Back to My Favorite Stomping Ground: The Big Apple

New York City is probably my favorite city to wander around. In my numerous trips there combined, I have walked from Battery Park all the way to 106th & Broadway. I have never lived in New York City, but I think I morph into a New Yorker every time I travel there. This includes booking it (power-walking) everywhere and crossing the street even when I'm not supposed to as long as there is no traffic that might run me over. Yesterday, since the weather was nice, I decided to drive down to Hoboken, NJ, to take the PATH into New York City. This was a change to my usual parking in Dover, NJ, and taking the train to Penn Station. But, hey, I enjoy a bit of variety in my life.
Anyways, I decided to take the PATH to the World Trade Center because I enjoy wandering the un-gridded streets that comprise the southern tip of Manhattan. It's so easy to get lost that you are always bound to discover something new by accident, whether it's the gothic architecture of a church, traditional Chinese, or cobblestone streets from the New Amsterdam era.
As soon as I left the station, I the new Freedom Tower loomed in front of me. Last year my roommate and I saw it when the structure was halfway complete. Now all of the floors have been built and the windows have been inserted up to about the 52nd floor. I then took the walkway on Vessey St. over West St. just for kicks. This actually gave me a nice distant view of the new 9/11 Memorial. I then decided to turn around and head back to Church St. and walk downtown towards St. Paul's Chapel. I continued down to 195 Broadway, which houses what I consider one of the fanciest Starbucks' in the city. Don't worry, I wasn't stopping for coffee because we all know that I only drink that in Europe; instead I was utilizing my knowledge of every Starbucks has a bathroom and bathrooms are quite scarce in the Big Apple. I soon continued my way down Church St. past Century 21, which was decked out in red vertical tube lights. I then made a left to wander east on Liberty St., which apparently borders Zuccotti Park. Once I realized this, the line of cops on the sidewalk made a bit more sense to me.
After the park, I decided to head uptown on Broadway. I came across the Woolworth Building and got a picture of the exterior; a sign announced that tourists were not permitted inside the Woolworth. I decided to veer off onto Reade Street because the architecture of the Catholic Church of St. Andrew's caught my eye. Since I found myself on Centre St., I of course got distracted by the Court House, which is where scenes from Law and Order are occasionally filmed. I took Centre St. passed Collect Pond Park all the way to Canal St. I wandered west on Canal before deciding to take Mercer St. uptown. Part of me wishes I could have oriented myself better so that I could have wandered the heart of Little Italy, but I was very excited to find Mercer St. to be old cobblestone. I was soon at West Houston St. diagonally across from the Angelika Film Center and Cafe. I continued uptown until I reached Bleecker St., which is where I decided to venture east for a couple blocks.

