Redneck Adventures Part 2

The weekend was nice because I didn't have to worry about any more work for a couple of days. My biggest worry was our first planned activity of the day. We were supposed to go ATVing in the same place that we took the truck the night before . . . and it continued to rain all night. I was NOT looking forward to all that mud, but I was determined to be a good sport and go. How relieved was I was my host's wife (Katie) called to inform me that it was 'crazy muddy' and they were officially letting me off the hook? Thank goodness.

Plan B was zip lining and that was much more fun than drowning in mud. We had a ball.

It was a perfectly pleasant day followed by a perfectly frightening evening. It started off pretty nice at dinner. I managed to get through another meal without a complete overload of fried and over-buttered food. Eating is a challenge down South for sure. Next on the agenda was a trip to a local redneck bar to see a band play. My hosts were friends with the band guys and we had the equivalent of front row seats.



After I got over my short stress factor of what to wear to a redneck bar I figured this would be an easy and interesting night. Well, interesting doesn't even begin to describe this event. There are no words to describe what I witnessed. Holy smokes. I felt the need to go back to my hotel room and wash my eyeballs. Yeah, interesting it was. I think it redefined the terms drunk and redneck, but it sure was entertaining. Needless to say, we didn't stay long and had some good laughs on the drive back.

Sunday was positively idyllic. I spent the entire day with Katie and their two oldest daughters. We drove over to Asheville, which is a town that I always wanted to visit. We toured the famous Biltmore Estate and it was fabulous. I didn't even realize that this was the private home of the Vanderbilt family. The same family that owned the Breakers mansion at Newport. Well, that was only their 'summer cottage.' This was their secluded getaway in the woods and is the biggest private residence in all of history. Simply incredible. It took all day to tour the home and the grounds (and the winery).

On Monday it was back to work and we headed down to the 'other Carolina' to tour Michael Waltrip Racing. I was meeting our public relations writer who is doing a feature article on this company. It was my job to take the photos that will appear in the magazine so that was exciting. And while I was there I also shot some video. It sure is a shame that I'm not a race fan because I was up close and personal to the race cars. I just happened to be outside when they were unloading one of the cars that was just racing in New Hampshire this past weekend. I couldn't resist snapping this photo of the interior of the car. Notice the cup holder. Why is it a real race car can have one, but my Boxster doesn't? Go figure.

This was quite the work trip. It feels like I've been on a great vacation hanging with some awesome friends, with just a little bit of work sprinkled in. And now that I'm back home, I need to get busy doing laundry and packing all over again. Next week I'm back on the road again . . .

Week 38 in Photos

#261

 Found this balloon on our trail in the middle of the woods. I wonder if it really floated all the way over from MIT.

#262

How sad is it that I need to set myself reminders to call Karlo (whom I haven't seen or spoken to in days?)

#263

My phone sitting on top of my suitcase. Notice the alarm is set for 4am. I'm ready to hit the road (again).

 

#264

Driving through the mountains of North Carolina.

 

#265

My buddy took me wine tasting this evening to 'put me more in my element' after spending two days with 'hillbillies.'

 

#266

Day off. Went zip lining and it was a blast.

 

#267

Another day off. Toured the Biltmore Estate and it was gorgeous.   

My Redneck Adventures Part 1

On Thursday I dragged myself out of bed at 4am to start my Redneck adventure. It was quite the stressful morning just trying to get myself out of the house and then the drive to the airport in terrible fog was dreadful. It was quite the relief to just get on the airplane and relax for a couple of hours. I arrived in 'some Carolina' and I was quite embarrassed to admit that I wasn't even sure if I was in North or South Carolina. I flew into Greenville and apparently there's a Greenville in both states so maybe it wasn't so bad that I was confused. The guy I was meeting (Jimmy AKA Bubba) wasn't in the airport waiting for me and that was when I realized that I never even put his phone number into my phone before leaving the office. Brilliant. I overcame that hurdle and got a message to him to call me. He did, and the first thing he says to me, "Hello, Miss Bubbette . . . I thought you were coming NEXT week." Good God almighty, I totally believed him! My heart immediately sank, but luckily he was just pulling my leg and calling me from right outside the door. Thank goodness.

So I jump into the biggest monster pickup truck I ever saw (which just got washed for the special occasion of driving me around). My Mini Cooper could have fit in the truck bed (well, after he removed the ATV that he hauls around everywhere he goes for some unknown reason). I managed to fit my bags in the backseat along with tons of camo gear, sleeping bags, bows and arrows. I guess you never know when a deer is going to walk by and you need to jump out of your truck and hunt.

Off we went to work for the rest of the day. That was business as usual . . . walking around boring machine shops talking about boring work stuff. Ho hum. That evening we went for a drive back to the mountains and it was beautiful. Such a pretty area. I really enjoyed the sightseeing. If I could just be less of a Yankee I could see myself living down there.

