BigWeather's Blog

August 5, 2011

Another relaxing day at Gray Rock

Filed under: Travel — Tags: — BigWeather @ 11:46 pm

Note: This is the blog for Thursday, August 4.

Woke up at 8:30a (I know!), still feeling rather bad.  During breakfast I heard what sounded like the scream of jet engines.  Back in the 80s, if we were really lucky, the A-10 Warthogs would be practicing over the park.  One time a pair of them flew really close over the lake (though I think this has since been forbidden) — it really made an impression on my brother and I!  Suspecting the A-10s were practicing I grabbed the kids (though only Addison seemed really interested) and we went down to the lake for a look-see.  They were far, far higher than in the past and it was hard to determine if they were indeed A-10s (in fact, a web search reveals that this summer some UAV practice was being performed over the park as well — but these seemed far more maneuverable).  Anyhow, we enjoyed listening to them flying about and skipped rocks when it hit a lull.  Addison got some really great skips in once I got him to get his rock toss nearly parallel to the water’s surface.  Addison also played the timeless classic “hit a floating object in the water with a rock, and failing that, a handful of rocks” game.

View from rocky beach, looking south

We also saw the Gotts’ taking a few of their kids on the traditional cross-lake swim.  I wish we had known about that, I’d have loved to get Addison to participate.  Basically it is a camp rule that anybody wishing to take a boat out solo has to be able to swim the width of the lake (in event of capsize).  Why the whole width and not just half?  Because at water level, and particularly in a panic situation — like being dumped in cold water unexpectedly — it is pretty easy to guess incorrectly which shore is closest.  Being able to swim the entire width helps ensure that a poor guess isn’t fatal.  Usually a day is picked and all of the camp’s kids that want to participate do it together with at least two guide boats or canoes alongside.  The accompanying boats are not only to allow those that can’t complete the swim to climb aboard but also to make the pack of swimmers hard to miss by the power boaters on the lake.  The traditional target is Squaw Brook opposite the camp on the lake.  Greg and I did the swim in 1985 — I’ll never forget grandpa letting us each take out a boat shortly after by ourselves to cruise the lake.  Good times.

A Camp Sabael tradition -- the "swim across the lake" test

Addison and I returned to the cabin.  Michelle had just finished her Harry Dresden book, “Ghost Story”, which we had bought at Chapters in Ottawa.  Michelle and I ran into town, leaving Genetta and Addison to relax in the cabin with explicit directions to stay put.  It is nice having Genetta old enough to run things when needed!  We headed to Stephenson’s Lumber and bought some garden lime.  Ended up paying $10 more because he swore we gave him a $10 instead of a $20 and, you know what, it’s just not worth arguing sometimes.  Not like we (or he) could prove it.  Grumble.  Then went to the hardware store and learned we should ideally use dehydrated, not hyrdrated lime, but they had none and hadn’t been able to get it for a couple of years.  Sheeesh.  Well, it was all for privy odor control so it was good enough.  Better than nothing.

Returned to the cabin and ate blueberries, grapes, cookies, and chips.  I really missed eating ham or turkey and mayo sandwiches with grandpa out there on the deck.

View from Gray Rock's deck, with classic green Adirondack chair

Genetta, Addison, and I grabbed the bow and arrow and did some archery near the front of the camp on the old volleyball field (where only two posts remain).  We each took several shots at a stump, all of us scoring at least a hit.  Without a forearm guard, though, the kids would occasionally get hit with the string, leaving red.  Also some of the arrows weren’t in great shape — not surprising as Greg and I abused them back in the 80s.  Whooops.  We’d have to rectify that!

Michelle, Addison, and I headed down for another swim (plus a “bath” — using biodegradable soap to try and clean off some).  Addison did some great jumps — cannonballs and 360 twists.  We had fun and swam a bit but the waves from the power boats got to be a bit much so we got out and went in to town for shopping and eating.

View from rocky beach, looking north

We first went to the Lake Store, a delightful store on the western shore of the lake.  It is accessible not only via I-30 south of Indian Lake but also by boats by way of docks in the rear.  They have a wide variety of goods — camp supplies, groceries, reading material, tourist stuff, and even an ice cream / soda counter.  We bought our requisite magnet and the kids each got a bottled Coke.

