Montgomery, IN; Hendricks, IN; Pendleton, KY; Bracken, KY; Mason, KY; Lewis, KY; Greenup, KY; Monroe, WV; Bath, VA
After a year hiatus from Xmas traveling, Brandy and I headed to WI for the holidays. Unlike what would have happened last year, the weather held beautifully for us the entire trip. Although we were treated to flawless travels, our Xmas was not so white. We spent a night out in Jersey City with our friend Sreekar so as to be closer to catch our 6 AM flight from Newark to Milwaukee on the 24th. Due to a dearth of rideshares and poor timing of the one daily bus, my mother was forced to bring us to Sheboygan. We spent a lovely couple of days there getting acquainted with her sassy new kitty after which she took us on to Wausau.
We spent another couple of days in Wausau relaxing with the family and friends and eating way too much cheese, meat, sugar and alcohol, pretty much the limit of our diet for the duration of our trip. We were able to score an additional day it Wausau by renting a car to get to our train in Chicago on the 29th instead of busing to Madison the night before. We took advantage by drinking more beer, eating more cheese and playing more Settlers of Catan. The drive down gave us just enough time to have lunch in Madison with my ex-girlfriend Jennifer and also have a quick drink with my buddy Liz in Chicago before hopping on the train.
Now for the counties... The Cardinal is a 27 hour jaunt from Chicago to New York City via Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, DC, etc. It is a few hours longer than the Lake Shore Limited, but passes through some wonderful scenery, including the New River Gorge, famous for bungee jumping and other outdoor exploits. The mountainous portions through WV were quite lovely, although I found the valleys and meadows of VA more appealing. If Brandy hears me complimenting her state like so, she'll never let me hear the end of it, so hopefully she won't catch this post.
Most of my new counties were hit at night, so were rather uneventful. The first two were in Indiana. In my road trips back to WI I had gotten many IN counties and figured the tracks more or less followed the interstates I had already traveled. Imagine my delight then when I discovered a southward jaunt on the itinerary to stop in Crawfordsville in Montgomery County. This diversion also sent us through Hendricks County, just west of Indy.
After stopping in Cincinnati around three AM, we crossed the Ohio River into KY and followed the southern bank through five new counties (I had already been to Kenton and Campbell during a trip to FL in college where we had stopped in Covington for a wedding) before entering WV.
The WV portion of the route covered no new county territory, although passing through some great new vistas, as it never strayed far enough from I-64 until the very end when it stopped in Alderson, WV. Alderson is mostly on the north side of the Greenbriar River in Greenbriar County, through which I have traveled at least a couple times, including spending the night in my car behind a gas station. However, the train stops in the historic center on the south side of the river, in Monroe County. In VA we made a stop in Clifton Forge, which gave up its independent city status in 2001. We followed the interstate for a few miles east of Clifton Forge and then cut through some fairly uninhabited hills in the SE corner of Bath County before crossing into old territory again.
After that, the route offered no new counties, but did pass through some very nice country as I mentioned before.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Monday, December 5, 2011
Turkey Day Adventures - Seven Counties, Two County Equivalents
Orange, Pittsylvania, Franklin, Henry, Martinsville City, Rockingham, Caswell, Danville City, Caroline
Brandy went to Virginia to visit her family this Thanksgiving. We took off a couple extra days, so we'd have time to dilly dally. I really wanted to go through DelMarVA to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and catch a ton of counties, but the time and gas were prohibitive, so I'll have to leave that for the future. On the way down I was able to scoop up the last county that is reasonably on the way to Lynchburg, Orange County, VA. I'm not sure why I hadn't hit that yet, but there it was, a big gap in the middle of the map that was conveniently on the way from where we dropped one rideshare and where we dropped another couple. I didn't see much as it was in the middle of the night in horrible fog and rain, but I have gotten to the point where I don't have to see the countryside to know it's nice. I will definitely make a daytime swing through this county some day.
We spent a lot of time sitting on our asses, but took one day to check out Danville and environs. Danville is an independent city (county equivalent) about 70 miles south of where Brandy grew up and right on the border with NC. Apparently there is a tank museum there.
