Other posts related to new-york
Racing Against the Storm: Day One at Boston
Lincoln Adams | February 18, 2010 @ 9:48 pmThis post is part of the series titled, "Trip to Boston Series." The table of contents for this series is listed below in chronological order:
- Racing Against the Storm: Day One at Boston
- The Storm Cometh – Day 2 at Boston
- Concluding The Freedom Trail – Day 3 at Boston
- Lincoln at Cambridge! Day 4 at Boston
- Boston: The Final Day
I left on the ninth, the massive storm front that had just dumped 55 inches in Washington, DC only a mere few hundreds miles away and slowly making its way north. Despite the forecasts, I threw caution to the wind and hightailed it out of New York for a four day adventure in Beantown. There was not a cloud in the sky as I opted to take the scenic route through Rhode Island, and do some geocaching along the way. 
It would in fact be my first ever visit to the state too.
Oh wow... a rock...
Driving towards Newport, RI
Rhode Island was… blah. Although I drove through Newport where all the famous mansions were, Rhode Island didn’t really do anything for me. It just felt… blah. After a few hours of hunting down geocaches here and there, I decided I had seen enough of the state and continued northward. By the time I arrived at Boston it was around 3PM, the sky still as blue as the Caribbean ocean. I was about a day ahead of the storm, and I was determined to start checking out the city as soon as I settled into the hotel and stashed my car safely away at a nearby parking garage.
Boston!
I’m glad I picked the financial district too. It was immaculate, lightly crowded, and the T line was literally right outside the hotel. I bundled up and headed straight for the North End, cutting through Christopher Columbus Park and enjoying the splendid view of the harbor. Before I knew it, I was standing right outside Paul Revere’s House, amazed and awed that I was finding myself walking the same paths and traveling the same roads that so many famous men of history had once been on.
India? Fuhgetaboutit!
Still standing! Now where's my pizza??
Once the sun began to set, I decided it was time to see for myself if the Italian food here (namely the pizza) lived up to the hype. It was time for Santarpios Pizza! 
Santarpios was located in East Boston, so I hitched a ride on the blue line over, and promptly got lost from there, even with my GPS. I had gotten out of the stop for Logan’s Airport, but once I got above ground all I saw were a maze of freeways and no clear way through. Santarpios was somewhere out there, but my GPS would not cooperate and insisted I had at least a 2 mile walk ahead of me. I wasn’t willing to do anything more than a half a mile, so next thing I knew I was hopping freeway barriers, dodging an insane amount of traffic moving at breakneck speed, and breathing in the toxic fumes of all the car exhausts before making it to the other side and hoofing it another few city blocks before I finally found the pizza joint.
Man this had BETTER be worth it. I walked in, asked for a booth and was promptly seated. My muscles were aching from climbing the freeway barriers, so I was glad to be able to stretch my legs and relax a bit.
Weird menu by the way. I had never seen one so brief it didn’t even have the option of ordering pizza by the slice. It included choices for the types of pizzas you wanted, and beverages. That was it. 
I opted for extra cheese and sausage, and patiently waited. The pizza came after about 10 minutes and I was ready to dig in. I used a knife and fork to cut a piece and savored the moment before I took my first bite, indeed the first bite I would ever take of a pizza made in Boston. And the verdict was…
Meh. 
Don’t get me wrong, it was good pizza, spicy and tasty, but there were no heavenly choirs singing, or psychedelic moments that took me to a different level of the astral plane. It was just modestly good pizza. Yes I am in fact a New York snob, deal with it. 
I did note that it was so thin you couldn’t really eat a slice by hand, so I had to use a knife and fork for the most part. That’s just weird. It wasn’t until a few minutes when the crust began to harden again that I was able to fold up a slice and eat it by hand. I had another slice or two and then had them bag the rest. Good thing I had cash on me too, because they didn’t accept credit cards either. 