Lake Abanakee, just north of Indian Lake, resulting from dammed Indian River

The Lake Store folks recommended that we visit Pumpkin Mountain Gun Store for archery supplies so we headed out on 28 towards Blue Mountain Lake.  We got there shortly before close and were able to get a forearm guard, finger glove, and eight arrows to improve the state of the archery gear at Gray Rock.  The owners were very polite and friendly.  Headed back to Indian Lake to the hardware store for a bucket and lid to put the lime we overpaid for (ok, ok, letting it go…) earlier into.  While Michelle got some medicine for me (yay *quil!) at the gas station the kids and I got our name on the list for Indian Lake Restaurant and Tavern, the place where we ate on Tuesday.  It was good then so we figured “why not?”  This time I had the pig dip that Michelle had on Tuesday and it was awesome.  They really nailed eastern NC BBQ sauce with their “Carolina Piedmont” sauce.  Turns out the lady that runs the place used to live in Florida and on her drives up to New York would stop at a place off of I-95 for BBQ in NC — that explains that!  Michelle had a salad, Genetta fettuccine alfredo, and Addison wings.

"Downtown" Indian Lake

That same lady also told us where moose had been seen but she claimed that almost all of them were in the morning.  Crap, well there goes that idea!  Nonetheless we rode up to the transfer station at dusk near the swampy terrain and also back out a distance along Cedar River hoping to find a moose.  No luck, of course!

Went back to the camp for some reading and recreation by gaslight.  One of the things we always did as a kid was listen to grandpa read from a book about the Adirondacks.  Sometimes it was pioneer stories, sometimes natural history, even ghost stories.  I looked around and didn’t see any of  those books but did find a book by my favorite President, Theodore Roosevelt, called “Big Game Hunting in the Rockies and on the Great Plains” from 1899.  Yeah, you find stuff like that all around the cabin — amazing to run across something like that (as well as some old AMC plastic model car kits from the early 60s that my dad and Uncle Geof had).  I read just the introduction aloud, my voice as pale imitation of grandpa’s great reading voice in ideal circumstances but as I was sick it wasn’t even close…  It is amazing what a great writer ol’ TR was — in the introduction he waxed philosophical about the disappearance of the frontier in the final two decades of the 19th century.  It is weird reading a missive from a bygone era about an even more bygone era.  Kind of like playing Red Dead Redemption in a way, where the main character reflects on what has been lost from the frontier days in his modern era of the first decade of the 1900s.

Played a bit of WAR! (the card game) with Addison then blackjack with Addison and Genetta.  Genetta then headed to bed while Michelle, Addison, and I went out to the deck to watch the stars and talk of the current vacation as well as previous ones.  I saw a shooting star but, sadly, we were a bit short of peak for the Perseids.  When my brother and I were younger we happened to hit the Perseid peak dead on and had a new moon.  We went down to the lake shore with flash lights and lay on the diving board until the wee hours of the morning agog at the hundreds of shooting stars that night.  After a while we turned in for bed.

Too far north of the border for good Mexican food

Filed under: Travel — Tags: — BigWeather @ 11:46 pm

Note: This is the blog for Wednesday, August 3.

Had a pretty good night’s sleep and woke after 10a — something I never got away with when I was a kid up at Indian Lake.  Ate some of the crumble cake we bought in Vermont the day before for breakfast then grabbed Addison for a walk up Jerry’s Rock.

Jerry’s Rock is a ledge to the north of the road entering camp that looks over the farm from which Camp Sabael’s fifty acres was bought back in the late 1800s.  It is a very brief climb entered via the adjacent camp through some woods, emerging onto the ridge.  The trail isn’t nearly as clear as it used to be and we strayed a few times but it’s pretty darn hard to get lost on such a short walk.

Trail up to Jerry's Rock

The ridge is rocky with gray lichen and wild blueberry bushes scattered about.  When we were kids my brother and I would dream of harvesting the lichen (we didn’t, though, calm down Al Gore!) and using it to construct our train set’s woods.  The view was once quite good — affording views of the farm’s house, a pond (appropriately enough called “Jerry’s Pond”) and the mountains beyond — is not what it once was.  Not that that is a bad thing, as it means that the woods have matured and obscured much of it, but it does explain the trail not being used as much as it once was.  Regardless, Addison and I really enjoyed wandering along the ridge, taking care to step on rock and less on the plants, so as to preserve it for future visitors.  Everything seemed a bit dry and Addison decided to give this really neat pine sapling a bit of water from his water bottle.  We also saw quite a bit of deer poop and other evidence of wildlife — including lots of biting insects, grrrr.

View from Jerry's Rock

Old barn near entrance to Camp Sabael

We walked back to camp and swung by the flagpole cliff, running into some of the Gotts.  They nicely invited us to row out to Baldface for a lunch-time climb but we politely declined.  Addison was itching to swim before lunch and I knew that Genetta wasn’t feeling so great so couldn’t go with us.  Plus I was feeling a bit under the weather with my chest cold / coughing thang.