We took time consuming back roads, thanks to my trusty topographical map, all the way to Martinsville City. It was deep sticks and quite nice. It's also amazing how far you can go in these parts on these tiny roads without coming across a thing. We crossed a reservoir from Bedford to Pittsylvania, then entered a bit into Franklin. From there we went to Henry, which completely surrounds Martinsville. In M-ville, we spent a bunch of time in a big, mostly empty coffee shop. The coffee wasn't great, but the place was a nice spot to hang out. M-ville has a really attractive little downtown, although it is still mostly vacant.
I couldn't come that close and not grab the two adjacent counties in NC, so we swung down through Eden in Rockingham County. I wanted to get more into Caswell County and do some biking, but the time was starting to be an issue, so I only caught the corner as we came back up into VA to Danville. Danville had a decent downtown, with more topography, but it was definitely not as attractive as Martinsville and the coffee shop we patronized had atrocious coffee and was more of a diner. We hit up a thrift store here where I got Stratego for $2. I made certain to count all the pieces and only later realized that I hadn't bothered to check if there was a board, to my dismay. Another theory is that I took the board out to count the pieces ... and the obvious happened.
At this point, time was a big crunch so we hopped on the highway most of the way up.
One the way back home we spent the night in Washington Sunday night. On Monday we went across the Chesapeake Bay to check out Delaware. On the way there we caught one of the remaining DE counties, Caroline. Caroline was nice and flat and rural, just like DE. Big, open fields with old farmhouses. I find the East Bay area quite lovely. It's very quiet and surprisingly flat, which is kind of a shock to find in the middle of the urban spew of the Boston-DC smear. It reminded me a lot of the Midwest, which is part of why I liked it so much, so it may not be as appreciated by others.
We went to Dover, which appears to be a quite lovely colonial town, but get a block off the strip and you realize that's all a facade to hide the fact that the town is extremely depressed. After Dover we took to scenic Route 9, which parallels the tollway going north-south. It was empty and beautiful. We took a little side road to a small beach town on the sea, completely surrounded by swamp. We spent awhile walking the beach and collecting dried grass. We had parked out of town in the middle of the swamp and biked in and the sun was going down in vivid color over the swamp when we got back. A massive flock of birds rose up over the water and danced through the sky, twisting and turning and undulating. We watched the show until we realized they were coming our way and Brandy brought up the fact that they were likely laden with shit. Just before they passed overhead, we dove into the van. Luckily they just missed us because we heard the missle impacts splattering the parking lot just feet away.
Brandy went to Virginia to visit her family this Thanksgiving. We took off a couple extra days, so we'd have time to dilly dally. I really wanted to go through DelMarVA to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and catch a ton of counties, but the time and gas were prohibitive, so I'll have to leave that for the future. On the way down I was able to scoop up the last county that is reasonably on the way to Lynchburg, Orange County, VA. I'm not sure why I hadn't hit that yet, but there it was, a big gap in the middle of the map that was conveniently on the way from where we dropped one rideshare and where we dropped another couple. I didn't see much as it was in the middle of the night in horrible fog and rain, but I have gotten to the point where I don't have to see the countryside to know it's nice. I will definitely make a daytime swing through this county some day.
We spent a lot of time sitting on our asses, but took one day to check out Danville and environs. Danville is an independent city (county equivalent) about 70 miles south of where Brandy grew up and right on the border with NC. Apparently there is a tank museum there.
We took time consuming back roads, thanks to my trusty topographical map, all the way to Martinsville City. It was deep sticks and quite nice. It's also amazing how far you can go in these parts on these tiny roads without coming across a thing. We crossed a reservoir from Bedford to Pittsylvania, then entered a bit into Franklin. From there we went to Henry, which completely surrounds Martinsville. In M-ville, we spent a bunch of time in a big, mostly empty coffee shop. The coffee wasn't great, but the place was a nice spot to hang out. M-ville has a really attractive little downtown, although it is still mostly vacant.
