Thursday July 14, 2011 Florida

This was my last day in Florida. Since the flight was in the evening and I only had about 150 miles to drive to the airport, I planned to visit a few places along the way. In the town near where I was staying there was a museum/aquarium called the South Florida Museum. They had exhibits explaining the history of the area from the beginning of earth until now. There were exhibits on ancient life in the area, where florida was in all of the continental drifting and also the various pre-european cultures that were in the area.

There was also an aquarium pool that was used to host several manatees. The oldest was a permanent resident (in his 60s) and there were two younger ones that were recovering from injuries and would be released in the wild again. While I was there one of the attendents had a feeding and explained about the goals of the aquarium and their recovery program.

Around lunch I had to head toward Orlando. Along the way, after about an hour, I exited the freeway to find a small college with the largest number of Frank Loyd Wright buildings in one area. There were lots of signs and a pamphlet to guide you to all of the buildings. There were also lots of covered walkways to admire. Unfortunately they were a bit short and made me a bit nervous. There was a pool with a nice fountain arrangement, called the Water Dome, that I was able to wait to see in action (it was on break when I arrived). All of this was in a quiet bucolic setting.

Finally, it was time to leave. I got back on the freeway and made it to Orlando with plenty of time. Things were rather hectic when I got there. After checking the bags I had dinner (or was it lunch) and then went through security. The flight home was uneventful (other than arriving early). The only major downside of the trip was I lost a bag on the flight home, which had my laptop among other things - hence the delayed posts. Fortunately, my photos and videos were all fine, but I lost my original notes. Kinda sucks.

Wednesday July 13, 2011 Florida

This was purely a travel day. I had to get from Key West to near Tampa by the end of the day. This was around 450 miles as I recall. With the Crown Vic that meant at least one fill-up along the way. I had no problems and the hotel was pretty easy to find. The area that I was in was basically gas stations, hotels and places to eat, I didn't have any problem with food.

Tuesday July 12, 2011

Well this day I had a plan, but I mainly improvised. I started out seeing Hemingway's house. He only really had the house when he was married to his first wife, but wrote many of his famous stories there. The house was kept up but very little of the furniture was the same as when he was there. There were a lot of cats, descended from one of the cats he owned. The house had a lot of pictures based on the story "The Old Man and the Sea". It turns out the fisherman was based on someone that Hemingway knew. The gardens were pretty nice too, including a very nice pool and an odd water fountain.

Next, I found the Audubon house. The house has only a rather indirect relation to the artist. He only lived in the Florida area for a short time. When he was in Key West he stayed at the house next to the one now called the Audubon House. He did ask the owner to cut some leaves and draw them as background for some of his pieces. In all somewhere between 19 and 23 birds from the keys were illustrated by Audubon. The house has many of these prints in the house. Other rooms of the house show the arrangement for the owner (a wealthy sea captain). Again the gardens were nice as well, especially given the limited size of the property.

Next I went to Mel's Shipwreck Museum (or something like that). This was established by someone who discovered one of the largest wrecks in the Keys. It took about a decade to find and another decade to get clear title. The museum partly told the story of the ship that was found and also how it was discovered. There were other displays about ships of the era (1600s) and even some things about pirates (there really was a pirate code, although not much observed).

One odd thing I noticed was there was investment office at the back of the gift shop for future expeditions. Most of the gift shop was also taken up by space to sell coins from various shipwrecks - not your usual museum gift shop.

After lunch I decided to go to the Aquarium. Here again were a series of pools with different fish in them. No dolphins this time, but lots of rays, turtles and nurse sharks. There were smaller tanks along the side with various smaller fish of the area. One of the large pools had a mixture of fish, including a huge grouper, and sharks. Gulls kept dropping in trying to grab the food that was being tossed to the fish.

I tried to find the square where it was recommended to view the sunset (for later) but I wasn't able to find it. I did find an odd commemorative square for the wreckers who had given Key West its start.

I headed back to the hotel to change and rest. I also took a walk with Mike's Pants to take a few photos. It was turning out that the material was a bit too flexible to really work well for long periods of time. The tape starts to come off almost immediately. Heat doesn't help. Although I had some good pictures, I need to rework the model a bit.

After some rest I went out for dinner. I went to a place recommended by my guide book. It was also very good. I headed for the square again and found it. I took some sunset pictures although I was a bit late. It was dark by the time I got to the hotel.

Monday July 11, Florida Keys

Today I was driving down to Key West. I hoped to stop at some attractions along the way. Before I left my hotel in Miami, I took a few pictures of Mike's Pants. I'm not sure if I'll use them.

