![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greatbearMy recent disappearance in these cyber parts was mainly due to me and Jeff taking a much-needed vacation. Per usual, we headed up to Provincetown for a little over a week's worth of rest, fun, sun, friends, eye candy and way too much good food. Arriving the Thursday afternoon prior to Bear Week, the two of us, along with the two pooches, set up our little campsite in the same location as last year. We immediately went out to our favorite carry-out eating spots and put together our meal after all the driving. It was an "official" start to our big vacation of the year. While not as long as last year (we took two weeks worth then), it was still plenty of time to enjoy ourselves. I always seem to say that we go to PTown "despite" Bear Week, a we don't bother signing up with any of the official goings-on put on by the Provincetown Bears, opting instead to do our own thing. We get to see our friends that normally live ten minutes or so from us but never see these days except in PTown, familiar faces from years before seem to be everywhere, and we get to meet interesting new people. No expectations, no stress (for the most part). Running into Armistead Maupin and John Waters on the streets, taking pictures with cast members of "Where the Bears Are", talking with recording and DJ folks, parties with friends, it's a different sort of world for a week. I even managed to get my increasingly creaky old ass on the dance floor. And the food, well, let's say not a day went by that we weren't smiling about having a great meal. It's all good, much needed, and always welcome.
Our good friends from Connecticut, whom we sadly only get to see this one time a year, were once again at the campground, along with not one, but two of their potbellied pigs as travel companions. They brought fresh eggs for us from their farm, which made for wonderful breakfasts. Jeff's trio of buddies were at the other end of the campground again, we kept running into them here and there. Weather on the Cape was much more sane than the heat wave to our west. We went to so many of our favorite galleries and shops, dragging home art and souvenirs as well as a couple boxes of electronic gear I picked up from the church tag sale for way too cheap. It was a challenge to get everything into the truck to bring home. We managed fine, we just had to open the rear doors slowly to catch stuff falling out as it shifted in traveling.
While it might seem this was an idyllic trip free of snags, like all good things there were clouds among the silver linings. PTown had been experiencing some manner of rain practically every day since early June, this resulted in a bumper crop of mosquitoes that rivaled some tropical climates. Lounging outside at the campground was doable with repellants and sprays, but we didn't do too much to speak of. Even parts of downtown were plagued with the bloodthirsty beasts, but it was a small distraction to all the goodness abounding. All the aforementioned good food didn't take long to overwhelm the wreckage that constitutes my lower digestive tract. Some of our plans had to be shuffled or skipped as I dealt with far too many trips to the bathroom. The janky wireless internet access I was getting at the home base of Mobile Mayhem made keeping up with the outside world sketchy at best, and downright frustrating at times. The campground lies at the fringe of 3G mobile data coverage, and the reliability/availability of the connection made my early days of dialup internet seem like fiber optic broadband. As such, I lost out on meeting up with some LJers and Facebookers. Service was better downtown, of course, but I didn't bring the laptop with me, and I wasn't going to be one of the many cellphone zombies wandering around the streets not watching where they're going, or Instagramming their meals, or posting Twitter and FB updates every two minutes. I find it so much better to pry myself away from constant online access, instead enjoying the moments. Honestly, I don't have that many years left, so I am making the best of the time while I can.
I also discovered that, as time goes on, I am taking far fewer photos than I used to. Yes, I dragged four cameras with me, but the SLR stayed in the bag, the waterproof Pentax I brought along had its battery conk out at the beach where I hoped to take pics of the dogs frolicking in the sea, my little Canon compact accumulated less than two dozen shots, while my cell phone camera probably had to most use of all. Honestly, I have no idea what's going on there. My interest in photography has fallen way off in recent years. Still, I have a few good shots that will service as nice reminders of our time. I guess I need to focus (heh) on bringing my hobbies with me more often.
