Despite my goal of never traveling to New York City or Los Angeles (and realizing that my 20 mins in NYC was a bit of an anomaly), I flew into NYC last night for a conference. After a quick taxi ride, I checked into the Midtown Hilton and was created to a nice view of the city.
I'm here with a few folks from work and we agreed to go out, wander around, and find some dinner. Within minutes, we could see Times Square in the distance.
Plenty of tall buildings, too.
We even wondered over to Dave Letterman's studio.
This cool building is about a block from my hotel.
Which I found out this morning has a cool dome on top of it.
Did I say these building are tall?
We walked about 15 blocks to dinner tonight and I saw TONS of even taller buildings. It is a sight to see for anyone who really hasn't been here. Impressive for sure!
Oh well, I guess I can go to Los Angeles now...
It has been a long week with multiple back and forth counter-offers, but we finally reached an agreement with the builders of /wiki/spaces/ATM/pages/16187394. Horray!
It is surely not a lot to look at just yet (or actually, it is not much more than a "lot" so far)...
It reminds us of the excitement we felt when we built a new home back in Lewisville, TX. If all goes well, we should be moving in around Spring Break. Let us know if we should invite you to our first party!
I really wanted to get up to Brasstown Bald to see some Fall "color". Last year, I went a few weeks too late and just didn't want to miss it this year. Gretchen, Zoe (Unlicensed), and her boyfriend, Aedin, accompanied me on this outing. We got to the parking lot and were happy to see Smokey the Bear at the base of the trails.
On the steep .6 mile trail to the top we saw a little bit of color, but it looked like we got there too early this year.
Did I say it was steep? Well, it was!! Zoe and Aedin only stopped twice, but Gretchen and I took our sweet time. We finally made it to the historical marker at the top.
As you can see, it really was a bit of a hike up from the parking lot.
All around were some great views.
As I said, there was some color, but it will surely look tons better in another week or two.
There's a pretty cool tower up there, too.
And did I mention the nice view?!?!
We all posed for the obligatory photos with such a great backdrop.
It really was a beautiful day, and a great one to be in the good 'ole USA.
As you might expect, the walk down that steep trail was 100 times easier. On the way back home, we drove past Vogel State Park which has an overlook from the highway where you can see Trahlyta Falls.
All in all, a great day out and about. We'll try it again next year to see if we can time it just right.
Well, the ATL50 - Canoeing thru the Chattahoochee River NRA journey has come to an end. Why? Many reasons.
- Anyone who has read EPIC FAIL - Attempt at Final Leg of ATL50 surely knows the iScanoe isn't going to (ok… can't) be the boat that gets me to the end of this 50 mile adventure.
- I can't get to any of the boat launches because they are in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (CR-NRA) which is closed down due to the federal government shutdown we are all experiencing right now.
- Despite knowing exactly what kayak I want (a Malibu Kayaks X-Factor; probably yellow although the forest green reminds me of the iScanoe), it simply costs money (which I hate to spend) and I also haven't yet figured out exactly where I will be storing it at.
- Lastly, although it looks like we have a couple more sunny 80 degree days coming up this weekend, i'm guessing Summer is about to quickly leave us.
So, where does that leave me. Technically, about 8.5 miles from my goal. Even closer than that, a mere 3 miles from the end of the CR-NRA. If you count the "whole" mile we did in EPIC FAIL - Attempt at Final Leg of ATL50 then those numbers drop down to 7.5 and 2, respectively. Does it bum me out? Of course it does.
But, on the other hand… what a great summer a canoeing! Tony and I decided to rename the ATL50 to "Dam to Perimeter" to signify our journey from Buford Dam down to Loop 285 (aka The Perimeter). Thinking of it that way, I'm proud of our efforts/results and I can truly say we had a blast.
We also learned a lot this year. For starters, we surely wimped out a bunch at the beginning. ATL50 - Leg 5; Medlock Bridge to Island Ford (+ repeat of leg 2 = 15 miles!) let us know that if we aren't doing 10-20 miles (at a minimum) then we're just wasting our time; especially considering all the car shuffling involved. If I was to recommend (or do again) the trip through the CR-NRA, I'd suggest the following.
| Trip | Miles | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | Buford Dam to Medlock Bridge |
| 2 | 18 | Medlock Bridge to Upper Morgan Falls Dam |
| 3 | 9 | Lower Morgan Falls Dam to Paces Mill |
Beyond just needing to take some longer trips, Tony and I learned some valuable lessons (it's OK if some of these don't make any sense).
- You have to have some kind of backrest on anything more than a couple of miles.
- You really have to enjoy the company of someone you sit in a canoe with for hours.
- When you hear banjoes, paddle faster!
- A portage cart is a required, not optional.
- A grown man shouldn't wear a life vest made with any amount of pink material.
- I truly do look stupid in that big hat of mine (Tony, I'll be wearing it next season).
- You need roof racks on BOTH cars.
- Keep your legs in the boat!!
- Not everything that looks like an alligator is an alligator.
- Tall tales get even taller while canoeing.
- Don't wiggle!!!!
- You can wrap your canoe around a rock even in what looks like very easy water to navigate.
- Piggybacking that last one, good luck on moving a submerged canoe pinned down by the force of the current.
- Always bring your camera.
- Always wear sunscreen. Always…
- Water proof bags & boxes are awesome.
- It' never just a LITTLE hike.
- It will rain -- always. Just don't let that stop you from getting on the river.
- Check the satellite photos of shoals before your trip.
- You don't want to see a dam up close.
- "Real" water shoes rock! Those silly water slippers suck for rocks (in the water or not).
- Mamma says alligators are ornery cuz they got all them teeth, but no toothbrush.
Again, what a great summer of canoeing. My surgery, my family's Hawaii Trips vacation, busy lives, and lots of rain limited the number of times we got out there, but I'm really hooked and am looking forward to starting back up in the spring.
So what trips are next? Check out A2A - Paddling from Atlanta to Alabama to see!!
What another beautiful day in North Georgia. After the fun we had with visiting Poole's Mill Covered Bridge, Gretchen and I decided to check out a couple more bridges. First up we headed out past Cartersville to the even smaller town of Euharlee to see the Euharlee Creek Covered Bridge.
This bridge is dark inside.
And, yes, it's made of wood inside and out!
All in all, a pretty nice looking bridge!
We realized that this bridge was close to the Etowah Indian Mounds so we headed on over there to check out this State Historic Site.
I didn't know we'd be climbing up some stairs!
But, this offered some nice views of the other two mounds.
Before leaving, we wandered down by the riverbank to enjoy the shade and breeze as well as nice views of the Etowah River.
Then we jumped back onto our plan and headed over to Smyrna to see the Concord Covered Bridge.
As you can probably see, the Concord Covered Bridge is actually open for traffic. What you might not know is that it is the only covered bridge in Georgia that allows automobile traffic.
Seeing these two bridges takes us to a total of three which is one-fifth of the 15 covered bridges in Georgia. Gretchen and I are looking for to visiting more of them!!