View from Flagpole Point

Shortly after Addison and I went for our first swim in the lake since arriving.  The “diving board” wasn’t set up so Addison and I tried to drag it into position.  It was a bit too heavy for him, and far too heavy for me alone, so I decided to try just jumping off the ledge that the diving board normally inhabited.  The water is quite deep at this point as the rocks go vertical into the lake about 10′ before evening out.  I touched bottom, only barely, so decided it was safe for Addison and I.  In addition to diving we swam down to the “cove”, an area where the rocks form a horseshoe shape and the sandy floor is only about four or five feet deep.  We relaxed and played with the waves left by the infrequent passing motorboat.  Addison was at first freaked out about the “nibblers” — the tiny (1″ to about 3″) rock bass that have been nipping at swimmers’ toes for decades — but soon grew accustomed to them.

We returned to camp for lunch on the deck with Michelle and Genetta.  We had fruit (blueberries, mainly), cookies (Chips Ahoy!), and some chips, along with water to drink.  Nothing elaborate, as we were doing our best to not have to deal with cooking, refrigeration, or dishes.

One of the fireplace mantles at Gray Rock

Right after lunch Addison, Michelle, and I went back down to the lake to swim.  Michelle found the lake a bit cold at first (and it is, but it doesn’t take long to get used to) and Addison was amazed at how sharp the cut-off between pretty warm water about a foot or so down and cold water further down was.  It being a deep glacial lake it definitely never warms up very far from the surface.  Michelle retold several stories she had read the night before to Addison while we relaxed and enjoyed the telling.  Addison, in a moment of … heck, I don’t know what … decided to toss his goggles into the water and swim to them — before he had tested if they actually floated.  They disappeared.  Luckily, however, he did find them very slowly sinking a few minutes later.  Whew!

After swimming we got ready to go out for dinner.  We tried Marty’s Chili Nights, a “Mexican” restaurant in town.  It wasn’t that great.  The server was very nice, though, and in retrospect I don’t know why I expected anything from the place.  To say that there are precious few of Hispanic origin in upstate New York is an understatement.  I don’t think the proprietors had the frame of reference, experience, or whatever required to make tasty Mexican food.  And it wasn’t cheap.  Oh well, partly our bad, I suppose.

We chased the taste out of our mouths by going to Ice Cream Garden a short walk away.  It wasn’t bad at all.  I had “The Adirondack” — maple sugar, cream, maple syrup on top of a choice of ice cream — in this case coffee with fudge.  I know, sounds disgusting, but I liked it.  Genetta had an enormous banana split (and ate about 25%), Addison a coffee milkshake (that’s mah boy!), and Michelle a chocolate sundae.

Drove around looking for the dump as we’d need it when we leave the cabin for good.  The area we were driving through was swampy and it was dusk so I hoped beyond hope that we’d see moose.  No such luck.  Returned to the cabin, Genetta turning in for the night (still not feeling great), while Addison and I played one of his DS games and Michelle read.

August 2, 2011

On to Ticonderoga and the Adirondacks

Filed under: Travel — Tags: — BigWeather @ 1:05 am

Woke up and checked out ASAP from our room in the Rutland, Vermont Holiday Inn.  The room smelled terrible, and what had been a cough the day before was a lot worse in the morning.  However, I think whatever crud I caught (and it would only get worse) was not from the room — but it didn’t help either.  The staff said “well, we changed it over from smoking a month ago…”  Hey, here’s a clue: it takes WAY more than a month for a smoking room to not smell like an ashtray.  While I sympathize with their problem — they can’t sell it as a smoking room if they want to transition it to a non-smoking room — I think the opposite, billing it as a non-smoking room, is dishonest at best.  We’ll do our best to avoid Holiday Inn non-Express in the future — as it is the non-Express ones that seem to show this quite a bit.

Anyhow, went grocery shopping at the Hannaford Foods in Rutland.  Man, there were a lot of older people — I suppose it is a retirement community?  We picked up tons of supplies for Indian Lake: napkins, paper towels, toilet paper, plastic cutlery, food such as Entenmann’s (donuts, buns, and the required New York style crumb cake), grapes, blueberries, chips, cookies, etc. — stuff that would suffice for breakfast and lunch and not require refrigeration.  While Michelle was checking out Addison and I happened to be perusing the 50c charity books section and we found a hardcover collection of stories with illustrations from one of Michelle’s favorite authors, Charles deLint, that she did not own.  Score!

We then set out for Ticonderoga, stopping by McDonalds for some sweet tea.  Now normally I’m not a huge proponent of the homogeneity that chain restaurants bring to the United States (and abroad), but…  In an otherwise sweet tea-less land McDonalds is more than welcome.

