Moaning Softly

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, plans have changed and we have cancelled the motorcycle portion of the trip.  After dropping Sherry and Karen at the Albany airport yesterday at oh-dark-thirty, KC and I drove home...nearly a thousand miles.  But the drive was great...perfect (if freaking HOT) weather and reasonable traffic (unlike the north bound lanes which for some reason were absolutely gridlocked for miles).  I pulled into my garage last night at 10:00PM to my lovely wife Sherry and beautiful Golden Retriever Bella.  Bella was doing a hyper tail wag and moaning softly.  So was I.

Great trip.

Glad to be home.

KC and I have decided to rethink our motorcycle trip.  We spent six days exploring New England from his F-150 and loved it.  But the weather in the eastern half of the US has turned hot, which we both hate riding in.  And, at 68 years old, we have earned the right to decide when and under what conditions we'll ride.  As I often say, one of the benefits of retirement is that we get to pick the weather windows we'll ride in.  This window didn't suit us, so we'll wait for one that does.

Its really that simple.

I'll Cut You.

Bretton Arms Inn

Today the foursome wound its way through New Hampshire, Vermont and a bit of New York, ending up at the Hampton Inn next door to the Albany International Airport.  The girls have very early flights tomorrow, so we'll be out of the hotel by 5:30AM.  Ow.

We had our fourth consecutive meal (dinner, breakfast, dinner, breakfast) at the Inn and it was as good as each of the preceding meals.  KC and I enjoyed the gravy and biscuits while the girls had pancakes and bacon and eggs.  Our waitress, a stunning young beauty of Eastern European descent named Audrey, delivered our meal with style and a smile.

Today was Sherry and my 34th anniversary and we celebrated it over breakfast.  The hotel brought us a biscuit with a candle as well as a card that the staff had signed wishing us a Happy Anniversary.  This place knows how to pamper the guests.

Prior to breakfast, I strolled from the Inn up to the main hotel.  The huge facility is AMAZING...a first class hotel at which rooms begin around $800 a night.  We are told however, that the restaurant at the Inn is far better than the hotel and far less crowded, so we're all happy to be where were are.

By late morning we began the drive back to Albany and we went through a range of small towns, some of which were Norman Rockwell New England visions with historic homes and businesses. Others were prototypes of northern manufacturing towns whose plants were all shuttered, covered with graffiti and smashed windows and whose employees either suffered the consequences of lost middle class wages or moved their families to towns with jobs that paid a living wage.  There was a touch of West Virginia's economic collapse in some of these places.

As we passed through one small town, not especially prosperous looking, we spotted a modest home with a sign in its front yard.  The sign contained a picture of a pair of scissors and the business name, "I'll Cut You".  Evidently somebody thought that was a good name for a hair dressing salon.  To us it sounded like the threat an inner city gang member would make.

The weather showed signs today of the impending heat wave that is about to slide across the eastern half of the country.  The temps were in the mid to high 80's, not my kind of motorcycle weather.  In fact, KC and I have made a decision to cancel the motorcycle portion of this trip and head home.  We'll wait for a better weather window and do a trip from home.

Tomorrow we'll drop the girls at the airport, load the trailer and head south.  Cya all soon!

Happy Anniversary!

It's September 23, 2017 and today is Sherry and my 34th anniversary. I'm not very good at celebrating these special days; my gifts and cards never seem to really say what I feel..so let me try here.

Sherry and I have had a remarkable life together, producing two beautiful young men whom we love dearly.  We have lived all over the country and have always made a comfortable home together, something for which I give Sherry most of the credit.  Sherry has always been the one that made friends for us and who helped me socialize when it was awkward for me.  She's a person whom everyone loves and who allows me to ride her coattails. She's been an amazing wife and mother and has offered me encouragement when I needed it, scolded me when I needed to hear that and whispered sweet nothings when the times were right.

I love you Sherry Frame and I hope we have many more years together....

Happy Thirty Fourth Anniversary!!

