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A roundabout route to DC

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Currently, I’m sitting on my first (& probably last for some time) Amtrak train returning to Philadelphia after my small trip over the last week. The trip to San Diego was really just an exercise in medium distance travel – almost two hours of train travelling to PHL & eight hours of flying & stopovers & I arrived in San Diego & back to the heat (thankfully not the 106 that it was in Phoenix when I changed planes). Kindly, Beverley picked me up from the airport & it was back to La Jolla. Nice to catch up with the Turners that were home – Anna-Marie had returned from a month or so in Europe the previous day. As the Turners had a foreign student staying for a while & both girls home, I was relegated to sleeping on the couch in the lounge – just as I was going to bed Andrea wandered in from opening day at the races, so that necissated a catch up & talk about tomorrow’s testimony. After all that travelling, I thought I would sleep, but it wasn’t really the case; I must have had two or three hours of sleep. Up at six, as it was light & Beverley was up, & ready for our date in court at eight o’clock.

After Andrea handing & me studying my summons, the three of us (Anna-Marie was persuaded that she should get up & come too) were off to court. It was of course a big anti-climax – we sat in a waiting room while our case was assigned a courtroom & judge; it was quite annoying that I had my iPod in my pocket, but no earphones – so I had to settle for staring at the walls & reading year old magazines for the best part of two hours. Eventually we had a courtroom & we walked a very long way through the building & then through the next one to find it & the DA & detective met us there. After all that, the three defendants saw the writing on the wall (as the DA had managed to get five witnesses & countless police testimonies together) and they all pleaded guilty. It took a bit more waiting in a corridor for this to be confirmed & the paper work done. So in some ways I had travelled all the way across the States to sit & wait for three hours, just to go home. On the other hand, it was a good to get a result & it’s one less thing for us to think about & hopefully Andrea will be able to go back to plan one & go to Costa Rica to live. After leaving the courthouse, the girls took me down to the SDPC HQ & I got my stolen money back (finally) – the lost/recovered property & evidence room in the basement of the headquarters was massive (I think it covered an entire city block). It’s a short drive from downtown to SAN, so the girls dropped me off at the airport & I was off again cross-country.

The trip was uneventful, but from Vegas to DC I was stuck between the window of a 737 & one of those wonderful people who are intent on sharing your seat with you & spill over the armrest – just as well I have no discernible upper body presence. Due to a change of planes in Vegas, we were well late getting in to Dulles – but Adam & Jen (the friends I stayed with in DC – Adam is a Te Puke friend from way back) faithfully met me & they only live ten or fifteen minutes from Dulles – so in bed by two in the morning, fantastic (at least I was back in the same time zone as I had been thirty-six hours before).

Wonderfully, I didn’t get up until 10.30 & proceeded to do not a lot the rest of the morning. After lunch, Adam & I decided to go back to Dulles as the National Air & Space Museum (a Smithsonian museum) has another site out there (the main one is on The Mall in DC). This site consisted of a huge hangar filled with all sorts of aircraft & a sizeable tower that you could go up to get a great view of the airport & the surrounding area.

Also there was a air traffic control exhibit on the floor below the observation deck – as well as the display, an interesting part was the live audio & radar feed from Newark airport. Of course there were all sorts of planes & other aircraft – the highlights were a Air France Concorde (it fitted across the width of the hangar),

Enterprise space shuttle,

SR-71 Blackbird (it once flew from LA to DC in sixty-four minutes & then promptly was transferred to the museum)

& the Enola Gay (the B-29 that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima).

We managed to cover most of the hangar in detail, before having to leave to meet Jen & some of her workmates for Friday happy hour. It was at some Italian restaurant that had great pizza & twenty buck carafes of sangria – I rated the pizza, but the sangria went down pretty well (at least judging by how quickly some of the glasses were emptied) too. It was a great group of people & conversation & the couple of hours passed quickly.

Afterwards we had a few options when some of the group dissipated – five of use went around to Dave’s & tried our hands & voices at Guitar Hero World Tour. On the way, I had my first ride in an American muscle car in America – Dave’s Corvette, of course we had to put the top down. I had never played Guitar Hero before & it showed – as well as my complete lack of timing & musical ability. I was able to play the guitar to some level eventually & sing a little bit – but the drums completely evaded me. That may have been something to do with the red I was drinking – I found later in the night, that it wasn’t just me that though it tasted bad (beef jerky apparently) – but after two, who can tell & who cares? Somehow it was two o’clock before we got home & I went to bed – nevermind, a great evening & I learnt some new songs.

