawns of folks' homes.

Now then...Atlantic City is a TOILET. Especially Uptown. Lots of vacant lots. Blecch. Midtown looked much better, although still, AC as a city sucks.

You know, I really feel for Atlantic City. The boardwalk, the Americana, saltwater taffy... but the last time I was there- early 90s I think- I came to the conclusion, after passing scores of beaten-looking people and while looking down at the sandy beach littered with butts, that it is America's ashtray. Very sad. Casinos creep me out; it's such desperate entertainment.

Hang on!
 

I'm swerving off road again, but I'm excited about the Frozen Two... My Minnesota Gophers take on the Maine Black Bears for all the marbles this Saturday night in St Paul. There are no tickets left- all 19,000 some spaces are claimed but I'll enjoy it on ESPN. It will be LOUD around here.

It was my first trip there. I guess winning enough money and drinking enough alcohol blinds you to the actual city.

One of the stranger scenes: We were at the foot of Atlantic Ave., near the end of the new tunnel and Brigantine. There is this UGLY UGLY UGLY ass apartment complex just down the boardwalk from there. It's like this turquoise green high rise that was probably cool looking in 1972. It's like 10 or 11 stories high...right ON the Boardwalk. Hideous.

There ya go.

Another aside: AC, indian casinos, riverboats, cruises... all pale in gambling experience compared to the enormous spectacle that is Las Vegas.

Thaaaaaaaaa..... Gophers win!

Ran up to Bingo to see the Met organizations latest golden arm Arron Heilman (sp?) out of Notre Dame. Cool thing about AA baseball my daughter and I got to stand about eight feet behind Rodriguez when he was warming up Heilman before his start. He didn't have as much heat as you'd hope for but the ball movement was fantastic and the speed differential between the heater and the change was great. He gave up a three run tater in the first but didn't take the loss as the Mets scored 4 in the eighth sparked by a clutch play by myself, casually calling the first baseman off a pop up he lost in Binghamtons perpetual gray skies. Bing has a Whitey Herzog style team speed top to bottom fun fun FUN!

Ahhh...good memories for me.

Thanks Griff. :)

de nada

My wifes step dad has been slowly pulling me into fly fishing. We road tripped to Wilmington (sp?) NY last year and I had a great deal of unwarranted success. While I was wading across the middle branch of the Wylusing yesterday (work can be pleasure), I got wondering where the trout destinations are. Snake Creek is a Susquehanna County PA treasure and the Wylusing and its branches are supposed to be pretty good any knowlege out there?

Another trip, Perry County PA, better be quick though they are about to get their first traffic light. I'm gonna have to look for it on a map. There is supposed to be one more traffic light free county in PA but the news guy didn't reveal it.

Last weekend, Rho and I went to Reading and Harrisburg. Not for shopping or anything like that...they were just places Rho and I had never visited.

We weren't in Reading very long. Just drove through it more or less. The part we drove through looked rather quaint.

Somehow, I got confused...we wound up driving around Harrisburg, then back into the city. It seemed like a nice enough place...reminded me of how Trenton looks on a weekend--quiet--except it looked a lot better than Trenton. Apparently, we were on the street where the clubs are...and they were rather packed at 8pm.

The drive along the PA Turnpike between Valley Forge and Harrisburg is rather scenic. Driving back reminded me of my drive along the western end of the Turnpike when I moved out here 3 years ago--spooky, though not as nerve-racking as that first drive.

I have never smelled so much manure in my life though. LOTS of cow farms along the way.

And I like the dome architecture of the State Capitol, particularly the light portals.

This brings my capital city trips up to 11:

--Jefferson City (MO)
--Springfield (IL)
--Indianapolis (IN)
--Columbus (OH)
--Harrisburg (PA)
--Annapolis (MD)
--Dover (DE)
--Richmond (VA)
--Trenton (NJ)
--Providence (RI)
--Boston (MA)

Someday, I WILL see all 50. Juneau (AK) and Honolulu (HI) should be the hardest. Honolulu just because of the air fare, and Juneau b/c it's only accessible by plane or ship.

Future road trips I hope to take within the next year or two:

--Pittsburgh
--Ocean City, MD
--Albany, NY
--Northern New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire)
--Boston

Don't expect much from Albany. It is on the way to your New England destinations so you could stop for lunch.

Good News!

San Antonio, Binghamton awarded AHL franchises
SPRINGFIELD, MA ... American Hockey League President and CEO David Andrews announced today that the league's Board of Governors, meeting in Springfield, Mass., has conditionally approved the sale of the inactive AHL franchise owned by the Detroit Red Wings to San Antonio Hockey LLC, a joint venture of the San Antonio Spurs and the Florida Panthers. The Board also conditionally approved the transfer of the Ottawa Senators' inactive AHL franchise to Binghamton, N.Y., where the franchise will be owned by a local group of investors and will serve as the Senators' primary affiliate.