Once I found Broadway, I followed that uptown passed Grace Church, to Union Square. The German in me was instantly sucked in by the Christmas Market. Sure the sign said "Holiday Market", but I'm tired of being stifled by the politically correct. Anyways, I wandered around some of the booths and found the most amazing knit hat ever. It contained my two favorite colors (red and orange), was a mohawk, and had fleece-lined ear coverings. I kept coming back to it and finally bought it for myself as an early Christmas gift. I then wandered past the German Delights and continued my way through the square to Park Ave. I followed Park up to 35th, which is where I decided to head west to Herald Square and Macy's. I took in all of the window displays and singing salvation army men.
After gazing upon the windows, I was then approached by a woman who asked me if I was a sports fan. I replied "yes" and she wanted to know if I followed the New York Giants or had an opinion on the coach. I'm not a Giants fan, but I do feel that Coughlin has a temper. She then excitedly asked if I minded being filmed for a poll on the coach. After determining that this was just random and fun, I took the microphone and said my piece. For those interested in what I had to say, fast forward to 1:06 of this YouTube clip.
I then decided to wander into Macy's and take a look at their displays. I was videotaping just inside the entrance and promptly had some woman from security tell me that I was not allowed to do that. I settled for just taking pictures after that, but am quite amused by the fact that pictures are allowed, but not videos. I've always wondered why that is, so if anybody out there knows the answer, please inform me. I wandered the first floor, but promptly got tired of the large crowd and decided to leave. I looked at a few more window displays before venturing up Broadway to 42nd St. and Times Square. I always enjoy seeing this part of town lit up. As I passed the Walgreens, I noticed a large crowd standing outside the door. I ambled over to it and found out that apparently Heidi Klum was inside. I'm not one to really get excited over celebrities because I just view them as highly publicized normal human beings, but since I had nowhere else to go at the time, I stood around for kicks. Eventually we were informed that she left through another exit and asked to disperse.
I wandered up Broadway again until I reached Radio City Music Hall. I always enjoy the colorful lights and displays that are along the street and fountains in this area. After snapping a few photos and video, I ventured over to the crowd gathering alongside the music hall. After waiting about 10 minutes and having my bag checked, we were allowed to go get our spots in Rockefeller Plaza for the Christmas Tree lighting. Mind you, it was 4:30pm and the tree wasn't going to be lit until 9pm, but this was one of those once in a lifetime occurrences that I felt the need to take advantage of. I thankfully was smart enough to pack a book and granola bars, so I sat on the curb in my fenced in area for a couple hours reading to pass the time. I made passing comments to some of the people next to me, but had no conversation of substance.
At 7pm, Al Roker came out on stage to do his announcing gig. He announced the "live performance" of Michael Buble, which was really all of us watching a previously recorded tape done the week prior. From where I was, it was hard to know how many of the performances were actually live or previously recorded. Anyways, during commercial breaks, the crowd was encouraged to cheer loudly once the hosts came back to be taped. It was mildly amusing. I did see Donald Trump, though, and I'm convinced that he uses wax to hold down his comb-over so the wind doesn't blow it in every direction.

Finally, after hours of waiting, the countdown to light the tree began. Mayor Bloomberg did the honors, and it sparkled brilliantly, just as expected. I was very glad to be able to cross something off of my bucket list, but in hindsight, it's definitely much smarter to watch the event from home. I then had to figure out how to get outside of the fences and crowd, which took about a half hour. I made my way to the Rockefeller Center subway station to take the F train to 34th St. Once there, I wandered down to 7th Ave before looping back to 33rd St. and 6th Ave to take the PATH back to Hoboken. Once in Hoboken, I went back to the garage on Hudson St. and 2nd St. where my car was parked on the 6th floor and drove the one hour and 45 minutes back to Stroudsburg. All in all, it was a great experience and led to me falling into a very deep sleep for the night.

Piloting a Cessna

Today I met my dad at the Cherry Ridge Airport just outside of Honesdale, PA. His friend, Lee, was expected to be flying in from Conway, NH, with his 1965 Cessna Skylane. My dad and I went for a walk and talked about the bus trip he took back when he first visited the United States.
Around 1:30pm, I heard a plane in the sky and we saw Lee coming towards us on the horizon. He circled over us and then came in for a landing on the runway. He made is way over to park, climbed out of the plane, and gave me a big hug. I haven't seen Lee in a number of years, so he was looking forward to catching up on what I've been doing with my life.
But before catching up, he asked me if I wanted to go on a little flight in his plane. I of course was all for it because it's not everyday that you can go up in a Cessna. To my surprise and great excitement, Lee told my dad to sit in the back because he wanted me to fly us around the countryside! Once we got our headsets all functioning, Lee turned on the plane and we began taxi to the end of the runway. He had me use the foot pedals to steer us down to the end of the runway. We then came to a stop to boost the throttle to ensure the engine worked and go through the pre-flight checklist. Lee put me in charge of the radio so before take-off, I had to say, "Honesdale. Skylane 8433 Sierra. Takeoff on runway 36. Honesdale." After I finished announcing that, Lee throttled us down the runway and took off in the direction of Honesdale. As we made our way over my former high school and the thriving metropolis of Honesdale, Lee instructed me on how to steer, increase altitude, and decrease altitude. He then decided that I should be in charge of our flight at that point, so I found 191 north on the ground and followed that until I recognized houses on the horizon and headed towards Galilee. I flew over my parents house at 2500 feet and then headed towards Callicoon, NY. Once I got to the Delaware River, I banked right in order to circle back over to Galilee before making my way back to the airport. Lee allowed me to attempt to line the plane up with the runway before coming in for a landing. Once we were within a half mile of the airport, Lee took over the controls again so that we could make a safe and smooth landing. It was definitely an experience I won't soon forget!

