Calling Admiral Ackbar


This is the apartment building at which my wife lived in upstate New York before we got married and moved to Texas. Bottom floor, second window from the left. Looks pretty nice, eh? Lots of trees, and there's a creek out behind it, too.

It's a trap.
Well, the problem with upstate New York is it's beautiful for a few months (after the bugs die down some), but then comes The Cold. Among the differences between a southern New England winter and an upstate New York winter, I think the most important is how unrelenting it is upstate. The snow just keeps piling up; it never melts. In a place like Boston or Bethany you can count on enough short warm spells to melt a little bit of the snow. You can go out and about in boots when the snowpack is a few inches deep, but no such luck when it's several feet deep. Long, cold, dark, and restricted to plowed roads and indoor activities. I spent a winter in that apartment before returning to Boston for more school. I don't remember it fondly. I think if you spend long enough up there you either become very quiet (as many were) or just become crazy (like Rachel Ray).

Speaking of Rachel Ray, she was as yet relatively undiscovered (she was just one of the local TV food people) when I was up there.

For fairness, I will add that my wife loves it up there, including the winters. She is of a hardy Teutonic stock, I guess.

Hooray for Rain

Hooray for a nice good soaking. Now maybe I can get busy planting a few trees this weekend.

Stewart's


Another classic staple (although a chain, obviously) of my wife's time in upstate NY, revisited: the local Stewart's. I believe we bought some milk.

Country Drive-In


Austin readers are no doubt familiar with Sandy's, a good little place. Well, my friends, the Country Drive-In, in Saratoga County, upstate New York (down near the Twin Bridges), is ten times better. It's the same model as Sandy's: burgers & other grilled stuff, and ice cream. My wife lived near here for a year before we got married. I was still in college in Boston most of that time, but I made several extended visits (including about a month and a half living there during the harsh winter - more on that in a later post). When the weather was nice, the Country Drive-In was the place to go. It still is; we made sure to stop by on the road trip.

The sign's a little fuzzy because I accidentally took these at ISO 800. Oops. I hope my wife and daughter will forgive me for posting a photo where they have stuck-in-the-car hair.

Shame about them being a Pepsi place, eh?

Deer Leap View


The view from Deer Leap at Lake George. It's more expansive in the spring and fall, or so I'm told. I know, still lots of Lake George. I have a few more decent ones but may segue into a few other road trip photos first. Maybe by the time I'm done it will start looking like fall around here. One can hope.

Hague Public Dock


According to my wife, her grandfather would take his boat across the lake every morning and dock here to buy a newspaper in the nearby teeny town of Hague. My wife's grandparents were dedicated New York Times crossword puzzlers.

More Light and Shadow on Deer Leap Hike


This was the clearing where I supposedly just missed out on seeing a large bear.

Yummy Water


As I mentioned last post, I went out on a kayak several times up at Lake George. Short of long distance swimming (which I did tons of), it was really the best way to be up close and personal with the lake itself. Whoever first dubbed this lake "Queen of the American Lakes" was dead on. My wife's grandparents had a place on a small cove on the northern half of the lake, on the east side. They got their water straight from the lake, untreated. I believe the place we were staying did the same (on the northern half, west side, almost straight across from their old lake house).

I had a few gulps straight from the lake and it was delicious. I think you'd be hard pressed to find many (or any) bodies of water as large that are similarly clean. And of course Central Texas lakes are nothing like that; I used to swim often at Windy Point, but the water practically reeked of gasoline. Nothing like that at Lake George. For this we can thank the Adirondack Park and the State of New York. Development on the lake is still limited in such a way as to keep the number of boats relatively low. Still, I did see jetskis a few times. It amazes me that those things are allowed on any park/preserve lake, given their very dirty engines. It's really a shame many people will never experience a very clean lake like Lake George, when once this country had so many that would qualify.

Lake George Sailboat


For our trip, I'd say that sailboats were pretty much the only available non-motorized craft on which I did not ride. I went out on canoes, rowboats, and kayaks. Too bad I still don't have a true telephoto lens for my D50 (I have one for my old neglected K1000).

Upstate Rest Area


A scene at an upstate NY rest area, near Binghampton on I-88. I-88 is a very scenic route, with lots of all-American small-farm scenes. Until this trip I had only seen it from inside a bus when I was at college up north (my New England-based track team occasionally ventured over the edge of the earth into upstate NY). It's even better from a car with a wider angle of view.

More photos from Lake George will be coming up this week.

Mildly funny story from the way back: On I-88, at one point I saw a guy on an Japanese motorcycle come up very fast from behind and zoom on by (I was doing about 75 and he was probably doing 90-95). About ten minutes later I saw a state trooper go by me at about 100mph. About fifteen minutes after that, I came by the biker, pulled over on the side of the road by the trooper.

Deep Football Symbolism

Today as we drove through Pennsylvania on I-81, the only football I could get on the radio was Penn State. We stopped at a rest stop in central Pennsylvania, and some Boy Scouts were handing out cupcakes. True story!

I don't know what Georgia Tech's football team is eating tonight, but they deserve steak, not cupcakes, eh? OK, this entire entry is for loyal reader M1EK's benefit.

Rocks on the Deer Leap Hike


Our week up north is wrapping up, and we head back to East Tennessee on Saturday. I'll have more upstate NY photos to come next week.

Above, an exposure of bedrock on the deer leap trail. As with most trails in the northeast, there's no shortage of rocks, although you run into a lot of glacially-transplanted stuff in addition to rock from the local bedrock. Below is a somewhat-fuzzy example of a rocky stretch of trail.

Light and Shadow on Deer Leap Hike


A view through the trees towards a bog on the way to Deer Leap. Not too far from this spot I apparently just missed out on seeing a rather large black bear (according to some other hikers). I can't say I'm disappointed, really.

Fishing at Dusk


I haven't tried any fishing myself, although I've gone out on the water in canoes and row boats thus far. Went on a nice shortish (3 miles) hike to "Deer Leap" today. I think the views are probably better in the fall, but I should still have a few decent non-aquatic photos from that.

On The Dock


Taken Sunday.

It Came From Vermont


No, not Howard Dean (but as simple and pretty as his wife Judy Dean). Moonrise at Lake George on Sunday night. That ridge isn't actually in Vermont. The border is on Lake Champlain, which lies on the other side of the ridge.

Good weather here. I did lots of swimming, some walking and canoeing.

ePostcards from Lake George


Well, I guess every place in the world has internet access these days. I arrived at the northern end of Lake George today. Weather is great right now. First thing I did was go swimming. This is looking downshore a little from a dock at Hague, NY.

The drive up was fairly scenic and uneventful. There are already a few trees (mainly maples) on north-facing slopes along I-88 that are changing colors.

Rerun - Ready for Fall


OK, I'm ready for Fall (and more importantly: RAIN!).