A Little Partying, Getting Out of Town before Sundown

Today were are heading for Minnesota, but we are first attending a surprise party for my daughter Tavana. A couple of weeks ago she graduated from Phoenix University with her Associates Degree. No small feat, especially considering she works full time. Congrats to "T". Dani, my other daughter, pulled all the details together with Jeff (T's boyfriend). This was no small feat either, since Dani works with "T" on the same projects at their company. Well done Dani, especially hiding your texting, Facebook'in and phone calls from T.  The cute food stuff was good too.

The preparations

Hard to hold camera in one hand, the object in another hand, focus and pull off a good shot,
At least for me.

Jeff is the quintessential gadget guy, especially when it involves BBQ. Maybe that's why his BBQ is so good though

Tavana arrives after spending all morning at the zoo with Kristen



My kids and my kid's kid

Skyler aka Sky

Danielle aka Dani and the main meal

Tavana aka T the guest of honor and recent grad

Kristian aka K2

My partner in crime, Crystal aka MeAsWe.

We only packed a few beers for the party since we had a 450+ mile trip ahead of us, but they sure did go down real easy. We had to leave just as the party kicked into high gear.

It was hard to leave the party, but we had some miles to put away. Heading out I-90 thru New York to Niagara Falls, for the final destination of St Catharines in Ontario. Earlier in the week I had Giff rotate my tires. They are nearing the end of their lives and are making a racket. Thud thud thud, turn up the stereo, open the sun roof and drown out the moaning tires. New sneakers will be the first item on the list, when we get back.

Some shots from the road. Crystal must have been driving and I was bored so I started experimenting with the camera.



A change of drivers in the rest area and a New York historic marker for Waymarking to boot

Day turns to night, breezed thru customs and arrived at the Best Western in St Catharines.

CLICK HERE for an expanded slide show.

The trip that began at 4:45 PM and ended at 11:43PM

Waypoint gone Way Bad

Last night I was making the final tweaks to the routes for the first 2 days and getting them loaded to the Nuvi 855 and 1490. I wasn't going to mount 2 GPS's like I do on the bike, but somethings are just so ingrained at this point.


For some reason I zoomed in on the route to the first night hotel. The Waypoint was placed in such a way it would be like that old TV commercial GO RIGHT HERE, jump the guardrail and land in the ditch on the other side. At that point we would have to walk the rest of the way to the Best Western.



So the fix is applied with Mapsource, pull both GPS's, delete the routes and waypoints and resend the whole mess back down to the units. Just to make sure I zoomed in on the 1490 to make sure it did take. Huh??? there is nothing but green all around the GPS. Where's the streets ???. Do the same with the 855 and it looks like it is suppose to do.

The 1490 has lifetime map updates and sometime in the past I must have updated the maps and selected lower 48 only. Canada, our short cut to Detroit has no maps for the is area of the continent. I was not about to do a map update and really screw things up.

The corrected view.

Picking on Priceline.com

Today I booked our room in Saint Catharines ON as the first leg of our journey to Minnesota. I have been using Priceline.com for about 4 years now and have been generally satisfied with the results. We have stayed in better places for the same money as we would pay for those errr ahhh not  so great motels.


One thing about Priceline, when you negotiate a price you are committed. If the price is right, you are charged immediately. Went thru the normal negotiation bit going 3 stars at 60% off. PL came back and said if you are willing to pay an extra 19 dollars you would probably get a deal. If you don't then you can't submit another bid for 24 hours. Well their counter seemed reasonable and I accepted. Viola! we have a room at the Best Western in St Catharines.


Of course after I have committed I decided to see what Hotels.com and Expedia has. WTF they are $14 cheaper overall on the room. My whole attitude towards Priceline changed in an instant. Those bums !! I am not taking this lying down.


Find the place to write an email. Grab a screen print of Expedia, just so I have proof. Send off the email. I see a place to make a phone call to them. Oh this is gonna be good, probably 50 layers of menu selections and into the VOIP lost world.


Couple of questions and I am connected to Customer Service. "You call is very important to us....laddidadida. This is gonna hurt holding the phone. Then it was This is Curt blah blah, how can I help you. Well what a surprise less than 5 minutes from dialing a number to getting a person. (probably means my lottery tickets I bought yesterday are no good).


I present my case in a very firm tone. Tell them I have been using Priceline for 4 or 5 years. I am sure Curt has heard it all. Curt says do you mine if I put you on hold while I check this out. I said sure, I can wait. I am already convinced I am going to get a price concession and the money will be put back on my card.


Couple minutes go past and I am starring at the Expedia page, Curt comes back on the line , I see the add says for June 15 arrival which is Sunday and I booked June 14 a Saturday. Curt explains he checked out the prices and he finds both of those sites are for $140 without the taxes and fees and you paid $125. I start a bit of a stutter, I realized what might have gone wrong. I say Curt give me a sec. I change the date on the Expedia site.  1 4 0 not the 93 I was looking at.


Priceline has gone back to the high esteem I held them in and even went up a couple notches. Why because they were still cheaper, they were easy to get a hold of on the phone with a real person, and they took my complaint seriously. 

WAY TO GO PRICELINE !!

Best Buy at Best Buy

We are planning a road trip in the MINI to Minnesota and like our trips on the FJR the planning for this is the same. I decided to see what Best Buy had for Laptops or what ever they are called these days, so I went there Monday to kick some drives, push buttons and other stuff. Actually I stood around waiting for some sales help, because I figure this is only gonna be used for travel and then put away right next to the Acer Notebook we have until the next time we hit the road.


Brett (salesperson) stepped into the web. I described what I had and what I needed and then let him point the way thru the vast array of devices being displayed. My major criteria was the SD card download to the Acer was like reading War and Remembrance or one of Irving Wallace's novels. (am I dating myself???). I wanted something a little bit fast. That was my major need. I figured all of them will access the web, made sure it had Wi-Fi (that is probably standard now) and that it did have a SD card slot.