Once my food was boxed and ready to go, I bundled up again and braced myself for the walk back to the T line. There had to be some better way to get to it, but rather than use my Garmin GPS, I went to Google Maps on my iPod this time. There appeared to be a park that separated the streets nearby from the T line, so I made a beeline straight for the park, initially discouraged to see that the gates were closed. Undeterred, I kept moving along the fence, until somehow, by the grace of God I was able to find the still open main entrance, which led directly to the subways. The park also afforded me an amazing view of Boston’s skyline in the distance, so I took a moment to take it all in, until I could hear the rumbling of the blue train nearby. I raced ahead and down the stairs, just in time to catch another ride back to the hotel, before the latest episode of Lost would start.
Returning from Wonderland: The Blue Train
After Lost ended, I was all settled in for my first night, enjoying the view of the buildings from the 7th floor, and anxious for tomorrow to begin so I could start my journey on the Freedom Trail. Outside, the city lights twinkled in a night that had been further darkened by a brewing storm.
A view from my hotel window.
Tags: boston, boulder, Christopher Columbus Park, driving, geocaching, gps, iPod, italian food, journey, new york, North End, Paul Revere, pizza, Rhode Island, skyline, storm, subway, travel
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
( 
Print This Post
| | 36 views )
Loading ...Off to Beantown in February?
Lincoln Adams | January 14, 2010 @ 8:26 pmMaybe. Depends on whether Scott Brown wins the election or not. If he does, I’ll not only visit, I’ll disavow the Yankees as the work of Satan that they are and don a Red Sox cap and shirt. If he loses, then I might simply decorate my car with New York Yankees – 2009 World Champions banners and decals, then take a visit to Fenway Park and obnoxiously honk my horn at everyone, laughing all the way.
Why yes, I do in fact have a death wish, thanks for asking!
I have to admit my thinking really doesn’t make sense here, since the idea behind me traveling was to put myself out there beyond the loveless dead zone that is New York so I can increase the odds of my meeting cuddly, sweet and wuvable country girls. And yet, I would be getting away from the left-tarded man-faced hag beasts here only to be arriving at the one place even more crazypants liberal than the blessed city of New York: Boston.
But meh, maybe I’ll just pass through and head to New Hampshire instead. I dunno. I still need to upgrade my ancient desktop rig and printer into a respectable home office, plus pick up a new MacBook Pro once I get my tax refund (maybe), and I just spent a small fortune getting my marketing campaign into gear, so money will be tight for a while. I may have to forgo the trip altogether. If only there were holidays in March and April where I could tie those in and get some extended time off to take my trip then, but noooooo, we all gotta be complete heathens here in the early springtime.
Ah well, we’ll see what happens. I’m getting antsy here, and I need to do something soon to break the monotonous routine before I start getting violent and calling people names.
Tags: Beantown, campaign, election, fenway park, girls, holidays, home office, marketing, marketing campaign, new york, new york yankees, routine, tax refund, travel, upgrade
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
( Print This Post
| | 20 views )
Burning Bridges and History
Lincoln Adams | December 29, 2009 @ 1:49 pmBack in October I blogged about my trip through Vermont and New York, and some of the best pictures I took during that trip was a shot of Lake Champlain with the Crowns Point Bridge in the background. That same bridge closed literally a day after I had driven over it, and was finally demolished forever yesterday morning:
As it turns out, there were divers in the water around the same time I had driven over the bridge, and it was since discovered that in some parts the bridge was not even connected to the concrete piers beneath it.
Who knew the picture I took of the bridge would turn out to be the very last one I would ever make before it closed permanently? I found myself truly saddened by its demolition, as another piece of our history is now gone for no other reason than because of the gross incompetence and stupidity of our local politicians. Thanks Albany! 
Here’s a photo from my last view of the Lake Champlain Bridge before I drove over. You can also read more about its history here.
