And finally. . . .

So here I've been in Connecticut since last Wednesday, the 8th, at Beth and Greg's. . . . Where there no longer is snow, but where many folks have less-than-fond memories of it.

I arrived in Hartford via the MegaBus from 34th Street and 11th Avenue in Manhattan, then went to the other side of Hartford to pick up my rent-a-car and from there went to Beth's work office to pick up the keys to her house so I could let myself in while she and Greg were still at work.  Beth told me to come in the lobby and dial her extension at the "yellow desk" in the lobby.  I was surprised to see what the yellow desk actually is:

Everything is so modern there! Actually it is some kind of tech equipment from a few years back that they decided to keep in their lobby "just for effect."

I drove over to Colchester from there, but hung out at Tim's Bistro in town rather than going right to the house.  Chatted with the owner, Akram, who told me that Tim is his son and that he - Akram - is quite familiar with the East Bay back in California, having lived in the area for some years and still having family - among them his ex-wife - there.  S'matter of fact, he told me, he lived in Martinez for a year or so.  Small world, eh?

On Thursday, while Beth and Greg were at work, I drove over to visit my cousin Jimmy and his Karen and their son Matthew.  They're an hour and a half away, but it was a relaxing drive.  I-84 is nothing like I-95!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of Jim, Karen and Matthew. . . .  once again having forgotten to bring my "good" camera and not thinking to use my cell phone.  Had a very good time, just chatting with them, showing them some older family photos and documents that I had found in storage at my Michael's in South Carolina last week, among which were these:

My grandfather, Miguel Prado (who passed away many years before I was born) holding my mom at a very young age. . . .

Miguel's bride, my "Nana" - probably in her early 20s or late teens. . . .

Needing help with this, I asked Jim to show it to his dad and ask if he knows who this is.  I am guessing it was his grandmother - my mom's mom's mom - but I'm not sure if her name was Catherine Corcoran.  Corcorans and Fords go back a bit. . . .  I think they came over from County Sligo in the 1840s during what was euphemistically known as The Great Potato Famine.

Then, among some other photos and documents I brought with me were these. . . .

Miguel's Naturalization certificate, which he received several years after his WWI service in the U.S. Army:

The Bill of Manifest from the ship that brought Miguel and his brother to the U.S. from Argentina (they went to Argentina from Spain, then on to the USA from Buenos Aires). . . . interestingly, on the very same ship that later transported Teddy Roosevelt to Buenos Aires for his South American exploration expedition later that very same year, 1913.  The ship was built in 1911 and sunk in 1914 at the start of WWI by a German destroyer.

Anyway, getting back "on thread". . . .  Jim showed me his rebuilt beehive while I was there.  It had been destroyed by a bear sometime during the night only a few days prior.  He told me that the bees all seemed to be dead - frozen by the night's low temps - at first, but most of them came back to life!  He re-located it to inside of his garden fence so that it is now better protected.  We took a walk down to the stream near his house, too.  Nothing has greened-up yet, but the area around his house looks nice even at this time of the year.

Karen made a great dinner for us. . . .  Matthew got home from work and had dinner with us, too.  It was a very nice visit and I'm glad I was finally able to get to see them again.

I hit the road back to Colchester at about 7pm.  Told Beth and Greg about my visit to Jim's and hit the sack.  

Next day, Friday, I decided to hike the local State Park - Day Pond State Park - if I could get in, it being scheduled to open on the following day.  I drove out there - only 3 or 4 miles from the village here - and got in with no problem.  The pond had been stocked only last week and was being fished by a lot of local guys.  One fella showed me one he had just caught (a throw-back, too small) and a "keeper" he'd caught earlier in the day. . . .  both of them Rainbow Trout.

I found the map of the trails in the park:

It started out nice enough. . . .

But then I made my way along it, following the markers.  A nice trail, but there were a few sections that were more like an "obstacle course". . . .

Someone left a pair of sunglasses!  Prolly forgot them when they sat down, scratched their head trying to figure how to jump across the rivulet. . . .

The water got wider at some places. . . .  Had to find "stepping-stones". . . .

Too early in season for the "trail patrol" to clear this away. . . .

Rocky Road, and sticks - placed there intentionally?  As if "Turn Back! This is your last chance!"

