One of many driving days to come

Driving days tend to be (thankfully) fairly uneventful. Sometimes I do get some good thinking done. Sometimes I don't. Like yesterday. Little or no thinking occurred. I did get to hear a lot of mom nattering. And I ate some sunflower seeds. Speaking of which, I need to replace the ziploc bag that I keep them in since I discovered a hole. Stale sunflower seeds aren't as yummy as sort of fresh ones. How's that for a deep thought?!

Yesterday was the first full day of being back in the saddle. Nothing too surprising. I think she is still on the same plateau she was a week ago.

We got up and got out in a timely fashion. GPS told me that the time of the trip was going to be 8:43. Add in a couple of stops for gas and food for mom (the food, not the gas) and it took almost exactly nine hours from door to door (ish). Why I say "door(ish)" is because I decided we would "dine" before returning home. Lots of options, but I opted for Friendly's. Comfort food for mom.

I am going to do my best to make mom as comfortable on this trip as possible. It is going to be stressful for everyone - and being away from her home for so long will be hard for her. And it will be hard for me too. But luckily we will be seeing people she knows along the way. Like on Thursday when we stop in Chicago to visit Mary Gerhart. And on the 19th or so when we visit with Mary Flett in Sonoma for a month (ok, only a few days, really). And Ethel and Andy towards the end of the month (again hopefully for a few days).

Speaking of which - does anyone who reads this want to get visited? We can do a drive by, a coffee, lunch, dinner or if you are really interested you can put us up (if you can put up with us) for a night or two. Our only definite stopping places so far are: Chicago - Hood River, OR - Sonoma, CA - Las Vegas, NV - Tucson AZ - Austin TX. Other than that, our trip is open. Anyone? Crickets?

Huge digression. The GPS took us down the Maine Turnpike, onto 295 (not sure how much time that actually saves, but this time there was no traffic near Portland, so it wasn't an issue) then 495 to 90. I don't know why it didn't send us on 290. I thought that might be a smidge more efficient - but not according to the algorithms of the GPS apparently. 90 to 87 to 90 and then home. Makes sense. It is a lot quicker than going the scenic route. We had rain off and on the entire way. Joy. We stopped twice. Once for gas and for lunch - later than was optimal but at least we stopped. Then once just for a potty and stretch break.

Dinner was pleasant. Mom had her typical shrimp dinner - and was surprised at herself for eating all of the shrimp so quickly - and I had a pastrami sandwich. Yay!

After we got home, we both went to bed - even though it was only 9 o'clock. Driving can be enervating!

Ok, time to do something else constructive today. Do let me know if you want to be seen!

The view in Maine with a really high tide!

Juliet waving Bye Bye!

Gas was $3.40 in Belfast!

A different sort of claw like game with keys and locks instead...

The first rest stop in MA

Our second rest stop

Yummy pastrami sandwich!

A Betwixt Day

Yesterday was a day of rest between two long marathon driving days. Well, ok, so Saturday wasn't all that long. Long enough, though, that a day not doing anything was welcome.

Most of the day, I spent working on Flippety. Integrating some of the things that Bill showed me and other fixes I had made in other versions. I think I have a pretty stable version now. Yippee. I want to add one more feature and then lock the feature set for the time being. Until maybe version 1.5 or 2.0 depending on what sort of feedback and downloads I get. If only 10 people download that app, it won't really be all that high on my priority list to upgrade the silly thing.

After I did that work, I decided it was time to add a webpage to my site about Flippety. It is mostly a place holder, but a lot better than nothing. Next step, figuring out the steps to get testflight working and get some apps out there to the suckers, er, nice people who are willing to test it out a bit for me.

Other than that, nothing too exciting happened. Juliet cooked a delicious dinner, we all sat around in front of the fire and did nothing. Yay! Oh, there were some pictures shared, but mostly, a lot of relaxing. I like to relax!