The next day was a carbon copy of the first. Work all day in a stinky machine shop, but the day got much more exciting in the evening. It was time for my off-road adventure (in the rain). We took this monster truck on some crazy slick trails and it was a hoot.

We managed to get ourselves what I called "stuck," but I stood corrected. We were not stuck, we were just not going to move any further. OK, is there a difference? I was starting to panic given the fact that we are in the middle of the woods, in the rain, and I had to pee! Some how we managed to reverse our way far enough back down the slick hill to get enough momentum to make it all the way up. By the time we finished the trail, it was pouring and at the same time the sun was out and shining brightly. It was beautiful. I captured this rainbow.

I made one comment about how I should have video taped it and that was it . . . Jimmy decided that we needed to do it all over again - this time with my camera rolling. When will I learn to shut my mouth? So off we went again and this time I have to admit, I enjoyed it more because I knew that it was indeed possible to make it up that slick hill. We cranked the country music on the radio and had a ball. When I get home I will try to post the video of that crazy ride.

The Sand Dunes of Cape Cod

One of the field trips from the photography workshop I attended last weekend was a dune tour. It was a hoot to get to drive through the untouched roads of the dunes. And by 'roads' I mean sand trails. I guess I should also specify that I didn't really get 'to drive' through it, but yet ride in the tour vehicle (which sadly was a Suburban rather than a dune buggy) but it was still lots of fun. Seeing as we were a bunch of photographers the tour operator stopped often so that we can all pile out of the truck and run around in the sand to take pictures. It was like doing a dozen Chinese firedrills and it brought back found memories of my youth and doing these on the city streets in Downtown Hartford.

Anyway, back to the dunes . . . after taking my first dozen pictures of far off landscapes (which never really were my cup of tea) I started to get bored. I figured it didn't matter how many different angles I could shoot sand dunes, they were all starting to look alike to me. So I started to experiment with different things and I tried to focus on lines and shade variations.

Then that started to bore me so I started to get a little more creative and look for things to shoot other than just dune landscape.

And then when I depleted my creativity with that I just plain got silly.

If you would like to see more of my B&W series, please visit my picasa album here. Overall I had a really nice time on the trip and I look forward to getting back on the Cape someday. But first I'm off to the Carolinas for a few days. Be back soon.

Week 37 in Photos

#254

Still in the White Mountains here and we got up for sunrise. Actually, I should rephrase and say that Karlo got ME up for sunrise!

#255

One of the many beautiful covered bridges along our travels.

#256

This was our anniversary and this shot was taken at the top of a ski mountain.

  

#257

I took this day off to spend nearly the whole day looking at all the photos I took the few days prior.

#258

Now I'm in PTown on the Cape at a photography workshop.

#259

And of course we were up for sunrise and on a beach.

  

#260

The sunrise wasn't so great on this day, but I liked this pic.

A Short Stay

I'm back!! But only for three days before I have to turn around and leave for another trip. Life is starting to get very busy and crazy, but I guess I should be used to it. At least I got to enjoy a great time in NH with Karlo, followed by a wonderful long weekend at the Cape. I decided to book a photography workshop since Karlo was going away on a business and I didn't feel guilty for either leaving him, or dragging him along.

It couldn't have worked out better. Not only was the weather near perfect (again), but my buddy Sue just happened to be in Boston the couple days before my trip. She took the high speed ferry over to Provincetown from Boston and we got to hang out during my down time.

Now granted, I didn't really get much down time, but Sue turned out to be an honorary member of our group. We dined with the group, strolled through PTown, and all went on a whale watch together. It was good ole fun and reminded us the days when we used to travel for business together and be roomies. I can't say that I learned anything at the workshop, or got many nice photos, but I did enjoy meeting all the other photographers, spending a relaxing weekend on the Cape, and catching up with Sue.

I didn't really  have time to do much photo editing and I haven't even downloaded the pictures we took at a fabulous wine tasting event at the Truro Vineyard, but I did upload some of the pictures to a picasa album. If you would like to see them, please click here.

White Mountains Get-away

We just got back from 5 days in the White Mountains. This wasn't our first trip up there. We went up a couple of years ago for a dancing event and during that brief encounter we just barely caught a glimpse of all the beauty. Since it was a dancing event we spent nearly all of our time indoors, which is the last thing in the world you should be doing when visiting an outdoor mega playground. This time, we really got the opportunity to see just what the White Mountains have to offer and we were blown away. Blown away by the sheer beauty and endless hiking and biking options, but also blown away by the fact that this place is only 3 hours away from home and we are just now discovering it.

We trailered up the motorcycle with blind faith that, not only the weather would be nice enough to ride, but also that my neck would cooperate. And I am thrilled to report that we were blessed with 5 solid days of picture perfect weather and my neck was far better than I ever dreamed it would be. I was able to do all the riding that we wanted and I can't tell you how happy that makes me!