Love,

Bob

Crispy Buttered Bottoms

Loyal readers will remember our traveling party's effusive praise for this Inn's restaurant last night.  So it was only natural that we'd give its breakfast a try.  We were rewarded with another world class dining experience.  We ordered Buckwheat Pancakes (crispy edges!!) with real maple syrup for the group to share, Karen and I tried the Eggs Benedict and Sherry ordered bacon and eggs.  It was a delightful dining experience for each of us; our food was duh-lish-iss.

KC took a monumental gamble and ordered the Biscuits and Gravy.  To KC there is no meal more crucial than breakfast and nothing better to enjoy for breakfast than sausage gravy and biscuits.  Now there is a distinct possibility that any given restaurant, including those south of the Mason Dixon line, will screw up his gravy and biscuits and EVERY reason to believe that some Yankee in New Hampshire would make a royal mess of things.  This was a test with very little reason to believe it would succeed.  I'm afraid that the odds were heavily stacked against the Inn and KC and for the life of me, I cannot understand why he did this.

And yet our young cook at this historic New Hampshire Inn drove that ball deep into right field,  over the fence and over the back wall of the stadium.  It was a walk off homer.  The fans went wild!

From his first bite to his last, KC gushed about the deliciousness of his biscuits and their crispy buttered bottoms.  Each of us were treated to a sample bite and each of us agreed.  When asked to rank these against all Gravy and Biscuits that had come before, KC proclaimed them to be the very best biscuits and gravy he'd EVER eaten.  Number One.

We met the cook after breakfast...a 22 year old native of the region...and she gave KC a Gravy and Biscuits training course while we stood in the lobby.  The secrets were revealed and KC will begin preparing his own version of these biscuits with their butter soaked crispy bottoms as soon as he arrives home.

A uniquely New Hampshire sprot

Our featured activity for today was to visit Mount Washington, a 6,300' peak in the White Mountains that is famous for its horrific weather conditions.  It has the second highest wind speeds ever recorded on earth (231 MPH), has recorded annual snowfall of 42 feet and can see temperatures drop to -50 degrees.

Entering Mount Washington Auto Road

Halfway up the mountain

The entrance to the summit road was about a 45 minute drive from the Inn.  After paying $56 to enter we began the very windy (that's both "win-dee" and "wine-dee") and narrow road to the top.  The total distance was about 8 miles, which Travis Pastrana covered in under 6 minutes in a 650 HP Subaru rally car (a record that still stands).

Near the summit of Mount Washington

Karen gesturing to the masses

The road is quite narrow, very curvy with no guard rails to save us from ourselves.  As the elevation steadily increased the views became more stunning and the vegetation constantly changed from northern hardwood forest to Spruce/Fir Forest to Balsam Fir forest with stunted/bonzai type trees that are 2' tall and a hundred years old to an Alpine Zone above the treeline.

This is what the mountain is capable of

KC explained to us about a particular cloud formation called Lenticular clouds.  These are formed when air flows encounter a mechanical disruption, such as a mountain.  Apparently Mount Washington frequently forms these clouds which pilots go to great lengths to avoid.  KC met a retired railroad engineer and was explaining all of this to him.  The photo below shows a Lenticular (dome shaped) formation above the engineer's head.

KC chats up a retired railroad engineer from Roanoke, VA

Faking a heavy wind...it was a light breeze.

This crew has seen a lot together

At the summit the temps were a "balmy" 60 degrees with wind gusting around 20MPH and mostly sunny skies.  It was a freakishly nice day at the summit of Mount Washington.  The summit is home to numerous buildings for scientific purposes or to host hikers of old.  We now have typical gift shops, restaurants and museums.

The Cog Railway on its way down the mountain

One of five Cog Engines and cars operating on the mountain

BFF's looking down the mountain as a Cog Railcar leaves the summit

On its way to the bottom

There is also a VERY cool stopping point for the COG railroad which carries a hundred or so tourists up a 34% slope track.  Since railroads can't climb much over a 3-5% slope this rail engine needs to pull itself up a path that is geared (or "cogged").  They operate 5 engines and cars that run simultaneously on separate schedules.  Its amazing to watch the crawl along their tracks at crazy angles.

