NYRoute8.com is born and the SouthernAdirondackTrail.com too!

NYRoute8.com is up now and it redirects to the NYRoute28.com site on it's own special town index page, the same page as the Southern Adirondack Trail redirects to. Went up today and started in Speculator, at the northern end of the Southern Adirondack Trail. Came into a snow squall all the way from Speculator south-west to Little Falls. Mainly just some patrolling and casual selling. While talking on my cell and watching trains in Little Falls, I managed to knock my stupid glasspack muffler and wound about 16 feet of old copper railroad telegraph wire around my left rear drive axle. Went to a convenience store in the middle of town and the nice shopkeeper lent me a pair of linesman's pliers, which cut it apart finally, saving my axle's boots. Since then, I've secured the muffler.

The Speculator Way

Went up to Speculator today to drop off Windows 98 O.S. to my friend Bob. I stopped in at the local market to get a cafe refill. This is the market I usually buy my food and cafe in Speculator while staying at Bob's. So the incompetent jerk who runs the place tore down my little URL poster in less than a week. I don't care that he doesn't want to advertise with me, I have no hard feelings towards him as I give him my business. But his staff are incompetents who get all the orders wrong and charge a different price every time I get a refill. Finally, his newest wench tried to charge me a $1.50 for a refill, I told her no way, I paid $1.25 for the same a week ago and the price of coffee didn't go up that quickly. She caved and I treated her like a total vegetable. Screw them, there's competition for food in Speculator. He and his merchant family can take their cheesy, drag and drop grade school websites and shove it. I was never competing with his broods' work, no one, I mean no one, covers the 'Daks like me! I go from the Canadian border to the Thruway and as far west as Boonville and on to Verona. I'll go on any road in any weather, I love winter. I write my code from scratch using a special web editor. I started writing code on punch cards and teletypes.

Another reason to support Bob's Dissolve the Village of Speculator plan. Too many people in the 'Daks and this state in general wait around for some government job to take care of their lazy butts. Check out Albany, a $113 billion dollar state budget. All the social welfare agencies look on upstate as a good place to dump their rejects for cheap, compared to NYC, flops, destroying hte fabric of many old, small poorer communities. Also, the state likes to help the 'Daks by building prisons and dumping their NY City waste on us for some good paying prison jobs. I say keep the trash downstream. Build high rise prisons in the City or put them in hulk ships moored to the old piers in Manhattan and Brooklyn so their peeps can take the subway to visit them. Everyone would be happier!

Southern Adirondack Trail is now part of NYRoute28

Go to my new URL, SouthernAdirondackTrail.com. I cover the whole Southern Adirondack Trail, mainly NY Route 8 from Speculator to Little Falls, Herkimer. Plus I cover NY Route 8 from Wells to Loon Lake too.

Spark Plug Tips

Avoid all those Bosch 2 and 4 electrode Platinum, Pt, plugs. They always foul. So I switched both my wife's Camry and my boat to NGK Iridium, Ir, plugs. These Iridium plugs are tops!

Help New York State Out!

Eliminate a wasteful, duplicative political entity, the utterly pointless village government of Speculator. My friend Bob at the Cedarhurst Motor Lodge is passing out petitions to dissolve the village government and do everything through the town as to eliminate utterly pointless duplication, not pointless from the view of the people on the ville's payroll who live off the villages 300 odd registered voters.

Small Town Petty Police Tactics

The folks in Saranac Lake thought they could have one good weekend this dismal winter during their winterfest a couple weekends ago. But Eliot Ness and Thomas Dewey in the S.L. Police and the Franklin County DA figured it was time to enforce the petty underage drinking laws. They sent a man, woman and two kids, posing as a family, to old fashioned good restaurants and when the lady ordered a glass of wine with her meal, they arrested the waitresses and owners for serving a 20 year old. Needless to say, they hit the bars too during the rush and bagged a total of 11 places. They even arrested some prison guard officer's daughter too, for selling beer in the supermarket to the DA's rats. This is so petty and fascist, but it's not hard to believe. We've become a nation of fascist puritans, where "freedom loving" folks are just dying to let the police eavesdrop their phones, search their cars and houses and drug test them without question. Sounds like model Soviet citizens to me. But the good folks of S.L. are fighting back by demanding separate jury trials, as to tie the arseholes in the DA up with over twenty trials in a town that now hates them.

