The 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
 
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It’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
 
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The holidays are upon us, and I’ve been thinking for my next trip I’d like to go someplace that really pours on the Christmas spirit, Norman Rockwell style. I’m limiting myself to a 300 to 500 mile radius from New York, so it would likely have to be in the Northeast. Anyone have suggestions? There has to be a small town somewhere renowned for its Christmas celebrations, and I’d like to experience that if I could. I’m talking horse sleighs, Christmas carols, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, silver bells, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Mistletoes would be a bonus too.

It’s been a long, long time since Christmas felt like Christmas to me, and I’d like to recapture the joy and happiness I once felt for this time of year again.

Hopefully it won’t turn out like a Clark Griswold kind of Christmas vacation either.

Tags: Christmas, holidays, norman rockwell, Northeast, town, vacation
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Or more specifically, poison ivy rashes, which I somehow got from geocaching in the woods of Pennsylvania. The irony of this? These “woods” were actually right next to a Walmart parking lot, making me think it would be an easy find. Instead I stepped into a batch of poison ivy, resulting in my leaving the state covered in itchy rashes and misery. I guess this is what I get for rooting for the Yankees in Phillies land. Oh, and also for shopping at Walmart (I realized too late there was a Target nearby all along that I could have stopped at instead. Sigh.) I won’t be making THAT mistake again. Then I come home to find a letter from the town court containing the fine amount due after I got ticketed by state police on my last vacation.

$150?!??! FOR A PARKING TICKET??? SON OF A___ YEEEEEEEARRFRBVGHHGh…

Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be driving through that town again. Dillweeds.

I certainly seem to get a run of bad luck every time I put myself out there and try to enjoy life. If I just did my usual thing, instead of going out there and enduring all this misery, I could be safe at home, hiding under my bed while playing Nancy Drew games on my laptop and sipping hot cocoa. At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about getting pulled over by cops, or rolling in poison ivy, or getting mowed down by crazy drivers in the city, or wearing out an aging SUV that just cost me $1500 to fix up.

But then again, I wouldn’t have had beautiful women somehow find their way into my hotel room three times in a row either. Two that brought me room service, and one that helped get my fireplace going. Nor would I have enjoyed some of the beautiful scenery I came across either in my travels.

It occurred to me then that hiding under my bed and surfing eHarmony is probably not the best way to meet or find a nice girl. Besides, I was missing out on life, and even with all the dangers out there, the rewards often trump the risks.

So despite my itching all over as I type this post, I’m determined to continue living the life I’ve always wanted to live, to go places I’ve never been to before, to explore the world and meet new people, and maybe somewhere in all that I’ll someday meet my dream girl too.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go put some ointment on and scream for a little while…

Tags: geocaching, life, parking ticket, Pennsylvania, poison ivy, police, risks, travel, travels, vacation, walmart, women
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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So 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
 
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Yep, I finally got around to it, pictures from my 4 state vacation tour, beginning with a little place called Kent Falls in Connecticut:

Oh look! A tree! *click*

It also stands to reason that a state park called Kent Falls would have, well, falls in it right?

The sign said not to climb the rocks. So I climbed the rocks anyway to get this pic.

It had been pouring rain all morning, but the weather was finally clearing up some, providing me with lovely cloudy weather type pictures:

I like clouds.

After Connecticut, it was on to Massachusetts, where I made a hard right and a beeline towards:

OH YEAH.

The first thing that immediately seizes your attention when you enter this ridiculously MASSIVE store would be not candles, but this:

Oh my holy sweetness...

I’m totally loving the Christmas atmosphere too, starting with a long line of gift boxes that were moving along like a gondola around the store:

Why can't my apartment look like this?

Then things started getting a little nutty:

What up, cracka?

Eventually I came upon the Christmas village section, which literally went on and on endlessly, I honestly had never seen so many miniature villages in my life:

So purdy...

And then of course, the candles…

Oh Big Daddy YES!

And that was just the orchards/fruity section, after that I finally came upon the main area of the store:

Holy flaming wicks of external wax!!! O_O

And then, behold, the mother of all candles:

I WANTIE!