Another big sleep in on Saturday – I don’t recall doing too much for most of the day or perhaps I recall doing not much for most of the day. The last few days’ travelling & late nights had caught up with me & it was nice to sit around on the couch watching TV or Blackadder & napping. Plus it was very hot & humid outside so the chilled townhouse was a pleasant alternative to that. Did get my first visit to Trader Joe’s – a great variety of food there, a pity all the NZ wines were big names & for some reason the only NZ cheese on offer was some no name cheddar (it’s the single most popular cheese in the world!) – if you are going to import NZ cheese, why would you choose cheddar?! A big thunderstorm came from somewhere late in the afternoon – but that didn’t change our plans of heading to see the monuments after dinner (I’m told that they are better by night). When we got in to town it was still raining, but jackets & umbrellas were more than enough to ward off the moisture – the rain had the added bonus of scaring some of the tourists away. Saw most of the monuments – Lincoln,

Vietnam, WWII,

Washington (the two red navigation lights on top remind me of The Blackadder – Witchsmeller Pursuivant) , Korean

& Jefferson. It seems a bit strange picking favourites, but the WWII & Korean were mine.

Sunday was another good sleep in – we just had to get up in time for brunch in Reston town centre with another couple of Adam & Jen’s friends – Eric & Amy. Eric & Amy being long time locals, they know all the best places. For thirty five bucks we got a huge buffet & were supposed to fit a entre off the menu in somewhere. Of course we ate too much of buffet (the desserts were fantastic; I managed to get kiwifruit, boysenberries & blueberries to make the full Willingale Orchard complement), so by the time we tactfully ordered our entrees, we were too full to fit them in & just took them home for dinner. Another nice nap & we were off to check out the Marines Corps/Iwo Jima monument

– another pretty good one & then a nice walk to burn some of the brunch through Arlington Cemetery.

Saw JFK & family’s graves & the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The changing of the guard (that we managed to stumble on at the correct time) was pretty good – quite simple & with lot of clicking/banging of heels. Back home for my paella & then it was Transformers on DVD – a favourite of Adam & Jen’s but I hadn’t seen it. Was pleasantly surprised by the humour & action (I’m easily pleased). Also balanced the bearded lizard on my shoulder.

Six-thirty was a bit of a shock to get up on Monday morning to head in to DC to check out a few of the other sights. I think I was in town before nine & wandered from the Metro to check out the White House. Good to finally see it in the flesh, but funnily enough no real surprises – I knew it would be small. It appeared a lot smaller than it would have if the turf in front was managed properly.

We had hardly had any rain over the weekend & the park in front was sodden – very poor drainage. I was not much more impressed by The Mall – the grass & patches of dirt were a mess. After walking around the Washington Monument (flags at half mast everywhere – apparently the anniversary of the end of the Korean War),

it was off to the Holocaust Museum. Much as I expected – well done & quite sobering, plenty of artefacts from Germany & Poland & Czechoslovakia to help illustrate the awful truth.

By now it was noon & after another disappointing hotdog from a street vendor conveniently placed to sucker tourists like me I checked out the science & transport parts of the Museum of American History. Some good parts, but mostly didn’t really do much for me. Then off to the Air & Space Museum – ultra popular & crowded. The place was in desperate need of the exhibits, more the explanations, having a makeover. The crowds were too much for me – but a very good exhibit on the Wilbur & Orville Wright and all the experiments they went through with gliders & windtunnels & aeronautical engineering; also got to go in a 747 cockpit (it was really old). As there was not as much space in this facility as at Dulles, there were not nearly as cool exhibits. I was quite impressed by the Capitol building,

walked around it to see the Supreme Court

& then was amazed by the Library of Congress (Jefferson Building) – had to go in the largest library in the world of course. A tiring day on the feet, but very cool over the last few days to see so many places that I have read about in thrillers, seen on TV & in movies. Back home on the Metro (which is very clean & well signposted – pity about the crash on the Red Line a few weeks ago) & Adam & I decided to go & see Transformers 2. The movie was better than I was expecting (but who takes infants to a movie at 8pm? In a small, almost empty cinema they were so annoying & the parents next to useless) & I was quite pleased to see sights in NYC that I just been to the top of or walked across, then shots across the The Mall & low & behold a whole scene in the Air & Space Museum at Dulles. It was – “I saw that plane, & that plane, & that plane too, walked along there, walked up those stairs, saw that plane & that one too” – very fun; a shame our schedule (or is that sked-ule?) did not fit seeing the film at the Imax at the museum – that would have been quite a coincidence.

