Journal Entries
Live Free or Die!
Posted Oct 4, 2006
White Mountains, New Hampshire – October 4, 2006
We cross the State line into New Hampshire. The first sign over the border says, in HUGE letters, "Live Free or Die!"...the second sign says "Vehicle occupants under 18 years must wear seatbelts"...we both burst into laughter and wordlessly unfasten our seatbelts...we could learn to like this place...
The tree colors are brilliant and getting better...They usually peak in mid-October. I have a leaf guide and have identified an American Beech and a Sugar Maple...Rain and overcast are expected until Thursday. You need sunlight to capture the brilliant colors properly.
We are in the area called the White Mountains. There are some interesting things not to see here. We walk 1000 yards at one stop to see the “old man of the mountain”. That is a famous rock outcropping that looks remarkably like an old man’s face. Unfortunately the 48 foot tall feature fell off two years ago. You probably read about it. There are some very confused Japanese tourists wandering about looking for the face.
The sun peeks out enough to yield some colorful leaf shots. We have lived our entire lives in Florida so these autumn colors are very remarkable for us. We drive on some unpaved US Forest service back roads and find a lovely campground called Russell Pond high in the mountains.
I long for wildness….
Woods where the
woodthrush forever sings,
where the hours are
early morning ones,
and there is
dew on the grass,
and the day
is forever unproven…
-Thoreau
Here are some pictures of an autumn New England.
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554550735
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Latest reply: Oct 4, 2006
Nothing to Declare?
Posted Oct 1, 2006
Montreal, Quebec – October 1, 2006
On the way out of Canada we see a pick-up truck loaded with dead bodies waiting to clear American customs. I wonder how the driver expects to get the macabre load though the new American red tape. Apparently dead bodies are not a problem. They bring out a dog to sniff around and then waive the driver through to the American side.
Earlier we had driven into Montreal in the Canadian Province of Quebec. Mrs. Phred and Judy want to see the old city first. I sit in the backseat with the laptop and GPS and navigate them precisely to where I deduce it must be: near the river in an area of twisted narrow streets.
The parking meter instructions are in French. I go and search for change and return to find a $37 (Canadian) French parking ticket on the Toyota. We wander the old city and have lunch in the open air in an outdoor café with a live jazz band. I eat a veal crepe with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
While we are eating, a highway overpass near the city collapses burying several cars and their occupants. Survivors are taken to local hospitals. The dead are still under the rubble. No official body count has been released.
Judy and Carol also want to see the underground city. I navigate to the center of the huge city, find a parking space and pay for parking with a credit card. We go down into the underground shopping caverns that extend down several levels under the streets. I lead them around for an hour and pop up next to the car.
It rained all day today. We stay inside and watch two rented DVDs. One was the “The World’s Fastest Indian” with Anthony Hopkins. The other was a funny English low-budget zombie release called “Shaun of the Dead”. Tomorrow we move near the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Mount Washington is the tallest point in the northeastern US. We hope to reach the top.
The image of four large dead buck deer with their feet up in the pick-up remains very vivid. It’s the last shot.
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554506217
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Latest reply: Oct 1, 2006
Spook Lights
Posted Sep 30, 2006
South Hero, Vermont - 30 September, 2006
It'a 3:30 AM...
Mrs. Phred kicks me out of bed to go out and turn off the Toyota headlights again...They turn themselves on in the very early morning and drain the battery, but not every night....the dealerships have done nothing about the problem because "we can't reproduce it"...We bought the new car in late June. The battery has drained eight times now.
This time it's very starry out again and again heavy dew has formed on the windows. Turning the light switch off and on did not extinguish the lights this time. Therefore the problem is getting worse. Finally I put the light assembly lever in the high-beam position and the lights finally go off. I suspect a short in the light assembly that is activated by morning dew...or a lazy gremlin.
We've been driving in Vermont's Green Mountains looking for fall foliage, graveyards, covered bridges and dairy cows to photograph...some sources say the peak colors are yet to come...others say they've passed...I'm really tempted to buy some postcards and scan them in to save on gas. For what it'a worth, here are a few humble pictures:
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554452066
Today we plan to go to Montreal in Quebec and look at the underground city. It's only about an hour north, so it should be a fun day trip.
