51 years old and going strong

We took the boat out yesterday afternoon to Haverstraw Bay Park after a two-year hiatus.  Still runs like a champ!

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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a plane and a Shuttle!

Ran down to Tallman Mountain to watch the shuttle fly up the Hudson river on its way to JFK airport and ultimately the Intrepid.  Pity I didn’t find out about it sooner, I would have brought a camera along.  All I had was my phone.  The flyby was at about 1000 feet, so there was plenty to see:

 

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Makes me wonder what seeing a launch must be like.

Roller skating on the Joseph B Clarke rail trail

It was just for a little while, but it was fun!

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Hike to Pine Meadow Lake

We went on what turned out to be a long hike on Sunday.  We started at Kakiat Park and headed up the Kakiat Trail.  Mechel and Bala examine a waterfall:

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Baila’s new boots were giving her heel blisters, so we put on a but of moleskin from the handy first aid kit:

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Crossing under the power lines:

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Grandpa and Grandma rocks (I think):

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This reminds me of an album cover for some reason:

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After fighting our way up the Kakiat trail through pretty broken terrain, we bailed out onto the gas line easement and hiked Torne Valley road towards the lake:

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There was a bit of water in spots:

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The lake at last:

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The sun was setting fast, so I carried Baila for most of Torne Valley road.  It took 2.5 hours to get to the lake, and only 1.5 hours to get back:

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Walking the gas line easement:

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RCC in the distance:

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We made it back 10 minutes after sunset.  Close call!

In the last half-mile, we passed a woman to whom we said hello but got no response.  She was heading up the mountain as darkness fell.  Here’s what turned out to have happened:

RAMAPO — Rescue personnel were called out to Kakiat County Park on Haverstraw Road on Sunday night to conduct a search for a local woman.

Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco said the woman, described only as in her early 20s, was reported missing around 7 p.m. after she had an argument and went into the park property.

Police were gearing up for a major search — as many as 40 rescue personnel were gathered at the park’s pavilion and an aviation unit was about to be called-in — when the woman emerged from the Old Mill trail just after 8:30 p.m.

“As we we’re gearing up to put another search team into the woods she actually came out,” Falco said, later adding, “We would have stayed here all night.”

Members of the woman’s family were on the scene and after she was located and checked out by medics, she was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital. The woman was distraught but not seriously injured, Falco said.

The incident, first reported just after 7 p.m., drew a response from Rockland police fire and rescue units, some of which have deployed K-9 units and all-terrain vehicles to conduct the search.

Officials set up a command post near the park’s pavilion about 500 feet off Haverstraw Road. Beams from flashlights swung in the dark as police searched the wooded area.

Later, after the search had been called off, two officers could be seen inspecting the woman’s backpack. The contents were laid out on a picnic table: a jean-jacket and a bottle of seltzer water.

 

Here’s the route.  8.02 miles, 4 hours.  1,670 feet of climb.  Max grade was 42.5%:

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The kids were real troopers.  We will have to leave a bit earlier next time.

Happy Purim!

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Story time

Mechel embellished the story a bit:












Making an audio book

I purchased this book, but don’t really have time to read it, so I cut the binding off with my jig saw:

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I then put the loose sheets into my ScanSnap 1300 scanner. In 15 minutes I had a 250 page pdf. Using a PDF to TTS app on the Android phone, I’ve turned this physical book into an audio book. It works great!

RV show!

We went to the RV show at RCC last Sunday. Some really nice units were on display, which helps firm up our retirement fantasies.

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I’ll take one of each, please.

Folding bed for Mechel

I based the design on the Moddi bed, whose photos I saw online. We did this so his room could be used by the school during the day.

It’s an IKEA bed frame with 8 IKEA table tips bolted to the bottom to give it a modern art look.

The weight is shared between the wall cables and the ladder that supports the bed when it’s down:

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When it’s up, it looks like an art piece:

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2nd Annual Assateague Thanksgiving

We went down to Assateague Island for Thanksgiving, like we did last year.  This was our second trip with the new RV.  We arrived at Assateague around midnight on Wednesday night.

Thursday morning was like the whole weekend, sunny and in the 60s.  The campground was pretty empty on Thursday, but it did fill up a bit over the weekend.

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Not many people on the beach.  We spent the whole day wandering the beach and collecting shells:

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Friday morning:

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We went to the visitor center on the way back from going into town to buy a hatchet and firewood:

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Low tide:

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Baila in the distance:

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I taught Mechel to split wood: 2011-11-25 14.51.09

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I taught Mechel a stance that maximized the likelihood of having the same number of legs at the end of the exercise.  Safety first!

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We had a great campfire on the beach Saturday night.  I won’t forget Baila’s wide eyes as I recited Jabberwocky, which we used to do at Hancock.  We also sang Ghost Riders and Paradise.  Of course, we had s’mores as well.

Sunday started with a beautiful sunrise:

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Mechel’s mining operation:

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We left Sunday morning and drove the hour or so to the southern end of Assateague, in Virginia.  The Virginia side of the island is a wildlife refuge.

There’s an old lighthouse there, which is still operational, albeit with modern optics:

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We collected quite a few shells, and I flew my kite for a bit.  It’s quite a birder’s destination; we saw many people with ridiculously large lenses photographing far-off birds.

Next to Assateague is Wallops Island, home of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.  They have a great little visitor center which we enjoyed. 

Here’s a Little Joe, used at Wallops to test the Mercury capsule’s LES (launch escape system):

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This past summer we saw its successor, Little Joe II, which was launched at White Sands.

We were home by Sunday evening.  The new RV is great!  It’s very nice to be able to pull over and have a meal or use the bathroom without having to fold up or down the RV.  Crosswinds were an issue at times, especially coming over the Delaware bridge, but we managed.

As always, we are looking forward to our next trip!