Anyone know the meaning of this kind of "art" on a trail?  I've got no idea!!

Luckily, the trail did not cross this, but narrowed and ran alongside it for awhile:

Finally! I found a staircase!  :-)

No trees near the "staircase" so the trailblaze marks were on it. . . .

No ATVs?  No kidding.

How do you get around this?

Okay, so tho it wasn't as hilly as a lot of the trails in my neck of California, the slippery mud, moss-covered rocks and the "water-hazards" and fallen trees made it very interesting indeed!  I enjoyed it and wanted to go back another day and take one of the other trails in the same park.  But it is raining today, my last day here and I'm spending it at the very nice Colchester Public Library:

Friday night we went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant here in Colchester. . . .

  

Recalling the red Swedish Fish Martini I had back in California Dreamin' in Columbia, I decided to go green this time, and had an apple-tini.

Anyway, so after my hiking adventure of Friday, on Saturday I went with Beth and Greg to one of their Society for Creative Anachronisms events, over in Meriden. They dressed up like an Archer and a Renaissance Lady, whilst they garbed me as a peasant, sorta:

 Greg was in charge of safety at the archery range. . . .

I was interested that they even had crossbows, besides the longbows and recurves:

Greg had everyone retrieve their arrows in unison, of course. . . .

It reminded me of a scene from Robin Hood. . . .

Beth had a table in the "commercial area" with her wares on display:

I witness some fierce hand-to-hand combat:

As well as what seemed like several climactic scenes from Mel Gibson's "Braveheart":

Finally, at day's end, awards were given by the King and Queen and the Baron and Baroness.  I didn't make it over to the area where the swordsmanship was in play, but the guys in that area must have been pretty good.  There were a bunch of fellas dressed in Three Musketeers style who were in those events:

King and Queen were very regal in appearance. . . .

As was the Baron. . . .

Greg helped out. . . . (That's him - having changed garb - standing between the Queen and the Baron) . . . by announcing in "Town-Crier" style at one point that someone's car was blocking the entrance to the parking lot!

It was a very entertaining day, complete with a "groaning board" luncheon, some lemonade and a wee bit of mead.

At the end of the day, after breaking down the tent and packing the car we retreated to Middletown for a "traditional feast" at a local restaurant.  (I come all the way from California, I thought, and I just can't get away from Mexican food!)

Beth and Greg and their fellow SCA'ers chatted quite a bit about the politics of the SCA.  It is not exactly a Monarchy, nor is it a Democracy.  There was a meeting that day in Cincinnati of the National Board to determine certain new procedures and units, and everyone at the restaurant was excitedly discussing the possible outcomes.

Finally, yesterday, Sunday, was my last day for doing anything "adventuresome."  We went to Mohegan Sun casino for the afternoon and met Greg's mom and dad, Winnie and Ed there.

Interesting all-glass sculpture there:

It says "This Fixture For Sale - $80."  Cute joke.

The Mohegan "Mountain". . . .

The Regniers. . . .

A Frank-ish person and some Regniers. . . .

If I'd hit it big, I planned to buy something for Beth here. . . .

But, of course, I didn't. . . .

Ah well, gambling is stinky. 

And that is how I've spent this last few days here.  Tomorrow I head back to California and my "other life" as a Docent and Trail Patrol Volunteer.  It's been a great little getaway (even tho NY and CT have been just a tad colder than SC and CA).  I'm glad I took this trip and got to see and be with so many of my family and old friends.

New York, New York (and some people and places on Long Island, too)

I got to New York on Wednesday April 8th.  Visited and had lunch with some old friends at the Massapequa (Michele Weeks and Linda Wiedemuth) and Bethpage (Shirley Goudikian and Rose Maltese) DMV offices while there, hiked the Massapequa Preserve on Saturday and had dinner on Friday the 10th with Shirley Goudikian - one of my closest of those old friends.  I drove over to New Jersey twice to see sis-in-law Liz and her family (including, of course, her granddaughter Charleigh Elle), went out to Hauppauge a couple of times and met sis-in-law Ruthann at church there, and had Sunday morning breakfast with Mary and Don Friedman after church at the good old Paradise Diner on Vets' Highway in Hauppauge.  It was a very full week and I didn't take nearly enough photos.