Miami turned into the Keys rather gradually. I think I spent a half hour still on the mainland before I crossed over to Key Largo. Even Key Largo was still pretty densly populated. Eventually the towns got smaller and the road got narrower. I found the first place, Theater of the Sea, without any trouble. They had a very defined schedule of shows, with the dolphin show being the highlight. I saw part of the Seal show then went on the open bottom boat which had dolphins jumping up on the sides and in the middle of the boat. The walking tour ended up at several pools of various animals from the area. I remember turtles, some rays and nurse sharks. There were also various birds (they had a show) and alligator and crocodile. There was actually a demonstration feeding in the pools. I had lunch (skipping the bird show) and then waited for the afternoon dolphin show.

Next I stopped at the Dolphin Research Center which was another half hour away. Although this had similar shows, they had several programs to allow people to come in and actually interact with the dolphins. The shows were much less formal than at the previous place which was kind of nice. I took video of one of the shows.

I was too late to go to the science museum along highway 1. I did see it, but would have had about 15 minutes before it closed. In retrospect maybe I should have missed one of the dolphin places to see something a little different.

Toward the end of the trek the bridges got very impressive. I wasn't able to stop to take pictures.

I found the hotel in Key West and unpacked. It was early so I walked down Duval Street to see what the place was like. This was effectively Old Town for Key West. Most of the historic houses were in the area and many fancy eating places. I did notice a few chain eateries (like Wendy's) but mostly it was custom to Key West. I walked up almost to the end (I also tried to see how to get to for the fort on the island, but it was too far to walk) then walked back. I chose a place that seemed interesting for dinner. They didn't seem to mind that I was rather sweaty from being outside for the last hour. I had the best fish I can remember tasting. I was very impressed. After the dinner I went back to the hotel for the night.

Sunday July 10, 2011 Miami

This day also followed two parts. First I went to two places in the Coral Gables area - Vezcaya and the Miami Science Center. Then I drove over a bridge to Miami Beach. One thing I learned from driving in Miami Beach was you shouldn't drive in a Crown Vic or anything similar in size.

First I went to Vezcaya. I actually parked in the parking lot of the Miami Science Center, but Vezcaya was just across the street. I had no problem getting in and used a little pamphlet to go around the building. It was all very impressive. This was built close to a hundred years ago but was made to look like it was older by decorating different rooms in different styles from eras hundreds of years apart. There were even pieces from European castles that had been imported to be wall coverings, or even a fire place in the new house. The grounds were very impressive also, although I didn't have time to look through all of them. There was a cement "boat" in the bay that people could walk out to, I guess during low tide. There was a lot of seaweed clogging the channel when I was there.

While I was looking around the gardens I saw an older woman laying on the floor of a building in the gardens. I asked her if she was alright. She was fine but was trying to get a sense of the place. She called herself a seer and gave me a reading. I enjoy these to a degree, not because I necessarily believe them, but they give me a different perspective. See told me about my spirit guides and said I should do something to help my stomach - flax seeds were recommended.

At this point I had to leave to get to the Science Center. I stopped by the gift shop to get a book on the place and walked over. The science center, I thought, was smaller than I expected. THere was the planetarium and then I only saw a couple of rooms with a satellite mapping exhibit and some kids experiments to explain physics. I waited around for the planetarium show. About a half hour before the show, I realized there were a lot more rooms including some snakes and spiders, a compressed air-powered car and various other things I don't remember. I had to rush through them to get back to the planetarium in time. In fact I got a little bit lost and couldn't figure out how to get back to the planetarium entrance. The show was on the history of the number of planets. I thought it would be trying to defend Pluto as a planet. Instead it explained about how the count of planets has gone up and down as we adjust what we call a planet. There was no final conclusion.

Then it was in the car and off to Miami Beach. The bridgeway was no problem but once I got onto the streets I saw that driving around was going to be a challenge. My first stop was the Wolfsonian, which was associated with a college or university in the area. It took me a bit of driving around before I found a parking structure - it cost $20. Every street seemed to have parallel parking and only two lanes of traffic. Add to that some big siteseeing busses and it was not fun to drive around in a big car.

The Wolfsonian was a small art museum containing mainly 20th century art up to about mid-century. This included a lot of industrial design, although the ground floor had an interesting metal statue, probably from the 1920s. I remember some pieces from various worlds fairs. There was also a floor of art connected with the London Underground, which has been going on for decades. As I said, it was a smallish museum with a few areas of specialization.