Up North Again

after a 2 week hiatus, I'm back up north. Last night the NW brought that great cold and snow, so I hit the road early this morning to Saranac Lake, where my good friend Nadia put me up for the night. The roads were choked with crummy drivers: a 1/4" of snow in Albany and you'd think these people grew up on the equator the way they were driving. The most contemptible are these granny drivers who crawl along through the snow while 4/5ths of their windows and car are still covered with snow. What putzes! You can't have it both ways, if you want to be cautious, stop and clean your windows and let the 15 cars behind you get by. But it's great to be back in Placid and Saranac on a real winter's night for a change. Already, it's -10F!

Auto Caveat: Check your timing belt on your Overhead Cam Motor OHC.

My friend's brother-in-law was driving his 93 Volvo, which he bought 2 weeks earlier for $1200. The timing belt completely snapped when he was driving on US 9 in Latham. When I looked up the timing mark pattern for his car(so one can re-align all three shafts: cam, crank, jack) the book said it was an interference motor: which means when the belt breaks, the pistons will bend the valves, making a simple timing belt replacement into a cylinder head job > $750. Ironically, the Volvo is one of the easiest cars to put a timing belt in, the rest of the car is in good shape and one couldn't ask for an easier car to work on, it's real wheel drive. Some other interference motors that come to mind are Honda Civics, GM engines, Nissans, VW, yadda yadda. Have the belt inspected, if the rubber is hard, shiny or cracked, replace it! Age will wear it out as well as mileage. The older timing belt styles, like on this Volvo, are very weak and narrow. My Eagle's belt is about 5 X as large and thick as that crummy little Volvo belt.

Winter is Back

Burrr, it's below 0F in Speculator right now, the western 'Daks got over 2'. Someone must had found a virgin to sacrifice to the snow gods. Wiring up the Cedarhurst Motel, well at least I have my room wired with high speed. So now I have three places up here where I have a room with HBO and high speed.

Wrapped up the job Saturday. At the local diner in Spec, the Sunrise, I saw a flyer from a guy who does CAD design for buildings and septic. So on my way back to Albany, I picked up another website job.

Goodbye to West Hartford, CT

My father is selling the old family house and moving down to Potomac, MD. Lot of memories, I didn't live too long in West Hartford but I was born and lived till 13 in the City of Hartford. Took lots of junk: he's 78 and has more junk than he could handle. CT is a really messed up state road-wise. These safety wusses love to put stop signs everywhere: on curves, rr crossings that see 1 train/month, at almost every inersection. It is so bad that they have to put signs telling people when it isn't an all-way stop so they will actually stop, instead of blowing through all those pestilential pussy stop signs. On their interstates and limited access highways, they have lots of left exits and entrances. On I-91 between Hartford and Windsor, they have a carpool lane, which takes up two regular lanes and has no passing or exits until the Hartford City line, which they don't tell you when you get on that utter waste of good road space and money: they even built ramps and overpasses for the HOV lanes, that almost no one uses. Typical brain-dead CT thinking! CT has yearly emissions testing; but if you buy your car new, you never have to have a safety inspection on it. A used car will get inspected once by the state when you first register it though. So there are tons of really badly maintained vehicles on the road, even nice ones. Every third car has at least one brake light out. They have these fancy emission testing centers, you'd think they would throw a safety check too while they are there every year.