Ok, ok, that’s it for the candles. Yes I know I need help. Yes I know I’m a girlie whirly boy-boy for digging candles so much, but I gotta be me. Anyhoo, after that, it was off towards the Mohawk Trail (Route 2 in Massachusetts):

Screeched to a halt so I could get this shot off.

This is when I started to lose a signal. I was getting up there in the mountains and even Verizon was having trouble. I was pretty sure I was still on the right track though, until I saw this sign:

I KNEW I made a wrong turn somewhere...

Heh. After finally arriving in Williamstown, I spent the night and the next morning continued into Vermont on Route 7:

I could live here... well no, it's still Vermont.

Honestly, no camera in the world could truly capture how majestic the scenery was. Truly one of the best scenic drives I’ve ever taken. I finally got off Route 7 and headed east on Route 4 to Killington. After a while I finally pulled over when I saw this resort:

Autumn becomes Winter... Magnificent.

Man, I can only imagine what it must cost to spend a night there. But WOW, what a view.

After some thought, I finally decided I would spend the rest of my vacation time back in New York at Lake Placid, and turned around to head back to NY. I took Route 125, eventually leading me to the Crowns Point Bridge. This drive alone may have well been the highlight of my trip. I passed by a barn and the scene was so pretty that I immediately U-turned, parked the car and got out my camera and tripod so I could take a few pics.

No sooner than I got out of the car and started walking when I saw two dogs coming out of a backyard near me, the size of HORSES I tell you, and of course they immediately galloped in my direction.

OH BLEEEP!

I ran like a crazy man back towards my car, the tripod banging against my legs while I furiously got my keys out to open the door, banged my head on the roof, then leapt in and slammed the door. I was in a daze, and after a moment I collected myself and looked out the car.

The stupid dogs had already gotten bored and were actually YAWNING at me. Who keeps their dogs unchained in an unfenced yard anyway? Gads.

Rather than chance stepping out again, I simply took the pictures from my driver’s seat. The windows up of course. These dogs were HUGE after all.

If this photo had sound, you'd hear the barking of the dogs that chased after me.

I took a bunch of shots with different exposures and merged them all together to make the next image. Didn’t come out great, but oh well.

An enhanced view of the barn. Meh.

After that little escapade, I continued down and saw such a wondrous view of Lake Champlain that I had to stop one more time, and I’m glad I did:

It's hard to tell, but this was literally just a narrow street beset by water on all sides.

I had come at just the right moment, with the sun setting beyond the mountains and hitting the lake at the perfect angle:

Pretty beyond words.

Here’s another shot:

I saw this and never wanted to go home again.

I did the same thing here that I did with the barn, taking shots at different exposures and merging them together again:

An enhanced view of Lake Champlain.

Finally, here’s the Crowns Point Bridge itself, connecting Vermont to New York:

You can just make out the bridge, which literally closed the day after I went over it. I had nothing to do with that by the way.

I stayed the night at Ticonderoga at a GORGEOUS Best Western, then moved on at long last to Lake Placid:

Onward to Lake Placid!

Checked in at a hotel that offered a pretty lakeview room:

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I did some exploring around town for a couple of days, including checking out Saranac Lake too, which was right next door:

Saranac Lake, small but pretty!

After two nights I moved on to another hotel, this one offering a lakeview AND a fireplace. Oh yeaaaah…

A view from my balcony at the last hotel I stayed at before going home. Wah.

Yes, I think I’ll live here… forever?

This is what makes it all worthwhile baby.

And the bear that attacked earlier? Well we decided to bury the hatchet:

Vicious, attacking bear and I reached an understanding.

After my last night there, I rose up in the morning, and took one looooong, last look at my beloved lake, before steeling myself for the agonizing journey home:

One last view before I go home... *sob*

I have more pictures by the way, but I uploaded the rest of them to my gallery. You can check them out there to ooooh and aaaaah my work if you’d like. (Or laugh at it instead. Either way, I dig the attention.)

Tags: autumn, camera, Christmas, Connecticut, fire, fireplace, journey, lake placid, laptop, Massachusetts, new york, Photos, teddy bear, ticonderoga, vacation, verizon, Vermont
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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