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Bear stuffs
Jul. 8th, 2013 12:39 pmHere's a silly little video just in time for Bear Week in Provincetown next week, from local artist Tom Goss.
Who else is heading to PTown?
Who else is heading to PTown?
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And, we're back!
Jul. 17th, 2011 12:55 amYou probably didn't take notice, but there has been an extended period of radio silence on this here bloggy-poo. The reason? Some much-needed vacation time. It was actually a two-parter, the July 4th weekend was spent up at Hillside for 4 days, a return home for us so Jeff could do some worky-worky stuff for a couple days, then a return to the road for a trip to Provincetown for Bear Week. I set the controls at the House and Garage of Mayhem on full auto, the antipersonnel laser vaporizing a trespasser (or it might have been the meter reader, I'll see what the electric company says) but apparently missing the sly groundhog that took liberties (and big bites) with some of the garden veggies.
The Hillside trip was nice. We had on board with us a couple friends, one we knew for years on and offline (former LJer Aaron/"fredneckteddy") and a buddy of Jeff's all the way from North Carolina, Tony, whom Jeff had been conversing online for a very long time and met in person for the first time upon picking him up at the train station on Wednesday. A good time was had by all, lots of good food was cooked and eaten, and, as is apparently an unwritten law for Hillside camping, at least part of the time spent there had us rained on. Tony, being a Hillside "virgin", had a lot of fun despite being at times overwhelmed by, well, the people and things going on there. Hell, he's ate it all up and had a blast. Aaron was last at Hillside maybe 8 years prior, and had no trouble adjusting (yeah, that's what I'll call it for now, "adjusting"). Once the extended weekend was over, I towed our 26 ft home back to its summer parking spot at Jeff's parent's place, leaving it connected to the truck and driving home in the car that we also brought up. This allowed us a substantial fuel savings, and the convenience of having the rig all ready to go again in three days.
We headed up to PTown at the crack of dawn on Thursday, arriving about mid-afternoon. After setting up and a bit of a break, we headed into town. Of course, our first stops are at Mojo's for a big cup of Cape Iced tea, and a stop at the Portuguese Bakery. Any familiar faces or "bears" had yet to make any sort of mass appearance since the bear week event did not officially start until Saturday. We were treated to lots of muscled Chelsea Boy types among other homosexual subspecies. Once the official start of Bear Week approached and passed, the eye candy quotient went into orbit. Jeff and I were quite content with finding outdoor seating at restaurants, shops and the town square and watching the parade of hair humans, many quite familiar from years past. Several of our well-known friends popped up in all the usual places once again, and I got to meet quite a few LJ peeps for the first time, more so than in previous years. There were apparently some missed opportunities as well as outright ignoring by a few people, a major (though not entirely unexpected) disappointment,
Our extended week had us doing our traditional whale watch boat trip, typical shopping sprees and general lolling about town, not to mention eating some of the most awesomest food around every day. We took Kodi with us into town every day, where he soaked in rockstar-like popularity heaped on him by dozens of people at a time. It didn't help that, in addition to his adorable doggy-ness, he would ride in Jeff's bicycle basket through town or carried in a over-the-shoulder sling pouch, both of these carriers designed specifically for pooch perambulating. In addition to the miles of walking, toting and riding, Kodi managed over 1200 miles of puke-free riding from Mayhem Acres all the way to PTown and back. It's like he knows it's vacation time, and relaxes immediately. If this could only be the case with every road trip! It was Kodi's first trip to the beach, where he eventually had a blast dog-paddling in the water once getting used to it.
This year, our vacation accompanies a big change in both of us, as we are officially two middle-aged men with major medical conditions. Jeff was not able to ride nearly as far on his bike as in years past, and I still fumbled my way around a bit while walking. Despite this, we both did remarkably well IMO, with Jeff taking the little rides in stride and I didn't end up falling down once. We even managed to take part in the now-standard-feature-of-Bear-Week, Blowoff. This was short lived, as the dance floor at the Boat Slip Resort resembled a sauna, with the heat and humidity oppressive to say the least. The next day Jeff was hit with a case of "kennel cough" and I still have a case of intermittent sniffles. We are either way too old for this sort of thing, or someone has to provide several thousand more cfm of ventilation to that place.
There's much more, but, sad, to say, all good things have to come to an end, after an 11-hour trip off the Cape and back to the trailer's summer parking spot, a night's sleep, then the additional 2.5 hour trip home this afternoon, our vacation for 2011 officially ended. While sad, and seemingly awfully short, we packed a lot into the time we had, and were glad to arrive home in one piece, bettered by our time spent up north. We are already making plans for next year.
More (possibly) to come...
