Took a quick ride into town to do some shopping. Found a great dairy bar and diner with FABULOUS homemade frozen custard and ice cream. Tried their pumpkin flavor (‘tis the season!) and it was delicious! Taking everything at a nice slow pace while we recover from our busy September and prepare for our somewhat busy November.
Archives for October 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – Sleep and Work
October 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Slept late again, which is actually an agenda item (1. Make multiple deposits in our sleep bank). Also got some much needed paperwork and phone calling done. Relaxed in the evening.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 – Great Ride Day at Brendan T. Byrne State Forest
October 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Took our first ride today, and it was great! Got a bit turned around because we didn’t want to take the whole 8.1 mile loop (still too tired for that), but we did want to get out for a short ride since it’s been so long. Out about 90 minutes or so, some on gravel road, some on lovely sandy, piney trails. This looks like a great rest stop for a while!Monday, October 17, 2011 – Sleep, Sleep and more Sleep
October 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Slept late, laid around all day, first layer of exhaustion nibbled into, many more layers to come.
Sunday, October 16, 2011 – Move Over to Real Campground at Brendan T. Byrne State Forest
October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Called over to another nearby state forest, the Brendan T. Byrne, and although they don’t technically have a horse camp, they agreed to let us stay there, since the campground would be mostly empty by the end of the day. There was some kind of motorcycle “enduro” race for the day, so they asked us not to come over until they had left, which would be about 4:00. A very gracious welcome when we arrived. We filled up our water at the ranger station, because we were sort of let do believe that the water in the campground was a handpump, which didn’t turn out to be true, it was actually a spigot, but the kind with a handle you had to lift up. Threads and everything! That will make life easier! We found what Hubby deigned the only spot possibly capable of receiving a satellite signal, which also happened to be right across the road from a spigot, and we got set up. A nice quiet spot with an 8.1 mile horse trail and miles of dirt roads where horses are allowed, so we’re looking forward to a nice quiet stay where we can finally get a chance to recharge our human batteries! So exhausted after everything we’ve been through lately, seems like it’s been non-stop for ages!
Saturday, October 15, 2011 – Travel Day to Wharton SF-HUGE disappointment!
October 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Weather was fine and travel was good, right up until we arrived in the vicinity of the “horse camp” in Wharton State Forest. The “road” that turned off the tarmac was more like a sandy trail, lots of low branches and deep sand that had me greatly worried about being able to get in and out. Hubby tried to scope it out with the horse trailer, and ended up getting stuck twice, so that obviously wasn’t going to work! We persuaded the ranger to let us stay in the day parking area across the street for the night, which had easy access and would have been the perfect campsite except there was no water, and they were adamant we could only stay the one night because it was an emergency. Very disappointing, we were really looking forward to this place! Not sure where we can go now. Yet another challenge!
Friday, October 14, 2011 – Rainy Day on Staten Island
October 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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| Rainbow over Staten Island |
The plan had been to leave today, but there was a constant drizzle of rain most of the day, so we decided to go do laundry instead, so the day wouldn’t be a total waste. Afterward we went shopping for suits locally, but no luck. Had a cup of coffee and some frozen yogurt in a little cafe that we found, where, strangely, some young people were smoking on a large water pipe, Turkish style. Not sure what that was about, haven’t seen anyone smoking inside a building in so long it seems completely incongruous, especially in NYC where it’s against the law to even smoke in a public park! Go figure. Anyway, the weather is supposed to be clear though windy tomorrow, with the rain petering out tonight.
Thursday, October 13, 2011 – Late Sleeping, Paperwork, Dinner with our Hosts Day
October 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Slept late again, happy that someone else is looking after the horses for us (though the stalls are somewhat dark with no windows), did some computer work, then had a delightful meal at a local diner with our hosts Cherryl and Tom. Chatted away for quite a while beyond dinner, swapping stories about all kinds of things. A good time was had by all.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011 – FANTASTIC SHOW in NYC
October 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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| Hubby on Staten Island Ferry |
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| South end of Manhattan |
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| Lincoln Center Sculpture |
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| Famous NYC Library Lions |
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| New “Twin Towers” are Lit – not the same 🙁 |
Day Two in NYC was rainy, but we had managed to get tickets for the matinee of the show War Horse, which had won 5 Tony Awards including Best Play. We had originally planned on seeing the show later in the week, but tickets were pretty hard to come by, so we had to take what we could get. It took two hours to get to Lincoln Center, taking the Staten Island Railroad, then the ferry (which we missed by two minutes while getting a Metro card, so we had to wait a half an hour for the next ferry), then the subway up to 66th Street. We picked up our tickets with about an hour to spare, so we walked over to a rather nice Chinese restaurant where we shared a House Special fried rice, as usual. Headed back to the theatre to claim our loge seats, which were fine except the gaggle of teenage girls behind us, who quieted down for most of the show, except at the beginning of Act Two when their behavior warranted a stern warning from their chaperone (after a few caustic words from the patrons next to us). Despite that minor disruption, the show was INCREDIBLE!!! I could never have imagined a show like that being successfully staged as a play. The puppetry of the horses was fantastic. At worst, you had to be in awe of the incredible job the puppeteers were doing, at best they became invisible and all you saw was the animals themselves. Fantastic! The story was compelling, the suspense put you on the edge of your seat, the occasional humorous relief was delightfully welcome, just a great show overall. Again, worth every penny of it. Afterward, Hubby wanted to look for a new business suit, since most of his didn’t fit anymore with his weight loss, so we headed over to Fifth Avenue (grabbing a subway to avoid the rain, which had been pretty constant all day), then found a little shop on the second story that had a suit he almost instantly fell in love with. It needed some altering, so we arranged for them to make the changes, and we would get back in touch with them to have it shipped UPS once we had an address where they could send it. We stopped for coffee and ice cream in a puny little shop, then we headed down to Macys to look for suits for me, as I have the same problem. Stopped at several other place along the way, but didn’t find anything worthwhile. We finally gave up and headed back to Staten Island, getting back after 10:00. Plugged my ears and crashed once again!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 – Ride Day on Staten Island
October 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Had nice weather today, so we decided to spend it checking out the trails at the Clay Pit Pond Preserve. Turned out to be pretty disappointing. A lot of the trail ran a perimeter around the park along a road and even behind a dilapidated apartment building, with great piles of trash along the way. Some of the more promising trails turned out to be closed, so in detouring around them we ended re-doing some trails, including one that veered behind a shopping center. Weird to be riding in such an urban area. The trails were pretty poorly maintained as well, with junk all along the way. We only ended up being out less than two hours, but frankly, that was enough. The noise of traffic was a bit unsettling. Looking forward to getting back into some real woods!