On a completely different note: The other day, I got a "Note from the Universe." Fear not, this is not one of those "woo-woo" sorts of things. Ok, well, it is a little. Tut.com sends out inspirational emails Monday through Friday. Anyway, the one the other day said "Oh, there's definitely room for "picky," Augustus, but there's also room for "surprise me."" Hey, I am always up for being surprised. Especially half way pleasant ones. So where is my surprise already? Hmm? Sure, I am picky, but I haven't been meeting anyone to even be picky about. So? Universe? Surprise me already!! Glarg.

The cove was flooded by rain water!

Even more flooding (and the tide coming in)

Getting Firewood

Dinner a la Juliet!

Yum!

Even yummier - strawberry rhubarb pie!

The better pie shot!

The tide was as high as it could be without overflowing onto the road!

Driving Day

It was a driving day yesterday - a short one, but still a driving day.

The Econolodge I stayed in must have once been something else, more upscale and classier. Lots of dark wood around. The desk clerk didn't have any idea what it had been. No surprise really. I know my sense of history is shaky at best. Still, glad that my GPS found it!

Got on the road around 10:30 again. A seemingly comfortable time for me to be up and at it. My GPS doesn't seem to have a feature of being able to look at the entire route at one time - like on Google Maps. Oh well. I clicked through a few turns and saw that it was indeed taking me cross country and not down to the super highways and back up. Phew! I like it when I don't have to fight with my GPS.

The drive was slow and pretty. Most of the time the speed limit was 50 miles per hour. This is great for gas mileage. And since I was in no tearing hurry, it didn't matter. I was hoping that I would stumble upon something especially interesting to me along the route - like a surprise brewpub or the like, but it didn't happen. The scenery, of which I took no driving pictures, was gorgeous throughout the whole trip. I drove through the middle of both Vermont and New Hampshire. And drove across a good bit of Maine as well. Little or no traffic and not too frequently was I trapped behind excruciatingly slow vehicles. Yay!

I got to Belfast a little earlier than I had thought so I decided to stop and buy some sunflower seeds (I was running perilously low) and then decided a "final moment of freedom" beer was called for. I was going to go to Three Tides, but they didn't open until 4. So I went to the Lookout Bar instead. I like that place. It was pretty much deserted when I got there. Had a nice long chat with the bartender. And met two nice people - one from Buffalo and one from DC. Couldn't figure out their relationship. I gave them all cards. Lucky them.

After finishing my tasty Casco Bay red ale from Maine - they have 11 taps of Maine beer there - I headed on down the road to Juliet and Paul's house. Vacation was basically over. Oh well - I knew it would be. Apparently Mom and Juliet have been having a good time. That is a good thing. Mom continues to surprise me with what she remembers and what she doesn't. I try not to give too much away when bringing up a past event to see if she actually remembers or whether she is just nodding and saying she remembers. Hard to tell sometimes.

It is cold and wet here in Maine just now, so there was a fire going in the fireplace. Yay! We sat around and caught up a bit. Mom and Juliet had gone shopping at the T-Shirt store - Liberty Graphics - and had shirts for everyone (relatively). I like my rooster shirt a lot! Eventually we headed to Chez Michel for dinner. It was my first visit and it was a good one. We had a very pleasant server who is getting married soon. She and Juliet talked about teaching since they both have grade school teaching in common. We all ate good food - I think that mom and I both ate too much. She had Haddock Oscar with lobster instead of the normal crab. Juliet and Paul had Blackened Haddock on spinach. I had Duck au Poivre. Mine meal was very tasty. We even had dessert. Mom and I tried to finish a piece of Death by Chocolate - we did good damage but didn't manage to completely make it disappear. Oh, I had a porter from Andy's brewery - a Maine brewer. Something was dreadfully wrong with it so I sent it back. Ick. No one there knew anything about beer and thought it was just fine. Blech. I ordered a pale ale in its place and that wasn't bad. Yippee!

Driving home, we realized that the tide was very high. Juliet and I walked down to see just how far it had come up - pretty darn far!

We all ran for a beds and called it a day. Yay sleep!

The entertaining EconoLodge in Montpelier, VT

Last Hurrah

Lots of Maine beer

The view from the Maine house

Paul, Juliet, Topo

Juliet, Topo, Velvet and Mom

Mom

Death by Chocolate - not a bad way to go!