I couldn't come that close and not grab the two adjacent counties in NC, so we swung down through Eden in Rockingham County. I wanted to get more into Caswell County and do some biking, but the time was starting to be an issue, so I only caught the corner as we came back up into VA to Danville. Danville had a decent downtown, with more topography, but it was definitely not as attractive as Martinsville and the coffee shop we patronized had atrocious coffee and was more of a diner. We hit up a thrift store here where I got Stratego for $2. I made certain to count all the pieces and only later realized that I hadn't bothered to check if there was a board, to my dismay. Another theory is that I took the board out to count the pieces ... and the obvious happened.
At this point, time was a big crunch so we hopped on the highway most of the way up.
One the way back home we spent the night in Washington Sunday night. On Monday we went across the Chesapeake Bay to check out Delaware. On the way there we caught one of the remaining DE counties, Caroline. Caroline was nice and flat and rural, just like DE. Big, open fields with old farmhouses. I find the East Bay area quite lovely. It's very quiet and surprisingly flat, which is kind of a shock to find in the middle of the urban spew of the Boston-DC smear. It reminded me a lot of the Midwest, which is part of why I liked it so much, so it may not be as appreciated by others.
We went to Dover, which appears to be a quite lovely colonial town, but get a block off the strip and you realize that's all a facade to hide the fact that the town is extremely depressed. After Dover we took to scenic Route 9, which parallels the tollway going north-south. It was empty and beautiful. We took a little side road to a small beach town on the sea, completely surrounded by swamp. We spent awhile walking the beach and collecting dried grass. We had parked out of town in the middle of the swamp and biked in and the sun was going down in vivid color over the swamp when we got back. A massive flock of birds rose up over the water and danced through the sky, twisting and turning and undulating. We watched the show until we realized they were coming our way and Brandy brought up the fact that they were likely laden with shit. Just before they passed overhead, we dove into the van. Luckily they just missed us because we heard the missle impacts splattering the parking lot just feet away.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Pittsburgh Weekend - 12 Counties
Lackawanna, Wyoming, Sullivan, Lycoming, Tioga, Potter, McKean, Cameron, Elk, Fayette, Cambria, Blair
Brandy and I spent the past weekend in Pittsburgh for their local CS CouchCrash. It was a great time with great people, but more pertinent to this blog, I collected 12 more counties on the way. I had always been curious to see the very northern stretch of PA - you know, the real back woods - and this whole county thing gave me the added incentive to do it on this trip.
We left Thu night with another CSer, Barbara, who was our only rider due to the unfortunate loss of our friend Juan to weaksaucedness. We got a late start as usual and drove into the night. My first new county was Lackawanna, which we entered via I-380, already fairly late in the night. After Scranton we went through a maze of exits to get on US 6 and passed under this huge bridge way above us. It was actually kind of creepy since it came out of nowhere above this random neighborhood, and Brandy urged me to "get outta here."
After Lackawanna, we entered Wyoming and started to leave civilization. The last remnants of humanity vanished as we turned onto Rt 87 and passed a huge power plant. Off into the woods and the night we went. In fact, we weren't to see another car for at least 20 miles. There was a major construction project going on, but luckily the road was base paved so we could still go fast. Unluckily, the signage, or lack thereof, somehow got us off of 87, and then somehow back onto 87 just as miraculously as we'd left it. It almost felt like we'd just gone in a big circle, but then we came across an intersection that obviously hadn't been seen yet. One good bit of signage though was a massive changeable message sign that said, "BUMP AHEAD, Slow down NOW!!" It commanded attention and boy did they mean it! The bump was of unprecedented proportions and a 60 mph hit would have been catastrophic.
The little signage-related detour may have put us into Bradford County for all I know, but the next verified county was Sullivan. We camped here at World's End State Park. We were unfortunately in too big a hurry the next morning to check it out but it's supposed to be beautiful. There had been some major flooding in the area and to get to the park we had to cross a closed section of Rt 154 where half the road had washed away. In the night, the precipice gaped with an eerie darkness that played as if there was nothing under the remaining asphalt. The strange feelings and creepiness of the things around you during a long late-night drive are really quite unique as the drive and fatigue stretch out all thoughts and perceptions into long, stringy twangs of reality. I have been fatigued in many situations, but these twisted feelings are unique to distance driving.
