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
 
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So hey, I finally took the plunge and made a reservation for Boston, just in time to see a forecast for a storm coming to New England Tuesday night, a forecast that was confirmed juuuuuust late enough to ensure I couldn’t cancel my reservation in time. Yaaay!

But whatever, I was born during violent weather, so this will be a mere walk in the park for me, even though my dear Mommy threw a fit about me traveling under such adverse conditions. If this is how she reacts to me being in mildly bad weather, then I probably shouldn’t tell her about my plans to go tornado chasing in a few months.

So this is how I’m gonna kick it: I’ll be spending a large part of the day driving the scenic byways in Rhode Island and geocaching along the way like a fanatic monkey who has no life whatsoever, mainly because I do in fact have no life whatsoever. In the course of doing so I may come across hot babes at rest stops and whatnot prior to my arrival at Boston, in which case I will walk up to them and use my world renowned pickup line: “I think you’re beeeooootiful! Will you be my love snuggles?”

After having been solidly rejected by the entire female population of Rhode Island (all 6 of them), I will spend a few minutes crying over hot cocoa at the border of Massachusetts, then continue on my journey until I arrive at long last at Beantown, for the first time evah! I will then check in, discreetly inquire about escort services, then decide I would never make enough money in this lifetime or the next to afford it, and opt for a slice of pizza at the North End instead.

Good times, baby, good times.

Wish me luck! I probably won’t blog at length until I’m safe and sound at my hotel tomorrow night.

Tags: Beantown, boston, geocaching, hot babes, hotel, journey, Massachusetts, New England, pizza, scenic byways, storm, travel, weather
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Recently New York had just been ranked for being the unhappiest state in the country. My experience today could certainly tell you why.

Since I live in an apartment complex that assigns one parking space per apartment, it’s only natural that we would have an overflow of cars, most of which have no choice but to park on the side streets. When I first moved here they originally gave me trouble over that, until I went down to town hall and explained my situation. Since they knew who I was (it helps to have a long, sordid history of troublemaking with the government) they ripped up the ticket for me and sent me on my way.

Today though was a slightly different story. I’m out shoveling three cars, the sidewalk and God only knows what else for half the residents here, when I see a code enforcement car slowly moving down the street. He was actually getting out and writing tickets for each car that was parked on the street, all of which belonged to the neighbors. What the…

My car was the last in line since it was parked near the curb, so I had time to go up to the old looking douchebag and start a friendly conversation. Since we lived near a train station, the side streets here could not be used for more than 2 hours parking normally, but they tend to make unofficial exceptions for awesome people like me who have to live in this dumpy neighborhood.

“Hey there, are you writing tickets? Because all these cars belong to residents here.”

“You can’t park here. We have a snow emergency and all cars must be off the street to allow plowing.”

“Really, I wasn’t informed of this.”

“All residents were notified. Please move your car or you will be ticketed.”

“Well that’s obviously not true, since I wasn’t notified. Didn’t get a phone call, mail or anything. Not even a Twitter.”

“I’m sorry I can’t help you. You will have to park your vehicle elsewhere.”

“Dude, there IS no other place to park. Where are people supposed to park their cars now, up their asses?”

“Please do not cause trouble sir, or your car will be towed and the authorities will be contacted.”

“I AM the authorities, numbnut.” I showed him my ID.

He paused at this.

“…there must be some other place for you to park?”

Oh, so NOW we’re gonna be nice about this?

We exchanged a few more words, until finally I opted to move my car and park it, (illegally if you can believe it) in front of a dumpster next to my apartment. The code enforcement dweeb continued to ticket cars, although by this time more people had come out to see what the commotion was about. Before I knew it lots of angry people with heavy shovels had now surrounded the code enforcement guy Heh.

So apparently, the schmuckheads running town hall had issued a snow emergency requiring all vehicles that were along emergency routes to be off the streets, except that evidently, none of us got this notice. Everyone else I spoke to didn’t get a single notice, so to me it would have made much more sense to leave a warning notice on each car, instead of handing out $50 parking tickets like a transit cop drunk on power. But that would have made too much sense. And besides, what liberal scumbag wouldn’t resist a mad grab for more revenues in the midst of a snow storm?

I can’t get out of this state fast enough.

