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Brooklyn Bridge
[22-Feb-2008] Finally developed the disposable camera I bought in NY from last August. Photos are all of the Brooklyn Bridge and the ferry landing on the Brooklyn side where Washington escaped from the British in the Revolution.

Stuck in NY
[02-Feb-2008] Ive been stuck in NY for two weeks now. Stuck because its just to cold to even think about going outside most the time. It rarely gets above freezing, and then it rains. Thankfully shutting down Giuliani has occupied most my time. That was until today. Not a single request until 5:02pm (2 minutes after the movie I went to started). So this afternoon once it got to 40 I went to the Public Libary


and then tried to go on a tour of the UN but it is close don weekend Jan and Feb. Went to the movies. Glad it wasnt my money but a gift card someone gave me because Cloverfield sucked. Its all shot with a video camera, even when it becomes unrealistc and they kill the idiot with the camera. The people have to be the stupidest people on earth. When the military tells you they are losing to the Godzilla monster in NYC you dont go into NYC on the off chance some girl is alive trying to find her. Even not being from NY the locations didnt make sense. The group clearly made it to the Brooklyn side of the bridge before it collapsed. Then suddenly they are at Spring St which is nowhere near the bridge.

New York Week 2: Repeat Visits
[16-Oct-2007] Saturday was the last day to do anything since my flight was early Sunday morning. Got up and took the Staten Island ferry back to Ft. Wadsworth hoping to get the 10:30 tour of Ft. Thompkins. Got there at 9:30. The visitor center was closed. Hung around till 10:20 when Gary, the you cant do that and doesnt know his history Ranger showed up. Asked him if there was a tour. He said he didnt know, and he guessed no since the VC was closed.

My experiences at Ft. Wadsworth makes it the worst National Park I have ever visited. The Rangers tell visitors conflicting information about tours, one guy says show up, Gary says no you must have reservations, despite calling earlier and being told nothing about reservations. Tour lack any historical information. The rangers being more concerned with repeatedly telling you how unsafe the stairs and ledges are. The rangers also dont even know the basics of the structure under their care. I specificly asked Gary the name of a battery as we walked by it. He told me it doesnt have a name, its just for 3inch guns. The big sign out side the visitor center, and all the CDSG pages say it was Battery Bacon. Fort Thompkins wins the award for the most obscured fort Ive every tried to see. It is surrounded by an impenatrable mass of brush from all angles except the sea face along the road. The grass is mowed very nicely up to the brush so its clearly on purpose. The rangers are unhelpful. Never offering me a map and only pointing me in the direction of the fort when I asked directly what was the best way to get to them.

So I left Wadsworth, took the Ferry back to Manhatten and tried again for the geocache in central park I couldnt find because of darkness. Daylight didnt help. There is no plaque. Returned to the AMNH for the planetarium show and mythic creatures exhibit. The planetarium how was dissapointingly short. The prices are crazy and the ticket agent jipped me. The $15 to get in is fine, you see a lot of stuff. Then there are the special exhibits (about 6), Imax, and planetarium. Each costs extra. There is a supersaver which online says it allows you into unlimited of the special stuff, but the ticket person said only 2. The signs inside the museum are unclear so I didnt argue at the time.

Most the pictures will be added to previous sections since there arnt enough to matter.

New York Week 2: Ft. Wadsworth
[08-Oct-2007] Got a late start Sunday because I worked till 2am. Took the Staten Island Ferry ot to Ft. Wadsworth to see Ft. Thompkins and Battery Weed. Again I had problems getting in. Apparently there was a special tour and one Ranger said show up, the other tired to turn everyone away who didnt have reservations. In the end everyone went. The tour was of just Ft. Richmond which is now called Battery Weed.

The tour was pretty lacking. Most of it was the rangers being overly paranoid about safety. They really didnt do any interpretation, and one Ranger was clearly wrong. I asked the name of one of the later batteries, and he said it was unnamed. The maps at the Visitor Center clearly call it Battery Bacon.