Spent 2 days in Boonville

Thursday, Friday and tried to drum some business up. Thanks to the weather, business is shit, anyone know a virgin we can sacrifice to the snow gods? Lowville, north of B'ville, is the center of the snow belt and has no snow, it's like spring. Boonville is totally retrogade; most of them are getting used to dial yourself rotary desk phones, they just gave up their hand cranked ones. But prices are cheap their, there is an A-Plus mini mart with the cheapest gas and high test coffee for $.64 a mug; compare that to rip-off McDonald's who want $1.84 to fill up the same cup. Starbuck's cofee is cheaper than both CrapDonalds and Punkin Donuts. Took NY 28 to NY 30 back home, sold a CAT 5 wiring job to my friend in Speculator at a deep, horrible winter, discount. The Eagle runs great with clean plugs and my gas mileage went up, so I spend less on the juice. Bosch 2 and 4 electrode plugs are prone to foul, so I bring cleaning stuff, xtra plugs and sockets all the time now.

Gonna Hit the Road

Going lean and mean this time, prolly camp-out. Heading W-N-W, maybe?
Update: Boonville, Lowville via NY 7 to I-890 in Schen, to NY 5 to Amsterdam. Then NY 67 west to Johnstown, where I tanked up and took NY 29 through the lower 'Daks to Middleville, where I picked up my NY 28 to NY 12. that is a short and good hardcore 2 lane route with no tolls or b.s.

Drive Home

Took the Olympic Way NY 3-86-Old Mil Road-73 to the Northway. Kept some good time, taking the occassional pass here and there to keep the pace up. Wasn't till I cleared Keene Valley did I find someone worth following. In spite of all the Statey traps, I came up clean every time. Some of the passes might have gotten a little over 55 mph though, this is NY State!

Tuned up the old beast

yesterday. Put a good high quality cap, rotor and Bosch 4 electrode Pt plugs in the old thing, 2.4 l, 16 valves, and she ran like a champ this time. Finally realized that the other Bosch plugs 2 electrode, Pt plug, were getting fouled up with soot. Also, put some shock bushings in as cushions for the 5/16" eyebolt that I was using to hold my Thrush® muffler to the bumper. Saves gas and ears, smooth purring!




Then I went for a starlight patrol of NY 3 & 30, the Sara-Tupper Speedway, to Saranac Lake to the only all night store in the Tri-lakes Region. It ran like a dream, with Beethoven's 9th, Ode to Joy and the highbeams on the whole time. NY 3 rules all other NY routes. It's simply the best road in design, scenery, challenge, and age. Ironically, I cover it from Plattsburgh to Wanakena on adkI87.com and nyroute30.com.

High Speed in Tupper Lake

Booted up the Northway/US 9. Got a new customer in Olmstedville, Muellers, who do heavy duty repair and towing, I mean the hard core stuff. Then it was through Schroon, No. Hudson to CR 84, Blue Ridge Road, to Newcomb and came into the Tupper the right way. Hooked up my new-used 16 port office switch for my friends Maggie and Jerry's Park Motel, so we can have CAT 5 high speed internet in their rooms. Will finish up all the receptacles and RJ-45 jacks by tomorrow .



UPDATE: Sunday, 1/29

Job completed, 7 rooms wired.

Computer Running Slow, Try a Memory Expansion

My laptop ran slow as molasses, even with a 2.4 GHz processor, cause it had only 204 MB of free RAM. The XP OS soaks up tons of RAM when it is running. So I sent away for a 512MB memory stick and it made the computer run about 12x as fast. Remember, memory is the cheapest and best way to improve performance, especially on cheaper machines that come stock with only 256MB of RAM. But still remember to check all the auto start up programs and delete the ones you don't need most of the time.

More Email Caveats

set your email client(Outlook express, Netscape Composer, Eudora) so it prompts you if someone wants a return confirmation email sent back to him. Lot's of spam have the confirmation requests set to true to trick Outlook Express into confirming to them that the email addy is good.

Psycho Weather

It was a windstorm last night, then it turned into a ice storm. The power went out this morning. Then it warmed up in the afternoon and turned to rain. Then, by 5, the wind shifted from the NW and snow and 40 mph gusts blew in. Here is a night shot from Berkley Square in Saranac Lake. My friend Nadia is back in SL, so we got together for some web design business and socializing

I'm the CAT 5 Wiring Dude

Just wired my first room here in Tupper Lake at the Park Motel. As soon as we get another switch, we'll have the whole place with wired high speed that we split off of the DSL connection. Took two tries with the RJ-45(the ones that look like big telelphone jacks) crimp tool till I learned how to crimp the ends on right. Now that I have high speed in Tupper Lake. I don't need to sneak into Lake Placid hotels and use their phone jacks to get to the local crummy AOL dial-up number!

