Saturday, January 25, 2003

War on (Islamic) Terrorism: Two NY State Views







    New York City Trendy


  • Gotta get gas mask and cipro.
  • I'm scared of high rises.
  • All these weapons are scary, we need more arms and gun control.
  • Do any of those Muslims walking around here have a bomb strapped to them?
  • Shit, can't park anywhere near anything important
  • I hope they don't attack us again!
  • Bush and Sharon are just as bad and the Christians should quit egging on the Muslims, you gotta respect other cultures.


    Adirondacks


  • Shit, when are those fairies going to shut up so we can blast those towel heads and get our boys back quick.
  • Gotta get more ammo and some tnt.
  • They attack us with airplanes and human bombs and those liberals are crying about handgun control, get a grip!
  • I hope they come up here, the hunting seasons are closed and I want to try the new Mini-30 I got for Xmas.
  • Shit, in Albany they got all the good parking blocked off by the capital.
  • After we finish off Iraq, its (Saudi Arabia, North Korea, France) next, we're on a roll!
  • Personally I don't care if they worship Satan himself, but those towel heads better learn to respect other cultures, like ours!

Gettin Stuck, Upstate Style




I went for a little drive up the Adirondack Northway, I-87 north, from my Albany suburb of Latham to Warrrensburg in Warren County. After getting the twin essentials of gas and coffee at the all night Cumberland Farms(I love good chain gas/conveniences like them, only our free enterprise system can produce this, imagine the Soviets!) Cut to the chase: I got stuck on a seasonal town road in the Town of Stoney Creek, Warren County in the S.E. corner of the Adirondack Parks. In case you didn't know, there's tons of snow and -25F temps these days. Seasonal road means no winter maintenance so it' doubles as part of the local snowmobile trail network in the winter. So, I found that my all-wheel drive Eagle Summit doesn't cut it on uphill narrow snowmobile trails and got stuck about 4:30 AM. So I roughed it in the back till about 8:30, always have blankets and sleeping bags with me. The first guy I met was pretty disabled so all he did was drive me into the hamlet to the general store, Emericks. I warmed up on cafe and a breakfast sandwich. The lady who ran it presented my dilemma to the local workers. After it warmed up to about -5F, the lady told me to walk down the road to the Town of Stoney Creek Highway yard. But another one of Emerick's customers picked me up in his Jeep Cherokee and we almost got the Eagel free with a tow chain until he almost got stuck and I ditched it again. So we went back to the Town of Stoney Creek Highway yard and got the supervisor on the case. Since it was a town road, he felt obligated to help unstick me. So he sent a payloader up there after we mounted chains on it. But the payloader almost got stuck and had to turn around, tearing up the trail with his 30 ton rig. Then the guy with the Jeep got come-alongs from the Town of Stoney Creek Highway Department and he got me out of the frozen rut and I got it about 150' downhill till it ditched again. So I went back and tried to enlist more help. Then I returned to my stuck Eagle, built a fire and ate lunch and read. Then the Warren County Sheriff and the Town of Stoney Creek Highway Supervisor drove up to the end-of-plowing turn around and ambled up. The supervisor had a 3/4 ton diesel 4x4 Ford pickup and he got me me with a chain, three times! till I was free. My new wife was understandably angry and releived when I finally called her in Warrensburg from the Cumby's where I filled up at 4:00 am. It was five pm then!


This is how you get treated in the Adirondacks when you are stranded. People are so cool up there. Even the sheriff was helpful and all he did was check my plates; no snooping or let's see some i.d. crap like the assholes around here. In the Capital District, most people are assholes period. Most of them work for the state and they have sort of a Mandarin attitude with pygmy brains and surely demeanor. My throttle cable snapped in the middle of US 9 a mile from here and not one lazy asshole got out to help. Around here, I'd have to pay some local wrecker shyster to yank me out and the cops would be itching to write tickets and harass me. The highway supervisor there just asked me to vote for him if I ever moved up there; sure thing, vote early, vote often! He even told the people who maintained the snowmobile trails to lay off since it was his road not their trail. I gave the jeep guy a good old pair of ski gloves to assuage my guilt at tying up about 10 man-hours of local labor. It's the cool rural parts of New York State that I love, we all hate the city types and all the lawyer/psychiatrist/social worker/leftist radical crap that emanates from our state's more notorious cities. DOn't you just hate it when some flatlander acts like you should know some goombah in Nassau County.