Ft. Thompkins is almost invisible. They have done a wonderful job of completely obscuring the fort from almost every angle. Only part of the dry moat wall and counterscarp are visible as well as the sea face. Access to both forts is only when on a tour. Mornings for Ft. Thompkins, which I missed and afternoons for Battery Weed.

New York Week 1: Ft. Hamilton and AMNH
[08-Oct-2007] Saturday rode the subway way out to the Narrows to Ft. Hamilton. After some hassle at the gate where the Army thought the museum was closed, and the sleeping cop that didnt help, I got in after calling and confirming they were open. Then they didnt even bother to metal detect me. There isnt much left of the fort, the entire sea face has been removed. Only the land face and capponier. The museum is relatively new and takes up the whole small capponier.

Came back to Manhattan and after stopping at work went to the American Museum of Natural History. Didnt see it all, mostly just saw the dinosaurs.

I will have to go back for all the special exhibits and several floors.

New York Week 1: North Central Park
[08-Oct-2007] Had to work too much the rest of the week till Friday. Tried a few geocaches again this time in Northern Central Park. The Ubercache I gave up on, though it was starting to get dark particularly in the North Woods where it was. Then went after the highest point cache. Scared some people who thought my gps was a gun. Found the cache site, a block house on the hill but it was too dark to see the plaque or even find the plaque for that matter. Walked down the entire length of Central Park past Columbus circle, and into Times Square. Took a Grey line tour around before going home.

New York Week 1: Time Square
[08-Oct-2007] Tuesday left work even later, so it was already dark. Went down to see Times Square. Found a camera bag and had shish kabobs for dinner. Then wandered around the area while exchanging emails with Mark (who is in South Korea). Got down to Grand Central before getting tired and heading home.

New York Week 1: Central Park South
[08-Oct-2007] Monday after work rode the subway out to Columbus Circle and went looking for some geocaches in South Central Park. Got there pretty late and only got to look briefly for one which I didnt find. Batteries in the GPS were pretty low too.

New York Week 1: Trip to the Statue
[08-Oct-2007] Started early Sunday with a trip to the Statue of Liberty

and Ellis Island. Had to walk down to Battery Park, its about 6 blocks from the apartment, to catch the ferry at Castle Clinton. The ferry gives some good views of Castle Williams. The Statue is built on top of Ft. Wood. and parts of Ellis Island on Ft. Gibson which is mostly buried. The Statue was pretty small in person, it seems much larger from a distance. Of course you can only go up to the top of the pedestal because of stupid security. Ellis Island was kind of disappointing. Only the main building has been restored, the rest are closed. Most the exhibits were pretty uninteresting. I didnt know about Ft. Gibson so that was a nice find, even better when I went outside and found remains uncovered.

Brooklyn and Chinatown
[18-Aug-2007] Bought a new camera Thursday before trying to sleep. After working all Friday night (10:30pm to about noon), we ate at Grimaldis Coal oven pizzaria in Brooklyn. I decided to look a third time for the Bridge cache with no luck. Then walked across Brooklyn the long way for another cache in Ft. Greene Park, down the heights promenade, through the center past the borugh hall. Found it, and watched a stomp show in the park. Took a train back to this side of the river, go off on the Lower East side and walked back to the apt via Chinatown. Put up photos of the trip, and some of the apt and city in general

The Brooklyn Bridge
[14-Aug-2007] Walked across the Broolyn Bridge after work. Its an amazing structure. It must have been pryamid like in size back when they built it. today you only get that feel once on it. There is a wide pedestrian walk way well above the car traffic with excellent views all the way across. Looked for two caches and only found one. Dark caught me. I ened up going across 3 times, once across, found the cache under the brdge, back to the east peir, then back to Brooklyn to look for the second. Didnt find it my numbers were off, I was trying to read the plaques in the dark. Brooklyn is nice, it has trees and plants, much better than Manhatten. Under the bridge on the Brooklyn side must e the best pizza considering the constant 40 person line, Grimaldis pizzaria. Got ice cream before coming back across the first time and rode the subway back after dark.