Yahoo Beats Google Search

In spite of mass Google hype, good old Yahoo search is way better. It returns more relevant links quicker. I was just looking for a potential customer in the Central Adirondacks. Google gave me a bunch of useless garbage while Yahoo gave me the link to his website on return #1. When AdkI87.com tanked out last summer cause of the server, Google was returning for #1 a ceramics factory near the Northway that had the Northway listed in a map in a .pdf file while Yahoo returned a summer resort near the Northway that mentioned it several times in their site for keywords "Adirondack Northway". Now of course, my www.AdirondackNorthway.net site returns #1 for keywords "Adirondack Northway". Don't believe the hype!

Boonville Recon

Checked out Boonville testerday, after I left Old Forge. I put up the Boonville page earlier that morning. I have been busy like a beaver working on the re-born NYRoute28.com site, cruising from Barnveldt to Inlet. Business has been good. Heard about some scum who has a snowmobile website who ripped off some of my customers by taking their money and not putting up one page.

AOL Ripoff

Had AOL on my laptop for a while, so I can access the net on the road. Started out with the free month plan, then was paying 25/month for unlimited, finally 15/mo for 6 hours. Since the access numbers in the 'Daks are almost always long distance, I would sometimes pay an extra 10/min for their 1-800 service. It was a real rip, so I decided to cancel. When I called them to cancel, I told the man, very pleasantly, about just how useless AOL was for the 'Daks. Except to connect to the net, I never used AOL for anything else; their browser bites and who needs another email addy when I have about 14,900 extras of my own. Then, I told him I used Road Runner at home and had no need for the AOL bunny slope community. Then he tells me, that since I was a Road Runner customer, that AOL was free! I blew over a 100 on that useless crap when the whole time it was free. The moral of this anecdote is that if you have Road Runner, then AOL is free.

Back in Old Forge

Took the Thruway to Palantine Bridge, Exit 29. Took NY 5 all the way through to Herkimer to get on NY 28. Westbound people should get off at Exit 29A, Little Falls, to get to NY 28 north. It's a four lane highway from Little Falls to Herkimer. Also, NY 28 north is about 3/4 mile east of the Herkimer exit, so you'll save on the miles too. Rail buffs love NY 5, it goes along the Mohawk Division of the NY Central RR. One of my friends says I have too much time on my hands if I like to watch trains.




Looking East on the Mohawk Division Mainline at the West Canada Herkimer Creek bridge, on the Herkimer-Montgomery County Line

Furry Little Friends

in Old Forge. Right after I took this shot, I got the Eagle stuck in the snowbank, right in front of the OF town garage. The crews quickly dug me out, thanks!

I drove up to Old Forge via the Thruway, 1-90 west and NY 28 from Herkimer, Thursday the 15th during the ice storm. I had no problem, getting off the Thruway in Herkimer was the best thing cause people are dumb on the Thruway. NY 28 was fine from Herkimer, and as I drove up the road, I realized just how lacking NYRoute28.com was; It was always the poor step-sister to the other two. I hadn't been that way in years and it was fine, except that I had to break the ice off my windshield every 10 miles. People up here were too scared to drive so I had NY 28 pretty much to myself, which is great. The snow removal there was barely adequate, nothing compared to NY 30 or the High Peaks routes like US 9, NY 3, 73, 86, where they keep the roads bare. My cellphone got left back home and I didn't call my motel buddy in Old Forge, so when I pulled in they already turned in. Not wanting to wake them, I camped out at Nick's Lake DEC campground, in the back of the Eagle. It wasn't cold but the ice and wind made it uncomfortable. An ice laden branch hitting the roof made me levitate an inch or two. I was happy for morning, as I drove down from McCauley Mountain in all the brand new heavy snow and ice. As I was working my way along the River road, I saw those deer, so I pulled over too suddenly and got my beast stuck; yet again wasting some town crews' time, about 3 minutes, to free here. I was so happy to get my room and warm up and shower. My friend Joe ran high speed into my room, it was heaven along with HBO!