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

The Freeze is On!


Took a Subaru down to Noo Joisey for Grumme, well my new bride drove it as I folllowed in the Billy Goat. Of course, the Rhodes Scholar Grumme got Nob Hill spelled as Kob Hill in Roseland Township, NJ. So Mapquest gave me Cobb Terrace, but we psyched it out with help of a street resident. Then we overshot the turn by a couple miles an not one of the immigrant gas jockies ever heard of this huge Nob Hill townhouse project. I turned up a service track and saw three deer, right there in the heart of the suburban-urban sprawl. Compared to this, Cohoes is the deep woods. It turned out this Tzui was actually a J.A.P., well not really but being negative never the less. I saw the mezzuzah on the door and said to her husband that I expected a Chinese woman not a Yid. He was cool and was relieved. I mounted the four tires on it and checked it out good before we left Glenmont, NY. I guess they figure that when you buy a car from Upstate NY, they send the mechanic in camo with his wife to deliver it. The Billy Goat ran like a pro but guzzled gas, with the NJ Hunting Club-Adirondack Chapter bumper sticker.

You always know when you get to CT, the speed limit drops. CT is such a kill-joy state that for the 1/2 mile that I-684(from White Plains to Brewster) crosses into Greenwich, CT, the dicks posted it at 55, while the NY stretch is 65. I-84 still sucks cause CT does everything on the cheap and we all pay triple for it, especially that road thru Danbury and the rest of the cities.

Monday, January 20, 2003

Hi-Peaks



The last two trips I returned via NY 73 to the Northway. I slept a few hours in the trailhead parking lot in Keene Valley. What really impressed me, besides the -30F cold was the droves of snow shoers and mountaineers in force. Someone was actually waiting for my space as I pulled out. Back in the day, there might have been two cars max in the winter. Now, it's a road not a trail into the High Peaks year round

Latest Update


Last Sunday, not yesterday, I drove out to first Booneville and Tug Hill to really see snow. Did I! It was like a sled in the old Escort, when I opened the door, snow blew in. I spent the night skulking around Booneville, skiing in the parking lots while the snow never stopped. I found a wash bay place that was still under construction. But it was cover and had a heated concrete slab! Still, it was a rude awakening at 10F below. Then I drove through to my NY 30 via old NY 28 in Blue Mountain Lake. There must have been five thousand sledders in Old Forge-Thendara. In the hamlet I stopped for gas and coffee. Someone ran in and said there were sleds on fire so I paid and raced down NY 28 to the flames a block away. Some Moe & Rons from Rochester put a kerosene-electric torpedo to heat up a plastic, rubber gas and oil filled snowmobile, fairly predictable. Four uninsured, gassed up sleds blew between two old wooden houses. Lucky we got it out before any of the houses were damaged. The column of black smoke and orange flames were quite impressive, but unlike the movies. In the movies, when gas tanks blow, they pep it up with a few pounds of C-4. Face it, sledders are dumb! The sleds were a total slag heaps when the flames were doused. Old Forge was quite depressing, it's a huge resort town crawling with Jerseyites.

But once I got into Hamilton County, the scenery and road got better. Not muched happened, except Eileen and I got married in Saint Armands on Mt. Pisgah in the justice's house in our socks. It was a ten below white out day, normal Saranac Lake. The Escort's right rear strut tower rusted out and it blew through the speaker above it. I nursed it home carefully on a cold slushy night. Now I have the Eagle Summit. With all wheel drive, 2.4 liter 16 valve 4 banger and five speed, it eats up the backroads in comfort compared to the Escort. The Escort was a great simple car that got always better than 30 mpg, but it was simple. Which was a virtue for repairs but not for comfort. Parts for that Escort were always the cheapest.