Tuesday morning was pack up, say goodbye & thanks a bunch to Adam & Jen, on the Metro & in to DC. Had a few hours to kill before my train, so went around the International Spy Museum & enjoyed it immensely.

friends, travel, USA

Bacon?

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Realising how exhausted & lethargic I was from my time in NYC, it was great to be going away for a long weekend up in the Poconos to do be doing very little. So Thursday morning we managed to get organised & packed up & left for the hour an a half of driving approximately north. Driving around Pennsylvania is a lot different to out west – there aren’t as many of the big 8-10 lanes on each side freeways, but rather a lot of smaller dual carriageways that connect all sorts of places to each other. Stopped for gas (it seems to be coming down – less than $2.40 for a gallon) & made it to Stoddardsville for a late lunch. Unfortunately the kids weren’t too appreciative of the change in routinue – as we were continually reminded over the next two days. Stoddardsville is quite the has-been town. It is on the Lehigh River & back at the start of the nineteenth century it was expanded by a guy called Stoddard & was quite the little boomtown – awaiting a canal that was to have been built up to the town. Of course, the canal never quite made it & the so the town never made it & Stoddard went bankrupt. All the infrastructure was pretty much left & there are a few ruins of the mill & other buildings lying around. Now there are ten or so houses on either side of the river which are mostly just used in the summer. Our tie to the place is that Jessica’s grandparents used to live in the old mill house & Jessica spent a fair bit of time during her childhood here. After her grandmother’s death the house ended up in the hands of a local guy who has worked hard at preserving the local history.

Pulling up to the house it was obviously quite old (never did find out exactly how old – greater than a hundred years) & it had sprawling grounds down to the river with some great big trees around.

Apparently it was built before studs were common practice & so the walls are solid walls of up to eighteen boards of wood – it would explain why the lighting in the house was so poor – retro-fitted wiring must have been a nightmare. The floors were wonderfully unlevel; the basement was what I have come to expect from Bill Bryson’s stories – dark, damp, low-ceilinged, with an ominous looking furnace & fuel oil tanks; the furniture was old; a warren of rooms upstairs; a large attic further up. Adding to the old setting, the place had been turned in to a mini-museum by John Butler (the only guy I’ve ever been introduced to as “Commander” [ret.]) – the guy who is preserving Stoddardsville, with old photos & captions, newspaper clippings, models of ships & submarines, letters (some from George Washington) to do with the settling of the area, the Wyoming Massacre, the Revolutionary War, WW2 & all sorts. It was like staying my own Night at the Museum. As we had climbed a bit from home, the temperature was about ten degrees cooler & pleasantly, the humidity had dropped right off from home. Apart from the kids, it was very peaceful & I found a Patricia Cornwall paperback lying around & probably spent the rest of the afternoon napping & reading. Popped down to river that evening for Doug to see if he could hook a fish & Katarina to throw stones in.

After a nice lie in Friday, Doug & I loaded up our bikes & drove twenty minutes to a state forest to see if we could find somewhere to ride. We had some luck in finding a place to park & then we followed a gravel road up & into the woods. It was quite nice to be out riding in the woods & not really caring where we were going. On the way back we wandered down an emergency access road in between high-fenced deer exclusion zones & suddently came out in a clearing & found a hunting lodge in the middle of nowhere – not really what we were expecting. After returning for lunch, it was out again for another ride – this time with Jessica in to the nearest town (a few miles uphill) to post mail, check voicemail & most importantly, get some donuts. By dinner that night, the kids still hadn’t settled at all, so we had to open another bottle of wine to help us through. It quietened down a bit when everyone else went on a nice settling drive & I stayed behind to do the dishes & read.