Tags: champlain bridge, demolition, Lake Champlain, new york, photo, Photos, Vermont, video
Categories: News Fit To Blog
( Print This Post
| | 20 views )
The Quest to Recapture My Christmas Spirit Begins!
Lincoln Adams | December 3, 2009 @ 8:33 pmThe bags are packed, the Linc-Mobile fueled, and the letter to Santa requesting the girl of my dreams for my present this year (or a bajillion gabullion dollars) has been mailed.
Tomorrow I’m off to Stockbridge, Massachusetts to kick off a New England-style Christmas weekend. Even my car has been decorated with stockings and jingle bells in anticipation of this weekend getaway, hee hee.
I’ve done about all I could do to get into the spirit of things again this year, and I have to admit, nothing quite puts an extra skip to my step then getting the @#$% out of New York for a while. 
So from here on out till Monday, I’ll be blogging/tweeting on the go. Hopefully I will have gotten enough practice from my previous getaways to upload my thoughts and pics/vids in a smoother manner too.
Alright, time now to nestle down all snug in my bed, while visions of sugary sweet babes dance in my head. 
Tags: Christmas, getaway, girl of my dreams, Massachusetts, New England, new york, stockbridge, travel, vacation, weekend
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
( Print This Post
| | 41 views )
Reclaiming the Christmas Spirit
Lincoln Adams | November 25, 2009 @ 12:25 amIt’s official, I put in for the needed days off, and next week I will be well on my way to Stockbridge, Massachusetts for a good old fashioned Christmas weekend in New England. 
I booked for a night at the famous Red Lion Inn, then will stay at a normal roadside motel for the last two nights somewhere in the Berkshires, where us poor, low class trash really belong. 
And yes, my room at the Red Lion includes a fireplace too. I don’t know what it is, I just have this obsession about fireplaces for some reason.
Anyhoo, Christmas hasn’t felt like Christmas to me for a long, long time, primarily because I let the fact that I continue to be single get me down and ruin what could have otherwise been an enjoyable holiday season. This time I’m determined to make the best of it, and I can’t think of a better way to get back into the spirit of things than traveling to a place where I would literally find myself in the middle of a Norman Rockwell painting.
In addition to that, I’m also planning to return to Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, at the very same hotel I stayed at last time, which I should add has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that Hotel Girl might be there. Nothing at all, I say. 
Honestly, it was just a stroke of coincidence. My family had expressed an eager desire to seriously get the #&$@ out of New York this year and maybe have a quiet, lovely Christmas for once. I can’t really blame them (or me either), because being here is just depressing. We’re surrounded by illegals, our neighbors are hostile and withdrawn, a water tower looms over us, and there’s a nudie bar just down the street (I have so far resisted the urge to take a peak inside just to see if the girl of my dreams happened to be dancing on a pole there.) 
So yeah, a change of scenery would definitely be welcome this year. And I swear, I was only half serious when I have pondered over staying in Amish land again just to get another shot at asking Hotel Girl out for coffee, but I never expected an opportunity would present itself this soon. So… who knows. Maybe I really will have a Christmas I’ll never forget this time.
But I don’t want to play it up though, so even if nothing happens, I’m content in the knowledge that I’ll be in a far less hostile environment, and that I’m at least making an effort now to enjoy what had been my favorite time of year.
Tags: Amish, berkshires, Christmas, christmas eve, fireplace, girl, girl of my dreams, hotel, Massachusetts, neighbors, New England, new york, norman rockwell, Pennsylvania, red lion inn, stockbridge, travel, vacation, weekend
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
( Print This Post
| | 35 views )
Am I being paranoid, or do the locals here really do want to cut me up with rusty razors?
Lincoln Adams | November 11, 2009 @ 11:47 pmSince I’ve been putting myself “out there,” especially when it comes to geocaching, I have so far:
- Been chased by the police
- Been chased by dogs
- Gotten poison ivy rashes all over me
- Stepped on doggie doo (this in an area where dogs aren’t allowed)
- Picked up fossilized horsey poo thinking they were rocks
- May have possibly gotten swine flu (I’m getting a sore throat now)
…and probably a few other things I can’t remember because I’ve repressed the memory.
