Road trip is over!
We are in CA now. Greg, we're in Southern CA, I live in Vista. So I know you all are DYING to know how it went, so here's the brief report.
Ok, the trip officially started on August 14th in Portland, ME. From here, we drove to Tumbledown Mountain where we spent the night next to a pond/lake that is found just a couple hundred feet shy of the summitt of the mountain. We got up early the next morning and headed to Step Falls, in Grafton Notch State Park. Here there is a river/large creek running over a long (few hundred meters) voluptuous slap of granite. There are several "slides" on the granite covered in a thin layer of moss that drop you into swirling pools of the chilly water. Cold, but invigorating. We had lunch there on the rock then headed to a nearby friend's house, Dick, one of the higherups at Yale. His house is on this beeeutiful crystal clear lake. He was not home, but we swam there anyway. It is good water that you can pert-near drink. I hear that if one were to run piping down into the lake and put it near the spring that fills the lake, that water is GOOD drinking water. From there, we headed to our final stop in Maine...Old Orchard Beach. By this time, it was dark. At Old Orchard, there are tons of shops lines along the beach, along with carnival rides like a large Ferris Wheel. It is quite lively on summer nights. After a barefooted walk on the beach and some fried dough, we got back in the hybrid and worked our way to NYC. By the time it was late, we'd made it to Connecticut, just a quick dirve to NYC away.
We had lofty goals for the extent of this trip, so thriftiness was a must. We spent that night in the tent AT A REST AREA!!!! In all rest areas that I've been to, this practice is illegal. We did it anyway. Our alarm clock was unintentional...a stern, upset voice shook our tent in the morning and told us we can't camp there. We said, "No prob. Sorry, we'll be gone in five minutes." We high-tailed it outta there and it was good we had that wake up call- our next destination was NYC. We got there in good time, but neither of us really new much about NYC and didn't know where to go. Karina wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, so we knew we needed to be in south Manhattan.
We got just a few blocks away, only to find NO parking. We headed north a little ways, found many garages offering charging for about 30.00 for the evening. We didn't want to pay that much, but quickly found metered parking for just a couple dollars. We put in 2hrs worth, the maximum limit allowed by the meter, then went for a walk to see the Statue. We didn't plan on taking the ferry across, she just wanted to see it. On the way there, we saw Ground Zero, which on the one hand is just a hole in the ground with a fence around it, but on the other hand...Wow. You can really imagine the physical destruction that was caused. It is touching to see.
Then to Battery Park where we saw the statue and had some ice cream. Our parking meter was running out, so we hurried back, noting along the way a nice looking Japanese restaurant that we'd check out when dinner time came around. Looking at the clock we saw that we were going to be about 15 minutes late for our meter. We hurried, but as you might guess, we had one ticket to the NY Policemen's Ball! Sixty-five dollars and the ticket was left about 3 minutes before we got there (the time was printed right on the ticket). It's okay. Our budget allowed for these unplanned emergency expenses, but obviously we'd rather keep it and spend it on our own terms!
So anyway, we put away our new souvenir in the car, then hung around there for about 30 minutes because it was abuot 530pm and after 6pm street parking in this area was free. At that time, we walked around and looked at some of the local shops and galleries and saw one of the art exhibit we'd learned about in an art class we took together in college.
(Click here for Broken Kilometer website)
When it was dinner time, we went back to the Japanese place (whose name eludes me at this point). We walk in, and it looks sorta nice. We ask to see the menu. I open it up, glance in suprise and show karina. It said, "There is an $80 minimum per person." EIGHT DOLLAR MINIMUM PER PERSON!!!! That better be some damm good sushi for 80 bucks a piece. So we left and walked to china town where whe had some AWESOME malaysian food.
That was the end of our NY tour. We got in the car and opted to spend the night at a hotel in Jersey. Come to think of it, I was only a 20 drive from Mark's house....I shoulda stayed over night there!!!
So the next day we got up a drove to Delaware where we spent an sunny afternoon at a water park at state park. It was neat and only $1.50/person. Who can complain. We got back in the car then drove to a famous grand tree, the Wye Oak. Now you might be thinking, "Nick, you goof. That tree fell down a while ago." We were aware of this. We were going there to get soil samples for a friend doing research. So we get there, and man, the stump itself is awe inspiring. I can't imagine what the tree was like! Sidenote: The Wye Oak is on a state park. This state park is the smallest state park in the whole country. It's the size of one small yard. Maybe an acre, max.