NY again
[11-Aug-2007] Im in NY again. Cleaning up the network there. Its much better in summer time outside in this part of town than it was over the holidays, there are people out all night. We are getting an apartment here, a few blocks from the office so Ill be here regularly. There is a nice 24 hour diner just below the apartment. Managed to walk around a little tonight, did a geocache down near the water. There are a couple of tall ships there, too bad they are only open in the daylight. Had to buy a disposable camera, I still need to replace the digital one.

The plane flight up here was a disaster. Left Tallahasse about 12:30, got to Atlanta. Flight was supposed to be 3:45. We didnt leave till around 8:30. They got us all on the plane, then annouced a ground stop in NY. Wait 20 min. Ok get off the plane it will be at least an hour. Then they decided to do maitenance on the plane. So after the stop was lifted we were still stuck. Instead of arrivng at 6:00 or so, it was almost midnight.

Gone last week
[17-Jul-2007] Spent last week in D.C. for a third Presidential campaign. They made use take Sunday off so Jason and I went to the new Air and Space Museum (Udvar-Hazy) out by Dulles. Jason took a lot of pictures. Its a large hanger, big enough for hundreds of planes and big ones, Enterprise, the Enola Gay and the world speed record holder SR-71.

After dropping Jason off at the airport stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt memorial, a nice plaza in the woods, really in the woods. Good quotes too: Conservation means development as much as it does protection. Down the parkyway from it stopped at Ft. Marcy, another Civil War earthwork. This one built to defend Chain Bridge. Then drove down to Fredericksburg to see Bridget and Garron.

Camera Broken
[03-Jun-2007] I finally got the photos of of D.C. from the weekend of the flash card from my camera. The camera itself is dead. It just wont power on.
I spent Saturday afternoon in the Natural History and Air and Space Museums. Sunday I did the Zoo, then walked to the National Cathedral and back to a metro. There are no photos of Sunday the camera was dead. I would have had more time to look but I was working 10pm to 6am over the weekend and had to sleep sometime.

Yuma Travels
[20-May-2007] I put up a page for my Yuma travels since they are becoming more frequent and will be even more so with the Presidential Campaign offices needing to be setup.

Museums
[19-May-2007] Ill be in DC for a third week so I stayed over the weekend this time instead of wasting time flying home Friday and flying back Sunday. Im working from midnight to 6am or so over the weekend so I have time to see things during the day. Went to the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museums today. Took pictures but it looks like my camera is dead. Hopefully its just the battery. Of course the charger is in Tallahassee so no more picture tomarrow. Also did a virtual geocache at the Smithsonian Castle. I didnt bring the gps so its hard to find ones that are findable without it but this one was pretty simple.

Still in D.C.
[19-May-2007] Im still in D.C. and will be for the next week. Didnt see anything this week but will be able to tomarrow and Sunday. Pictures from last week are here

Home briefly
[12-May-2007] Im home for the weekend. Been in D.C. all week for McCain and will return next Sunday for most of another week. I didnt get to see anything in D.C. except after work on Wed. Managed to get to the Mall and see the WWII memorial which wasnt there last time I was in DC. Pictures will come later, left the camera at home.

Its was really hazy here when I got back but didnt smell like smoke. It finally rained today for the first time in months, just after I finished watering everything (one of the reasons I came home). Gary has been picking strawberries all week so there arnt any ripe. The first blueberries and blackberries ripened while I was gone. So I got to eat a handfull of them last night. Actually the first blueberry was last week but it was only one.

Plants, Spring 2007
[25-Apr-2007] And finally photos
of all the large plants around the house.

Advanced Redoubt
[25-Apr-2007] Finally put up the pictures from the Advanced Redoubt of Ft. Barancas I took on the way back from the MS trip last month. Ive tried several times to get on the tour and usually miss it by an hour. I stopped by there knowing they only do them on Sat at 11 and got lucky. The volunteer ranger was giving a special tour for a guy leaving the country and I got there just as they started.

Also added flowers from the trip back