Vermont is unusual. It has the only state capital without a Macdonald's hamburger palace. It was the last state to receive a Wal-mart, the first to abolish slavery and the first to eliminate property ownership as a condition for voting. They drew "first blood" in the Revolutionary War. It's known for beautiful fall foliage, maple syrup, skiing and dairy cows. It is the most "blue" state.
There are lot's of anti-Bush bumper stickers here:
- Somewhere in Texas a village is missing it's idiot
- No one died when Clinton lied
- Trust him twice: shame on us
- If you can read this, you're not the president
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Latest reply: Sep 30, 2006
Wooden Boats
Posted Sep 24, 2006
Saint Lawrence River, New York – 24 September, 2006
We go to the Classic Wooden Boats Museum on the banks of the Saint Lawrence without great expectations. I’m immediately excited as we enter the World Cup building and see one of Gar Wood’s speedboats from the 1920s.
The ultimate Gar Woods' “Miss America X” in 1932 had a quad-pack of huge Packard marine engines developing a combined 7,600 horsepower. These big marine V-12s had huge square straight-though exhaust pipes pointed at the sky. They billowed tongues of flame and must have produced unimaginable noise when the throttles were jammed forward by the onboard Packard engineer. You can almost imagine a pair of goggled maniacs hitting 125 as fingers of death-fire shoot from the stacks.
The British engineering genius, Sir Malcolm Campbell, in the “Bluebird” and the English lady speedboat king Barbara Martin “Joe” Carstairs in her “Miss England” competed unsuccessfully for years with Wood during the 20s and 30s despite the advantage of a government subsidized lightweight Allison aircraft engine.
I also love the wooden speedboat with the supercharged 1957 Chrysler hemi. All these beautiful boats are poetry in wood. It’s a shame that fiberglass or steel have become the boat hulls of choice.
One of the exhibits is the 102 foot, 247 ton houseboat that a Mr. Boldt had built in 1902. It has ten bedrooms, five bathrooms, a party deck and a piano. Originally the hull was mahogany but it has been replaced by steel. Mr. Boldt also built a castle on an island nearby. It is six stories tall. We hope to see it tomorrow.
Here are pictures of lovely wooden boats:
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554348065
One of the pictures is of a 1904 French Motogodilla outboard engine. It’s said to be the oldest gasoline outboard that still exists. It has a straight shaft drive on a pipe connected to the crankshaft. The engine is mounted on a swivel and the boat is turned by moving the engine and prop in the direction opposite to the desired travel path.. I saw this design in widespread use on the canals of Bangkok and rivers of Vietnam in 1966. An wrinkled old lady with bright orange teeth once smiled and tossed me a betel nut.
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Latest reply: Sep 24, 2006
The Finger Lakes of New York
Posted Sep 17, 2006
Watkins Glen State Park, New York – 15 September 2006
Glaciers pushed though here 12,000 years ago and left heaped up high mountains and very long gouged-out lakes. Some of the lakes are 40 miles long and a mile wide. There are salt mines under the lakes where salts were deposited 400 million years ago. Cornell University scientists are still looking for neutron flashes deep underground in tanks of dark water.
The gorges in this area have been cut though soft shale in the eye-blink since the glaciers receded. Here are some pictures of on of the gorge/waterfalls called “Buttermilk”
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554074124
We have an appointment here to apply for Mrs. Phred’s old age benefits. We arrived at the small local Social Security office at 8:58 AM for our 9 AM appointment. It's been "hardened" against terrorists.
The Wackenhut security guard is armed. He unlocks the thick glass office door at precisely 9 AM and we enter to log in to our appointment on a screen with REALLY BIG fonts for old people.
A few seconds later he buzzes us into an interview room though a steel door. The counselor is behind a large sheet of bulletproof glass. There is a slot to push though Mrs. Phred's birth certificate...
We went to the 215 foot Taugannoock falls today with friends who have traveled here to meet us. Late in the day I get a shot of a Monarch butterfly on a purple flower…it’s my best photo ever…
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554163305
The Cornell ornithologists reintroduced peregrine falcons into the gorge several years ago. They tagged the falcons with radio transmitters. All the transmitters were later found in owl pellets.
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Latest reply: Sep 17, 2006
Phred Firecloud
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