Burlington, Vermont is on my destination list.Lake Champlain. Then a hop over to Montreal. But I dont think the rusty 89 Nissan is up for it. Someday we'll get some new wheels...

--Pittsburgh

Don't miss the Duqesne Incline and -- no kidding -- the Aviary.

--Ocean City, MD

For a modest fee you can rent a jet boat to take out on the waters of the bay. But the water levels are probably so low now that it won't be any fun.

For a modest fee you can go on a whale-watching tour for an hour, in which if you don't see any whales you will be somewhat bored.

You can go to Assateague and see the wild horses, and more pointedly, the wild horse crap.

Left with little else you must adhere to the boardwalk culture. Bring walkin' shoes and walk the entire boardwalk -- miles and miles of it. Rent bikes and bike up and down it. And then, having worked off all those calories, put them all back on in all-you-can-eat places (there are many) and the awesome Bayside Skillet and its strawberry crepes. Not to mention the drink specials; if you enjoy drinking places with tacky semi-obscene names serving exotic and trendy drinks, OCMD is the place for you.

--Northern New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire)

I'm biased in favor of NH. Do start at Portsmouth (with a cool artsy downtown) and drive north, at least to a trip up the cog railway up Mt. Washington.

Ocean City, MD is the first place I saw the ocean (in 1999). Someday, I will own a home or condo there. :) Captain Bob's is an excellent seafood restaurant. And yes, you have places like Seacrets and Scandals, which I try to avoid. When we were down there, we bought some beer, chilled it up, and sat on our motel's patio, right along the boardwalk at 23rd St. Nice. :)

My parents have friends that live right across from Portsmouth in York, ME. Really nice place from what I hear...right along the beach.

The thing I hate about Maine is their uppityness. This isn't true of ALL Mainers, but a lot of them. As if being a Mainer made you superior in every way to us "flatlanders". Aye. My ancestors are from Maine, but I'm damn glad I'm not.

Pepperidge Farm Remembers...

takin the unit down to see the wild ponies this summer... girls and horses, what gives? Mrs.Gs got relatives in Portsmouth but I've never seen the downtown there, we'll meet them at Lake Sunapee this summer. The Coast of Maine is superior to much of the rest of the states but I don't know if that translates into superior people. I've done Burlington in the off season... a buddy works in about the only nasty inner city school in Vermont, wierd. stream off

Horses are pretty.

That just reminded me of a question on SNL's spoof of Celebrity Jeopardy...

"Are horsies pretty?"

:)

We're goin' to Raleigh on Thursday!
 

Hockey cannot exist that far south.


Let the planning begin! We've got the air miles now we need to pick the time and place.

The Great Griff Bicycle Tour. Half the fun of a loaded bike tour is the planning process. Mrs. G and I are thinking Alps maybe Italian. That means getting our legs and lungs back into shape.... I am freaking pumped! Yes.YEs. YES!!!!

Rho and I took a short trip up to Easton, Allentown, and Bethlehem, PA Saturday. I didn't want to go to the shore b/c everybody else was there...and Pittsburgh was too far of a drive for a short day trip.

Route 611 between Doylestown and Easton is a fun drive as it winds along the Delaware River. Although, it is rather dangerous in some parts...lots of curves.

Easton is home to the Crayola factory, although we did not visit. It was graduation day at Lafayette College though, so the town was bustling.

Allentown is...dirty. Although parts of it were pleasant, it looks dirty.

Bethlehem looked better, and had a rather quaint downtown area. We also drove past the old Bethlehem Steel Works. What a huge place!

I do NOT like driving the NE Extension at night though. :eek:

Easton PA- Home of Mario Andretti, as well, if I'm not mistaken...

After surveying in the extreme pre 4th heat, a road trip to the Adirondacs was in order. We swung by Saratoga Springs to rack and catch up with an old friend there. Its a nice town but always hyper touristy. They are doing the mandatory animal statue art around town thing. They went with horses which at least has a connection to what Saratoga is about.

From there it was 87 N (the Northway) up to Keene and the high peaks region. We stayed in a large cabin in Wilmington on the Ausable with folks from my wifes family. Her step dad immediately turned me on to mate', even giving me a bambilla to take home. Since I dumped the bean a while back, I've been looking for a new itch to scratch and I think this is the stuff, full of antioxidents, easy on the stomach, and cheap as dirt, all in all right in my wheelhouse. My wife and I got two road rides in doing 25 and 50 miles on consecutive days, then skipping a day and taking a short morning jaunt. The roads are in great shape, did I mention that Pataki is up for re-election? (please ignore the fact that he promised only two terms.) We only had one imbecile scream at us, hoping for a crash, which really isn't bad for three days riding. I only managed one day of fly fishing and couldn't land anything but it was much fun. The Canadians stole our sun about 7pm Saturday and fouled the air from then on. ;)

Wilmington is a quiet little tourist town, the busiest places being the ice cream stand, the tackle shop, and a certain hideous diner which I will not name but which has a fifties motiff. In the immortal words of GB 1 it was "baaaad." Something fuzzy on the cucumbers, drinks dumped by a waitress never wiped off floor leading eventually to a little kid falling down, our drink orders forgotten, regular menu off limits for a weak food bar set up. They were horribly understaffed so I decided to view it as a floor show and leave it at that,.. but I'll never go back. It was a pretty uneventful drive made much better by the 65mph limits on 87. We skipped Albany though since the traffic is pretty hairy there and took the back way from Saratoga to Fultonville. We had about as good a vacation as I've had with the in-laws very relaxing, even read 100 pages of Vinge sci-fi... nice

Time to revive this...

