Off to somewhere: a hybrid road trip
Planning done, plane tickets bought, car reserved, bags packed, SLR sensor cleaned, online checkin completed, ....
Linda, Kris (Linda's son) and I catch a red-eye tonight. I'd tell you where we're going, but that would make the "Where In..." posts WAY too easy, so I'll be posting where we've been, as things progress.
First two days we will be staying with friends: I'm unsure as to their internet situation, so I may not be able to post again until Friday.
This trip will entail some road work this week, then after Labor Day we'll be squatting at a different friend's place and taking day trips from that location.
Sean (my son) will be joining us at that point (he's taking the same red-eye we are, just one week later).
Hope to keep you amused over the next 18 days.
We're leaving Harley in charge:
http://donandlindacasey.com/images/Harley.jpg
Photo: Don Casey
Harley looks capable to me
Have a nice trip and thanks for getting out there so we can add to the inventory of new images for the puzzle game!
Mark
I don't think "too creative" has been invented yet
This is the web, which defies linear thinking -- so this seems reasonable to me.
...Not any more helpful though,,,
Mark
Puzzle one has been solved: the rest of the story
Off on vacation!
Roland (our housesitter) came by to take over the home front, and drove the three of us and assorted luggage to Concord BART. A train change at MacArthur went off without a hitch, as did the connection to the AirBART bus to Oakland airport. Nobody in the checkin line, and we were sitting down at a table in the Terminal 1 Chili's having dinner only two hours after leaving home. An auspicious start.
Didn't get a lot of sleep on the flight, thanks on part to a couple of chatterboxes in the seats ahead of us who didn't seem to understand that some people actually want to SLEEP on late night flights. Ah well, never that good at sleeping on a plane anyway.
The first shot is from one of the buses that transports you from the gates to baggage claim at Dulles. It's of the terminal tower; but neither my condition nor the environment helped the technical aspects of this shot.
These buses are like nothing I've ever seen. They're the only way to get from the gates to the terminal building, and aside from driving you there, they squat.
You board at concourse height at the front of the bus.
They shut the doors.
The bus then squats down to runway height, backs away from the gate, and drives off to the terminal (it was during the drive I took that shot).
At the terminal, it parks, rises up to concourse height again, and you debark.
The second shot is Wegmans... Linda's favorite market. Also known for their on-premise bakery and ready-to-eat food.
Linda had filled my head with tales of Wegman's apple fritters... alas, this Wegman's appeared to be too upscale for such pedestrian fare, so I had to settle for a caramel sticky bun for breakfast.
Next... off to (but that would be telling)
Filling in the missing bits.
Dode and Don live in Huntingdon PA, on the Juniata River in the Allegheny mountains; home to Juniata College.
Here's two shots of downtown Huntingdon:
http://www.takeyourparents.com/user_...-82?1253022839
Photo: Don Casey
http://www.takeyourparents.com/user_...-83?1253022901
Photo: Don Casey
Just up the way (30 miles or so) is State College, home to Penn State University (currently ranked just above Cal in the football polls).
Side note: we're quite fond of college towns; the combination of the energy of the students with the usual combination of interesting places to eat and cultural options is great.
Moving on:
The irony I saw in the diesel smoke from the trains comes from the fact that they were hauling coal; the former source of motive power for the railroads.
My burger was named "The Pittsburger" (west of town); they tell me it's a PA thing putting fries on top of things, including open-face burgers, salads, you name it. We saw this again in State College.