Post script:  Dinner last night was our third consecutive meal at the Inn and it was another hit.  Different items from the menu and they were terrific.  We had the same waiter, Driss from Morocco, and he was fantastic.  We talked with him about his immigration to the US, a bit about life in Morocco and his experience in NYC where he first lived.  World class waiter!

Can any of my readers guess where breakfast will be tomorrow?

Saint Philip-a-Jesus

This morning Karen was about a quart low following last night's dinner and hotel bar episode.  She thought it was the too-rich Venison Bolognese she ordered (and we all agreed was duh-lish-iss), while others in the group who were at the scene of the crime, offered theories regarding the potential impact that several hours of steady consumption of fermented grapes may have had.  Just sayin'.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must report that Sherry also weathered a full night of wine tasting.  When she finally rolled back into our room she soon realized that she'd lost one of her bracelets.  In spite of much repetition, we concluded we did not know where the bracelet had been lost.  As a dutiful husband I offered to go back to the hotel bar and see if she'd lost it there.  I found no bracelet but did pick up a sweater from the floor and told the bar tender about it, leaving it draped over a bar stool.  Turns out she DID lose a sweater there and that sweater was hers.  I refused to go back...so she had to go.  When she got there the bar was loaded with revelers and she had to pry the sweater away from one of the bar flies.  And ultimately she found that the bracelet was right where she left it...in a bag in our room. Alcohol makes us soooo smart, don't it?

So KC, Sherry and I dined together for breakfast; Karen joined us for water as we finished our food.

Fly fishing is a big draw to this area

We packed, loaded and checked out of our fantastic lodging...spending time at The Whiteface Lodge has been a memorable experience.  From the hotel we drove past the Olympic sports venues we'd visited over the past couple of days and headed towards Lake Champlain.  Soon enough the lake appeared off to our left and surprised all of us with its size and dramatic wave action; the winds were at 20-25MPH and waves were 1-2'.

We pulled straight onto our ferry and within minutes the lines were cast off and we began a twenty minute trip across the lake.  Once away from the shelter of the shoreline, we felt the brunt of the wind and the ferry treated us to a noticeable roll on the full blown lake waters. I asked a young lady to take our group photo and learned that she's a student in Michigan on a surprise visit to her boyfriend, a student at a Vermont college.  I suggested that she might want to give him a heads up before knocking on his door unannounced.  Just sayin'.

The balance of the trip to our next venue was along two lane Vermont and New Hampshire roads.  The foliage was still way behind what I expected...at time completely absent, at times maybe 50% of the way there.  The further we went the more "New England-ish" the landscape, buildings and towns became.

In one small Vermont town Karen spotted a Catholic church named Saint Philip of Jesus.  Saint Philip was one of the Twelve Apostles, kind of a "made man" in the Catholic religion, but we all thought the church name was a bit odd.  However, the way Karen pronounced it came out sounding like "Saint Philip-a-Jesus.  The rhythm of her dialect made us smile and want to say it like her.  Soon, we were all saying Saint Philip-a-Jesus and laughing.  Go ahead...say it.  Out loud.  You'll see what I mean.  Not saying Saint Philip is funny.  Not saying Jesus is funny.  Just saying the way it sounds WAS funny.

Moving right along now.

By 3:30 we located the Omni Bretton Arms Inn and eased through our check in process.  This a charming 100+ year old New England country inn with a Historic Landmark designation located in the heart of New Hampshire's White Mountains.  It's an easy drive to Mount Washington which is on tomorrow's agenda.  The Inn has a restaurant that is reputed to be excellent, so we'll give that a try tonite.

Dinner was a complete success.  Three of us had $56 Filet Minons, cooked Pittsburg/medium rare with Bernaise sauce.  Sherry had the Rack of Lamb.  Everything we ate was "duh-lish-iss"...maybe the best steak I've ever had.   We followed us this morning with breakfast in the hotel and it was amazing.  Pancakes were superb, KC's biscuits and gravy were fantastic, Eggs Benedict were first rate.  Damn...this restaurant is crazy good.  We'll eat there again tonite!