Saturday morning, we all loaded up to go to a couple of markets in town – the first mostly run by Amish. They had a lot of home grown fruit, vegetable, meat, cakes & so on. Their wooden furniture was very solid & well constructed – & very comfortable. I didn’t think any of it would fit in my luggage, so wasn’t really tempted to haul a very fancy gazebo to London. The second market was just plain strange – it was mostly just a whole heap of junk. Similar really to the exhibit at the MOMA, except these people seemed to expect people to pay money for their rubbish. At least I know where to go if I ever want scores of cassette tapes, VHS tapes, Master System II, Nintendo 64 or Atari games. Back for lunch & put the kids down for naps.

That afternoon, family friends of the Lindes turned up to stay for the night. Scott grew up with Doug & now works on the golf course Doug grew up on – Scott’s family is his wife Lisa, & two boys Noah & Deacon (older than Katarina) & daughter Gracie (two in October). Katarina seemed to quite like Deacon & followed him around a fair bit & generally settled down a lot. It was quite different having noisy, active & adventurous boys around. A lot more time down at the river throwing stones, fishing, climbing rocks, swinging, letting off fireworks & making & devouring Smores (roasting marshmallows, & sandwiching them between biscuits & Hersheys). Also treated to perhaps the loosest interpretation of a haka I have ever seen & an amusing attempt at charades by the boys. And somewhere in all of that, I finished my book – it was OK, but a pretty weak ending – I hate it when someone gets the main character out of a bind with the psychopath & the author doesn’t have the decency to explain why they were even there. Still it was nice to be reading a book again.

Sunday was pack up & clean morning, with a bit of time down at the waterfall & river. I don’t remember much else of Sunday – except I had my first Philly cheesesteak – it was good & Doug & I went for a good workout ride around Doylestown after dinner. Monday Jessica & the kids & I brought home a big pile of books from the library – I’ve already finished a good Harry Bosch one. In the afternoon Doug & I went out to the golf course he grew up on (Scott is the greenskeeper there now) & did some measurements on a couple of the greens, before we were off to Limeport Stadium to watch a ballgame. Doug used to play for these Dodgers & it was neat to be at a local level game & try & understand baseball a bit more (there’s not too much to it & I’ve seen a few major league games on TV). There was a good sized crowd in & the game started with a hiss & a roar after the Star-spangled Banner played & our pitcher had a shocking first innings. The vistors were up by four runs straight away & I thought it was going to be quite exciting – alas, there was only one more run in the next thirteen innings & our team was held to love (to borrow a tennis term). A cool night watching the game, even if it wasn’t the most interesting, & trying to explain cricket to a few people – they seemed to get some idea.

It’s raining today, so I’ve mostly been reading & trying not to think about packing to go back to San Diego tomorrow for one night & appearing in front of a judge. From San Diego I’m off to DC for five nights.

friends, travel, USA

Golf anyone?

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A lazy start to the day yesterday – for some reason, I’m sleeping a lot, which is quite nice in some ways, but a slight waste in others. Jessica & the kids & I ran a couple of errands in town (the smallest Post Office I’ve ever seen at the college Doug teaches at & bought my bus tickets to NYC – less than forty dollars return, bargain) & then headed out to Lake Galena. Galena is a small lake not from town & there were plenty of kids out learning to sail very small yachts with varying degrees of success, many people making use of the path that goes all around the lake – we took a short stroll down to a rather rickety pier & looked at the ducks (not my normal sightseeing, but Katarina seemed to enjoy it & I got my fingers almost pulled off – a small price to pay for not having to rescue a two year old from the lake). Current favourite sayings are “watchoo doin?” and “huh?” repeated frequently; this is an improvement over the first day or two’s shyness.

Mid-afternoon, Doug & I headed off half an hour north to the 2009 US Women’s Open. Doug is a professor in turf management (from what I can work out, mostly on golf courses) & as a result he & a lot of his students & graduates have volunteered for the week working on the grounds (mowing, rolling, watering, replacing divots, grooming & so on). It was the last practice day before the four day tournament starts on Thursday. While Doug went off to a meeting I wandered around a few holes on the front nine, checked out the practice green & driving range. There was plenty to look at & it was intriguing to see all the things that go on behind the scenes at a major that are not seen on the television. I’m pretty sure I have never seen so many golf carts (at least a few hundred) in one day. I met up with Doug on the back nine – our (his, really) job was to follow the last players around & remove the tee markers & flags. It was a pretty easy job – we cruised around in a cart pulling markers & flags occasionally & spent the rest of the time taking photos, chatting to groundsmen & climbing camera towers (not sure if that was allowed – one was particularly tall & seemed rather rickety). A good afternoon doing something quite different to what I usually do on holiday. Doug has just headed out for the first day’s play.

