Housing is for the Birds

Subject says it all. This place is at the intersection of US 6 and Santa Cir in Johnston, RI (N41 49.981 W71 33.143) if you want to fly the coop and see it for yourself.

First Cache Short Changed

Does one have to fail to succeed. Is there a silver lining in the clouds. Do you have to know how to toot the tin horn to play on the bandwagon. Which came first the chicken or the egg. Did the Wright Brothers get their plane off the ground the first time.

Well I went out to find my first cache. Location was N 42° 05.625 W 071° 38.251. I followed the instructions closely. The additional clue said "focus the search where the 2 walls meet".

I climbed, I clamored, I stood on my toes, got down on my knees, jumped off walls, got poked in the eye by a tree branch, brushed leaves away, walked in circles. Gave up and decided I just didn't look hard enough. Repeated everything 2 or 3 times and finally

I CAME UP EMPTY HANDED

Happens sometimes. So what did I gain from the experience. GeoCaching may not be just going to the coordinates and viola you find the gold. As in motorcycling, it is not always the destination but the journey to get there. If I had not tried finding the cache I would have missed out on this.

I did learn that it is not uncommon for caches to be muggled

Verb

to muggle (third-person singular simple present muggles, present participle muggling, simple past and past participle muggled)
(transitive) (in geocaching) To remove, deface or destroy a geocache.

Whitin Pond cache is now under investigation for the muggling event.

Cashing in on the Caches

The days are getting shorter, winter is right around the corner, and I can feel the onset of PMS (parked motorcycle syndrome). As you may have gathered (rather presumptious of me to assume anybody else is reading this), I am a bit over zealous about chasin stuff. (God forbid I used the word compulsive). Over the past year, I have been casually researching another form of treasure hunting, but really have done nothing about it other than just read. Well I finally decided it was time to stop testing the water with my pointer finger and to dive in. I got one of these.

I really should buy stock in Garmin, since I seem to buying all their stock. But alas I digress (which is my prerogative, afterall it is my blog). So now I am equiped with the equipment to execute this new hobby. (and I thought simply buying a motorcycle would be the only purchase for that hobby). So what is this new obsession, I mean passion to see the world.

G E O C A C H I N G !!!

Yup I am gonna go out in the woods and walk around and get healthy and be one with nature and associate with the Audobon Society and become a member of the Sierra Club and maybe join the NRA and the Peace Corp and and ...hey hey I am gettng a carried away here. I am just gonna search for stuff and of course I will use the Connie for getting to those places that are simply too far to walk to (anything over a 1/4 mile)


There are a couple of sites that I have found which assists (read enable) one to partake in this endeavor.

For Geocaching click this part of the sentence, see you have already started to get the hang of it, you found your first treasure

Geocaching is the hunt for caches that people hid in various places around the world and provide the coordinates to find the caches. The caches are containers, hopefully weatherproof, and can be be as large as a Gallon jug or as small as a thumbnail. Heres some examples of the containers. According to the above site there are 673,265 sites hidden, so I shouldn't run out of places to find any time soon

The caches contain things such as log (a small note pad) for signing, a pen and pencil, and other trinkets. I have seen notes on some caches that say a Hamilton for FTF, which my interpretation is $50 for the First to Find. Caches can contain TravelBugs and Geocoins, which travel from cache to cache, gathering stories along the way. Each one has an unique ID and is logged into the Inet so you can follow it around the world.

Included in the GeoCaching world is another from of caching called Benchmarking. These are official markers placed and verified by the National Geodetic Survey ("NGS") that can be found using the yellow thing above. The following is an example of a benchmark. You can find benchmarks at the Geocache site too

Oh its the little brass thing next to me. Benchmarks can also be a church spire, the dome on a building, an antenna or any type of marker that can be located and relatively permanent.

Waymarks were once part of GeoCaching called virtual caches, however they have been established as their own sport called Waymarking. There are tons of categories of waymarks which can be found here.

We then have a sport called Letterboxing, which has their own site too. As described best by the site "LETTERBOXING is an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels."


Yup a new hobby that fits right in with riding, just a little more gear to take with me, but alot more places to go.

If you're going to Shelburne Falls you Don't Need to Wear Flowers in your Hair

because they have plenty.

I have been in this area a ton of times on the bike, but never to the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls. If you are in the area this is a must stop. Here's some pics from Shelburne Falls

The Places

Free, personalized travel maps at mytriplogs.com

Gunnin' the Delaware Gap

This weekends' destination was the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area but of course there were a few diversions along the way. Headed out the Mass Pike to Exit 2 Lee and headed for Red Hook. Couldn’t resist stopping for this picture of a dam.

In Woodstock, NY stopped at the HD shop to get another double shot glass

This was somewhat unusual so of course I had to snap the button

Into the Catskills via RT28. Stopped at Brio’s for one of their infamous burgers. Now I have been here before, but didn’t stop for lunch because the place was too busy. Today it was a perfect day outside and very little traffic and Brio's wasn't over crowded




Came across this Post Office. It was suggested to me that this place is where they are keeping the remaining Tax Rebate Checks, until the government can back the checks with some Lehman Brother and AIG funds

Now for the important stuff. Stopped in Narrowsburg PA visitor center for the Upper Delaware River area, and headed south of NY 97. Quick stop at Zane Grey NHS and the Roebling Aqueduct Bridge. It is one of the oldest surviving wire suspension bridges in the US and was supervised by the Roebling of Brooklyn Bridge fame. Zane’s place is right across the river.

Zane's Place

Ended the day’s journeys at the Carriage House in Barryville NY on the RT 97. Had some of the best Hungarian Goulash I have ever had. I stopped here about 2 years ago and it my guess the current owner had just purchased the property and it was ungoing some major renovations. It is quite impressive what he has done with the place, especially the bar and dining room. I believe the gentleman is also a rider, so supporting his endeavor as a fellow rider makes it all that much more worthwhile. The rooms are very reasonably priced.