After a short and chilly night, we got up a bit later than we thought gracias a mountain shadows and moved on as quickly as possible. I had created a sly route that would have gotten the corners of both Lycoming and Bradford via secondary routes, but this was not to be. I was traveling 154 and did some exploring of a side road that could have been what I was searching, but was unsigned. It was closed, so we continued on, only to somehow come back to Rt 87! Poor signage had once again managed to deflect me from my intended route. Thwarted, I decided to just continue on and give up on Bradford, but keep for the Grand Canyon of PA. I chose to avoid secondary routes this time, but was rewarded with another bridge out and a long detour.
We reached Tioga County shortly before rejoining my planned route at Liberty, PA, where we also chose to breakfast. I questioned an old and friendly fellow at the gas station, with whom a noisy and contentious debate would have likely arisen had politics been brought up, but breakfast was the point of the conversation and it remained jovial. He suggested a place in town that turned out to be mediocre, but cheap and filling and very reminiscent of Wisconsin northwoods owing to the abundance of flags, cheesy "a good friend is" type sayings, and men in camouflage.
After breakfast we hit the Grand Canyon of PA, which would have been more impressive had it not been given a bit of a misnomer. It was very pretty, but certainly not deserving of the moniker.
Next came Potter, where I started to notice, especially after leaving Rte 6, untended apple trees spilling their fruit everywhere. It seems apples grow exceptionally well in these parts and many trees were left as the population thinned in recent decades. I decided a huge sack of apples would be a great gift for our host. We kept trying to find the perfect tree that wasn't obviously in someone's yard and were getting frustrated, until I turned down my last little sidetrack to get McKean County. This included crossing an amazing little one-lane iron bridge to get to Gardeau Rd, which conveniently skirted into the county. Here we saw an old lady picking apples so I decided to stop and ask her what the situation in the area was. She had a shirt full of apples and about six trees. She told me she had more than she needed and I could take as much as I wanted. While picking, an old guy from across the street insisted we take his apples because they were so delicious. He was right, and we took a couple pecks, although we probably could have walked out with a couple bushels and not made a dent.
We then entered Cameron. At this point I was getting ready to be getting on with it and nothing stands out from passing through either Cameron or Elk before reentering the realm of previously attained counties.
Some highlights of Pittsburgh include meeting our hosts, one of whom is really into dorky board games and has Puerto Rico and Dominion and the other who is really into maps and actually might know more counties by memory than I do; a bike tour of sevaral neighborhoods and biking over the Hot Metal Road bridge; a bonfire right in the city on an old concrete circular platform in the river behind a factory; sleeping in our van because our hostess' boyfriend gave us a key that didn't work; taking over an entire restaurant for a potluck brunch; the Cathedral of Learning at the U of Pittsburgh, the second tallest education building in the world and it actually looks like a cathedral http://www.tour.pitt.edu/tour-080.html; the Glass Castle, which looks a bit cheesy from afar, but is actually really cool to be in - it reminds me for some reason of an ice level in Mario; Gina, my van, dominating the shit out of Canton Avenue, a 37% grade - the steepest in the US and perhaps the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Avenue http://googlesightseeing.com/2009/06/the-worlds-steepest-streets/.
On the way back we found a rideshare in Somerset, which meant we'd miss Indiana County, but we could get Fayette County. I actually tried to have a go at getting Greene in the far SE corner of the state, but just didn't have enough time, even taking the boonedoggle Rte 43 tollway, and I had to bail at the end and just head over to Fayette. The drive across Fayette was absolutely stunning as we passed from valley to valley with grand views. Fayette is also the home of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, but we did not want to pay the $20 to enter.
After picking up our rideshare, we hopped on the freeway and it was dark before we got to our next new county, Cambria. Nothing of note here... we ate at a Wendy's and it was predictably gross. We had a surprise in our final county, Blair, as I-99 north was inexplicably closed and we had to figure out how to get around. I flirted with the thought of taking the long way and getting Snyder County, which will be bunyon in my efforts sitting in the middle of PA on the way to nothing, surrounded by visited counties. In the end we took a side road around the blockage and got home at a reasonable hour.