But on the upside, during the times I’ve traveled far and away from home, I’ve beheld some truly magnificent scenery, which would include the women who somehow wind up in my hotel room for one reason or another.
Indeed, the more I travel and get away from it all, the more I realize just how strikingly different people are in other towns and states, and the more I suspect that the locals here really are out to get me.
Not that people weren’t rude or obnoxious elsewhere too. There were a few times in Pennsylvania where drivers would be UP MY TRAILER HITCH because I had the audacity to be in their way (though in retrospect I think it was because of my New York plates and the fact that the Phillies were turning into world class losers, tee hee.)
But generally, the atmosphere was remarkably different from what I’m used to. Everyone was always so… nice.
When I was at a buffet I remember walking up to get a plate, then turned around and happened to notice a girl, who just out of the blue gives me this heartwarming smile as she passed by. I was so taken aback that all I could manage to do was smile back, right before I ran back to my table and kept my head down low, wondering what crazy Twilight Zone episode I had just been teleported to. Women? Smiling at me? When things like that happen I can’t help but look out the window to see if I can spot the Four Horsemen.
Then there was the time when I was still in Lake Placid, I went to a BBQ restaurant and the waitress who took my order was just too nice for words. She actually wanted to keep talking to me but got called away, and to be honest, even if we hadn’t been interrupted, I wouldn’t have known what to do with it. WHY ARE YOU BEING SO NICE TO ME OMG IT’s FREAKING ME OUT!!!111
And then with Hotel Girl, who not only smiled, but also seemed content to be within kissable distance of me. I’m the type who gets exceptionally nervous when anyone breaches my personal perimeter of 6 feet, because I’ve gotten used to the idea that I am a rather repulsive human being that nobody would want to be within 2 yards of anyway. But then things like this happen, and I can’t help but wonder if maybe I was simply born in the wrong place.
Because what happens is, eventually when I’m done with my travels, I come… home. 
And that’s when day quickly becomes night, and I have an opportunity to compare and contrast what I see here from what I see “out there.”
I noticed it right away when I went down to Panera Bread for a lunch or two a day after I got back from Pennsylvania. Women in particular do not look at me at all. I absolutely do not register on their radar, and for those rare times I do, good grief, the looks I would get. Steely, stony looks of pure, unadulterated hatred. Looks that say “How DARE you pollute the air I breathe with your existence!” Whereas the girl at that buffet gave me a smile as if I had made her day just by being there, these locals instead give me the kind of dirty looks typically reserved for mass murderers or people who like to kick puppies for fun.
I always thought it was because something was seriously wrong with me. I’m undesirable, I’m ugly, I can’t even get a girl to crack a polite smile because I am just that putrid and repugnant and disgusting. But then I travel just a little bit out of my safety zone and wow, what a difference even a mere 2 hour drive can make.
It’s a new experience to come in contact with a population that doesn’t seem to want you violently torn apart and shredded in a woodchipper. I wonder then if the reason it’s been so hard for me to find a nice girl is because she isn’t in fact, here, but “out there.”
Ah well, just something I’ve been pondering over as I try to fight back this growing soreness in my throat. Gees, as if the poison ivy wasn’t enough.
Well, if I do get sick, blogging will be obviously be light until I get better, so if you don’t hear from me for a bit, I’m probably on my deathbed and like, dying and stuff.
Tags: buffet, culture shock, friendly, geocaching, girl, lake placid, new york, nice, Pennsylvania, poison ivy, population, restaurant, travel, travels, women
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
( Print This Post
| | 42 views )
A Whirly Day
Lincoln Adams | November 2, 2009 @ 1:11 amSo I got up early this morning for a 3 day trip to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, where I would meet up with a few relatives to celebrate a birthday at a bluegrass show. The next few days though would be all about meeeeeeeeeee, as I go off to do some geocaching deep in the heart of Amish Country.