The Hillside trip was nice. We had on board with us a couple friends, one we knew for years on and offline (former LJer Aaron/"fredneckteddy") and a buddy of Jeff's all the way from North Carolina, Tony, whom Jeff had been conversing online for a very long time and met in person for the first time upon picking him up at the train station on Wednesday. A good time was had by all, lots of good food was cooked and eaten, and, as is apparently an unwritten law for Hillside camping, at least part of the time spent there had us rained on. Tony, being a Hillside "virgin", had a lot of fun despite being at times overwhelmed by, well, the people and things going on there. Hell, he's ate it all up and had a blast. Aaron was last at Hillside maybe 8 years prior, and had no trouble adjusting (yeah, that's what I'll call it for now, "adjusting"). Once the extended weekend was over, I towed our 26 ft home back to its summer parking spot at Jeff's parent's place, leaving it connected to the truck and driving home in the car that we also brought up. This allowed us a substantial fuel savings, and the convenience of having the rig all ready to go again in three days.
We headed up to PTown at the crack of dawn on Thursday, arriving about mid-afternoon. After setting up and a bit of a break, we headed into town. Of course, our first stops are at Mojo's for a big cup of Cape Iced tea, and a stop at the Portuguese Bakery. Any familiar faces or "bears" had yet to make any sort of mass appearance since the bear week event did not officially start until Saturday. We were treated to lots of muscled Chelsea Boy types among other homosexual subspecies. Once the official start of Bear Week approached and passed, the eye candy quotient went into orbit. Jeff and I were quite content with finding outdoor seating at restaurants, shops and the town square and watching the parade of hair humans, many quite familiar from years past. Several of our well-known friends popped up in all the usual places once again, and I got to meet quite a few LJ peeps for the first time, more so than in previous years. There were apparently some missed opportunities as well as outright ignoring by a few people, a major (though not entirely unexpected) disappointment,
Our extended week had us doing our traditional whale watch boat trip, typical shopping sprees and general lolling about town, not to mention eating some of the most awesomest food around every day. We took Kodi with us into town every day, where he soaked in rockstar-like popularity heaped on him by dozens of people at a time. It didn't help that, in addition to his adorable doggy-ness, he would ride in Jeff's bicycle basket through town or carried in a over-the-shoulder sling pouch, both of these carriers designed specifically for pooch perambulating. In addition to the miles of walking, toting and riding, Kodi managed over 1200 miles of puke-free riding from Mayhem Acres all the way to PTown and back. It's like he knows it's vacation time, and relaxes immediately. If this could only be the case with every road trip! It was Kodi's first trip to the beach, where he eventually had a blast dog-paddling in the water once getting used to it.
This year, our vacation accompanies a big change in both of us, as we are officially two middle-aged men with major medical conditions. Jeff was not able to ride nearly as far on his bike as in years past, and I still fumbled my way around a bit while walking. Despite this, we both did remarkably well IMO, with Jeff taking the little rides in stride and I didn't end up falling down once. We even managed to take part in the now-standard-feature-of-Bear-Week, Blowoff. This was short lived, as the dance floor at the Boat Slip Resort resembled a sauna, with the heat and humidity oppressive to say the least. The next day Jeff was hit with a case of "kennel cough" and I still have a case of intermittent sniffles. We are either way too old for this sort of thing, or someone has to provide several thousand more cfm of ventilation to that place.
There's much more, but, sad, to say, all good things have to come to an end, after an 11-hour trip off the Cape and back to the trailer's summer parking spot, a night's sleep, then the additional 2.5 hour trip home this afternoon, our vacation for 2011 officially ended. While sad, and seemingly awfully short, we packed a lot into the time we had, and were glad to arrive home in one piece, bettered by our time spent up north. We are already making plans for next year.
More (possibly) to come...
Tags:
Upcoming vacation
Jan. 28th, 2008 09:53 pmI feel like Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane excitedly giggling out "G-g-g-good news!". Today I received the confirmation letter for a campsite reservation at P-Town. Houston, we have vacation!
Last year we managed to snag the last space at Coastal Acres. This time out we have a slightly better space. It's during Bear Week again, but unlike last year, this time we wont be signing up for any bear stuff, if there is anything going on, we can do it on a case-by-case basis. Why Bear Week? Mainly because it's when some of our friends are guaranteed to be there, and unlike last year, I hope to catch up with so many of the LJers thatmanaged to avoid me I sadly missed last time.
It's nice having something to look forward to.
Last year we managed to snag the last space at Coastal Acres. This time out we have a slightly better space. It's during Bear Week again, but unlike last year, this time we wont be signing up for any bear stuff, if there is anything going on, we can do it on a case-by-case basis. Why Bear Week? Mainly because it's when some of our friends are guaranteed to be there, and unlike last year, I hope to catch up with so many of the LJers that
It's nice having something to look forward to.
P-Town wrapup
Jul. 15th, 2007 09:58 pmJeff and I (and Kodi) are finally back home from our first real vacation in years. It was fantastic in every sense of the word, with only a couple rocky spots. Since it's late and I am still in the process of getting ready for the return to drudgery this week, I will make do with highlights for now, with multimedia to come later.