We took a leisurely drive up North on Saturday morning, stopping at Lake Winnipesaukee for lunch. This was the destination for an anniversary celebration in the past and it was nice to revisit the same cool beach lunch spot.



From there we made our way to North Conway. I had my heart set on riding the train and Karlo was a good sport. He actually very much enjoyed it too. We both felt like kids and I couldn't resist snapping a couple shots of some real kids.

 


Our ultimate destination this day was Gorham, which is on the North side of the park. I picked this place because that's where the advertised moose tours started from. We went into the motel office to check-in and I was greeted by this guy . . .



And I knew I made the right decision. After chatting with the motel owner about the tours, we decided on the do-it-yourself moose tour. She gave us the exact location of the real tour and I loved having the flexibility to stop anytime I wanted for photos. I got lots of photos of the river and ponds at dusk, but sadly no moose. That doesn't mean we didn't see any moose because, in fact, we saw FOUR moose. One of the greatest thrills of my life! I can cross another thing off my Bucket List. I finally saw real live moose in the wild. What I didn't realize was that all moose hunting happens at night, which is not the ideal photographic opportunity. The first moose we saw was standing in the middle of the road. I was so excited that I literally couldn't even get the camera to my face. I didn't want to be distracted and I just couldn't take my eyes off this creature. It was a young boy and he took his time ducking back into the woods. My heart was pounding and I was so thrilled I didn't even mind not getting the picture. Even if I got the picture it would have been terribly dark and crappy and you know I can't be bothered with bad pictures.

We continued the drive up to nearly Canada it seemed and we were running dry on spotting another moose. Karlo decided to pull off the road and shut the car so we can listen for moose and that proved to be brilliant. As soon as we stepped out of the car (parked on the side of a marshy area) we could hear splashing. We walked down a little closer to the water and we could just barely make out a big dark shape so Karlo got the car started again and pointed his headlights across the water. Sure enough there's a gigantic male moose with a huge rack of antlers splashing around in the water. He didn't seem even slightly annoyed by our headlights so we continued to watch him. I was giddy by this time.

But wait there's more. As we started to drive back down the road heading South (back to our motel) we ended up smack behind the 'real' moose tour vehicle. We figured we would follow them for as long as we could because they had big search lights. They soon caught on to our freeloading and they pulled over to make us pass. Not more than 1 minute after passing them we spot a boy and girl moose together on the side of the road. They were on a date! Too cute. We scared them off into the woods so the actual moose tour never even got to see them. Ha, that's what they get for pulling over.

The rest of the trip was all about motorcycle touring on endless beautiful roads, covered bridges, waterfalls, hiking trails, etc. It was simply perfect and the best way to tell the stories if via this movie. If you have 5 minutes, sit back and take a little trip to the White Mountains . . .

Week 36 in Photos

I guess I went MIA for a while. Karlo and I just came back from a little vacation get-away that I completely forgot to mention. I think I forgot to mention it because my life was crazy busy the three days leading up to vacation. Work required long nights on Wednesday and Thursday, getting us home at 10PM and then we had a party to go to on Friday night. We didn't get a chance to pack our bags until the morning we were taking off and it's been a whirlwind. It will take me days to catch up and the fact that I'm going away again tomorrow certainly isn't going to help. So here's a recap of the past week and the travel stories will come shortly . . .

#247

 

Karlo is preparing for next winter and dropped a dozen trees for future free firewood.

  

#248

 

Most of these photos deserve a blog posting of there own, but in the interest of time I'll just use expanded captions. . . on this day I found this adorable little glass chicken in my mailbox. What a surprise THAT was. My friend Lisa not only saw it and thought of me, but she bought it and mailed it to me to boot. Unreal. By far the biggest bright spot of my day. Her name is Ginger and I want to take her everywhere I go. Chickens always bring a smile to my face :-) THANK YOU LISA!!!!

#249

  

One of the reasons we got home late this night. Karlo and I entertained some out of town colleagues. We went out for a very long dinner at the Wood N Tap and it was lots of fun. 

#250

  

The second reason we got home late . . . we had another Open House event at work and here's Karlo sitting on one of the OCC bikes. This is a dragon bike and believe me, it's very dangerous. I nearly sliced my leg getting off of it. I guess that's why there were red ropes around it to keep you away from it. Ooops. Maybe I shouldn't be showing this picture to the world!

#251

  

Sorry for the horrific photo. My phone camera is not so great indoors. This is Tina and her husband Michael at the dinner party we attended on Friday. It's been about a dozen years overdue for a night out together and I really enjoyed it.

#252

  

Now were are in North Conway, NH and our first vacation event was riding the train. It was a hoot.

#253

  

Today was September 11th and I wanted my photo of the day to reflect the memory.