After a very beautiful drive through the countryside of western Vermont and extreme eastern New York we arrived at Fort Ticonderoga.  The fort played a pivotal role in the settling of the region as well as sorting out the balance of power between France and England in the 1700s.  Originally Fort Carillon, a French fort, it guarded the entrances to both Lake George (the north side) and Lake Champlain (the south side).  In 1758 there was a huge battle where a small number of French soldiers (around 4,000) under Montcalm (who would later die trying — and failing — to hold Quebec City in 1759) held off a vastly larger English force (around 17,000) by doggedly defending a hill to the northwest of the fort.  The French defenders had, in about two days straight digging, erected an eight foot high barrier that was easy to defend and allowed them to hold out.  They also got very lucky in that they managed to kill Lord Howe, considered to be the brilliant tactician of the English force, just before the fight.  This battle would be the bloodiest day in North America until Antietam in 1862.

The following year, 1759, the British would take Fort Carillon and rename it Fort Ticonderoga, from the Iroquois “junction between two waterways.”  In 1775 Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys, along with Benedict Arnold, captured the fort and had the cannon hauled to the east to help with the war effort in Boston.  The British recaptured it in 1777 but it became irrelevant after their defeat at Saratoga and was eventually abandoned.  It lay in ruin, scavenged for years by people for building material, until preserved and later restored in the 1800s and 1900s.

The fort today makes quite an impression.  There are three buildings in the center that surround a courtyard, then the walls themselves, then two triangle shaped defensive-works, one to the west, one to the north.  These are connected to the main walls by wooden bridges that could be destroyed should one of the triangles be taken — and cannon could be brought to bear against them.  The fort has commanding views of both the upper reaches of Lake George and the lower reaches of Lake Champlain and is surrounded by mountains (which would prove to be an Achilles heel).

Fort Ticonderoga's commanding view

Fort Ticonderoga's central courtyard

Fort Ticonderoga cannon

We watched and listened to a fife & drum corps, in United States uniform, enter the fort via the entry tunnel and parade about the courtyard.  Then we watched an excellent introductory film that laid the groundwork for what we were seeing and took in the exhibits in the two other buildings.

The largest building had many things from the fort, the campaigns, etc.  Lots of old maps and such, including such interesting stuff as Georgia as a colony splitting South Carolina into an upper and lower colony — the upper being where South Carolina is today (though extending westward to the Mississippi) and the lower being just north of St. Augustine, Florida, and extending west.  Also interesting was a map referring to New York as New Belgium.  I knew that the Dutch were the original European power to take New York but had no idea that the land was referred to as New Belgium at one point!  There were also exhibits on everyday soldiers’ items and the like, and a diorama of the Black Watch, a Highlander regiment that took horrific losses (over half) during the Battle of Carillon in 1758.  Particularly stirring was a page from the book that listed all of the British Army officers with, in pencil, “Kd” or “W” marked next to nearly every officer from the Black Watch — for “killed” or “wounded.”

As if one South Carolina wasn't enough!

The other building had a large collection of muskets, swords, and other weaponry from the period, including one musket that had a nasty exploded breech that surely killed its owner.  The kids took turns holding a reproduction firearm to get a feel for the weight of the things.

Once back in the main courtyard we listened to another fife and drum corps, this time in British regalia, play various songs that dictated the activity about camp.  This was in the day before wristwatches and the like and the common soldier could not afford watches.  The fife and drum corps would play various songs, not only to announce the time but also what the soldiers should be doing.  One song told them to get to work, then when to break, then to get back to work, then when to break for the day.  Another would rouse them in the morning.  That sort of thing.

Fife and Drum corps, Fort Ticonderoga, New York

We also took in a small exhibit on feeding the soldiers at the fort.  We learned that it took a shift of bakers working twenty-four hours a day to make enough bread for the garrison.  There was a garden maintained during the spring and summer months, before the snows set in.  A variety of foods were eaten, everything from clams to pork to beef and fish.  And, as can be expected, the officers ate far better than the rank-and-file.

As for us, we left the fort and ate hotdogs and grilled cheese sandwiches at the gift shop adjacent to the fort.  Did a bit of shopping and headed out to Indian Lake around 3p.

We arrived at Camp Sabael, on the upper eastern shore of Indian Lake, at about 4p.  Camp Sabael, and in particular our cabin of Gray Rock, is very important to the Young family.  While the Camp was founded in the late 1800s it wasn’t until 1908 that the Youngs, on the recommendation of the Colwells, joined Camp Sabael and built their own cabin.  The patriarch of the family at that time, James Addison Young (or “The Judge” as he was frequently known), is my great-great-grandfather.  Ever since 1908 the Young family has taken vacation up at Indian Lake and enjoyed a simpler life with no electricity, gorgeous mountain air, and lake views to die for.  My brother, Greg, and I had gone up to Indian Lake for years in our youth, from about ten years of age all the way to our early 20s, most often accompanying my grandfather — though occasionally also my father or Uncle Geof.  I even brought a friend up, Daniel, and finally in 1994 my wife, Michelle.  It was very important to share the place with those close to me.