I drove over to my final stop and found another (much cheaper) parking structure. This was the Holocaust Memorial, which I always thought was peculiar to have in Miami Beach. I'll say more about it at the end of this post.

After the memorial I headed back to my hotel. It was too late to visit anything in central Miami. At this point I figured out that my debt card wasn't working. I called the number on the back and got it sorted out. When I got online, I saw that there had been an email sent earlier in the day. I was running low on cash and gas, although I still had my credit card. After that I went out for dinner and then called it a night.

The Holocaust Memorial was significantly more than I expected. When I found it, I saw the giant hand with all of the people on it, It wasn't until I went around the memorial that I found something very unexpected. If you went about halfway around from where you entered, there was an entryway into the area with the hand. The corridor had the names of various camps on the walls. When you got into the area where the arm was anchored, you saw many more individual statues of emaciated people. Some may have been dead, others were interacting with the people climbing on the arm. One was positioned to be viewed as you are walking down the corridor which sort of set the mood. It was rather shocking how the area was set up, probably to make the make the now abstract horror of the Holocaust more personal and individual.

The remainder of the memorial, outside the central area had plaques listing names of those remembered by people in the area and some history of the Nazi plans and construction of the campls. It was all very somber and left me moody on the drive back.

Saturday July 9, 2011 Florida

There were two parts to the day. In the morning I went back to the KSC Visitor's Center (I could use the ticket I got on Friday for a 2nd day) and see some more of the exhibits. Then for the afternoon I was driving down to Miami.

It was a very nice morning, so I started by dragging Mike's Pants with me into the Visitor's Center to take some candids. I got some pretty good pictures in the Rocket Garden. There was also an Enterprise bridge where I got some photos. After I was done with that, I took him back out to the car and then went into some of the other areas that I had missed before. There was an early spaceflight building where they had a mockup of the Soyuz as well as other early rockets and satellites. There were also some nice models of the rockets used in the man space program, including some early Saturn models.

In addition to the Enterprise bridge (original series) there was at least one other Star Treck exhibit tucked away. They included several modules I think were shooting models form various series and some movies. There was also a long cronology of the Star Trek universe.

I also saw the iMax 3D movie about the Space Telescope. This included footage from several different missions that launched and repaired the telescope (there were more than I had thought).

FInally, I got some pictures of the full scale (I think) Shuttle with SRBs and External Tanks.

Then it was time to leave. I made pretty good time down to Miami. I was continually worried about whether my tollway tags actually worked, but other than that, it was not very eventful.

Friday July 8, 2011 Florida - Shuttle Launch

This was really just a continuation of the previous day. At midnight I started driving over to the hotel in the Orlando area. I got there at about 1 AM and met up with the other people that I would be going with. The bus ticket was for 4 people. I met an older couple and then an older man who had provided the extra ticket. After some delay we got on the bus and headed to KSC (back where I had just come from). We got there about 3 PM or so - there wasn't much traffic. We talked for a bit but also got some rest. When we got to the Visitor's Center, the let us out and said we would be collected again at about 5 AM. We had the run of the place until then.

I walked to the bus access area shortly before 5 AM and it was a mass of people. When we had arrived a lot of people had set up chairs and sat there. I hadn't realized why. Then it turns out I was in the wrong section of the entry and had to go sideways completely to the other side. We ended up snaking through and exhibit and a bunch of barriers to go to a completely different area of the Visitor's Center. We had been told which bus to aim for but I never saw our guide. I ended up walking through a few rows of busses until I stumbled on the right one. The other three of our foursome were already there. We talked for a bit and then I nodded off to sleep. The busses were supposed to leave around 8:30 or so. I woke up well after that and we still hadn't moved. Somewhere around 10 or 11 AM we finally went off to the observation area. It took less than a half hour to get there. Everyone got out and ran for an observation point. I got trapped by a bush and ended up in sort of a second row. The people in front of me were in chairs so I could shoot over them. The camera with the full zoom did find the shuttle but the distance made the images rather fuzzy (I also may not have had the best auto settings). The plan was to put the camera on a tripod to hit the shutter once a second for launch and hand-hold the camcorder at the same time, trying to keep it steady.

We had about 2 hours before the launch, plus the continual reminder that the weather could still prevent launch. There was a PA system that allowed us to hear launch control. We had a visit from a helicopter while we waited. I spoke with a couple behind me who was there with their two year-old. They had driven down from one of the Carolinas. This was their second launch viewing.

