Jay Peak & Smuggler's Notch, Vol. 2

Jay Peak & Smuggler's Notch, Vol. 1

Will, serving up a bit of a combo in the glades of Jay Peak this past weekend.

God Damn It, Hair

The bathtub had been running slow lately, so tonight, at the wonderful hour of 2:30a, I decided to take apart the drain to see what I could do about it. What I found was a fist-sized wet clump of hair. What. The. F-ck. I'm sure it was just a few more hairs away from sentience. I wish I took a picture, but you're going to have to use your imagination to picture a soaking wet, fist-sized, 6-oz. micro-Medusa. I threw that thing away as quickly as I could.

It reminded me of EXTE, a Japanese horror film I watched a few years ago about a sentient mass of midnight-black hair and, in typical Japanese fashion, an old, creepy, pervy guy with a hair fetish. I didn't think much of it then, but now, after this experience... goddamn.

Keys

This is the wad of keys that I walk around with every day. Two short of two dozen.

Another Birthday...

...another year, and ANOTHER CAMERA!

So, Jack got me a new camera (Canon S90) last month, and I haven't been able to put it down since! It's a point-and-shoot with amazing picture quality, and loads of features! It's a lot of fun to fiddle around with in the Manual mode, and it's allowing me to learn more about photography than I ever have since my Junior High Photography class! I love playing with the shutter speed, the aperture, the ISO, lens sensitivity settings, etc; and I love the pictures that it takes! Best of all, it makes me feel like a pro!

Face-Centered Cubic, East New York, Brooklyn

A Wall, East New York, Brooklyn

Dirty Car Whoring, or Dirty Whore Car-ing.

Now that all the road trip stuff is out of the way, I want to say two things:
1. Happy New Year. My resolution is to speak mediocre French in two years.
2. I am absolutely fascinated with my dirty car. Here is some dirty car whoring.

Now, most of this stuff is road salt and sand that is spread on roads to increase traction (especially prevalent north of Montreal and in New Hampshire.) However, this stuff is pretty horrendous for your car, and, barring some unnatural fascination with dirt, should be cleaned from your car immediately. I am stupid, so I don't.

(Not) On the Road (Anymore), Day 7

Today was supposed to be another riding day, and we got tickets to Smuggler's Notch, but a few things happened to prevent us from riding. A road to Smuggler's Notch, VT was closed because of some emergency service activity. We were turned around and tried to access Smuggler's Notch from VT Route 100 (the path of shred), but it turns out that after Mt. Mansfield, the mountain pass is closed. So we tried our luck at Stowe. Lift tickets were $89 for the day and $71 for half a day.

Let me say this: my addiction to snowboarding is pretty strong. I have never walked away from a ski area without riding before, but these lift ticket prices are so ridiculous that I just had to pass. $71 for four hours of sliding down a hill? Please. Though it does not seem this way, I do have SOME sense. It was a snow day, too. Damn you, Stowe.

So we poked around VT, checked out the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory and hightailed it home to Brooklyn.

Note: I really enjoy driving in the winter.

(Not) On the Road (Anymore), Day 6

Wood fires: I love them. Bretton Woods, where we spent our last day snowboarding on this trip, has a wood fire pit and several cords of wood sitting near the entrance to the resort. The aroma permeates the base area to the parking lot and is truly delicious. Bretton Woods sits right at the edge of the White Mountains and (I hear) that on a clear day, affords a great view of Mount Washington, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. Tiger Uppercut. (Un?)Fortunately, it was snowing so our view of the mountains was all but blocked.

ADD kicking in here: These are the mountains that we passed through on this trip: Catskill Mountains, NY; Adirondack Mountains, NY; Laurentian Mountains, QC, Canada; White Mountains, NH; Mahoosuc Mountains, ME; Green Mountains, VT; and the Hudson Highlands, NY. Most of these are a part of the Appalachian Mountain Range with the exception of the Adirondacks and the Laurentians.

And at night, onwards towards Burlington, VT.

(Not) On the Road (Anymore), Day 5

Yeah, that is me, in the green. There aren't too many pictures for this day because the camera battery died and we hadn't packed the spare. But, we spent the day at Sunday River, in Maine. I don't have anything special to say about it except that it is a pretty big ski area. Girlfriend drove today, and it was snowing like the dickens. I'm not afraid of sliding a car off the road (I've done it quite a few times [all in preparation for that Alcan 5000]), but when people freak out, it freaks me out. Nevertheless, it was an uneventful drive.

Happy New Year.

(Not) On the Road (Anymore), Day 4

Wednesday (the 30th of December) was kind of our off day. I had to get up at the crack of dawn to move the car in sub-zero temps, and I couldn't get to sleep after that because I was so cold. After the girl woke up, we popped over to the le quartier chinois for a dim sum breakfast. And then, we hit the road.

As an aside, I wanted to remark that it is surprisingly difficult to get a free internet connection when you're traveling. (Hence the infrequent and delayed updates.) Or maybe I just haven't the resourcefulness.