My parents house in Galilee, PA, from 2500 feet

Octoberfest Weekend

The tradition of the past four years has been for me to trek to Knoebels on Columbus Day weekend for some festivities with my friend, KK, and her family. I continued in this tradition, though it was limited to just one day since I had a jam-packed weekend of activities planned.

On Friday, I set out for Sunbury, PA, to meet up with KK at the Sheetz by her house. This place alone makes me laugh because I always remember the first time I was going to visit KK and she was giving our friend, Teresa, directions and told her that we should "turn at the Sheetz," but Teresa heard "turn at the sheep" and was wondering how KK knew they would be there. Anyways, this venture took much longer than expected due to the excessive construction on I-80 west and drivers continual inability to merge into one lane when prompted to do so. I eventually found KK and we drove to Knoebels to park my car before running errands for her mom. KK was also trying to give directions to her cousin about how to locate her house and needed to call her mom to see if anybody was home to flag down her cousin. Needless to say, this involved KK being on two phones at once, which was a highly amusing sight. 

We soon made our way to the Crest Haven Farmer's Market to pick up cold-cuts and cheese for our sandwiches before hunting for birthday cards in the dollar store. After mailing the cards, we made it back to Knoebels and located KK's family in the British Columbia section of the campground. We all sat down and enjoyed some sandwiches for dinner and chatted about what was new and exciting. KK's mom insisted that I eat more, which is typical, and I enjoyed arguing back since she was berating me in English and not German about eating more. After dinner, we made our way to the bumper cars for the semi-annual two hours of smashing into each other as hard as possible. KK and I shared a car for the majority of the time, which was a blast, even though many bruises began forming after numerous collisions with her dad, uncles, Gus, and Mots. Following bumper cars, we went back to the campsite to relax in front of the fire. I enjoyed chatting with KK's grandma about life. She was amused by the devilish look in my eye that I had every time I went to hit somebody during bumper cars. I informed her that my oma's nickname for me when I was growing up happened to be "kleine teufel" which means "little devil." Soon we were all exhausted and decided to turn-in for the night.

The next morning I had a nice chat on the phone with my brother and then read some of my book for the book club on Sunday evening. This was followed by a delicious breakfast of toast, bacon, eggs, and breakfast potatoes. Following my breakfast, I packed up my car and set off on my next adventure, which was to locate Josh's family cabin outside of East Canton, PA. I knew that this would definitely be interesting considering part of the directions stated, "turn into a parking lot by a milking parlor and continue around until the barn is on your left and then drive down the road that goes off into a field at an angle. Follow this into the woods and then you have arrived." Thankfully, I only missed a turn once, but noticed it on my second drive-by. Otherwise, I would have been out of luck considering there is no cell phone service in the area. What made my arrival even more entertaining was the fact that Josh wasn't even at the cabin when I got there and I had never met anybody who was there at the time. One of the three Larry's greeted me and told me to make myself at home while he went back out target shooting. I took a seat at a table and continued to read my book. Soon Josh arrived with his cousin and brother. They had their rocket boat with them, but realized that they had left the ignition button at the house, so we all piled into the car and went back for it. 

Once back at the cabin, we all wandered down to the pond to test out the rocket boat. I was part of the rescue crew for the first attempt, so I went out in a canoe with Josh's brother-in-law so that I could film the attempt and then retrieve the boat. The first attempt wasn't terrible, though it flipped when it caught a wave. The second-attempt was quite zig-zaggy, while the third attempt was a beautiful straight shot to the shoreline. Our favorite attempt, though, was the fourth because it went straight for about half the length of the pond before becoming extremely unstable and flipping over. Watching the video amuses us every time. After rocket-boating, we went inside for a tasty dinner, which made for good fuel before going out and shooting rifles. We shot at spinner targets and plastic cups, but soon upgraded to jugs of oxygen acetylene. There is no describing the effects of this, so it is best that you watch the video at the end of this post for the full effect. It was definitely one of the highlights of my weekend, though. We then went back inside and played Settlers of Catan before getting some sleep.