Tags: apartment, cars, code, code enforcement, government, neighbor, neighborhood, neighbors, parked, parking, parking ticket, side streets, snow emergency, snow storm, storm, street, town hall
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Mega-storm headed this way, with projections of up to a foot in snow. Darn that global warming, dude!

To get myself prepped for the coming Ice Age this weekend, I’ve drawn up a checklist of things to help me survive the snow blast:

• Snow shovel: Check
• Snow boots: Check
• Fake fireplace heater: Check
• Hot cocoa mix: Check
• Hot chicken soup mix: Check
• My snowmen woobly blanket: Check
• Netflix DVDs: Check
• Nancy Drew mystery games: Check
• Several Liters of Coke and Pepsi: Check
• Movie theater buttered popcorn: Check
• Hot babe to keep me warm at night: … … … … … … … …

Sigh.

Tags: blizzard, checklist, global warming, storm, weekend
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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We had been hit with a snow storm this morning and I was already 30 minutes late for work, but I wasn’t worried.  After all my SUV has traction control and all wheel drive.  My black stallion ride was absolutely made for days like this. 

I pulled out of the parking lot, hit the gas and… well… let’s just say traction control can sometimes be an overrated feature.  My car spun into a semicircle before it finally stopped, and I ended up facing east when I was supposed to be going west.  Oopsie.

I decided even though it mean being an hour late of work now, it was probably best that I get there alive, so I drove a tad more carefully.

It all worked out though, since no one was around to notice when I came in, I signed in on time as usual. 

Shortly afterward I got a call from Mom.

“Did you make it to work ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“Thank goodness!  Those people on the roads are crazy!  They pull out of the parking lots at 100 miles an hour and think just because they drive a SUV they won’t lose control.   What a bunch of idiots!”

“Yeah… what a bunch of dillweeds…”

Tags: black stallion, car, drive, driving, snow storm, storm, traction control, work
Categories: In The Coal Mine
 
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Directly in Hurricane Gustav’s path, that’s where. 

Well… maybe not exactly in its path.  I don’t think I’d be that crazy, but I’d definitely be down there, volunteering wherever I could to help people get ready or escort them out of the area if possible.

And then I might just stick around near the coastline for some snapshots and video that I could upload to my blog. 

Ok maybe I am a little crazy.  I don’t really value my life that much anyway, and since I don’t have a house or a family of my own that I’d be leaving behind, who would miss me? 

Seriously though, this is what I would live for.  Without being tied down to a job or a house, I’d be a free spirit able to roam anywhere in the country, and since my income would be drawn from my blog earnings, I’d have more time to volunteer for any charity driven projects that I come across during my travels.

In fact, if my blog were already enjoying financial success, I’d probably be in Mississippi or Louisiana now, Red-Crossing my way around the states for a while and then driving down to the coastline so I can watch Gustav cross over.  After all, nothing says fun like being trapped in a category 5 hurricane. 

I’m not sure why, there’s just something about massively violent storms that truly warms the cackles of my heart.  I was actually born during a hurricane too, the lights flickering on and off in the hospital while the entire building shook and rumbled from the sheer force of the hurricane winds.  Total chaos while the doctors delivered me, the same way you might expect it to be if it was the Antichrist himself being born.    It was said that the circumstances of my birth was an omen of things to come.  Hee hee.

But seriously… 

I may not be able to achieve my financial goals with this blog anytime soon, but since I will be debt free in a few months, and my site still generates a modest income, if I can’t break free I might at least be able to extend the rope that’s been tying me down, and travel in short spurts here and there instead.  Since I regularly have four days off every other week, I’ll have the opportunity to take extended weekend road trips to wherever I want to go, and I’ll be able to blog about it all too.  For the short term that’s an entirely feasible goal for me, and if I keep paying down my debts at the rate I’m doing, by this time next year it may all become a reality.  Baby steps here, baby steps. 

In the meantime, my prayers go out to all those in the path of Gustav, and hope that the damage won’t be as extensive or as destructive as many of us originally feared.

Tags: birth, blog, charity, dream, free spirit, goals, hurricane gustav, hurricanes, income, nomad, prayers, road trip, storm, storms, travel, travels, tzedakah, volunteering
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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