I wish I had a count of total counties, but there are still a few states left where I have to do some more research to figure out. I can say that my PA count is up to 61 out of 67. My next new counties will likely be gotten when I go to VA for Thanksgiving.
Brandy and I spent the past weekend in Pittsburgh for their local CS CouchCrash. It was a great time with great people, but more pertinent to this blog, I collected 12 more counties on the way. I had always been curious to see the very northern stretch of PA - you know, the real back woods - and this whole county thing gave me the added incentive to do it on this trip.
We left Thu night with another CSer, Barbara, who was our only rider due to the unfortunate loss of our friend Juan to weaksaucedness. We got a late start as usual and drove into the night. My first new county was Lackawanna, which we entered via I-380, already fairly late in the night. After Scranton we went through a maze of exits to get on US 6 and passed under this huge bridge way above us. It was actually kind of creepy since it came out of nowhere above this random neighborhood, and Brandy urged me to "get outta here."
After Lackawanna, we entered Wyoming and started to leave civilization. The last remnants of humanity vanished as we turned onto Rt 87 and passed a huge power plant. Off into the woods and the night we went. In fact, we weren't to see another car for at least 20 miles. There was a major construction project going on, but luckily the road was base paved so we could still go fast. Unluckily, the signage, or lack thereof, somehow got us off of 87, and then somehow back onto 87 just as miraculously as we'd left it. It almost felt like we'd just gone in a big circle, but then we came across an intersection that obviously hadn't been seen yet. One good bit of signage though was a massive changeable message sign that said, "BUMP AHEAD, Slow down NOW!!" It commanded attention and boy did they mean it! The bump was of unprecedented proportions and a 60 mph hit would have been catastrophic.
The little signage-related detour may have put us into Bradford County for all I know, but the next verified county was Sullivan. We camped here at World's End State Park. We were unfortunately in too big a hurry the next morning to check it out but it's supposed to be beautiful. There had been some major flooding in the area and to get to the park we had to cross a closed section of Rt 154 where half the road had washed away. In the night, the precipice gaped with an eerie darkness that played as if there was nothing under the remaining asphalt. The strange feelings and creepiness of the things around you during a long late-night drive are really quite unique as the drive and fatigue stretch out all thoughts and perceptions into long, stringy twangs of reality. I have been fatigued in many situations, but these twisted feelings are unique to distance driving.
After a short and chilly night, we got up a bit later than we thought gracias a mountain shadows and moved on as quickly as possible. I had created a sly route that would have gotten the corners of both Lycoming and Bradford via secondary routes, but this was not to be. I was traveling 154 and did some exploring of a side road that could have been what I was searching, but was unsigned. It was closed, so we continued on, only to somehow come back to Rt 87! Poor signage had once again managed to deflect me from my intended route. Thwarted, I decided to just continue on and give up on Bradford, but keep for the Grand Canyon of PA. I chose to avoid secondary routes this time, but was rewarded with another bridge out and a long detour.
We reached Tioga County shortly before rejoining my planned route at Liberty, PA, where we also chose to breakfast. I questioned an old and friendly fellow at the gas station, with whom a noisy and contentious debate would have likely arisen had politics been brought up, but breakfast was the point of the conversation and it remained jovial. He suggested a place in town that turned out to be mediocre, but cheap and filling and very reminiscent of Wisconsin northwoods owing to the abundance of flags, cheesy "a good friend is" type sayings, and men in camouflage.
After breakfast we hit the Grand Canyon of PA, which would have been more impressive had it not been given a bit of a misnomer. It was very pretty, but certainly not deserving of the moniker.