I had fully intended on cleaning the house yesterday, but Rho wanted to go for a drive, so I was all for not doing work.

We headed towards the Jersey shore, but I decided to hit places that we had not yet been to, primarily in South Jersey.

The neat thing about the South Jersey shore is that all the towns are primarily on islands separated from the mainland. And many of the towns are separated by inlets.

Our first stop was Sea Isle City. It's very reminiscent of Ocean City, MD. Nice little place. It was a nice day yesterday, so lots of people were out, but not as many as I thought would be.

Then we headed along the Ocean Route south to Avalon. Avalon is more laid back...reminds me of Belmar. But some of the houses were amazing in their size and style.

Next was Stone Harbor, another quaint seaside stop. Then after crossing the sound temporarily onto the mainland, we headed into the Wildwoods, a collection of several towns on another island.

North Wildwood was the hub of activity yesterday--there is a big BBQ cookoff going on there this weekend. Then we headed into Wildwood, which reminded me of Atlantic City, but smaller--nice in some parts, but other parts were rather run-down. The downtown had very narrow streets, and no shops were open--it was virtually a ghost town.

After driving through Wildwood Crest and Diamond Beach, we crossed Jarvis Sound and headed towards Cape May for a fuel stop. There are only two roads that lead into Cape May, and given the amount of traffic we saw going in and out of town, we decided not to go into the town proper.

From there, we trekked over to the Cape May-Lewes ferry terminal, then headed north through North Cape May and Villas, before reaching Route 47 and heading back to Philadelphia.

This was the second time I've driven Route 47 from Cape May to the 55 freeway (which connects Philadelphia to Cumberland County via freeway). It's just a nice peaceful drive with scenery that reminds you that not all of New Jersey is suburban hell.

A good trip...hell, almost every road trip is a good one. :)

Sounds like a trip down memory lane.:eek:
Oh...and welcome to the East Coast.;)

The original plan today was to go to the Punkin Chunkin contest in southern Delaware, about 3 hours south of Philadelphia.

Well, Rho and I DID go down there...got within about a half-mile of the site...

I'm not sure what the deal was. Maybe they got more people than they bargained for this year? Or maybe it was the nice weather? *shrugs* I dunno. We did get a late start, but still got down there around noon. The site is basically in the middle of nowhere, about 10 minutes from the next closest town (Milton). And traffic was a nightmare--it took us almost an hour to drive about a half-mile. By this point, it was almost 1:00, and it only runs until dusk. So, we said "Oh well" and headed south for Ocean City, MD.

I've never driven south into Ocean City, so it was nice seeing all the little beach towns in Delaware on the way down. And we could tell we were near the ocean once we got near Rehoboth Beach...the winds picked up dramatically and it got cooler. But it was a great day to be driving...and Route 1 is a pleasant stretch of road between Rehoboth and the MD state line.

Actually, all of Route 1 is a pretty nice highway, other than some current construction near Dover. $2 gets you from Wilmington to Dover...nice scenery, well-maintained highway, friendly toll collectors. The remainder of the highway from Dover to Ocean City is 4-lane divided, but in good shape and easy to traverse. It used to be marked in kilometers instead of miles, but that has apparently changed in the past 2 years or so (the last time we drove it). It is now marked in miles, but the exit signs are still based on kilometers. Strange.

Saw some big ass Air Force planes flying into Dover AFB...I believe they were C-17's. And they fly oh so close to the highway as they approach the runway...kinda freaky.

Ocean City is so nice. It's like the Jersey shore points, but a tad more classier, runs for about 7 miles on a strip of land maybe a mile or two wide, and has a relatively small boardwalk (about 2 miles). Very cool place...haven't been there in almost 4 years, but it was very familiar.

There were some people out enjoying the nice weather, but for the most part, it was a near ghost town, particularly near downtown and the boardwalk. I could definitely deal with that in the winter...there's still enough activity going on to make it worth staying. And the summer crowds aren't too much of an issue. Now if I could only find a job down there...

One thing that is present in every beach town I've been to is a beach store...you know...you can buy souvenirs, beach towels...shit like that. OC has like 6 of them, all apparently owned by the same people. And at this time of the year, shit is dirt cheap, so I felt compelled to buy a few items. I'll show a couple of them off in the dodads thread.

So, while we didn't quite get to pumpkin nirvana, we made the best of a bad situation...good times. :)