The next morning we ate a heart breakfast before having a little church service at the cabin. Following the service, Josh and I went for an hour long walk through some pastures, woods, and corn fields. It was definitely great to be out in nature again hearing the crunch of leaves under my feet and enjoying the sunshine. After our walk, we played a game of Rivals of Catan before a lunch of lasagna. I had to trek south to the Burg after lunch so that I could shower and make it to my book club down in Coopersburg. It was a refreshing evening chatting about how sin, not men, is the main problem, along with the importance of a woman maintaining her identity, while embracing the roles of wife and mother. The importance of Christian community with fellow women was also discussed because too many get sucked into maintaining their nuclear family and we must not forget what we can learn from each other's experiences and gain from communication. All in all it was a very entertaining and refreshing weekend.

Video of the Journey Search

Trek to the Mountain for Some Stress Relief

 On Wednesday, Chrissy and I decided to escape the Burg for some stress relief. We both needed it desperately, but for different reasons. For me, it was due to the frustration of job searching to no avail, whilst Chrissy has her last semester of classes and her prospectus looming. Needless to say, we needed some distractions. We started out by playing cards with my mother. This is always a good time because we throughly enjoy beating her and laughing about it. Since I needed something else to also keep my mind off the fact that my 15 year old cat, Midnight (aka Furface, Droolface, Demon Kitty), had just passed away in her sleep Monday, I decided to assemble a bunch of army men outside so that I could shoot them with a .22 rifle. Some might find this odd, but I find it to be quite soothing, and yes I promise I'm not some crazed psychopath. Anyways, my stress was quickly alleviated after aiming at the plastic army and Chrissy joined in on the fun. Soon, though, she had to work on her prospectus and I washed my car since it was filthy. Following a delicious steak dinner, my dad let us target practice with a .22 handgun and a .32 Ruger revolver. All in all, it was a very successful stress-relieving day =)

Founder's Day Outhouse Racing

On Saturday, August 13, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into when Josh invited me to accompany him to Dushore, PA, for the annual Founder's Day Outhouse Races. We arrived at Dane's house to see a large gathering of people all wearing red shirts emblazoned with Super Septic Suckers on the back and a trailer holding the 3-time champion outhouse. Everybody was busy chatting and gearing up for the big evening while Josh and I took in our surroundings eating our Subway sandwiches.
Soon it was time for a few announcements. Dan gave a valiant speech outlining the integrity of the Super Septic Suckers, or SSS. He described how the torch would soon be passed to the Second Super Septic Suckers and the hopes that their endless training would pay off. Group pictures were taken and strategies were discussed amongst the teammates before we all loaded up onto the truck and trailer to cruise into the bustling metropolis of Dushore. Some marched behind the trailer carrying a large American flag, while the remaining members waved from the trailer as the team was announced.



After unloading the famed outhouse, the teams involved took the traditional walk through of the course before the racing began. The Super Septic Suckers took part in the first race against the Dushore Poo-lice. All was going well until the turn around the monument when the SSS rig had a wheel malfunction. They had to come to a complete stop and finish the rest of the course without the use of the left front wheel, but they still managed to cross the finish line in a stunning 45 seconds and move into the round of 8. There was much drama surround the Second Super Septic Suckers semifinal race due to the fact that one of the pushers fell right before the finish line and was not holding onto the outhouse when it crossed the finish, which gave them a 4 second penalty, taking them out of the final race. The final race came down to the Super Septic Suckers and the Dushore Poo-lice following the penalty, and unfortunately, SSS fell to second place for the first time in 4 years. They raced valiantly, but unfortunately, tired legs just couldn't come out on top. I would definitely recommend this event to anybody who happens to be in the Dushore area on the second Saturday in August.