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

To all three readers, I'm sorry



I know there's woodchuck with a Blueberry® out there logged on! I couldn't blog up in the 'Daks, because internet access is limited in the Northern 'Daks. They don't even have an internet cafes like in Killington, Vermont, not even upscale Lake Placid. I bought a Compaq laptop in Massena and it improved business 100%. IE 6 and Edit Plus pop up on start up so all I do is turn it on and let it boot and I can show them what's happening off my hard drive copy. But I had to sneak around the lobbies of Placid's better hotels looking for an open RJ-11 jack to exploit the free 3 months AOL deal to upload my most current files. I ruled this time. I spent a night in a Bavarian chalet inn and was fed an authentic German meal just for helping the inn frau with her website's keywords and showing her a few IE 6 and Edit Plus tricks. It was the best night's room & board that I ever got! Then she bough an ad to boot! I rule! Don't brag and get egotistical Jeremy!

Left New Year's Eve and almost got it on the Adirondack Northway north of Exit 29 on black ice. Some Jersey kid was in the median's ditch in his rear wheel drive Aerostar van with bald tires. He said to give him a pull with a strap, I said you need a ten ton winch. What does some dumb Jersey college kid know about cars and winter? Such ignorance, thanx to our mediocre education system. He was going to pay a surprise visit on his girl in Montreal. I feel sorry for the Jersey people, maybe there's something in the water. "I Love NY" maybe corny, but NY has 10000x to offer than Sopranoland. Brooks Shields say "NJ & You", down with both! It was so slippery when I got out to heIp the dweeb that I fell flat on my ass in the middle of the Northway at 2:00 AM! I waited for the trooper and the salt truck to come by and I followed the salter off the Northway. US 9 and NY 73 were like a pretzel by the time I got there!

Monday, December 30, 2002

Tupper Lake is Great!


On the way up, as I passed through Indian Lake, I got two in the hamlet! Great Omen! In Tupper Lake, I hooked up with the local CoC dude, and we hit it off good. I did much better. Went back to Darryl at his motel and showed him what I did on his wife's computer upstairs. He thought I was just trying to scam him the first time, but I impressed him and his family as I changed (800) to (866) in his ad right there, using IE 6 in ftp mode. Then I made it up to the border at Trout River. First was a late night drive for fun, then it was bizniz. On the way up on NY 30 north of Paul Smith's, I checked out some lodge that was sponsoring a sled dog competition. But once you broke out of the woods into the Northern, or Laurentian Plateau, it was like another country. Malone and north seem like the Great Depression never ended, poor and abandoned. Everyone talks like an English Canadian and are polite and slow. So I figured the only action was west on NY 37 to the Mohawk Rez in Hogansburg, where they have a long strip selling tax free tobacco, gas, clothes food. Compared to Malone, it was hopping! I met this guy who use to be head of the Akwasasne Mohawk CoC and he said come back after the holidays and he'd hook me up, hopefully!

Then I bought a laptop at the mall in Massena at Sears, of all places. I fired it up for the first time at a diner in the rez, but the stupid cd that had the site on it wasn't being read. So I had to activate the free 3 months AOL thing and download it over my motel room in Tupper Lake. It impressed people yesterday, I sold a couple, but it was fun firing the little expensive bastard at the bar to show them in real time. I tried the 32 Winchester lever of mine in some dustbowl field just shy of the Canadian frontier. I parked in some country pull off on a dirt town road near Fort Covington and a local stopped to see if I was some dirtbag dumping waste on the old farmer's land. I was cool with him and said that if I was a dirtbag who was dumping, I could find a place in Albany County to do it instead of driving 230 miles north in the Winter. I explained that the code of the road and the woods are mine too!

Thursday, December 26, 2002

22" at Albany International, White XMas!



No Rest Till Tupper Lake!

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

Separated the wheat from the chaff in the snow



on this trip. I started from the Super 8 in J-Town and headed up to Wells, where I finally sold Kathy on her great general store. Then I did a little research for a mechanic friend of mine in Troy who complained about some bunghole customer and his old Jaguar. Seems everyone there agreed with my friend Pat. It was beatiful and warm, deer just strolling on the hamlet fringe like stray dogs. In Speculator, I met some crazy little woodswomen at a cool little lodge. Sure droned on for hours with some really funny 'Dak stories that made me laugh hard when I could follow her drunken narrative. There was a cool Jersey dude, his uncle had a camp up there for years and he just moved in the 'Daks after he got fired in NJ. Just us three and the staff in the snow!