Sleds and Pontoons

Main dining room at lodge

One of two huge fireplaces in dining room

After our breakfast at the Lodge we loaded the truck for a trip out to the Olympic Sports Complex just outside of Lake Placid.  The primary reason for our trip was to see the Olympic bobsled track.  If we'd been here on the weekend we could have done a bobsled ride on the actual course.  They outfit the sleds with wheels and drive over a dry course to simulate what a real ride is like...but we just have to settle for words and videos.

Starting point at halfway point on course

We joined one other couple from Wisconsin (he'd been a minor league ski jumper in his youth doing at most a 60 meter jump) for a tour of the facility.  Our guide was knowledgeable about the sport and the history of the bobsled course and its operation.  The entire course runs about a mile with sleds reaching speed of 90 MPH and the drivers pull up to 7 G's on the trip down. 

Bobsled course

Upper section of bobsled course

A worker in the gift shop told me he'd ridden a sled down once and swore he'd NEVER do it again...claiming it was a violent experience and the shaking affected his brain for days afterwards. The course is still used every year for World Cup events and there were folks preparing the course now for its winter icing.  When fully prepped, the refrigerated concrete track is covered with 3" of solid ice and the entire course is covered over with a fabric top to minimize the sunlight, rain and debris from contaminating the course.  The course is an amazing thing to see and we enjoyed the experience.

Trying out for the team

Just need their helmets

We left the bobsled course and headed back to the Lodge to pick up our box lunches.  On the way we passed by the ski jumps again...what an amazing sight.

Where crazy people go.

At noon we arrived at the boat rental place and loaded onto our rental pontoon boat.  For the next two hours we slowly toured around Lake Placid ooh'ing and aah'ing over the incredible summer homes (the locals refer to them as "camps") along the lake.  We learned that Lake Placid totally freezes over most winters, enough ice to support pickup trucks and snow mobiles.

Following the boat ride, the girls dropped off in town for a couple hours of shopping, while KC and I returned to the Lodge to recharge our battery packs.  I did a study of next weeks weather and did not like what I found...temps into the high 80's followed by days of rain.  There is a fair chance that the motorcycle portion of this trip could get significantly changed.  More to follow.

Lake Placid Lodge...Maggies Pub is on far left patio

Dinner tonight was at Maggie's Pub at The Lake Placid Lodge...an historic lodge on Lake Placid.  The lodge offers guest lodging for those who are particularly well heeled with rooms that run from $700-2,500 a night.  Way past my pain threshold.  Maggie's Pub is the Lodge's casual dining spot, but offers diners a fantastic view of the lake and Whiteface Mountain. 

Sherry befriended a couple of older women who sat next to us at dinner drinking martini's.  One of the women, a French Canadian from Montreal, loved Sherry's home made necklace and so Sherry gave it to her.  You'd have thought she'd been given the Hope Diamond.  Friends for life.  In fact, Sherry got a lovely thank you note from her via email when she returned home.

The woman on the left is Margo Fish, an 89 year old widow who's summered at her Camp Tapawingo on Lake Placid, five "camps" down from The Lake Placid Lodge, for decades.  She and her husband, deceased 16 years ago while jogging at the lake, built their camp themselves over many years.  Margo, an ordained minister, was born in South Africa, lived in a NYC brownstone and, along with her husband, taught at Harvard.  She's known as a local philanthropist and is a certifiable one-of-a-kind individual.  From her table she leaned across to KC and, in the sing-song voice of an elderly angel asked, "Do you embrace technology?".  That had Harvard professor written all over it.

KC and I both ordered Lobster Rolls for dinner (Meh...) and he dropped a piece of lobster on the floor.  He offered the lobster to Margo's dog ("McCloud") who was seated at a chair at Margo's table.  McCloud sniffed the lobster and turned away.  Margo said, "Huh, if he won't eat it I will" and she popped the lobster straight into her mouth.  Later that night as we said our goodbyes. Margo pulled KC into her and gave him a big kiss on the lips.  KC said he gagged at the thought of kissing the 90 year old lips that had just processed the lobster that had been on the floor and sniffed by McCloud. You'd better have your lunch mostly digested before you really process that.