The time went by fairly quickly and the weather got progressively better. Sometime in the last half hour rain started falling on Merrit Island. There was a slight possibility it could move over to the landing strip, but they decided to wave the requirement. The crowd cheered when the countdown started up from the last hold. The count went down smoothly until 31 seconds. There was a hold because a sensor indicated an arm hadn't fully moved away from the shuttle. It delayed the launch about 2 minutes. It was quite a cliffhanger. They started up right at 31 seconds and boom it was off. The clouds of exhaust and water vapor obscured the shuttle almost right away. It popped out of the top of the clouds and headed in a curve as it was turning on its back. The one thing that I didn't expect from the launch was the glow of the SRB exhaust. It looks very different in person. The Shuttle hit a cloud layer fairly quickly. It was really only visible for a few tens of seconds. I could see it though some openings in the clouds after a little bit but it went into the clouds a final time before the SRB separation. Although I was still listening to the PA system I almost immediately started breaking down the tripod and getting everything in my camera bag (so was everyone else). I waited to hear they were good after SRB seperation, but didn't wait until orbit insertion. Then it was back on the bus.

The bus ride back was expected to be long because everyone else would be using the roads out of the area. I napped off and on and we got back without it being too late. I said my thank-yous to my host (and the guide) and then drove back to my hotel. I arranged with the front desk that I was going to be leaving the next day (Saturday) rather than Sunday as I'd originally planned. Then I got some rest. I think I also made reservations for Miami and Key West then too (either that or the day before).

Thursday July 7, 2011 KSC Florida

This was my first full day in Florida. Although I did get in touch with the person with my ticket to the launch, it took several calls to agree that I would just show up at about 1 AM at his hotel.

I got to the KSC Visitors Center later than I wanted (about 10 AM I think). The tickets for special tours were all sold out. I actually had to wait in line for about an hour before I got in. Things had changed quite a lot from when I was there in 1985. The place is run by a company for NASA now. There were some Star Trek displays around the Visitor area. However, for today none of that mattered. It was also very crowded, not surprisingly.

The Visitors Center was organized into 3 major locations - a tower to view the Shuttle Launch Pad (not used during actual launch), an indoor display of a Saturn V (and LEM) and other items from the 1960s and the main visitors complex where I started. Today I was mainly concerned with going to the other two sites.

Unfortunately, it was raining off and on all day. It made it hard to take good pictures out of the bus. I also left Mike's Pants in the car - hoping it would clear up later.

The tower was new to me. I could just make out the launch pad from the top level. Then the rain started getting heavy. I even have some pictures of the launch pad before the rain and then just a darker gray area after the rain got heavy. There was also a rocket engine on two of the levels (I don't remember what the engine was).

Next I went to the Saturn V exhibit. It was nice to see it inside. Last time I saw it was from a bus as we left the VAB area - outside exposed to the elements. It was in much better shape now. Plus, I could walk underneath it. That was fun. I took lots of pictures of each stage including some detail. There was also a LEM hanging from the roof and a see-thru model of the Saturn V to show what was inside. All of it very cool.

There was lots of other stuff, including an Apollo capsule. There were two different theaters in the building. The first was a recreation of the Apollo Launch control center with a countdown from about 5 minutes. They had network news clips showing as the countdown and launch happened as well as lights showing the different consoles when they were speaking (there were no people at the consoles). The other was a program about the mission, from a more cerebral view. It included a mock LEM landing on a stage and, later the ascent stage taking off (none of which I took pictures of).

I went back to the main visitors center and looked around. A major area outside the central area was a memorial wall which listed all of the astronauts killed on the job. This included those killed on missions (including X15) as well as those killed during training (mostly jet crashes).

Finally, I went on the shuttle launch simulator. They had a good setup to keep you entertained while you were in line. When you got in, you went to a holding area where they had more explanation of what to expect. Finally they let you into the simulator. I miscalculated on the amount of junk I had in my pockets. Right when I was lining up to go into the simulator I noticed the sign that listed all of the things you should not have (like a cell phone); it also explained all of the lockers outside the entrance. I ended up stuffing my hands in my pockets so nothing would fall out. I mostly succeeeded. The ride was fun - no falling, which I hate, but the weightless simulation was done by pointing our pod down. There was a nice view of the earth out of the top section of the simulator at the end.

It was getting late so I drove to the Astronauts Hall of Fame. This was set up seperately from the KSC Visitor's Center but then became part of it. They had a room with all of the recognized astronauts, including their different missions. There was also a Mercury capsule and a Gemini mockup. There was also this odd movie on a sphere aperatus that intrigued me. After looking around a while I figured out that there were four video projectors all perfectly lined up projecting onto the globe. The globe also appeared to be floating in the middle of the room. It was too dark to tell, but I'm pretty sure there were wires holding it up.