Entrance to Camp Sabael

Life, however, intervened — as it often does — and I had not had an opportunity to share Camp Sabael, Gray Rock, and Indian Lake with my children.  I had been fortunate to share the Long Island cottage in the early 2000s prior to my grandfather’s passing in 2007 but had not managed to make the trip to Indian Lake.  My Uncle Geof very graciously offered us some time in early August to visit (and this whole trip was built around that timing).

Gray Rock cabin, Camp Sabael

Entering the cabin was a strange sensation.  I was struck by how little had changed in the seventeen years since my last visit.  Sure, some things were different — the day bed that acted as seating in the dining room under the framed Indian Lake maps had been moved the reading room, the deck out back was no longer painted, that sort of thing — but by and large it smelled and sounded the same.  The creak walking up and down the stairs to the second floor.  The whiff of evergreen from outside mixed with a hint of mothballs.  While it was a flood of memories coming back for me it was all new to my children — who eagerly explored the place.  It wasn’t long before Genetta was at the piano playing songs from the songbook (she noted that many were slightly different than the version she knew) and Addison was trying to figure out which bed he wanted.  Michelle and I slept in the main upstairs room — which was a little odd, honestly, as I had never slept there and associated it very strongly with grandpa — and the kids slept in the room to the left with two single beds — the very room that myself (and often my brother, though he’d sometimes sleep in the room to the right) slept in over two decades past.

Gray Rock's reading room

Kids' room at Gray Rock

While we were out on the deck out back soaking in the lake view (and admiring a blueberry bush that positively bristled with at least thirty blueberries!) we heard a voice from the front of the cottage.  Ben Gott, 14, introduced himself and in yet another “small world” moment we found out he was up for a few weeks from his home in Asheville, NC.  Addison and I walked down to the lake via the steep stairs next to the lookout shelter and skipped some rocks.  He was positively chomping at the bit to swim but I had us walk about camp some more.  We’d run into several more Gotts and were able to have a bit of Q&A about the camp (“how’s the spring?”, “what eats are there in town?”, “where’s the dump?”, that sort of thing) as well as show Addison the large cliff over the lagoon with the flagpole near the Colwell’s cabin.

Shore of Indian Lake in front of Gray Rock

Headed back to Gray Rock and unpacked the car.  As it was approaching night and we noted that we were running short of ashes for the privy (and would not be making our own) we headed to the Lake Store to get some lime — to no avail.  However, they did recommend a few places to eat, including the Indian Lake Restaurant & Tavern.  That restaurant was located right at the intersection of US-30 and 28 in the center of the Hamlet of Indian Lake and was a place that we had eaten at many times, under a different guise, with grandpa in the past.  The adjacent grocery store, however, was sadly gone.  The food was great.  I had steak while Michelle had a pulled pork sandwich with “Carolina Piedmont sauce” — vinegar-based sauce!  Addison had a burger and Genetta meatloaf (which she didn’t like a whole lot — as she was thinking it was meatloaf like we have at home and not the traditional shebang with onions and peppers).  For dessert Michelle, Genetta, and I had some wonderful chocolate cheesecake.

On the way home we passed Stephenson’s Lumber hoping to get some lime but they were closed.  Heading back to camp we saw three deer along Jerry Savarie road (which still can hit this harmonic frequency that will literally rattle your car apart!).  I turned on the water valve for the cabin as well as the gas tank and lit the two central gas lamps of the reading room.  I was a bit nervous, having never “run” camp, but it wasn’t bad at all.  Under the flickering warm glow of the gas lamps my wife and daughter read their books (and Genetta played a bit more of piano), my son played his DS some, and I noted the day’s events and then read most of Ted Colwell’s “Camp Sabael: Its Story” and some of the Adirondack atlas before turning in.

For sleeping we just slept in our sleeping bags on the mattresses and had brought our own pillows.  I think Addison was a bit freaked by the darkness but use of the night light setting of his electric lantern fixed that and we eventually all fell asleep.

Route for August 2, 2011

August 1, 2011

Blast from the past

Filed under: Travel — Tags: — BigWeather @ 11:10 pm

A bit of a chaotic morning as we still had laundry to do and had to be out of the room by 11a.  Woke up, ate hotel buffet breakfast, nursed the laundry, and got out just before 11a (though our laundry wasn’t technically done until just after 11a — shhhhh!).  While that was being finished up I went outside to see the river that completely surrounds our hotel (and only our hotel) like a moat.  There were a couple of people fishing and I tried to talk with them but their dialect was a bit inscrutable in parts.  Oh well, I’m sure they had a hard time understanding me too!

Ile de Holiday Inn, Tilton, NH

Our rear passenger blinker had gone out the day before and I spied a dealer while driving around the prior night so we took it to their “QuickLane” express service to get it replaced.  A mere twenty minutes or so later and $17 poorer I was feeling a lot better about our safety on the road.  The people were super friendly and one of the guys was originally from Dunn and had a son at Fort Bragg.  Small world.