Indian Lake is pretty slow, no business there. But I did okay in Long Lake, considering 3/4's of the town is empty. I met this one old guy who lost his license and was imprisoned for DWI. He was a remodeler, home builder type who journeyed around to various projects in the region. He got into fight and knew all the sheriffs, troopers and jails, just like Paul Newman in "Nobody's Fool". Then we went to the Adirondack Hotel, where they let us in an got free drinks and food. It was great! The guy taking care of the place just for the night bought in no problem. Just me and the locals while it snowed mad outside, wild! When i got to Tupper Lake through the drifts, it was past 11 pm. I found this one great motel where the old German couple just left keys out at night so you wouldn't wake them. They had all sorts of snacks in the waiting room all night.

Then some fascist Christian jerk, who owned the largest Christian website in the USA, he says, called me an incompetent fraud at the next motel south of mine in Tupper. Then in Saranac Lake, I met this yuppie jerk who controlled the Lake Placid, High Peaks web world, this for real! He laughed at my hick website and said it would never work. We'll see, yuppie cheese, like you're going to drive some dirt hill road in the winter for your biz! The the miserable bar wench, who owned the place, called me a fraud. I hate Lake Placid Saranac, if i needed that abuse, I would've stayed in Albany. Scotty, beam all those miserable phonies up out of there and beam down some woodchucks and country freaks.

Thursday, December 19, 2002

Hunting Update



Tuesday was the last day of deer season. Sat in a great clearing on a ridge over looking the confluence of two streams and three trails. Two hours I sat on my butt in 15F while snow and Canadiam geese honked all afternoon above me. A bb gun or slingshot could've nailed them, they were so low! But I didn't get up once. I had only five slugs, not one shell of shot! My stand was 200 yards north of the north bank of the Hoosick River in Schagticoke, RensCo. The geese used it as a flyway between the cornfields and their river roost. It drove me nuts, when I got back to the car I checked the waterfowl regs and saw geese were open again. No deer this year, and I had the doe permit for 5N, northern RensCo, eastern WashCo, 25000 doe permits in that one zone alone!

Then yesterday Eileen & I went to NYC, via the MTA Harlem River line from North Brewster, off I-84. It had ample parking but not one other amenity. No station house or concessions stand, just a heated crossover to wait in. The station is out in nowhere between the malls and the village and you can't even get coffee! It was supposed to be a big deal when they built it in the 80's, it's junk, leave it to socialized, overpriced mediocrity mongers at the MTA! For all the suburban space, it's still a long walk to the car! Next time we'll use the cool little village station or go to Croton-on-the-Hudson, the line is electrified from North Brewster to Grand Central. Hint: Always go for electric commuter trains, much quicker and smoother than diesels. We talked with this E.E. and this old knickerbocker who ran fly fishing trips to Siberia and East Africa. Tried to sell him on nyroute30.com! Grand Central is my favorite building in NYC, it's so grand (how lame an adjective!) and it connects to every building within 20 blocks via pedestrian tunnels! The pulse of the Big Apple's life is there! We went to the Diamond District and Times Square with my fiance Eileen. People looked at me and asked if I was duck hunting, "Dummies, ducks are closed, it's geese now!", they're so ignorant. 32F and people thought i was a bear cause my army jacket was unzipped! Played the hick-in-the-city to the max. Checked out the middle of Times Square for some digital shots during my lunch. The city was really nice and clean, except for the occassional ruffian or waif, and the people were interesting and nice, for the city!

Today, I went back to the same place, with the hatchet also and cleared out all the freaking thorny vines and other dead crap. I had this lame-o #6 steel shot junk that was less effective than a bb gun. Total waste, but at least I cleared a good ground stand behind this big blowdown's base. I bought this ultra high price bismuth, 3", 1 5/8 oz magnum loads for tomorrow, where its behind Grumme's garage over his pond after I do some repairs for him.