Next came Potter, where I started to notice, especially after leaving Rte 6, untended apple trees spilling their fruit everywhere. It seems apples grow exceptionally well in these parts and many trees were left as the population thinned in recent decades. I decided a huge sack of apples would be a great gift for our host. We kept trying to find the perfect tree that wasn't obviously in someone's yard and were getting frustrated, until I turned down my last little sidetrack to get McKean County. This included crossing an amazing little one-lane iron bridge to get to Gardeau Rd, which conveniently skirted into the county. Here we saw an old lady picking apples so I decided to stop and ask her what the situation in the area was. She had a shirt full of apples and about six trees. She told me she had more than she needed and I could take as much as I wanted. While picking, an old guy from across the street insisted we take his apples because they were so delicious. He was right, and we took a couple pecks, although we probably could have walked out with a couple bushels and not made a dent.
We then entered Cameron. At this point I was getting ready to be getting on with it and nothing stands out from passing through either Cameron or Elk before reentering the realm of previously attained counties.
Some highlights of Pittsburgh include meeting our hosts, one of whom is really into dorky board games and has Puerto Rico and Dominion and the other who is really into maps and actually might know more counties by memory than I do; a bike tour of sevaral neighborhoods and biking over the Hot Metal Road bridge; a bonfire right in the city on an old concrete circular platform in the river behind a factory; sleeping in our van because our hostess' boyfriend gave us a key that didn't work; taking over an entire restaurant for a potluck brunch; the Cathedral of Learning at the U of Pittsburgh, the second tallest education building in the world and it actually looks like a cathedral http://www.tour.pitt.edu/tour-080.html; the Glass Castle, which looks a bit cheesy from afar, but is actually really cool to be in - it reminds me for some reason of an ice level in Mario; Gina, my van, dominating the shit out of Canton Avenue, a 37% grade - the steepest in the US and perhaps the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_Avenue http://googlesightseeing.com/2009/06/the-worlds-steepest-streets/.
On the way back we found a rideshare in Somerset, which meant we'd miss Indiana County, but we could get Fayette County. I actually tried to have a go at getting Greene in the far SE corner of the state, but just didn't have enough time, even taking the boonedoggle Rte 43 tollway, and I had to bail at the end and just head over to Fayette. The drive across Fayette was absolutely stunning as we passed from valley to valley with grand views. Fayette is also the home of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, but we did not want to pay the $20 to enter.
After picking up our rideshare, we hopped on the freeway and it was dark before we got to our next new county, Cambria. Nothing of note here... we ate at a Wendy's and it was predictably gross. We had a surprise in our final county, Blair, as I-99 north was inexplicably closed and we had to figure out how to get around. I flirted with the thought of taking the long way and getting Snyder County, which will be bunyon in my efforts sitting in the middle of PA on the way to nothing, surrounded by visited counties. In the end we took a side road around the blockage and got home at a reasonable hour.
I wish I had a count of total counties, but there are still a few states left where I have to do some more research to figure out. I can say that my PA count is up to 61 out of 67. My next new counties will likely be gotten when I go to VA for Thanksgiving.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Delaware County, NY
This weekend saw the addition of Delaware County, NY to my repertoire of counties. Brandy and I went hiking in the Catskills for the second weekend in a row after her recent investment in a new tent and sleeping bag. I was definitely jealous of that bag this weekend as I shivered in my 8-year old thin, broken zippered rag. We drove up Friday night after work, slept in the van on the side of Highway 299 just outside New Paltz. In the morning we dined at a local estaminet and headed into the hills.
Our entry was rather unceremonious as we straddled the border along County Road 49A to the trailhead. I was not even aware that it was a new county since, being so close to places I had been several times, I did not consult Mr. Map before traveling. Our hike stayed within Ulster County (2007?), but on the way home we entered Delaware a wee bit more. Gina wanted to do some hiking as well, so we took her over Cross Mountain Road, which was a narrow, very steep road over the “mountain” with some precipitous drop offs and great views. There were also some quaint cabins and pretentious douchey homes.
I still have a hard time calling the Catskills mountains, but will not be a dick and use the quotes in the future.
On a side note, we bagged two more of the Catskills 3500 Club high peaks – Graham Mountain and Balsam Lake Mountain. Yet another silly checkbox success thing, and 3,500 feet is not really much of a peak, but it is a goal to chase and gets me to some beautiful places I might not have otherwise gone for; and really, a guy who is trying to get to every county and county equivalent in the country has nothing to say about such things.
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