Got some sweet tea at McDonalds for our short drive to FunSpot in Weirs Beach, NH.  The drive was short, about twenty-five minutes, but passed next to some gorgeous lakes and through the resort town of Laconia, which was popular particularly in the late-1800s.

Lake near Laconia, New Hampshire

North of Laconia we entered Weirs Beach and turned into FunSpot, the largest arcade in the world and home to hundreds of pre-1987 arcade games.  We happened to enter via the third floor entrance — the floor that contains all of the classic arcade games.

Third floor entrance to FunSpot, home of The American Classic Arcade Museum

Now “The American Classic Arcade Museum” is a bit of a misnomer.  Other than a display case right as you enter, some placards describing the significance and history of some games, and some newspaper and magazine articles and memorabilia (posters, etc.) on the walls it isn’t really a stuff type of museum — rather all machines can be played.  As I’ve seen many sites post pictures (and even video) of the classic games floor of FunSpot I’ll post some of mine — if they wish it pulled just contact me, please!

Entry display case showing some early videogame artifacts, strangely heavy on the Odyssey

$20 got us 100 tokens and since we printed out a coupon before we arrived we got an additonal 50 on top of that.  It worked out to roughly 13c a token, and the games took their original token count — in other words, most took just one.  Playing Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc. at 13c a play was a deal and a half!

Glorious, glorious pile of 150 tokens!

Funspot has much more than just the classic arcade games.  It has putt-putt (indoor on the original 1952 course or outdoors), kiddie rides, rope and zip line activities, bowling, more modern video games, skee-ball, whack-a-mole, bumper cars, and of course some pinball machines.  I focused on the classic arcade games, however, most of the time (while the kids and Michelle played a ton of skee-ball and bowled).

Now, as far as the classic arcade game area — it’s a large room with some spill over into two other areas.  It is fairly dimly lit with a reddish light and they have 80s music playing.  I had an almost zen moment when one of my 80s favorites, Joe Jackson’s “Steppin’ Out” came on.  It gets the feel down pretty well, I suppose, but there isn’t the garish neon purple and green, geometric shaped gaudy carpet designs or anything else I remember from my youth.  Most of the machines were in decent working order (with some exceptions, like wonky monitors and such — and only a few (less than ten) out of order).  Not bad at all.

The collection is quite good, though Michelle and I were very disappointed that Q*Bert was missing.  Turns out it was normally available to play but had been rotated out for a while.  Grrr!  We found plenty of other games to play, however, and Michelle latched on to Time Pilot to assuage her Q*Bert blues.  I started with Sinistar (“I Live!”, “I Hunger!”) and got the top score — well, top daily score.

Top o' the World!* -- *today only

We decided to eat a quick lunch at the snack bar — pizza and rootbeer for me — then go back upstairs to the classic arcade room.  I then proceeded to play tons of games (at least 50), including: Zaxxon, Joust, Joust 2, Defender, Robotron, Ms. Pac-Man, Dragon’s Lair, Xevious, Bag Man, Super Sprint, Double Pong, Frogger, Crossbow, Chiller (remember that one with all its gore?!), Kick Man, Crystal Castles, Tempest, Moon Patrol, Space Invaders Deluxe, Millipede, etc. etc.  Tons of games.  I played many of them with Addison (and a few with Genetta — she liked skee-ball more) and we particularly enjoyed the co-op ones like Joust (cocktail version) and Gauntlet II (stand-up).  It was a great time and I think the kids have a new appreciation for the “old games.”

I was struck by how much fun many of them still are.  The ergonomics of the games leave a bit to be desired, particularly for a 6’5″ person, however.  After a while my back and hands started hurting.  Dang, too old to play videogames!  I was also struck by how ingenious some of the display methods, particularly for those in the late-70s and early-80s were.  Space Invaders Deluxe sported a painted backdrop and a multi-color projected playfield.  Video Pinball used a physical pinball playfield and only rendered the flippers, ball, and drop targets.  Warlords was really special.  It had a painted backdrop with actual depth AND they used colored acetate squares to make the neutral area yellow (since it is a fireball being tossed around) and the four players in the corners all have a distinct color — despite all the rendering of the game being in monocolor white.  Wow!

Brilliant, simply brilliant

I also noticed how many of the early games had dedicated control systems (which would become standardized by the late-80s and JAMMA, by and large): the “Coke can” of Major Havoc, the left and right only joystick of Lumberjack, the spinner of Tempest, and this gem called Space Zap that used four buttons for the cardinal directions and a separate one to fire — presumably before the joystick?

Many of the machines were grouped by manufacturer or series.  Particularly impressive was the Pac-Man row (and I think Daniel’s Super Pac-Man is actually better than theirs) and the Donkey Kong row (shades of King of Kong).