Both the Visitor's Center and the Hall of Fame were open until 7 or 8 PM. I left shortly before the Hall of Fame closed. It was still light out.

After that I went to have something to eat and rest at the hotel.

Wednesday July 6, 2011 Florida

Flew into Orlando and got to my hotel. The flight arrived a little early I think. The hotel wasn't near much other than the freeway. I had to go over to the gas station to get online access.

The hotel across the road had a lighted sign that had an odd phrase on it - "topshelf karaoke". I can't imagine many things more "bottom-shelf" than karaoke, but they are entitled to their opinion.

Editors Note

Note: Sorry for the delay in posts from my latest trip. I did not have the bandwidth to post during the trip and due to a lost laptop, I had to rewrite my notes from the trip. I now have everything prepared and will start posting tomorrow - one post a day, exactly two weeks after each day of the trip occurred.

Sunday July 3: Hamlin Beach

Today was my final day in the Rochester area. John and I decided to go to Hamlin Beach State Park. It was a place we went in the summer (usually) all the time growing up (each with our families) but hadn't been to since a few years after we graduated high school.

John knew the route to the park and we had no trouble getting there. The entry fee was $7 (oh, the horror). There were plenty of people there mostly in the central area, probably because that was where the snack bar was. There were lots of families using the grills.

The fact that there were buildings was a surprise. I'm not sure whether they weren't there before or I had just forgotten. There certainly seemed to be more than before. The beaches seemed to be clean (i.e. no dead fish as I recalled) but I wasn't sure about the water. It was cloudy but I wasn't sure what that meant. The beach was broken up by a series of jetties of jumbled large rocks, probably to break up any currents running parallel to the beach. There were also lifeguard stations at each beach section, although not all were manned. I think the jetties were there before but not the lifeguards. It seems a lot of effort had been put into the beach since were had been there last.

The same couldn't be said for the parking areas. Although there weren't any deep ruts that I remember there was grass growing out of expansion cracks all over the place. Seagulls had picked out certain sections of some of the lots to rest in (that hadn't changed). We had fun driving through them although we had to go slowly because they didn't really want to move (we didn't hit any).

After getting drinks at the snack bar we walked out on one of the jetties to try to look at the bluffs at the west end of the beach. Unfortunately, all we saw were trees. So we decided to go to the source. We drove over to the last parking area and walked to the west edge of the beach.

When we got there, all we saw were trees. We walked up to the signs saying don't go past this point but didn't go in. There was a path past the signs but the greenery was dense enough we couldn't see too far past the edge of the trees. I took a few pictures and we left. Thinking about it later it occurred to me that the trees may have been part of the stabilization of the bluffs. Although I remember a few trees the last time I was there (about 1979) and some plants on the ground, I think mostly the bluffs were just sand.

June 29, 2011 Brockport, NY

Today I only had a few things planned. I was going to start off with a lunch with John H. I hadn't seen him since the reunion and had no idea what he has been doing. We met at a local eatery. I told him about what I had been doing and he told me what he was up to. He has a wife and three kids has a job and is a peace activist.

After lunch I met up with John (a different John, my host) and his phone with GPS at the start of the path to the Soldiers' Memorial. I made another video of the walk along the path toward the monument. After I had that done, I took a few pictures and then we went geocaching. We used John's GPS and the coordinates I had on the cache to try to find it. The place where I had looked before was completely wrong. The cache was much further off the path than I was expecting. But the coordinate resolution of the phone was precise enough that we found the area where the cache was hidden. Then it was just a matter of looking around. John actually found it. I took a rock that had been labelled with "Brockport, NY" and some initials to take down to Dallas and dump in a cache there.


After that John went back home to do work and I headed into Brockport to get video of the liftbridge. I wanted to get the full cycle from the traffic lights turning red, the bridge raising and lowering to the traffic light turning green again. I got all of that but the sound was corrupted a bit by the wind.







As I was packing up to leave I realized I hadn't taken out Mike's pants at all - for the bridge or the tower. So I went back to the car and got it and took a few pictures of it on the bridge. Then I drove back to the monument and trekked in for the fourth time to get some pictures there.

That was all of the adventuring for the day. Back "home" we had pizza and then went out for ice cream.