Sounds Like a Wet One

Whiteface Lodge

I slept like crap last night and grudgingly rolled out of bed at 6:30.   Worked on my blog until 9:00AM, then Sherry and I joined KC and Karen for breakfast in the Lodge's dining room.  In addition to our own individual breakfasts, we opted for our communal pancakes and Gen-You-Wine maple syrup, which was, as Sherry likes to say, "duh-lish-iss".

Over breakfast we plotted our day...we'd drive up Whiteface Mountain, reserve a pontoon boat for tomorrow, enjoy lunch in Lake Placid with a mini-shopping tour, visit the Olympic Ski Jumping Center and finally do a drive around Mirror Lake which is inside the Lake Placid city limits..  May not sound like a lot, but we did it all and this pilgrim's dogs are barkin'.

Following breakfast we loaded up the truck and drove 30 minutes to the entrance to Whiteface Mountain.   At the entrance the signs told us that the temperature on top was a cool 59 degrees and that the elevator was out of commission.   At the time I did not appreciate how significant the latter fact was to become.  Thirty eight dollars later we started up the road leading to the summit.

The road to the top was mostly ours and we quickly began to appreciate what a good choice we'd made coming here.  The views, almost from the start, were vast and just got better as we climbed higher. 

In twenty minutes or so, we arrived at the top, parked and then confronted the reality of no working elevator.  What that meant was having to walk/climb the remaining quarter of a mile to the summit. 

At first the climb was up a steep concrete stairway with a very welcome railing.  The stairway ended too soon and then the "walkway" turned to climbing over the irregular boulders and crevices that nature left for us.   The pitches were steep and at times strenuous. Without that railing I promise you...there'd have been bodies going over the edge on a regular basis.

The rocks varied wildly in size, shape, and surface texture with gaps appearing at crazy angles.  It often required you to stop and study the rocks, planning in advance how you were going to pick your way through each section.  At times it was simply steep, at other times it was steep, irregular, wet/slippery with deep gaps between the rocks.. Without that railing, I'd have never made it.

Along the climb, the descending visitors offered encouragement ("You can do it!") and high praise for the views at the summit ("Totally worth it!").  After a far longer and more difficult climb than I'd ever anticipated, we arrived at the top and drank in the views.  The views were as advertised...just breathtakingly beautiful.

Coming up, we'd encountered a middle aged man from San Diego and Sherry and Karen had him laughing. He insisted that they should take their routine on the road. 

Following a short rest at the top, we turned 180 degrees and headed down...the route taking 1/5 the time and 1/10 the energy.  At the bottom, KC told us that he'd stopped to use one of the Port-A-Johns positioned along the walkway leading to the "Castle".  As he tells it, he cut loose with an adult size portion of methane gas, the propulsion reverberating off the plastic walls of Port-A-John like a powered sub woofer.  From inside his bright orange sarcophagus KC heard a woman walking by proclaim, "That sounded like a wet one."

Sherry and Karen with a light at the end of the tunnel

On our way to the truck an employee suggested we walk length of the tunnel leading to the broken elevator.  The lighted tunnel was 300 feet long with wet floors and a very cool temperature...it was a fun excursion.

From Whiteface Mountain we drove to Lake Placid and had a very mediocre lunch, dining al frescoe at one of the street side diners in town.  From there we headed just outside Lake Placid to the Olympic Ski Jumping site which is open to the public.  A chair lift took us to the base of the ski jumps where the ski jump looms overhead like a science fiction creation.

The 120 Meter jump on the right, 90 Meter on the left

At the base of the tower there is an manned elevator which takes you up 28 stories (nearly 300') to the launch prep area of the 120 Meter ski jump.  Words cannot describe the feeling of looking down the ramp of this monster.  What cojones it would take to launch down this steep runway and literally fly off the end of it.  So glad we got to see this amazing site.

You are prepared to launch

From the top of the 28 story jump tower.

A view from the top

Choose your position

Tied for Gold!!!

Our last item on the agenda was a driving tour around Mirror Lake, a 124 acre lake surrounded by beautiful summer homes in the grand style of classic Adirondack summer homes.  Dinner is planned for the Lodge dining room...I think we are very interested in the wood fired oven pizza.

Karen resting comfortably at the start of our day.