Had some password problems with Blogger

Which I finally resolved. So now I can post again. I had this blog for as long as I had NYRoute30.com and I would really miss it if I couldn't figure it out.

Got Firefox!

Finally bit the bullet and took the free plunge to Mozilla Firefox browser. What an easy painless download and installation. Using it now. Checked out my ANCA work in Netscape today and the stupid html commented tags were throwing errors that IE 6 would never do. Really smooth, it imported everything from IE 6!

I grew up on IE 6, and it is the most forgiving browser for bad JavaScript and html. But it is ponderous and vulnerable to security issues, which never bothered me. But this Firefox is winning me over. Though any good webmaster should check his work on at least one Mozilla based browser, now I have two.

Hills Behind My Stand

Got 2 Turkeys in Melrose, Rensselaer County

I was visiting an old farmer friend, we use to rent from his nephew. He always let me hunt his small farm. I checked it out earlier, using a very mud and water logged route to a nice little grove of wild apples on the upslope of this field and bog. Real heavy clayee sucking mud it was from all those freaking October rains. So I came back about an hour later and parked closer to the meadow and grove. I set up a little base alongside some thick, sideways growing apple trees. My boots and socks were wet, so I spread my mat out and took off my footgear to dry off a bit, plus I had some dry socks. I got my camera out too.

So, natch, as I am sitting there scannning the bend in the track and tree line I see some racoons? Racoons, cats, sheeet, they're gobblers and I'm shoeless. So I ducked down and dragged my boots on and tried to hide the stuff as I lay prone infantryman style behind a small hummock, in full camo now. I called them a couple times but they just moved back out of site. So I doubled back to my base, hid everything, which was just precaution and laced up my boots and went with just the basics. I tacked up the hill through the apple trees and made it to the tree-fence line. Following the cover there, I worked my way to the bend. Snapping the safety off on five special 3" turkey loads, I rounded the bend and there was the biggest flock of turkeys I've seen in a long time. Standing, I got up closer and pumped 2 quick ones at head level. The flock scattered minus two birds flopping around in their death throes. So I blew off the first guy's head and did the secong manually; at 85 cents a shell, hell yes. Cleaned them in the driveway at home, what a pain!

Call of the Turkeys

still doing some turkey hunting in Albany County southern zone.

Exit 30 High Peaks

The way to Lake Placid and Keene Valley

Snow

it was snow for the upper Daks. over a foot in the high peaks last week and when we drove through the pass to Ticonderoga on NY 74, it was a sample of winter. Went all the way up to St. Albans Vermont in Eileen's car to pick up this tranny I bought for a Subaru. The Quebec junk yard undercut everyone in the US by $450 so we went with him when he dropped it off for me in VT. QC, CA is a good place to go for used parts, especially with free continental calling. Got some dynamite pics from the shop on Lake Champlain, see front page of ADKI87.com.

It's Fall Now!

With all this rain, snow and cold, you know it. Looks like it's going to be a tough winter. Went out last night and built a fire and slept out in a remote part of Albany COunty. It was realy cool and bright once the fire died down and it cleared up. No bugs, so I slept under the stars. For all you outdoor types, Albany County, while being part of the Catskill-Helderberg, not the superior Adirondacks, foothills, is full of state forests for hunting, snowshoeing, camping, cross country skiing all through the south western part of the county, like Rensselaerville, Berne.

Free Email Accounts

with @adirondacknorthway.net extensions, just email me with username and a pw, use link on top of page for squirrelmail access, ditto for the nyroute30.com site, same deal but with a @nyroute30.com domain extension.

Now No.s 1 - 2 on Yahoo, MSN, & Google Search for keyword "Adirondack Northway"

Yes, after being buried in Google last month, at one point #80, I am number one with AdirondackNorthway.net for search string "Adirondack Northway" on the search returns. Wouldn't one figure that a website utterly devoted to the "Adirondack Northway" would pull #1 on "Adirondack Northway" for Google and MSN Searches, #2 on Yahoo Search?

