Big Apple Blog

A few weeks ago we took this great bike camping trip to Taconic State Park. It was “faux” camping in the sense that we stayed in a cabin in the state park, but the beds were uncomfortable so it sure felt like camping. This great organization, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, turns old rail road tracks into pathways that are closed to motor vehicle traffic. Totally quiet, safe, and smooth. We took the Metro North Railroad all the way to the end and there lies the start of the rail trail. The first 12 miles of the ride is rail trail . . .

The next 12 miles are quiet country roads that are a far cry from the streets and avenues of the Big Apple . . .

Taconic State Park has lots of cabins . . .

And a swimming hole that resulted from an old iron ore quarry. I fished for the first time since I cannot remember when and caught a small trout. Ariel came up blank but we had a great time just chillin’. Nothing like reading a big city fashion magazine while trying to hook one . . .

We went with our good friends Blue and Anna. Blue documented the trip on the Crazy Guy on a Bike Web site.

There is this cool waterfall, Bash Bish, that is just over the border from New York in Massachusetts.

Most of the time we sat around, drank beer, and took in nature. The dude in the middle is Dave, who runs the Deli in the park and hooked us up with almost all of our meals.

And Dave has this cat who is the spitting image of our old cat Goma, just a slightly different color.

Good times. If you have a bike, take it out and let it breath in a bit of nature this summer!

A couple weeks back we took a swing south and hit Philadelphia and Atlantic City. We have some friends just outside of Philly that we stayed with for a few days. Our friends possess these young humans I hear so much about. They are small, but they pack a punch. One young gentleman possesses the ability to fire off about 100 questions per minute. It made me feel both powerful and inept at the same time. We hit some of the major sites like the Liberty Bell . . .

We piled in the car to reduce our carbon footprint . . .

Mini-golf was a kick in the pants, even though I got beat by a 10 year old . . .

What is a trip to Philly without visiting the Rocky statue?

Only one picture of Atlantic City, and not even a good one. The Boardwalk is really the only thing close to a highlight. The town is pretty depressing if you ask me. It’s shame actually because it seems to have a lot of potential being on the beach and all. I think I would only visit again if all expenses were paid, a free massage was included, and there was a bicycle convention of some sort.

Without this man, I would not have embarked on the career I have today. In 1995 one Mr. Jeff Rickey hired me for my first job in higher education. Thirteen years later I have to say that I would not be where I am today (pretty much my dream job) with him. Thanks Jeff! Jeff came though town on a recruiting trip for his current school, Earlham College, and Ariel and I got to have a great dinner with Jeff. You’re the best man!

Unfortunately this is not a fake photo. It comes from CNN (full story here). Just a reminder to be careful out there . . .

One fun thing we did back in April was attend the Gen Art Film Festival in NYC. The organization promotes directors you have never heard of. I know I am getting old because Hollywood movies are of less and less interest to me. Studios don’t seem to have any new material so they dredge up old movies and redo them or spin off poorly made sequels for the most part.

If you are interested in possibly checking out some of the films you can peruse their web site. Our favorite film by far was called Night Life. It was a mockumentary about vampire hunters. The hunters are a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons geeks who go on a quest of find vampires, and the vampires are not glamorous, they just lead ordinary lives like the rest of us. It was super funny and very entertaining. The movie came about when a bunch of friends drinking beers talked about the concept and then brought it to fruition over a number of years. The trailer does not really do it justice but here you go.

3487?pg=embed&sec=813487″>Nightlife Trailer from Tim Sanderson on Vimeo.

Gen Art operates all over the U.S. so check them out. Another cool thing was that they had sponsors, such as Stella Artois, and you could drink all the beer you wanted. I just had to be careful not to indulge too much because I did not want to keep running to the bathroom.

I was also happy that we did not sit directly behind this couple . . . but I just had to take a picture.

If you missed Cai Guo-Qiang’s show at the Guggenheim it really sucks for you. It was an awesome show with a lot of different media that was visually spectacular. I particularly loved his technique of incorporating gun power into his paintings and then lighting the powder on fire to finish off the pieces – super dope idea for sure.

The centerpiece of his exhibit was an exploding car that catapults up the center of the museum. A picture does not really do it justice but here you go . . .

I also ran into this shaky video someone posted on Youtube.

One piece featured hundreds of wolves that were running into a clear glass wall. This picture does not really do it justice, but the ones on this page do.

Unfortunately the show just ended but if you ever have the chance to see any of his works, you should definitely check them out.