9.27.2005

My Ambulance Ride

It was a beautiful sunny morning so I was biking to work like usual. I was coming down a hill with a huge pot hole in the road that I’ve avoided over a hundred times this year. Today I wasn’t paying enough attention and I hit this monster pot hole with my front tire. My tire instantly popped and I went flying over the handle bars of my bike. Luckily I was wearing a helmet because I landed on it. After bouncing on my head I rolled to my right and skidded to a stop. I never lost consciousness, but I was dazed. Some very helpful motorists stopped and called an ambulance for me. I was bleeding like a banshee from a nasty cut I got on my forehead, which was the worst of my road rash.

At the hospital I got a bunch of x-rays on my right shoulder and they said it had been separated, but there wasn’t much to do but wait for it to heal. They also super glued my forehead closed. I'm not sure how long it's going to take my shoulder to heal, but I might be out of action for at least a few weeks before it feels good again if it is anything like the last time I seperated my shoulder while snowboarding.

After that I spent a half day at work and then got a ride back to the police station to pick up my bike. My bike is a mess. I didn't take a really good look at it since my shoulder is bothering me, but neither wheel spins. I think/hope I've bent both rims, but I supose it's possible I trashed the frame. When I'm feeling a little better I'll take a better look at it and take it in to my bike shop.

9.26.2005

Camping at Russell Pond

Camping Coordinates N 44 00.558 W 071 38.965

Carolyn and I went camping Sunday night at Russell Pond campground in the White Mountains. The campground was nearly deserted. I would guess there were only 3 or 4 spots taken out of the 87. It's an awesome campground when it is deserted at the end of the season like this, but it would still be good even if it was more crowded. It's got a large pond for swimming when it's warmer.

The night started out dry and Carolyn got a nice fire going. She's a much better fire starter than I am. After a nice long warm fire we turned in for what we expected to be a slightly chilly night. It turned out to be in the 50s and not chilly at all. Early in the morning it started to rain, but we were nice and dry in my tent. Overall it was buckets of fun. Don't stop going camping yet. Fall has some of the best camping days of the year! The bugs are gone and the nights aren't too cold yet. Get out and camp in the beautifully fall colors!

Marconi Beach

Beach Coordinates N 41 54.779 W 069 58.359

Eric’s family and I went to Cape Cod. One of the places we stopped was Marconi beach. This was a beautiful sand beach that was excellent for walking, but the water was too cold for swimming.

We walked up and down this beach for a few hours and had lots of fun. One of the highlights was when Newy found a live fish that had been washed onto the shore. I’d guess it was about 20 pounds, but I’m not sure what kind of fish it was. He picked it up and tossed it back into the water where it seemed to swim away.

9.19.2005

The Big E

I went to the Big E over the weekend. It’s the annual New England fair, and the ninth largest fair in North America. They’ve got all kinds of food, different concerts every day, rides, food, shops, food, and lots of good food. Personally I can vouch for the Maine baked potatoes in the Maine state building. Mmm. The fair is open until October 2nd. If you’re in the Springfield, MA area you should totally check it out.

Kayaking

First I went to Echo Lake, but there was no place to go kayaking there. So I ended up going go Whitehall. The sky started out blue and within an hour it was mostly cloudy. It was amazing time to watch the clouds. I love just sitting back and watching the clouds form and then fall apart. Until you get used to it the best way to do this is to pick a wisp of a cloud that is barely visible and that wisp should either disappear or become solid in under a minute. Then you know if the cloud is building or breaking up.

9.11.2005

Parents Visit

It was a good weekend, but there are no big outdoor activities to report here on my blog. So I've decided to just give a brief summary of this weekend. My parents came and visited so the activities I'm going to mention are all old people friendly (sorry mom). They live where I grew up in Wisconsin, which makes it a big trip out here.

On Saturday we went to Redbones. They have some freaking good BBQ. After this we went to the Central Boston Library. This place is more of a free museum than it is a library. We also wanted to go on the Boston Duck Tours, but the tickets were sold out for the day. I've heard the duck tours are pretty good, but it seems like you need to get tickets ahead of time if you want to take the tour.

On Sunday we went into Salem. You know the place where they hung the witches. I've been to Salem before, but there is much more to do here than I could do in my first visit so I did all new stuff today. First we went to the tall ship of Delaware. This ship was only visiting Salem for a day, but there is another ship that is usually docked there named the Friendship. Then we went to the Witch Dungeon. They put on a two person play which was well done, and then we walked through their basement which was a reconstruction of the dungeon used to hold some of the 150 people accused of being a witch during the witch hysteria in Salem. The dungeon itself was pretty lame being just a bunch of junky wax models in a dank basement. They kept it really dimly lit, which they claimed was to recreate the atmosphere, but I suspect it was to hide how lame the wax figures really were. After this we went on a trolley ride around Salem. Salem is certainly worth a visit if you live around here and haven't ever been there.