June 28, 2011 Rochester, NY

Today I decided to go into Rochester to look at various museums and such. Unfortunately, the Memorial Art Gallery was closed today. Also, the Strasenburgh would be closed except for shows, which I think happened in the evening on weekdays.

However, the science & history museum of the RMSC was open so I took a tour around. Several of the sections were particularly tuned to kids - lots of trying different things and such. There was a big section on the first floor about how glaciers effected the topology and life that happened in the Rochester area throughout history. There was a nice skeleton of a Wooly Mammoth (I think).

Elsewhere, in a diorama, there was a crab-like animal that I remember seeing even the first time. I think it's in a new setting and has been cleaned up since it looks pretty new.

Also, there was a little blurb about the first digital camera which was made in Rochester in 1974.

There was a section on the underground railroad and how it effected Rochester and other places, but I didn't spend much time in the exhibit.

Outside I saw a statue of a stallion painted blue with gold stars. I don't know if this was part of an arts program in Rochester or something else.

Finally, reading a sign showing the different building in the RMSC, I noticed that the planetarium has added a Challenger Learning Center. It wasn't open but I got a picture of the entrance.


Next, I went to the Eastman House. I had some difficulty finding it due to lack of visible street numbers. I got to the parking lot and eventually got into the house (there was a guided tour that blocked my way for a bit). I was able to see several rooms of the house including the conservatory which had, among other things, a giant elephant head mounted on the wall. This was from a real elephant killed on one of his safaris (very common for rich people of his era).

There was also an exhibition of Norman Rockwell showing the photographic studies that he did to prepare a painting. I saw paintings that I was familiar with and many others that I was not. Each with at least some of the photos used to help create the painting. I wasn't allowed to take pictures so I can't show anything from that exhibit.

I wasn't feeling that well so I decided to leave for my next destination rather than explore the gardens which I would have liked.


Next I went further down East Ave. to find a photo place where I might get a tripod. After experimenting with their compact one I decided to get it.

Then I had an adventure getting to the northeast of the city. I had a map and got some directions but I stopped at least once to check where I was and did make one wrong turn. After finding the shop I was after I headed back on Ridge Road. I stopped to get lunch and some throat candies and headed back to Spencerport. As I was driving along I noticed that there was another store from the same company in Greece (west of Rochester) as I had traveled a bit of a distance to find east of Rochester. Oh well.

June 27, 2011 Brockport, NY

This day I started out in search of the Soldiers' Monument. I took along my camcorder and camera (John gave me an "Indiana Jones" satchel to carry everything.

First I took some pictures and recorded video of the sign. Traffic was pretty heavy on Owens Road, so my comments were sometimes rumbled and whooshed over. After I got done with that I repositioned the car (other side of the road, further off the road) and took everything down the path that was visible from the road - although the monument wasn't.

Although I got a complete recording of the trek (with commentary), the camera was often looking up to the side rather than ahead so often I was commenting on something the viewer couldn't see. There was a row of trees about 50 feet from the road that seemed to cut off the path. However, the path jogged to the left, which you couldn't see from the road because another tree blocks the view. After a few more yards I could see the tower straight ahead.

Next along the path was a line of brambles which cut across the path; however, someone had cut them back so they were out of the path. The path became very clear after the brambles, although the grass was waist high.

Along the way I spotted the two grave sites that remain from the cemetery that the tower was originally supposed to watch over. There was a small flag that had probably been put during Memorial Day which was just a few weeks ago. The names are visible on both headstones but some of the other writing is unclear. I noticed that the photos had a slightly different color balance than my eyes so different words were visible in the picture than I could originally see. I wonder if fiddling with the photos in Photoshop would help?

After I was done remarking on the graves I went back to the patch and came over a small rise. At that moment I saw a deer and her baby eating on the path. The didn't notice me so I was able to get some video of them just grazing. There were some focus issues so I couldn't get closeup video. Also, I kept walking instead of standing still so the images are annoyingly shaky. Anyway, I made a noise which got the baby's attention, who alerted mom and they both scampered into the trees.

The tower was much as I remembered it. The top was missing some chunks. Most of the rest of the tower looked fine except that a lot of stones to the left of the archway. The plaque was clearly readable. There seemed to be a metal pole leaning to one side in the tower. It's my understanding that this is what's left of the spiral staircase. I have photos and video of the view up the tower from inside with the outside light creating a glow at the top. There are warnings somewhere not to come near the tower because of falling stones, but I've never seen stones fall and almost everyone has poked their head in.