Row of Pac-Man series games at FunSpot -- check out the sweet Pac-Man Halloween costume on the wall!

Row of Donkey Kong series games at Funspot

They also had many historically significant games like Pong, Computer Space, and Death Race.  Everyone knows 1972’s Pong, I won’t rehash that here.  Computer Space pre-dates Pong by a year and was the first commercially released electronic video arcade game.  Death Race was a 1976 game that stirred up a media firestorm — pretty much one or two players drive around and run over “gremlins” that look a lot like people.

Computer Space, released in 1971, the first commerically released video arcade game

Death Race (1976) -- Grand Theft Auto 0!

I guess where the disappointment came in (other than Q*Bert no-show, grrr!) was the lack of any videos or books covering the contents of the “museum.”  I’d pay some cold hard cash for a book that profiles each, pics on the left, text on the right.  Or a video walk-through of the entire floor.  I tried to make one of my own but it’s very amateur.  There are also some on YouTube as well.  C’mon FunSpot, I WANT to spend my money on this!

The pinball section wasn’t in as great a shape.  I read online that the number they have has been shrinking because they are a maintenance hassle and just don’t get the play that the more reliable video arcade games get.  Still, below is a shot of Black Knight lest anyone think I am biased!  They had quite a few more, but not a tremendous amount, such as: Fire, Addam’s Family, Playboy, Funhouse, etc.

Black Knight pinball at FunSpot

After I played enough classic arcade games (or, more correctly, felt that we really needed to hit the road) I sauntered downstairs to find the family bowling.  Turns out they had cashed in their skee-ball winnings for a sweet FunSpot glass!  I watched Michelle finish beating the kids (though she didn’t break 100) and then the kids asked if we could play the other bowling-type game they add — candlepin bowling.  Turns out it is a New England and Maritime Canada thing only but it was great fun.  It uses a much smaller ball, slightly bigger than a softball, that has no holes.  The pins are smaller and one gets three balls per frame.  The pins do not reset until after all three balls are bowled, making for some interesting strategy hitting fallen pins to swing into unfallen pins.  Two frames are bowled at a time.  It is definitely a lot harder — and the top score every recorded is 245 out of 300.  No perfect games in this variation!

Candlepin bowling pins

After candlepin we played some skee-ball for a tiny bit to kill the rest of the tokens.  Left FunSpot about 6p and headed to our hotel for the night in Rutland, Vermont.  It was a couple hours drive and, despite many moose crossings and it being the perfect time of day to spot moose, we saw none.  Grrrr!

We did drive through some beautiful country, however.  Mostly mountains with rivers and brooks alongside the road for long stretches.  We went through Woodstock, Vermont, which seems to be quite affluent — a playground for the rich in skiing season, I imagine.  Most other towns were not nearly so well off — we saw lots of hotels, restaurants, homes, etc. for sale or abandoned.  It seems the recession has hit fairly hard here.  Shortly before entering Rutland there was the most beautiful sunset, one which I was fortunate to capture with my camera.

Beautiful Vermont sunset

Checked-in but didn’t unpack as we were super hungry.  We went immediately to the nearby 99 Pub & Restaurant (apparently a Boston chain) and had a very decent meal.  Since the Red Sox had won the previous day (though they were getting hammered by Cleveland this night) Addison even got to eat free!  Addison and I had top sirloin, Michelle some honey chicken wrap, and Genetta chicken fingers and a salad wedge.  They printed the calories for everything on the menu and it was shocking — and definitely influenced my choice of dinner.  I wish everywhere would do that — I thought it was the law already.

Hauled our crap to the room, by this time I wasn’t feeling well at all.  Soldiered through the blog and researched some stuff for when we go dark tomorrow at Indian Lake — won’t be able to blog until the weekend.  It’s been fun, hope you’ve enjoyed reading it and look for the Fort Ticonderoga,  Adirondack days at Indian Lake, and the wrap-up this weekend or early next week!

Route for August 1, 2011

Border line disappointment

Filed under: Travel — Tags: — BigWeather @ 12:10 am

Note: This is the blog for Sunday, July 31.

Got up and out at our normal 9a (yeah, we suck at getting up early) and went down to Casse-Crepe Breton on Rue Saint Jean and got in line.  This is the same place we failed to get into the previous morning but, this being the last morning in Quebec City, we couldn’t just bail.  We got in after about thirty minutes.

It was a small place but charming.  In the center the cook (chef?) made the crepes for all to see.  It was really cool — she poured out the, for lack of a better term, crepe batter onto a flat circular hot plate and used this thing that looks kind of like a windshield wiper to get it all nice and flat and even.  I ordered a crepe with strawberries and water.  It was most yummy!  Michelle and Genetta had breakfast crepes and Addison strawberries and bananas in a cup with a bagel and cream cheese.  Genetta finished it up with a chocolate crepe that she shared with all of us.