Arriving home from the golf, my package of bike goodies had arrived. My bike is now usuable with a new chain on it & new grips & my new shoes fit well. Still need to get my brakes sorted (probably bled) & I’d like to clean & grease the freewheel. I think I might just roll in to town & have a little explore.

bikes, friends, MTB, travel, USA

Up early for a ride

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Somehow managed to wake up to hear the clock chiming five & suddenly remembered that I was to get up in five minutes for a big ride. Stumbled around the house – being the longest day, it was nice & light – getting ready & managed to force an extra piece of toast down & I was on the road before six. Met up at Chip’s house & we loaded our bikes on to the borrowed old Volvo (it has racks). Annoyingly burnt my tongue on the liquorice tea, & we arrived at the trail head (down the I8 again, towards where I rode at Big Laguna last week) fifteen minutes early & waited for the others to arrive. In the end, there were seven of us – me the youngest (easily having less than half the years accumulated as the most senior), a couple of guys on singlespeeds – one a very nice custom titanium 29er.

Started off at 8.00 & it was a little chilly as we cruised along some singletrack not too far from the road. After a while we started to climb a little & I was impressed to see the singlespeeds leading the way – usually the case, I remember having to just go at hills & not being able to cruise. Found a big rock for first rest stop.

The whole area we were riding in was destroyed by wildfires in 2003, so there weren’t a lot of sizeable trees around, but the scrub has had a few years to regenerate. It’s a bit of a blur, but we did a lot of climbing (middle-ring the whole way for me, so not too difficult) on some nice singletrack – quite dusty, but otherwise fine.

I think we started at about 3000 ft & eventually we crossed the Sunrise Highway (~5000 ft) & continued climbing on the singletrack. Stopped a couple of times for a rest & for the tourist to take photos:

By now we were looking out towards the edge of the desert (further north of the one we drove through to go camping last week).

Some of us felt that we should leave the Perfect Cycling Trail & hike-a-bike up to the road. Unfortunately, this was twenty minutes of clambering, pushing, carrying through scrub getting very scratched legs. Probably the hardest part of the day for & somewhat draining. We rode up the Sunrise Highway for a few miles, down a bit & back on to singletrack. What followed was pure bliss – we must have had two or three miles of downhill & it started out nice & dusty (of course) & twisty & then proceeded to get rockier & rockier – it was great fun barrelling down there. The closest I came to riding off the side of the hill was looking up & seeing Billy two or three hundred yards down the trail & trying to work out if I could catch him. I put my head down after that & concentrated on staying on the trail a bit more – the rocks got bigger & combined in some nice chutes, where having suspension soak up the occasional poor line was comforting. Pleasingly, I managed to catch Billy right at the end of the downhill & we sat & waited under a tree for the others to turn up. Those few miles were fantastic & the riding (& perhaps, the) highlight of my trip so far.

Having regrouped & rested we begun the climb out of the valley on singletrack & eventually were riding up & down a meadow. The dust turned quite slippery here – I’m used to dry surfaces being grippy in NZ, but here I’d hit a switchback too fast (as it turned out) & my front wheel would just slide as if on slippery clay – I managed to turn front wheel inside out once or twice, but somehow stayed upright. One final rest stop before we hit the fire road down all the way to the car – it was quick. I’m still not a big fan of the High Rollers, there were quite a few instances during the day when I think the Nevegals would have helped me out a lot more. First puncture of the day for Cliff about ten minutes from the cars; once that was repaired we easily finished the six hour epic – 27 miles all up. That was about the limit of my endurance, up the last little rise (which was nothing compared to what we had already done) I found myself chopping back to easier gears & struggling up the hill. Got home & realised I was covered in dust – a great glove mark:

& it was just as well I didn’t get talked in to having a pedicure the day before – this is through MTB shoes & socks.

Big nap & watched Master & Commander – as I had been on the HMS Surprise a couple of days before. Must pack & plan & organise a few things (rather, everything) for my road trip today.