So I have my GPS all set up, and I take off, first with a stop at 7-11 for some coffee.
And yep, I knew things were going to go south the minute I poured Half and Half into my coffee and the cap fell out and landed right into my cup.
“Ow, ouch, ow, ouch!” My fingers burned as I tried to pick the cap out of the sizzling coffee. Finally I wised up and used a pair of stirrers to get it out. The coffee of course tasted flat too.
Afterwards, I start heading south and already my spirits were beginning to improve, knowing I would be out of New York and breathing a bit easier over the next few days from being away from this accursed place. Then I see a road sign:
“Verrazano Bridge Closed.”
Nah, that can’t be right. Who completely closes a major metropolitan bridge anyway? Refusing to accept the warning, I pressed on, thinking the sign meant they only closed a few lanes.
THEY CLOSED THE ENTIRE @#$%^ VERRAZANO BRIDGE WHAT THE @*&$%^ GAAAAYEEARRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
I furiously started tapping the detour button on my GPS, but it kept telling me to take the same route that was now completely BLOCKED by barriers and cops. Livid and ready to mow people down, I turned around and made my way back uptown again. The GPS finally wised up to my location and rerouted me through the Battery tunnel and the Holland. Thank God the traffic was light or I probably never would have made it out of New York alive. Eventually I did make it out and before I knew it I was zipping along on the New Jersey Turnpike at high speed.
I didn’t drive slower than 80-90… (ok maybe 100 at times) until I was finally in Pennsylvania. Breathing a bit easier now that I was out of the craphole that was New York and New Jersey, I noticed there was a geocache right by the rest area, so I decided to take a quick look so I could log this one as a find too.
Unfortunately I didn’t find it, although I did manage to muddy up my shoes and cut my hands too from the blades of the grass I was pulling up to find this bloody stupid cache. Oy! Plus for some reason my cell phone was not cooperating, so I could not access the Internet to get more info either so I could locate it.
I gave up and eventually continued deeper into Pennsylvania, then stopped by a Walmart to pick up a few things. I noticed there was yet another cache nearby the parking lot, so it was off I went. (Yep, I am in fact hooked to this.) This time I managed to find it, though not before stepping around in what I’m pretty sure now was poison ivy. I am really, really hoping that’s not the case, or this mini-vacation is going to take a very miserable turn for the worse in a hurry.
I arrived at the hotel around 3PM and checked in, dragged my suitcase up to my room and tried to open the door. After jiggling around for a minute, the door suddenly swung open and the guy whose room that DID belong to stared curiously at me.
“Whoops, sorry, wrong room.” He had just about scared the living crapola out of me too. Yeesh. I quickly moved away, only to move back again when I realized my room was directly across from his. A few minutes later, after I went out into the parking lot to grab more stuff, I saw the same guy again heading out and waving at me. I happened to notice a sticker on his car too, and it was an emblem that had become all too familiar to me. The guy actually worked for the same agency I did. We were, in fact, coworkers.
200 miles I travel and I still can’t get away from my job.
As soon as I realized it I ran to see if I could catch up to him to find out more, but his car had already left the parking lot. Are these people watching me or something??
Regardless, the whirly day finally began to simmer down as I met up with my folks again and we went off to the bluegrass show. I had a nice time, came back to the hotel, and somehow concluded the evening by having a pretty, sweetheart of a girl stop by my room so she could help light my fire. 
But that’s another story.
Anyhoo, that’s it for the day. It’s 1AM, I’m exhausted and I need to get some sleep. Plus I’m starting to itch a little here…
Tags: Amish, coworkers, geocache, geocaching, girl, gps, lancaster county, new york, Pennsylvania, sweetheart, traffic, travel, vacation, verrazano bridge, walmart
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
( Print This Post
| | 38 views )
Loading ...
Recent Activity