We ended up breaking camp and hauling our asses outta town the following Friday. Since traffic heading on and off the Cape is legendary for long lines on the weekends, we've discovered it best to leave early on weekdays instead. While there were still two good days of beary goodness to be had, we needed to get to Pennslovakia in order to rest up and unpack the trailer on Friday evening in order to take it in for repairs on Saturday morning. We couldn't get the work done on it before vacation as we hoped due to parts availability issues. Luckily the damage caused by the fire in March was not bad enough to keep us from using the trailer for vacation, it was mostly cosmetic. I hauled the trailer up to the RV shop on Saturday, not before running right into the start of a vintage tractor parade in the town of Gratz, where the shop is located. I had to shoot ahead of the parade using side alley streets, once ahead of the vintage machinery, I got back on the main town road lined with people waiting for the tractors. I guess we should've waved or something. Once that was taken care of, we visited Jeff's mom at the nursing home and headed home, We had a Sunday in Maryland to ourselves, working in the gardens and the yard plus running errands. This Monday, of course, was back to the grind. At least we had our fun and are better for it.
I didn't promise pictures, but here's one of us on the breakwater in PTown. Gadzooks, I am looking older by the day.
We are already making plans for next year.
Our good friends from Connecticut, whom we sadly only get to see this one time a year, were once again at the campground, along with not one, but two of their potbellied pigs as travel companions. They brought fresh eggs for us from their farm, which made for wonderful breakfasts. Jeff's trio of buddies were at the other end of the campground again, we kept running into them here and there. Weather on the Cape was much more sane than the heat wave to our west. We went to so many of our favorite galleries and shops, dragging home art and souvenirs as well as a couple boxes of electronic gear I picked up from the church tag sale for way too cheap. It was a challenge to get everything into the truck to bring home. We managed fine, we just had to open the rear doors slowly to catch stuff falling out as it shifted in traveling.
While it might seem this was an idyllic trip free of snags, like all good things there were clouds among the silver linings. PTown had been experiencing some manner of rain practically every day since early June, this resulted in a bumper crop of mosquitoes that rivaled some tropical climates. Lounging outside at the campground was doable with repellants and sprays, but we didn't do too much to speak of. Even parts of downtown were plagued with the bloodthirsty beasts, but it was a small distraction to all the goodness abounding. All the aforementioned good food didn't take long to overwhelm the wreckage that constitutes my lower digestive tract. Some of our plans had to be shuffled or skipped as I dealt with far too many trips to the bathroom. The janky wireless internet access I was getting at the home base of Mobile Mayhem made keeping up with the outside world sketchy at best, and downright frustrating at times. The campground lies at the fringe of 3G mobile data coverage, and the reliability/availability of the connection made my early days of dialup internet seem like fiber optic broadband. As such, I lost out on meeting up with some LJers and Facebookers. Service was better downtown, of course, but I didn't bring the laptop with me, and I wasn't going to be one of the many cellphone zombies wandering around the streets not watching where they're going, or Instagramming their meals, or posting Twitter and FB updates every two minutes. I find it so much better to pry myself away from constant online access, instead enjoying the moments. Honestly, I don't have that many years left, so I am making the best of the time while I can.
I also discovered that, as time goes on, I am taking far fewer photos than I used to. Yes, I dragged four cameras with me, but the SLR stayed in the bag, the waterproof Pentax I brought along had its battery conk out at the beach where I hoped to take pics of the dogs frolicking in the sea, my little Canon compact accumulated less than two dozen shots, while my cell phone camera probably had to most use of all. Honestly, I have no idea what's going on there. My interest in photography has fallen way off in recent years. Still, I have a few good shots that will service as nice reminders of our time. I guess I need to focus (heh) on bringing my hobbies with me more often.