Bright early on Sunday was a quick run back up to Narrowsburg for INK and then headed south on 97. Brief stop at this place and my traveling buddy spotted these guys across the river. Nice, but I would have rather seen an eagle.

Of course if you are in NY on RT 97 one is compelled to stop here and take some pics

At the bottom of 97 as you turn right onto RT 202 the Erie Depot sits, right next to it is a Historic Landmark the Erie Turntable. This was a major facility in it’s hey day

Dingman’s Ferry is on the agenda for INK. If you are don’t miss the 2 awesome waterfalls. One is only a 100 yards from the VC and the other maybe ¼ mile and well worth the walk. This place is chocked full of Rhodendrons, which according to one of the Park Rangers are in full bloom at the end of June [Note to myself return here in June]

At the bottom of the Delaware Water Gap NRA is Kittatinny Point VC. Last INK of the day.

Finished the day at the Gap Diner. Good food at good prices. It was then a bee line home on the slabs. The Upper Delaware and the Gap has it all. Twisty roads, scenery, INK, sweepers, panaromic views high over the river and valleys, plus it has look and feel of a time gone bye when scotch coolers, kingston charcoal, swim clubs and wood paneled cars were at their peak.

2610 Goes CaFlooey

This post is more of an informational post, but of course I have to tell the story first and if you want the information on how to fix the problem I encounted, you have to read the story.

I own a Garmin 2610 which has well over 60, 000 miles on it, providing directions to me to all sorts of places. To say that I rely on this technogadget would be an understatement.

While I was in Maine celebrating the NER BDay, I left the GPS on my bike over night. Now I never ever ever do this, never ever never, except for this night. I woke up the next morning and looked and said geeeezzzzzzz you are getting old, you forgot to bring the GPS in. I approached the bike to warm it up before the days ride and since I have to wind my hand dwon between the GPS and ignition switch, I can't help but look down at the unit. Whoa! there seemed to be a bubble in the screen. I took my hand, gave a slight twist of the wrist and placed my thumb's fingernail directly onto the bubble. I am estimating it was a precise 22 1/2 degrees between the screen and my thumb's nail. I believe my subconcious mind wanted to see if this apparent bubble would move or maybe it was just a piece of stuff lying on the screen. ( I knew it was a bubble and not a piece of stuff, I was just self-justifying my actions, I am just making excuses here) Within a nanosecond of touching the screen, the screen screamed out with a squechnzumbling sound. I know thats not a word, but if you understand onomatopoeia it sounded just like that. That may have been the sound of my stomach made as well as my eyes watched the screen shrivel, crumble, flake, disintegrate, collaspe, turn to powder, cave in, wither, ebb and flow, detonate, squeal like a gutted pig and other such actions and sounds that I can not begin to describe. All of this happened in less that 2 nanoseconds because by the time the 2nd nanosecond elasped, I was running around in circles, jumping up and down, saying "what a fuckin idiot I am" over and over and over.

Since I did not take a picture of the screen, this is what it looked like

My fellow NER friends (at least 6 of them), who were standing around talking about last night , drinking their morning coffee, looked up to see the anguished state I was in and approached me with concern and sympathy. I am sure they thought something horrid happened or that I was seriously hurt. Mental tormentation is more painful than physical pain.

Just like I never ever ever ever leave the unit outside, I know better to try to get the bubble out of the screen with a sharp instrument like a fingernail. My only excuse is it was early and it was one of those situations this never happens to you, it is something that you only read about. Yes I have read about the infamous screen delimanation Garmin StreetPilots and knew within quarter of a nanosecond what my 2610 was doing.

With the initial shock ebbing a bit I started to plan for the future. I quickly threw out the idea of applying for unemployment and decided I could follow one of the other NERds back to MA. Oh the agony of having to follow a paper map and not the lil purple line.

When I got home I ordered a Garmin 2720 StreetPilot from GetYourFeetWet with a 4 year warranty on it. Hey for 15.00 how could I go wrong. The SP arrived before the week was out. But then I began to investigate a fix for the 2610. I called Garmin, told them what had happened and asked if they would like to provide a new one. The representative looked up my unit and said, well it is over 3 years old and well out of warranty. I had to try didn't I ?. With that resolved I began asking questions exactly what the covering on the screen did. Not knowing the technical side of the unit, he patched me over to one of the manufacturing experts. I asked if this was purely a protective element or would the touch screen be effected. He told me it was purely a protective anti-glare covering. I asked if I bought some Palm pilot screen protectors, would this be a solution. He hold me that would be an excellent idea.

Off to Staples, picked up a pack of Palm Pilot screen protectors for $25, which contained 4 or 5 of them. Dang these were expensive, but they could be returned. Next to Best Buy to see if they had a generic version of the screen protectors. Yup, something like $13 for 4 of them, however I did not purchase them at this time. The Palm ones were returned the next day. Next step, research solutions on the Inet. I came across an article that indicated you could get thin clear plastic vinyl from a fabric store. Off to Jo Ann Fabrics and picked up a half yard of the stuff for something like $.93. Now we are talking.

Got home, created a template exactly the right size for the screen on a 2610. Traced the template onto the vinyl, cut a piece out. 2 drops of water on the screen to act as a smoothing/lubricating agent, placed the vinyl on the screen, pressed out the air with a credit card and viola ! The 2610 is in working order.

So now I have a repaired 2610 and a brand new 2720 as a back up GPS. Life is whole again the earth is again, tilting at 23.44 degrees. Oh and I have enough vinyl leftover to repair at least 50 more SP's.