At this point, something stupid happened - or at least I thought it had happened. I thought that I hadn't had the camera recording during the walk up because I misread the status buttons. So I changed how I was recording to resolve the issue. I headed back, taking some pictures of the graves and repeating commentary. I then went back to the beginning of the trail and tried to record commentary again. It turns out the first take had been recorded correctly. The second take was not recorded because I didn't interpret the status buttons correctly.

After I was done with the video recording, I tried to complete the final task at the site. There is supposed to be a geocache somewhere near the tower. An encrypted hint suggested that it was under a bunch of logs. I didn't have a GPS device so I didn't know where the listed coordinates actually put me. I just walked along the path back to the road and occasionally stepped off the path to look for logs. I did find one pile and tried to look in all of the crevices that were visible, but I didn't disturb the logs that much. I finally gave up and took a few pictures.


My next goal was to go into Brockport and look around. Unfortunately there is major construction along Main Street that I couldn't get into town from East Avenue. I had to go up Park and across the lift-bridge. I parked behind the bank and looked around. There was construction everywhere - even in the parking lot. Next to the old Strand Theater a building had collapsed (I though it had been deliberately torn down but John's House-cleaner said it fell down); they were digging up the street right by Liftbridge Books (which had moved); half of Main Street north of State St. was blocked off and being repaved. I found out later the whole street was blocked off near Morgan-Manning.



I walked around for a bit and took pictures of the construction and the liftbridge. Then I had lunch. After walking by the canal I came back to Main St. and noticed a boat sitting in the center of the canal. I was taking pictures of the bridge control tower when I saw someone drive up with a state logo on the car and figured she was going to raise the bridge. So I raced back to the Main St. side of the bridge and go in position to witness the bridge raising and lowering. I was able to snap pictures of pretty much every state of the raising/lowering. The flash popped up several times and I have pictures of varying color depending on whether the flash emitted or not.


After that I packed up and went to school. Specifically I went town to Brockport Central School and had a look around. I took a few pictures. One of them showed work that was going on now. From my memory I recall a building where the school busses were parked that appears to be gone. I also found a sign that showed when the various parcels of land went to the village for the school. I got a few pictures of the new school too.

I drove through SUNY Brockport but didn't stop.

From there I headed back to my friends house. I stopped at the Spencerport Tops to get a few things that I had forgotten before.

Return Home; Sunday August 1

Today I flew home. Since I was leaving from Raleigh I had to rely on signs to get to the airport. Although I had taken the correct route to get to Durham, I made a mistake somewhere and ended up off my route. However, since my flight wasn't until 3 PM, I had plenty of time. I dropped off the car and then bought a magazine to read. I had planned the trip to arrive in Charlotte and leave from Raleigh. As it turned out, I had enough time to drive back to Charlotte to pick up a plane back to Dallas, but I didn't realize that when I planned the trip. Live and learn.

So that was the trip. I made it back home and had dinner.

Durham and Chapel Hill; Saturday July 31

This day was planned to visit the other two cities of in the Raleigh area - Durham and Chapel Hill. As it turned out, as I was planning to leave some friends in the area let me know they were in town (they had planned a trip for the weekend I was in the area). That sort of changed my plans. I really only made it to Duke University, and then only to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. The gardens were extensive and very peaceful (except to the construction going on in one area. It started raining before I was able to get to all of the sections, but I was supposed to meet my friends by then anyway.

My friends lived in a suburban area north of Raleigh. We talked and traded stories about work and life. We only had a couple of hours before they had to go off for various activities planned for their kids.

After that I drove to Chapel Hill. This was very much a college town like Brockport. It seemed that the new students were arriving while I was there. It was raining most of the time I was there. I walked along the main street and then had dinner. There was a planetarium down the block so I waited and saw the evening show. I found a poster of various rockets from the 1960s on and bought that for framing at home, since that's an area I'm interested in.

I drove back to the hotel and called it a night.

Raleigh; Friday July 30

This day was completely devoted to seeing the various sites in Raleigh. Everything I planned to see was within a few blocks of the hotel so I walked to were I wanted to go.

First was the State Capital - currently only housing the Governor's office. There were lots of statues outside and the building was actually relativley small. It only took an hour or so to go through it. The building was actually the second capital building built on the site. In a major irony the first burned down when the roof was being sealed with zinc plates for fire proofing and something caught fire.

The two house chambers were on display as well as the original library and geologists office. There weren't that many commemorative displays in the building.