Sunday, December 15, 2002

tried to blog last night


at the Holiday Inn in Johnstown, but the Frontier Telecom internet Nazis installed this McCaffrey net nanny program on the terminal that blocked out all .blogspot.com access. Even the manger of the motel doesn't know the pw. I stayed at the Super 8 across 30A from the Inn, so I only had to force the snow banks to get around, no all night cruises. With the bizniz rate and free local calls, plus HBO, the Super 8 is aok compared to the spartan accomodations up north. Rain most of the day, rain rain rain rain!!! All the weekend people seem to be turning back, who can blame them. Thank god for my Gore-Tex parka, greatest piece of outdoor clothing made! But i had fun. Stopped into this woodchuck bar in Saratoga County on 29 to give my pitch. I asked for the manager and the women behind the bar said he wasn't here as the music stopped between juke box songs, all fifteen folks there were staring at me. It was time to leave, so about-face goodbye, no pitch! Saw old Mah at her store, the last general store in Saratoga County, it'll be too bad if she closes. Bought a good, cheap camo fishing hat from her, great selection there.

People bitch about how complicated computers are. So is tv, from the trannies, receivers, studios, etc. But you buy a tube, plug it in and get the remote. How much grey matter does that take? Not much more with a computer.

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Too lame and cold to travel



So I'm staying at home, endless tweaking out this blog and nyroute30.com. What dullness! Got a few licensed guides on the site now, via phone & email.

Monday, December 09, 2002

Another Day



My road trip down NY 8 was real desolate, compared to 8, 30's Broadway. Some hippy and his woodchuck buddies played head games with me in his bar near Piseco. They poured cream down my jacket sleeve, I got up and left, but didn't give the chucks the satisfaction of seeing me get angry. One of the chucks at the hippy's bar said he felt sorry for dweebs like me who sit in front of our monitors all day. As if he's a romantic working hero like a smoke jumper, locomotive engineer, fur trapper or wilderness tour guide. He sells junk food and gas, real heroic!


The next bar, in Ohio Town, Herkimer, was much friendlier. The owner is selling out, the APA has made life to difficult with all their granola-munching silly rules. I said you're preaching to the choir, get a 155mm howitzer and a few limbers of HE shells and tow it up to Ray Brook if you're so darn mad. Better yet, use the web and organize the whole 'Daks and change the rules legally. The whole problem in the 'Daks is everyone is so provincial: they can't think past their county line, if that far! To fight NYS, you have to have grass roots support, which is there! Computers are so cheap and easy to use these days, there's no excuse.


Thinking about Poland Village. People were real nice, not huggy 12 step dweebs. Everyone looked me in the eyes and they were friendly, but hard folks, especially the fine young lady who stopped on the street to give me directions. But Herkimer County seems really poor, Route 8 is so desolate, I could put every business there on one page. Note, whether from the east from 'Dam or the west from St Johnsville, the best way to get to 30A is to use NY Route 67. It climbs out of the valley on a long, easy grade, compared to the rest of the routes going from Fonda to Johnstown. 67 is Main Street in the City of Johnstown, but at night all the lights are flashing yellow, except at the eastern end at NY Route 30A. Definitely the fastest and safest way on a winter night.

Sunday, December 08, 2002

Another Crazy Weekend in the 'Daks



Well, up all night, after blogging after the Holiday Inn. Went to my motel room got my gun and gear and went to Rockwood State Forest, junction NY 29 & 10A, but south of 29 where Southern Zone regular deer is still open. Pulled the Escort in on a x-country trail, where I got my pad and walked a half mile predawn to get in position. But after getting up after an hour of laying still to piss, i figured I blew it, so I went walking. I went exploring and got lost on some snowy trail. Ended up down the mountain, where, after I found a snowy dirt road, the first car, a guy in a Toyota 4 x 4 stopped. He's a local named Luke and took me 4 miles out of his way back to where I parked in the snowy woods. He even helped straighten my car so I could get back to 29. The fact that I had a 12 gauge Winchester pump didn't faze him a bit.


It was tough selling that day, but I soldiered through. I almost fell asleep driving from Johnstown to the motel in Northville that evening after dinner. Slept till 10 am, I needed it. I tried to help some jerk at the motel, to install a fuel filter correctly in his Ford Contour. There is a trick with the plastic hairpin clips you got to know or it might come apart and spray high pressure gasoline all over the motor. Ford fuel lines are flimsy, all that hard plastic crap. So I got too much into his space when I leaned over so he threatened to kill me. I told him he was a nasty jerk and when I checked out, I told the gapped tooth manager I'll go somewhere else if this is the kind of trash that comes here. Actually, that ugly, toothless, redneck, hippy dirtbag seems to be the manager's friend, he isn't even staying there! When I get home, I'm calling the owner in Albany and complain about those ignorant losers, after I sell him on my website.