One of the best parts of my trip was going to Cathy Bush's birthday party on Saturday night. Eleanor's cousin John threw a bash for his Cathy at the Swan Club in Roslyn.  Cathy seemed truly staggered. . . .

It was good to see El's cousin Bill and his Sandy there, too (I didn't get a pic of Sandy, but did of Bill):

John took this one of me, Ruthie and Bill. . . .

Here's John, Cathy, and family; Connor, Jameson, Jason, Charlotte and Cathy's mom. . . .  I hope they pardon my feeble photography skills (couldn't figure how to get rid of the "red eye.")

 Another shot, of Cath's 'extended family'. . . .  a really nice bunch!

Cathy cutting the cake, still awed by all the attention!

At my table, there was this little cutie and her mom. . . .

Liz and Rick and - of course - Bear were there, too, but somehow I missed getting pix of them. Everyone had a great time.

In some of my "spare time" over the days I was on Long Island I drove around and took some shots of some familiar places. . . .

Our home in Commack hasn't changed at all since I left it in August 2013:

The McDonald homestead is up for sale again!

A certain house, two blocks over, is being re-done.  Note the new bay windows for the kitchen & living room and the new window and air-conditioner on the side of the house, thru the living room wall where neither once were.  The fancy-schmancy entrance got to me. . . .  As well as the fact that the magnolia tree is bigger than ever!

The residents could have put the pails on the side of the house, like we used to do, but noooooo. . . .

  Then there was this old home-sweet-home, at 100 Westwood Road North, in Matzo-Pizza Park. One of very, very few in that area that still has the original metal-casement windows in the living room!  Also, it was interesting to see that the old oak tree in the backyard there is obviously still standing. . .

And finally, here's a condo in New Jersey that has been on the market recently, but which has an eager buyer lined-up to take it from Aimee and Bear since only a couple of weeks ago:

Ruthie and I went there on Thursday the 9th, and I went back on Monday the 13th.  A little lady there keeps her mom and dad, not to mention her Grammy, quite occupied lately:

GETTING there - of course - was just as much fun as it has ever been. . . .

On the afternoon of Sunday the 12th I went to Bob and Mary Egglinger's.  I had lunch there with them and we chewed the fat for about six hours!  Catching up on the latest goings-on with them and relating to them all that I've done since moving to California took some time, it turned out.  All is well with them. . . .  Mary and I took a long time figuring out how to re-establish contact on Facebook; I had apparently "unfriended" her on Facebook - unintentionally - a long time ago, when I was only trying to not get so many "game feeds" from her. After a lot of research we were finally able to make it work again.  Why don't they make these things easier to do?

And when I was in NY, I made a belated "Easter trip" to Pinelawn in Farmingdale (my Nana and Grandfather's gravesites) and to Queen of All Saints in Central Islip.  

I've got a "subscription" for Queen of All Saints to change the little artificial flowers at Eleanor's columbarium every so often, so I was just checking up to see what the latest arrangement looks like.  She never liked artificial flowers, and I've never bought them for her, but I guess she can't object now.

And if Joe DiMaggio sent flowers to his Marlilyn once a year, I figured I'd outdo him and "send" them to my Eleanor once every three months. . . .

Finally, on Wednesday the 15th I turned in my rental car for this "leg of my trip" - a little Hyundai "Accent" that was just a tad too small for me anyway - back at JFK. . . .

and hopped onto the JFK AirTrain to Jamaica LIRR station (a place where I'd changed trains many times from 1976 till 1983, which in some ways hasn't changed but in others - with the addition of the AirTrain station - has)

so that I could get to Penn Station/Madison Square Garden and walk the three and a half blocks from there to the MegaBus bus stop on 34th Street between the Javits Convention Center and the Hudson Railyards:

Nice scenery there, up above the bus stop, on the newest part of the High-Line Park which I strolled on awhile while waiting for the bus.

Took the bus to Hartford that day. . . .  comfortable ride, but delayed 45 minutes because of all the ongoing construction on Interstate 95 in Connecticut; a not-unusual problem for that stretch of road.  The bus let me off in downtown Hartford, from where I got an "Uber" "taxi" to take me to my car rental on the other side of town.  I got a Nissan Versa; small but much more easy for me to get in and out of (better head-room) than the Accent was.