We ended up breaking camp and hauling our asses outta town the following Friday. Since traffic heading on and off the Cape is legendary for long lines on the weekends, we've discovered it best to leave early on weekdays instead. While there were still two good days of beary goodness to be had, we needed to get to Pennslovakia in order to rest up and unpack the trailer on Friday evening in order to take it in for repairs on Saturday morning. We couldn't get the work done on it before vacation as we hoped due to parts availability issues. Luckily the damage caused by the fire in March was not bad enough to keep us from using the trailer for vacation, it was mostly cosmetic. I hauled the trailer up to the RV shop on Saturday, not before running right into the start of a vintage tractor parade in the town of Gratz, where the shop is located. I had to shoot ahead of the parade using side alley streets, once ahead of the vintage machinery, I got back on the main town road lined with people waiting for the tractors. I guess we should've waved or something. Once that was taken care of, we visited Jeff's mom at the nursing home and headed home, We had a Sunday in Maryland to ourselves, working in the gardens and the yard plus running errands. This Monday, of course, was back to the grind. At least we had our fun and are better for it.
I didn't promise pictures, but here's one of us on the breakwater in PTown. Gadzooks, I am looking older by the day.
We are already making plans for next year.
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 06:09 am (UTC)That's a lovely photo of the 4 of you!
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 09:54 am (UTC)Amusing the way Snickles is reaching out to Kodi - as if for a kiss!
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 10:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 11:31 am (UTC)PS, I'm mostly on FB now along with everyone else but rarely post anything of significance there but do still read my ever-shrinking friends' list here every day.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 01:27 pm (UTC)And a terrific picture of the both of you
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 03:26 pm (UTC)Great picture of you guys. Such a sexy couple!!!
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 03:27 pm (UTC);)
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 03:28 pm (UTC)I'm glad you had a good time. I might be able to survive Bear Week if I approached it like you did, but in general I dislike crowds and parties:) Camping in the trailer sounds like fun.
The last time I went to P-Town was at Halloween 1997 ... just the locals and me. Blissful!
no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 03:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 04:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-23 07:40 pm (UTC)Whenever Bear Week comes around, I'm always of two minds: I know several guys who go, prolly some I know but don't know that they're there, and so I've always sort of watched from the distance. Harry and I have friends in town who visit P-town every summer (not during bear week) and we had thought we'd overlap with them this summer, but that didn't happen. They often attend SpookyBear weekend. Harry and I both like the coast (we're heading to Maine and MA in August) but he's not keen on Bear Week, and I've been on the fence if I'd like it. Sometimes I think it's too much, but then again, each year it comes around I sort of feel like I'm missing out on something that's good. Or could be good, if you do it right.
What was the cast of "Where the Bears Are" like? That was something I would have liked to have done--to meet them. I get a kick out of the series.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-24 01:03 am (UTC)Glad you two had a great time, and I like your way of going at it, taking it in stride, and doing YOUR own thing.
Can't believe next week is the final week of July, then it'll be August!
Anywhoo, glad you two made it home, safe and sound.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-24 04:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-24 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-24 04:27 pm (UTC)I don't like crowds either, but I take control of it in PTown (since I can) and use it to a sort of advantage. I like to observe crowds from the sidelines, this place makes it perfect to do so. I can even immerse myself in a big group of people as long as I can get away once I've had enough. It also helps that the crowds there bear (heh) a lot of eye candy, not to mention the general friendliness of people as a whole.
Halloween is now a big thing in PTown, thanks to Spooky Bear weekend. We might try to get there someday soon. I keep hearing great things about it.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-28 03:35 am (UTC)"My interest in photography has fallen way off in recent years. " - same here. I do have photographic projects, but I realised documenting everything - as everyone is wont nowadays (did you see that statistic that something like 10% of the total photographs ever taken where in the last 12 months? Scary!) was getting in the way of enjoying things. People would invite me to things expecting me to bring a camera, seemed like work, and hated being used like that...
Also going through the pictures over the last year, inc scanning older ones made me realise that my photographic archive, which is something like 8,000 digital and 10,000+ chemical - is a real millstone. More emotionally than physically...tears my heart to see John age 10 years in 2, for instance. And old/long gone friends. Not sure I need to store these memories like that, they weigh me down.