Mom's haddock Oscar with Lobster

Chez Michel's sign

Paul, Juliet, Mom and Me

My delectable duck!

 Sorry that the pictures are out of order. Life is that way sometimes...

Travel Adventure Day One

I did something that I don't normally do - I planned stops along  route. Yup, I actually stopped a few times on a trip. I didn't just get in the car and drive to my final destination. Yay me! I am growing up. Sort of. I still wasn't relaxed enough to stop when I hadn't planned - like to take a picture of hay bale art - or at a brewery restaurant that I hadn't known about that I saw along the route. Sigh. Baby steps.

I had determined that getting out of the house around 10:30 am would be a good thing. How I came up with the time, the logic now escapes me. But that is what my brain had calculated. And that is when I managed to head out the door. I packed oddly, though. I took some stuff that I didn't really need to take until the marathon trip. I did get some dishes done and the plants watered - well, Augustus watered - a few drops from a pitcher and a promise that someone with more caring would attend to them soon. It will have to suffice.

Got in the car, programmed in the first stop and headed off into the sunrise, sort of. East at least. It was only an hour and a bit before I arrived at Turning Stone Casino and Resort. I had never been before and thought now would be a good time to visit. It was a bit of a shock to smell smoke inside the building. NYS has been smoke-free inside for a long time - but not in an Indian Casino apparently. Ick. I survived, barely. I wandered through to see what was who and found the place to sign up for a "Diamond" card. I long for the days when one could cash out whenever one won - the clink of quarters in the chute was music to my ears. Sadly, no longer. I put money on my card and took money off my card. How dull! I played the $10 that was given to me for signing up (lost it all) and then played $50 of my own money. I ended up with $37. Not too bad for a half hour or so of fun watching the dials spin!

Next stop, Utica to visit the people who brew Saranac beer. I hadn't realized that they were the brewers of Utica Club. Awesome ads they used to have - with the talking steins. Those were days. I knew I was between tours, but thought it wouldn't hurt to see the place. The store was boring and they didn't have the caramel porter in stock. I guess it is seasonal. Sadly, the woman in charge of the store rubbed me the wrong way. That is just the way things happen sometimes. Perhaps it was because I was hungry, but she irked me and it took me a bunch of miles (50 or so) to shake the bad feeling she left in my aura.

Off to Glens Falls. Mom and I stopped there last year on the way to Maine. Turns out there is a second brewpub in town. I am glad I stopped. Cooper's Cave Ale Company is about five businesses in one. Ice Cream makers, Soda makers, Gift Shop, brewery and restaurant. I chatted with the owner, Paula, for a bit. And all of the people I spoke with her pleasant and accommodating. The only negative in my book was the lack of wifi - which is a conscious decision on their part. I hope that is revisited at some point. Anyway, I had a delicious bowl of Buffalo Chicken Soup. (The soup was good too. :) ) And a taster of six beers. I thought the taster was a bit pricey, but life is like that sometimes. I enjoyed all of the beers that I tasted. And there were six others that I didn't taste. I guess I have to go back again.

I didn't linger too long, though it was a place that was comfortable to just hang out in. I had to make tracks so that I could get to my next stopping point.

The drive to Burlington wasn't too arduous. I got there around 7:30 and called Lisa on the phone. We knew each other from High School but hadn't kept in close contact all that time. Recently we found each other on Facebook. It was great catching up with her. We ate a yummy dinner and were going to have beer, but it was just too crowded in town. There was a Jazz Fest happening, and I was too full anyway. So it was time to sleep. I decided, rather than staying in Burlington, to head a bit further down the road. I asked my GPS to find me a hotel and it did: an interesting EconoLodge in Montpelier (capital of Vermont). Much needed sleep was accomplished! A long and fun driving day!

Lovely Turning Stone

Where Saranac gets made

Welcoming Door

Beer list

My flight

Yummy soup!