9.05.2005

The New England Aquarium

I went to the New England Aquarium in Boston today. It isn’t a physical outdoor type activity like most things I’ve put in this blog, but it is fun so I thought it was appropriate. It’s not my first time there, but every time I go there I learn a lot of new things about aquatic life.

This is my favorite penguin at the aquarium. He looks a little scruffy, but he was just cleaning his feathers. What made me love him was a little dance that he was doing which was just hilarious.

A gorgeous jelly fish.

I’m not sure what kind of fish this was, but isn’t she pretty?

Harring Cove Beach

Ice Cream Coordinates N 41 38.688 W 070 20.747
Beach Coordinates N 42 02.750 W 070 13.049

I went out to Cape Code to bum out on the beach for an afternoon with some friends. On the way there we stopped at the extremely tasty world famous ice cream joint named Four Seas Ice Cream. While they have never heard of a turtle sundae (gasp!) they make a mean one when given the direction. I think turtle sundaes are more of a Midwest thing, but they are just as tasty out East. For those unfamiliar with a turtle sundae it is composed of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, hot caramel, and pecans. When they are done right they become my little piece of heaven. Mmmm, mmmmm, good.

Once we had our tummies full of ice cream we proceeded to the beach. Most people here seemed to just be lying out on the beach. When I’m at the beach I’m not the kind of person to just lie around so I did some swimming. The water was a little cold at 64 degrees, but swimmable. I also spent some time watching the comb jelly fish and some little crabs in a small rock formation. Oh, and as you can see in the picture we buried Eric and then Christy and I took turns tormenting his head and taking pictures. It was some fun times.

9.04.2005

Six Flags New England

Parking Coordinates N 42 2.296 W 072 36.981

A few of my friends and I went to the Six Flags theme park in New England. I haven’t been to a big amusement park in a long time so I wasn’t sure how much fun I was going to have. I know I loved rollercoasters as a kid, but would they still be fun? After spending a day there the answer is a resounding YES! Roller coasters aren’t at all scary anymore for me, but they sure are fun. Personally I think the screaming as loud as I can makes the rollercoasters more fun so I exercised that option a lot throughout the day. In fact I screamed so much I was having a little trouble just talking by the end of the day.

As for a grade of the Six Flags in New England it wouldn’t rate all that high for a theme park. It isn’t laid out nearly as nice as I remember the Six Flags by Chicago being laid out, and Disney Land/World are in a separate class all together. By bad layout I mean there is no flow from one ride to the next, and I often would get stuck in a dead end and have to turn around. Six Flags in New England also had much less “theme” to their park which made waiting in lines less entertaining than if they had props setup to keep me entertained. Also the ride employees seemed to work in slow motion when strapping people into the rides. It almost seemed as if they were trying to keep the lines longer since the shorter the line the slower the employees seemed to work. Even with those negatives I still had a great time. The lines weren’t too long. I’d say the average wait time was about 25 minutes for the big rollercoasters which is less than I was expecting. What really surprised me was how many people were there. I had expected many more people, but for some reason the park wasn’t nearly full yesterday. I’m not sure if that’s normal or not, but it sure was nice.

And now a few more pictures...

This is a batman themed show that we watched. It involved some of the worst acting I've ever seen. If you skip this you won't be missing anything.

This was a fun ride, and was the only ride where the employees seemed to rush to get people strapped in. Not only that but the employee that strapped us turned it into a racing game. Whoever she was I give her the best employee award.

I could spend a whole day here on the water rides, but since I didn't have a swimming suit along I didn't spend much of my day in the water park. This is a picture of me on a kiddy slide. There was an employee guarding this pirate slide to prevent people who are over 48 inches tall from using it, but I sweet talked her into letting me try it out.

Here is me giving a test scream before the ride started moving. The kid to the left of me thought I was a little weird.

The teacups are Christy's favorite ride.

9.02.2005

Whitehall Reservoir - Kayaking and Swimming

Parking Coordinates 42 14.481 W 071 34.359

I went to Whitehall to go kayaking after work. I love this place. This time I was there at sunset and it was even more beautiful. A little before sunset I went to the rope swing to take a few swings. While swinging I met some nice people there.

9.01.2005

Hang Gliding – Lesson 4

I went to my fourth hang gliding lesson today. I felt pretty good after this day. I was getting some of my longest flights by the end of the day and everything felt under control even with the switchy wind conditions I was working with. In addition to greatly improving my correcting turns, I’ve added controlling pitch and airspeed to the things I’m now doing on every flight. Hang gliding is fun! Try it!