Yurt Raising

The lady who runs the most unique resort in the Adirondacks needed some help to erect her newest lodge, a 30' diameter yurt. The Mongols used yurts, they look like little circus tents. These are kits with insulated platforms. It has a pretty heavy duty wall fabric wrap-around plus an openable skylight. She rents out tree houses, cabins and yurts with no electricity but wood heat, gas stoves and battery/kero lamps. This in the off the path part of NW Fulton County, Bleeker. It was a big hoe-down with a combo of her guests, neighbors, fellows in Adk trekking meeting to put this big conical thing uo

Mission Statement

I started these websites to combine some Adirondack adventures with some business. I do try hard for the business. If it was only business, I could do better at almost any job. It's doing what I like; web design, exploring, camping, the Adirondacks, and checking out all these places of business and other nooks and crannys all through the park. And the best way to do this is to drive around and solicit business. Plus, that means you meet and interact with people. If it was all the Benjamins I ain't making, I wouldn't do this. It's fun and rewarding. For example, I have to pick this transmission from a Quebec junk yard, up in NW Vermont. So, now, I will circle Lake Champlain to the north on US 11 and hit all the towns on the nrothern plateau like Moerrs, Champlain. Places I have pages but no content. Plus, I haven't been north of Exit 39 yet, in the lifespan of this site.
I am meandering, the mission is to patrol and report about the Adk north country on-line,

After the Rains

During all this rain we had, i got a nice flat, a broken off cotter pin this time. I plugged it right on the axle on Albany-Shaker Road with my plug kit. At least the cop stopped to throw some light and talk to me. None of the Capital District troglodytes driving by could be bothered to at least ask, as opposed to the 'Daks where almost everyone would have stopped. Next day, I went to Walmarts for tires. The jerks there take about 2 hours to mount and balance 4 tires, giving me all sorts of grief about how tight my lugs are. At first they refused to take the lug off, claiming it might break, they don't fix lugs, yadda yadda corporate bs to the maz. I wasn't going to stand for this nonsense, I just took the wheel off last week and didn't want to hear any of Wal-Mart's corporate drivel. So I got right on the case, but ended up blowing another $15 on a set of new lug nuts, which wasn't such as bad idea. Kicked ass and took no prisoners on two new website jobs, a brand new one for capital region mica task force & the new look for Adirondack North Country Association

Skool Daze

I was subbing in this area middle school, Spanish, which I am barely proficient. But since it was 8th Grade, I was the "expert". The regular teacher had hand lotions and ferbel dolls for the kids to use. I quickly put the kibosh on such nonsense, especially the lotions and cream crap. What are they trying to do with our kids? Make them all thumbsucking drones? Today I am old Cohoes High, doing Regents Chemistry for an old teacher, much more straightforward.

Converted the NY 30 site to PHP tonight

that's HTML with brains, now, all my headers and footers are one file and I can have a nifty time/date. It also makes the page ready to be hooked to a database. Always save your html pages as php pages, almost all servers can handle it. Regular old html will work fine as php, and it makes it easier to upgrade to fancy php scripts, go to http://php.net/. It's all open source server stuff, available on almost all servers. But it will make upkeep easier.

Tupper/Saranac/Plattsburgh

After Old Forge, I headed back north to my old stomping grounds in the High Peaks. I called this really beautiful lady, Nadia, who I only met over the phone and email, and met her in person. She offered to feed and put me up for the night in true north country hospitality. She runs a craft program, her site has resources and marketing programs for crafts folks and retailers.

Then I took NY 3 up to Plattsburgh for some Northway business. That is truly a lonely and good road, like Northern Maine. Hit all the places by Exit 37. Got some good probable and made a sale in Ausable Forks Village. Took the really treacherous back route around Whiteface, ostensibly to avoid Placid traffic, through Franklin Falls. It was exciting but there were a lot of wet leaves on the road, fall is here!