So today I did better. Got Powerhouse Snowmobile and Jim's Bait Shop in Mayfield, first on the fishing and snowmobile pages. Then I checked into a motel in Wells and went cruising north on NY Route 30. After checking out all the bars on NY 30 and 8 west from Speculator. Along the way I stopped at a bar in Poland to get direction to an all night store. This utterly fine brunette walking on the village sidewalk stopped and gave me good directions, she was so nice and polite. Compare that to the brats around Latham and Colonie or Troy. I told her that she was a really good person, she was, and was a beaut too. Too far out from 30 and tired to give a pitch anymore, burnout! I ended up at an all night store in Barnveldt on NY 12, only 10 miles up this huge straight hill on a beautiful 4 lane road, NY 12 & 8, to Utica. Coasted almost 4 miles on a dead stick. I got 60 miles back to Wells, at least! So I weaseled my way into the Utica Best Western, where this way cool dude let me log on, 3 am! Maybe I'll sell the new motel owners in Wells on the plan tomorrow. the night clerk's brother is going to school in Philly to be a pro wrestler. Since I hate all pro sports, I said better to be an honest entertainer in the WWF than some pretensious hoop playing NBA thug in a Range Rover.


The most receptive people are the older folks, especially women. They're better educated and see the value of my plan. The young brats, most of them uneducated (so what they went to college, it's all neo-Marxist swats running the state's schools!), narrow minded and provincial, can't see what value I have. Sure they surf the web, but their computer use is totally superficial mouse clicking, couldn't write a line of code if their lives depended on it. I met some lady in Oneida County that I thought was 55, she's 42! Said she left Vermont after the gay civil ceremony law was passed. Said it was against God's will. She was too Christian to use a computer. But I explained that good Christians use the web. She was just too plumb ignorant! Reminds me when I went to the Christian lodge in Speculator, I told the guys that I was from the Nation of Islam and they must accept Allah and the Prophet or die an infidel's death! That was good for a few laughs. That's not what they teach you in Dale Carnegie though! They gave me a local phone book, what a help!



Friday, December 06, 2002

Snow Update



Blew up the Northway, I-87 to Ballston Spa, X 12. Route 67 was cool except for this incompetent coward doing 20 in a brand new Subaru Outback, a car I could 60 in the same weather. So I pulled a right flank manuever at the first light on Eastline Road, blew around her, cut her off and made the light while she sat there at the red. After B-Spa, I took about 4 more passes in the snow, great tires, and got to Broadalbin just in time for traffic court. I laid it on thick: Took my hat off, used "Your Honor" or Sir. While I waited, I ran over and washed some clothes. The DA let me plead to parking on the pavement, from 44 in a 30. What a break! I even started selling the judge on my website.

Then I checked in up in Northampton, and drove back to Johnstown to the all night Chopper for shampoo and shaving cream. After that, I went down to Fonda to watch freights on the mainline. One train had a bunch of cars with hotboxes (overheated bearing box of the cars axles) glowing orange. In the village, I parked by the 1836 Grecian Revival Montgomery County Courthouse, where I snapped some digital pics. A million crows were roosting in the trees all around! It was surreal with the snow and the high intensity lights. The roads are cool, they do a good job of snow removal in Fulton County. I'm using the lobby computer at the Johnstown Holiday Inn, where I just inquired about rates and internet access, even sold the night manager on nyroute30.com! Well, I have to talk to the big cheese during normal people's hours, but the dude was way cool and is letting me blog.

Thursday, December 05, 2002

Brand New Blog, devoted to chronicling what I do best, wandering around the Adirondacks



I got to go to village court in Broadalbin today. The village heroes got me doing 44 in a 30 on 2nd Street heading out to 29. It was a Friday evening during the first week of Northern Zone deer season. The village cops hang out on 2nd Street there right by the Fiber Conversion plant entrance, uphill from Stewarts. Got a hold of the judge via email yesterday and have to go today