Headed back to the hotel and checked out.  A little nerve-wracking getting out of the upper old city but we did fine.  Headed out west on the main drag we came in on then took 73 sud (south) over a nifty bridge spanning the Saint Lawrence to 20 ouest (west) to Drummondville, at which point we picked up 55 sud to the border.  Shortly after crossing the Saint Lawrence the land flattened out quite a bit and was mainly forest punctuated with farms and the occasional village.

Pretty river in Quebec Province

We did note a few cool things, however.  First, the amount of firewood that people had stocked up ready for the winter.  We’re talking 100’+ long stacked 5 – 6′ high.  It was almost a fence in some cases!  We also saw a sign for “Rue King Ouest” (King St. West) but I kept thinking “King’s Quest” when I saw it.  Finally, we saw flashing lights and heard sirens from behind and saw a police bus speeding up from behind in the direction of Montreal.  Michelle and I wondered if it was due to the collapse of a tunnel just hours before in Montreal (though we don’t think anyone got hurt, at least we hope not).

Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when this bus runs all over you?

Once we reached the border we came to a stand-still.  We ended up listening to an entire CD in the time it took to get through customs (contrast that with Canada, which took all of five minutes, tops — though that was Sunday night, not Sunday afternoon).  Still, everyone behaved just fine (except some honking at some yahoo that used Duty Free parking lot as an express lane by some irate Quebeckers) and the customs people were very friendly.

Getting there!

You know, whenever I leave the country for even a little bit, like this past week, I start to miss stuff about my home country.  I start to build unrealistic expectations of the return home.  And while I loved my stay in Canada I was half expecting to be met at the border with George Washington himself, grinning with his wooden teeth, McDonalds frappe (large, plain — no whipped cream or drizzle, fo shizzle) extended to me, while Lee Greenwoods “God Bless the USA” plays in the background.

That didn’t happen.  To top it off, we were by now quite hungry (it being 4p or so and we having not eaten so much as a bite of food since breakfast).  We figured, heck, there’ll be fast food at every exit.  It turns out that was severely underestimated just how wild northeastern Vermont (“The Kingdom”) and northern New Hampshire was (this, despite having driven through the territory in 2007 coming back from visiting my uncle in Maine).

The wilds of Vermont

In fact, we didn’t see any fast food beside interstates 91 or 93 for at least one hundred miles.  Wow.  Sure, there were signs that said “get off here and you can have gas, food, and lodging!” but they lied.  We got off in St. Johnsbury on the suggestion of one such sign.  Wrong move!  We drove all the way through town and not much at all.  Also, what a weird town — no stop lights during our drive all the way through!  Just stop signs, and the locals didn’t seem to care much about following all the petty rules surrounding stop signs.  Look, I live in the South and understand all the jibes about it being backwards, hick, what-not.  But in response I point to St. Johnsbury.  Of course, St. Johnsbury has one thing that will ensure it is never Lumberton — the headquarters of Maple Grove Farms, my favorite brand of maple syrup.  Yum!

Continued on through beautiful countryside (and lying moose crossing signs) of Vermont and crossed the Connecticut River into extreme northwestern New Hampshire on 93.  I-93 goes straight through Franconia Notch where it even goes down to being one lane in each direction — I didn’t even know an interstate could do that and still be considered an interstate!  Heck, even I-40 maintains two lanes each direction through Pisgah Gap.

The wilds of New Hampshire

Sheer rock face of Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch, New Hampshire

It wasn’t until Tilton, NH (in the middle of the state) where our hotel is located for the night that we saw food.  At that point we decided to drive down to the Outback in Concord as we were all in the mood for it.  Big mistake — huge traffic jam that made the 15 mile drive take nearly an hour.  Still the food was decent, if a bit pricey, but we all ate our fill and headed back north to Tilton.  On the way what looked to be a bear loped across the highway causing the cars in front of us to slow down rather quickly!

Checked into the hotel and they upgraded us to a suite which was nifty.  It’s no Chateau Laurier or Hotel Manoir Victoria but it’ll do.  Plus, the room was right next to the laundry facilities, which we desperately needed to get through the second week of this vacation.  Michelle baby sat the laundry while I went down to the pool to watch Addison swim.  He practiced holding his breath.  Lest I get too used to actually hearing English all over once again a group of Quebeckers arrived and chatted up a storm amongst themselves in French.  Returning to the room, Michelle, Addison, and I went to Wal-Mart to get some laundry supplies and change for the machines as well as some sweet iced tea from McDonalds.  Yay!  Genetta stayed in the hotel room watching TV and reading.

Route for July 31, 2011

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