The rest of the day was spent in Baltimore when we got there. Karina was moving out of her apartment. We spent a week packing everything up and we had a garage sale and sold a ton of our stuff, made about 500.00 cash. Then we shipped what we were keeping (not much). When we were leaving, we carried out our last order of business, leaving posts here and at arboristsite inviting you folks to call and have us help you out.
So we weren't even in the car one hour when the phone rings. It's Guy Muiellieurreue (I think that's how you spell it). We headed there and though it took us a while to find him (he was hiding at a arboretum on the UNC campus, standing outby the road waving a polesaw) we did get there. He took us for a nice walk thru that arboretum where I got to learn about some trees I've not seen before. The one that sticks out was...oh, nevermind. I can't remember the name. Like, soapwood or something like that. Karina quickly pointed out a Tulip tree. She's got that one down! And beeches. She knows beeches.
So guy had things to do, but he guided us (or is it Guy-ded) us to a great Indian restaurant. We had a good dinner, headed back to Guy's place where we slept in his son's room for the night (no, his son wasn't there that night). The next morning we did some work in Guy's trees (Guy, did that webbing break yet?!) then headed out to prune a Willow Oak.
Now keep in mind that I've climbed several willow oaks in the past. Not big one's by any means, but enough that I know what A willow oak looks like. So we pull up, and WOW. This was a tree. Up to this point, I only THOUGHT I knew what a willow oak looked like. Guy and I deadwooded it. It took the two of us 2-4 hours (I don't remember for sure) and karina kept the ground clean and lowered a few limbs for us. This was her first time doing tree work with people other than just myself. She handled herself well, I though. I've never shown her how to fill a saw, but Guy asked her to fill his, and she did it with me only giving her one quick tip. She may not have been as fast as a seasoned ground person, but she got it done. It was neat working with Guy. He does things well. I've worked with some good companies and some bad ones. Guy was good. The tree was treated with care, the chips weren't wasted, and I am assuming the customer was happy. Maybe Guy can chime in on the rest of that tree.
We got to the ground, DWP'd some small Crepe Myrtles (which was another new tree for this wisconsinite), cleaned everything up then called it a day. We headed back to Guy's, I gave him a quick lesson on modern climbing hitches, then we all showered up (No, not together!) and Guy treated us all (his wife and son, too) to a dinner at a good mexican restaurant where we all got to practice our spanish a little.
We spent that night at Guy's house, then headed out the next morning. We both agreed. Guy is a great....guy. Thanks for everything guy.
So our next goal was a campground in NC. It is Camp Clearwater on White Lake, near Elizabethtown, NC. I used to go there when I was a little boy. It was a bit of a trick to find (involving close scrutiny of local maps and several 411 calls) but we found it and it was just as I remembered from a couple decades ago (only bigger). This place had over 1100 sites! But yet, has a small feel to it. I wanted to show karina the clarity of this lake. I was hoping it was still clear, and it was. The weather was great while we were there, and we spent many hours swimming and playing a game I used to play called "find the quarter." One person puts on swim goggles, the other tosses a quarter in the water. Then you go find it. Sounds silly, but it's addictive. We played a lot, and after being there for 3 days, ended up losing a total of $1 in quarters playing this game!
---more to come. I think this may end up the longest post ever on Treebuzz.---
and the warning of us having to be forced when the Governor (or his advisors) only thought it was recommended. It did not seem dangerous and Karina went for it only after making it clear that she was against the idea. So we get the tent up and it was nearing bed time. An erie thing happened. For a while the rain slowed and even stopped. It was an "eye of the storm" type of thing. We went for a walk on the beach and as the sun was setting there was a HUGE double rainbow over the ocean. It's rare nowadays that you can see a full rainbow from tip to tip. I appreciated that gift from mother nature a lot. It was a beautiful walk on the beach with the violent ocean on one side, a calm marsh on the other. Setting sun over the marsh, rainbow over the ocean. It don't get much prettier than that!