Next I went to the North Carolina Museum of History. This was an amalgum of several displays primarily showing North Carolina's participation in overall American History. In the front lobby was a replica of the Wright brothers airplane flown at Kitty Hawk, NC. Also there was a replica of a drug store circa 1920. However there were two displays at which I spent most of my time. The first was about a mixed race woodworker in pre-Civil War Raleigh and the second was about North Carolina's contribution to all of America's major wars through it's history. The section about the craftsman was very interesting. He was so skilled and his work (starting with coffins but going up to furniture and custom interior design) so highly regarded that he had much more freedom than most people of his background. He was successful enough to buy land and even own slaves (I was surprised he would do this). One of his sons took over the business but the Civil War basically destroyed it.

The section on North Carolina's contribution to various wars (up to the Gulf War) was what you would expect. Various displays of weapons and uniforms and occasional nicknacks. No pictures from this. I was again kind of moody after the display.


The last major stop was the North Carolina Museum of Natural History which had displays of various eras of geologic history on display as well as representations of many natural environments in the North Carolina area. There was a special display of live butterflys on the top floor. It must by kind of tricky to maintain given that the butterfly stage doesn't usually last that long. I got lots of pictures of dinosaurs and also several large whale skeletons that were hung between different levels of the museum. There was a large section dealing with modern natural habitats starting with forest area and going up to mountainous areas, which included an indoor waterfall.

I went over to the Executive Mansion, but it didn't appear to be open. The new library didn't really have anything for tourists. I went past the current legislature building but didn't go in.

After all the touring around I went back to the hotel. I went to a pub called the Oxford for dinner. As I was finishing up I noticed three women that were looking for a table. While I was waiting for the waitress I motioned them over and we talked. It turns out they were in town for the Chelsea Handler performance, which I was going to also. As I went to my hotel I noticed many other groups of women that I suspect were also in town for the show.

I enjoyed the show a lot. The material was rather coarse but still very funny. For whatever reason I like that she often starts laughing in the middle of her routine. It may not seem professional but it seems like she enjoys telling the stories. Again, I forgot my camera, so no pictures. My seat was too far away to really see the performance directly. I ended up mostly watching the video screens which showed camera views of the show.

Greensboro; Thursday July 29

Today I traveled to Raleigh by way of Greensboro. I was only stopping at Greensboro for the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. The park was created around the turn of the century to commemorate a Revolutionary War battle that took place in the area. There was a visitors center where you could see a film explaining the battle. Then there was a tour around the area (which was, at least in part, the actual battlefield) to several sites explaining different aspects of the battle. The original intent of the group was to create monuments of commemoration to the battle, including a big one of General Green who commanded the US army at the battle.

I drove to all of the stop points and walked to some of the monuments that weren't directly at the stop points. I missed one of the stops and had to walk back to it. I think it took about 2 hours to see everything. There were a few other cars, bikers and walkers but it was relatively empty. It was fun to "explore" to find all of the monuments. Additionally, at all of the stops and several other places, there were signs to explain what happened in the various locations. I was in a reflective mood at the end of the visit.

From there I went to Raleigh. Although I had a map and path planned, I took a wrong turn and ended up in the city before I expected. I was still able to make it to the hotel.

Charlotte; Wednesday July 28

In the afternoon I went to the Mint Art Museum in Charlotte. It was in the southeast outskirts which had very nice neighborhoods. The museum was primarily concerned with Central and South American pottery with some paintings from post-Western contact eras. However, there were also some displays on cothing and wardrobe and a section on boots from various cultures and eras.

The museum is called the Mint because the building was originally the US Mint in North Carolina (pre-Civil War). The building had various uses during and after the Civil War and was bought for its current use early in the twentieth century. There are now two museums (one is downtown) and plans to open a completely new space downtown. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of any of this:)

Marion and North Cove; Tuesday July 27

Today I am visiting a golf course near Linville Falls (also near an area called North Cove) and the county seat in Marion. I had fun looking through county records.











The golf course was in pretty good shape in a very scenic area out in the country. The mountains were a great backdrop.

Summer Vacation 2010; North Carolina

These are notes from my trip to North Carolina in July 2010.

Monday July 26
A travel day. I had trouble at the airport because the far parking was full. I ended up in the south near parking area, but still had plenty of time before my flight.

The flight ended up starting and finishing about an hour late. Since I had nothing else planned for the day there wasn't any issue. I checked into my hotel and made plans for the next day.

I had dinner at a nice little restaurant but was caught in a rain storm and had a rather wet walk back to my hotel.

Sorry, no pictures on this post, but plenty for the rest of the trip.

Testing Blog

Haven't been on in over a year. Testing that I can still add entries. I should get some new posts up later this week. Stay tuned.