Taps and glasses

Jazz Fest in swing in Burlington

Seeing this made me think of the Turkish women who are coming to Geneva

Alrighty then...

My gyro!

Lisa and me

King size for queen size price!

Another Day another Adventure - Ho Hum

I am becoming quite the little adventurer. Well, for a little while. Soon enough I will be hunkered down in Geneva again, maintaining. Until then, though, watch out world! :)

Yesterday, my App mentor, Bill, and I set up a get together in Ithaca. I like Ithaca and don't get to spend as much time there as I would like. I decided that I would also make it a beer day.

Got up, got out and mailed a package and stopped the mail for a few days (while I go to Maine and pick mom up). The drive to Ithaca was uneventful, though the GPS wanted to send me on yet again a different route. One that I will actually take, I think next time. Apparently it thinks that taking the route by the lake is a smidge better than the other one. Good to know!

Arrived in Ithaca a little early, as is my habit. Sat on the mall across from the restaurant and watched people as I waited for Bill to get there. A dog who came out of an apartment (with his owners of course) went directly to a grill in the sidewalk and peed there. How awesome is that?!

Bill appeared and we had a good meal at Viva. I like Mexican food overall. Since I was feeling salad like, I decided to have a taco salad with chicken. Very tasty. With two dressings on the side - buttermilk and lime something. Both went well with the salad. Bill had a tasty looking quesadilla.

After lunch, we headed to Bill's "office" - College Town Bagels! We got a lot accomplished and he showed me some cool code. I do have a bunch of work to do though, to integrate what he showed me into Flippety and have it all work. Maybe I will have some time to do that on Sunday (most of the next two days will be spent driving). More on Flippety in a writing blog soon.

After we were finished, I headed off to my beer adventure. First stop, Bacchus Brewing in Dryden NY, about 15 minutes from Ithaca. They are brand spanking new. Just opened in March. Kristen, the brewer, was running the tasting room. They had three beers - a Belgian Pale, a Red Rye and an IPA. The IPA was the best of the three. I don't know why, but some reds taste a little like dirt to me. And the Belgian didn't taste very Belgian-y - which for those of you who know me, I was happy about! The tastes were a little teeny for my, er, taste.

Next stop, Scalehouse Brew Pub. Apparently the owner of a pizza place decided to turn his hobby into part of his business. They had three of their own beers on tap - A pilsner, a red and a double bock. And to round out the flight of four, they made a sort of black and tan combining the double bock and the red. None of them were scintillating. The bock was the best of the three. The food looked good, but I didn't eat any. I had a nice chat with a woman who was doing laundry next door and who worked nearby - something of a regular. And I showed Flippety to a friendly server - she said she would download it if it were available! Yay!

Then I headed downtown. I don't know where my parking Karma went, but it seems to have abandoned me for the time being. There was some sort of parade happening in Ithaca, so parking was horrendous! I eventually found a spot and walked to my last beer place of the visit - Bandwagon. I have wanted to visit Bandwagon for a long-ish while. It is subterranean. Cool space - but the whole place felt a bit pretentious to me. They did have the best of the beers of the day. And the food all looked great. But the staff left me cold. I had a good talk with an emergency medicine doctor who was in town for a home wine makers conference. And a brief chat with a physicist from Montreal doing his post doc work at Cornell. And a good venting session with a cook who works at the Bandwagon and echoed my sentiments about the place's pretentiousness. As for the beers - they all were good. None stood out as exemplary, but I would definitely hoist a pint of each, given the right opportunity!

As some of you know, I am starting work on a book about brewpubs. And two got added to the list from my adventure!

Home was looking pretty good and it didn't take long to get there - just the same hour it always does. I do wish Ithaca were closer - if it were only half an hour away I would go once every couple of weeks at least!

Pretty flower

Viva Cantina

My nummy taco salad

Unprepossessing entrance

Bacchus beer list

Nice little place

The flight - only $3!

There are the beers!

I don't know why I get a kick out of this

The end of the race before the parade

If I were rich, I would buy this building!!

The entrance

The flight - I think it was $8

The beers - yup, it was $8