Drove from the car-rental office in Hartford over to Beth's office in Wethersfield where I picked up the keys to her place and then headed off to Colchester!

(To Be Continued. . . .)

Bloodcurdling FUN

Michael, Gabi, Piper and I went to Carowinds roller-coaster park, near Charlotte, yesterday.

The gals set off on their own, while Mikey and I headed straight for the Fury 325, which just opened last week and is billed as the tallest ("at 325 feet, 20 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty"), fastest ("reaching speeds up to 95mph"), longest ("over 6,600 feet long and covering 8.4 acres) and steepest-dropping ("81 degree drop from the 325' summit") "Giga-Coaster" anywhere (or so they claim).  I saw it on NBC Nightly News on TV last week, and decided that maybe I'd give it a whirl.

Surprisingly, the line for it wasn't all that long.  We only waited about 20 minutes.

Tho this next photo was taken on our way out of the park, it shows how steep that 81 degree drop is:

Michael says he's only been on three or so rollercoasters in his entire life.  He went on at least five or six today.

I haven't been on too many of them myself, but knew enough to buy a good elastic eyeglasses holder-strap (Croakies), having had my glasses fall off at the acme of one of the loops on Hershey Park's "Super Duper Looper" one time, many years ago.  Surprisingly (or maybe not) the glasses stayed on the floor of the coaster-car I was on all the way thru that particular ride. . . . but I didn't want to even chance losing them on this monster.

The uphill climb looked daunting. . . .

But Michael had no fear. . . .  or tried to appear to not have any. . . .

I found it interesting that they had built this newest record-setting "Giga-coaster"'s entrance right alongside one of the park's older wooden ones. . . .

That first downhill fall was like nothing I've ever experienced before. . . .  and the other falls on it ran very close to it.  My butt rose so far up out of the seat - in spite of the seatbelt and huge hold-down bar - that I thought I was going to come loose and fall all the way, splat, to the ground.  "It can't get any worse than this first fall" ran thru my mind as we dove down it.  But it did come damned close on the rest of the downhills.  I told Michael when we got off the ride that besides the safety belt and bar across your belly to hold you in they really should add some velcro to rider's butts and the seats.  :-)

We met the girls again for lunch, after which I noticed that my '55 Chevy was parked out in front of the "diner" there.  Mine was aqua-green and white, tho.

The 325 foot "hill" of the monster-coaster forms the backdrop for nearly everything at it's end of the park. . . .

After lunch Mikey and I went on that "mild looking" wooden coaster, The Hurler, for a change of pace.  It was a bone-shaker. Fast enough to give a thrill and rickety-sounding and rickety-feeling enough to re-align my spinal column.

Mikey seemed to take pleasure in pointing out to me that the four-by-four beams holding this one together were joined by only a single lag-bolt at each joint.

After the wood coaster he and I went on the Carolina Cyclone, which turned out to be not nearly as tame as it had looked to me.  Two loops and two long additional sections of corkscrewing track that made me think "Now why did I do this?"

Mikey then wanted to try The Intimidator, one that you stand up in, that takes you thru loops and keeps you upside down for a few more sections than the loops besides.  I took a "by" on this one and photoed him getting in.  I tried to photo him - in the front car - as he came to the bottom of the first "hill" of it, but the ride was going too fast for me to get a shot.

After that one, we met Gabi and Piper again and I spent some time at ground-level with them walking around "Planet Snoopy" - the children's section of the park - while Michael went on The Nighthawk coaster. . . .  one that has its riders standing, lying flat on their back and lying prone looking downward for long portions of the ride.  Mike said that the harness and seatbelt were the only thing holding him as he flew along fully prone downwards for long parts of it.  Maybe I'll try that one next time.

Finally, Michael and I went on the park's other wooden coaster, Thunder Road.  It was designed to have coasters racing side-by-side, but only one side of it was open today.  It was bigger than The Hurler, but with just as much of a rickety click-clack feeling.

So out of the 14 coasters at the park, Mike and I managed to go on six between the two of us. . . . .  Without either of us falling splat on either side of the NC/SC state line.

And I got to do a few spontaneous Rebel Yells.  Ummmm, more like forced Rebel Yells.  Well, actually more like Terrified Screams.