Brett showed my 3 options very quickly summarizing each. He then showed my an out of box floor display model, which was deeply discounted, had another POS markdown, with one curve ball. If I purchased it they needed to hold it a couple days while the Geek Squad cleans there in store stuff off the HD. Couple questions and we had a sale.


Brett then pointed out it does not have a box, which actually I found as a benefit. I won't get home unwrap and then ponder if I should save the box just in case I may need it someday. I would neatly stack with the other ones I have. I said "No Problem". He did point out I might want to consider a case. I saw one for 25 bucks and said would this work, to which he said, yeah, but you might want to consider some of the ones we have on clearance, plus you get another 50% off. I got one for a net price of $4.00, you read that right 4.00. I can't even imagine that is could be shipped for SriIndomalaguatagascar for that price.


Sum total of the purchase was under 300.00 before tax. Not bad. I think my Acer Notebook cost more than that 4 or 5 years ago.


The real point of this polysyllabic dribble is to commend Brett and Best Buy for the great customer service. It was OUTSTANDING and I walked away a little poorer in the pocket but enriched by the experience.


Best Buy is trying to survive in this brave new retailing world. I know for me I still appreciate great service.

Breaking Bad in the Berkshires

Today's destination is western Mass and Northeast Connecticut, better known as the Berkshires. It is a beautiful sunny day, almost too sunny, skies are blue blue and temps upper 70's but very little moisture in the air.


Head out the Mass Pike to Feeding Hills, MA. Anne Sullivan, tutor to Helen Keller, was born here.



Make my way to Westfield, MA the Whip City. Westfield had cornered 85% of the buggy whip international market, hence the name. While I was passing thru picked up some historical spots along the way.







Jump on US 20 thru Jacobs Ladder. Did you know US 20 spans the continent from Boston to Newport Oregon.



Heading for Rusell Inn. Pick that up and keep heading west on US 20.



In Chester stopped for this great gas station. I am sure I have passed this before, but today it was a must stop photo op. Somewhere along here I had to vere to the left because there was a police SUV with its lights on. As I passed them I saw a black bear lying on the street next to the curb presumably dead. I did give it some thought about going back for a picture, but who wants to see a dead bear. It definitely was out of its element, but not necessarily out of its environment.



Hung a right off US 20 (Huntington Rd) onto Middlefield Rd which turns into the Skyline Trail for the town of Middlefield. My stop in addition to the Double Down tour is also a National Historic District. Middlefield was born from agriculture and has remained pretty much that way since the late 1700's.







Leisurely ride up the Skyline into Dalton, pass right thru and head for the Pittsfield Fire Dept.



Just outside of Pittsfield proper is Charles Power's House. The house is unusual architecturally since it was adapted from the Elizabethan period homes in England. Charles was a bank and the mayor of Pittsfield.



I passed this spot heading south on US 7 and at the first turnaround spot I headed back for the photo op. This is one of four items for one of the NER Tag games



In Lee visited the Hyde School which was built in 1894. Right across the street was this great Victorian Home. Both are on the NRHP.





In Lee got my Double Down at Lee Mermorial Hall, which is the town hall built in 1874. Lee originally was a lumber, agricultural and lime producer. It evolved into paper making. Lee also had some very fine marble, that was used in the West Wing of the US Capitol.



This is the Court House where Arlo Gutherie stood in front of Judge Jim Hannon
for throwing trash down a hillside in Stockbridge in
Alice's Restaurant.

In Stockbridge stopped for the Casino. Built in 1887 it was an entertainment and social gathering place. In the 20's it was sold to some folks for $1 on the condition it was moved to its present location. Daniel Chester French, sculptor,  was involved with the move. Who was French, think Abe Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial.





Moving my way south thru Great Barrington and to Sheffield.





In Sheffield there is the oldest existing covered bridge in Massachusetts. Unfortunately after restoration some arsons burned the original bridge. This is a reproduction of the bridge and still significant to be on the National Register.





Crossed over the border into Connecticut in North Canaan.



Right next to one another is the Collin's Diner and the Union Depot. The depot was built on the intersection of 2 railroads, where the crisscrossed one another. Built in 1872 and serviced passengers until 1971.







In Canaan stopped at the Canaan Radiator Shop for Double Down. I am not showing this picture because it is totally uninteresting. Actually I forgot to upload it. But there were a bunch of teenage to young 20's kids hanging around and I am sure they were wondering what the heck I was doing.


The next road I figured was a dirt road, but to my surprise was paved. I missed one of the houses targeted because it was on the Register and then came into a section where everything seemed to get real real bright.





This place is quarried for limestone and is quite noticeable on Google. CLICK HERE (if you want)

Right down the road is an early user of the limestone. Beckley Furnace was built in 1847 for producing pig iron and operated until 1919. It was originally housed in a building and this is what remains of it today.






I am headed east now along the top edge of Connecticut. The store I picked up for the Double Down is also listed on the National Register. This store has be in continual use since 1812, not a bad run, eh?



Further east is the Old Riverton Inn and the Hitchcook Chair Factory. Both were built in the early 1800's






Getting toward the end of the day stopped in West Suffield and Suffield of some Double Downs.





Crossed over the Connecticut River into Broad Brook. Another really neat gas station.




It seemed to take forever to make to South Woodstock. I missed this place earlier in the season and since I was sort of going this way figured I would knock it off the list.



From South Woodstock, found the I-395 and headed for home.

For the day I picked up something like 19 towns which puts me right around 75 points for season. Today's miles about 288. (actually that is exactly how many mile) CLICK HERE for additional scenes from the director's cut.