Thursday afternoon we headed forst to PA, and Jeff's parent's place. They were to be Kodi's puppysitters for the week. It's also a convenient, bit more than halfway-point to Hillside. We spent the night there, camping in their driveway. It was more fun than it sounds.
Friday morning we made our way up to Hillside. Our good friends, Dave and Will, would be our esteemed houseguests for the weekend. They also brought along "Junior", their 10-month old Pomeranian. Yes, we had a surrogate Kodi for the weekend. We spent the weekend mostly around the campsite, walking around and relaxing. We spotted and socialized with new and old friends, as well as fellow LJers![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
climatebearnj, mondragon and showmeonthedoll. Definitely one of the better Hillside weekends, especially weather-wise.
Sunday morning we pulled up stakes and made our 9+ hour trek to P-Town. The weather for driving was great until we hit Massachusetts, where we were hit on and off with some serious rain. It did not slow us down much to speak of. Still, it was about 8pm that we hit Provincetown and Coastal Acres campgrounds. We checked in and headed over to our initially assigned spot. I mulled over how I was supposed to maneuver the big rig into the tight little spot when the man from the office showed up, replete in rain gear, to move us to a more accommodating spot. Seems he saw what we had brought for equipment and realized it was not gonna fit. So, from Site 2, we were directed onto Site 40T. I uncoupled and set up the trailer in the rain and hordes of mosquitoes and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Monday was spent riding around town, getting our bearings, sightseeing and relaxing. We discovered that our (cute) neighbors had with them their (you guessed it) Pomeranian. We had another surrogate Pom for the rest of our stay. This one was named "Precious" (cue Gollum quotes).
Tuesday was spent for the first half getting ready for my little LJ get-together. Fail. No one showed up, for various reasons, probably the last minute site move or difficulty in finding the place or whatever, we had lots of food for the rest of the week. After a while, we headed back to Commercial Street, where more bloggers and friends were spotted and/or socialized with, some items for the trailer purchased and fun was had.
Wednesday's highlight was whale-watching on the Dolphin Fleet boats. I've never done this before (nor has Jeff), and it was amazing. Humpback, Minke, Finback and other whales were cavorting, feeding, spouting and doing all those things that whales do, but all around the vessel, and up close. Lots of pictures and some video was taken, and we overstayed our journey because there was so much activity. Awesome. This is definitely on the must-do list of things when we return. To celebrate, we had our big seafood meals at the Lobster Pot, then hit the street some more for shopping, socializing, and looking at all the eye candy.
Thursday we walked the breakwater and beaches, took a dip in the water, did more exploring and whatnot. In the evening, we watched our buddy Troy Rusnack perform while we ate food and watched the bears go by. This was also the first event we attended which was part of the P-Town Bear Week run package we signed up for. Since many of the events were either in conflict with what we wanted to do, or we just were not interested in, we decided that next (and subsequent) years will be done without bothering with the run itself. We will pick and choose and pay the (very reasonable) admissions for the events we actually attend instead.
Friday was spent doing more of the same that we had been doing. It was our last day there, so we hit Bubala's for dinner, ending the day at the Crown and Anchor for their annual Fireman's Ball fundraiser event. It was a mob scene. We soon tired of the sardine-can feel and headed out into the courtyard where we found many of our friends doing the same thing. Maybe I am getting old, or possibly tired of the same old boom-tsss music and overpriced, overiced bar drinks and cramped quarters (even outside!) at the clubs. Still, the fun was had, our last day at P-Town a success and we got back to our site feeling like we had a great week.
Saturday was spent pulling up stakes and driving all the way back to Dornsife PA to Jeff's parental units and our homesick-for-us Kodi. With the stops put in for gas and food breaks, it was over 12 hours of driving. I guess in my zeal to get back 'home' and pushing the 18 year old truck beyond what it was designed for, I blew out second gear in the transmission (for the second time). I limped the trailer back to the parent's house (it was not far at this point), where we unpacked the food, leftovers, etc and called it a night. Kodi was incredibly glad to see us, as you might guess.
This morning I woke up, fiddled with the trans to make use of only first and third gears, packed up our goodies and things along with Kodi and headed home. No problems on the way. It was good to be safe at home, with a mostly successful vacation behind us.
Will we do it again? Youbetcha. Things that will be different? Do any of the 'events' piecemeal. Have any of the personal parties at a public venue/restaurant (if at all). Possibly skip Hillside, or just do the vacation in the off-season instead. And get a new truck.
Thursday afternoon we headed forst to PA, and Jeff's parent's place. They were to be Kodi's puppysitters for the week. It's also a convenient, bit more than halfway-point to Hillside. We spent the night there, camping in their driveway. It was more fun than it sounds.
Friday morning we made our way up to Hillside. Our good friends, Dave and Will, would be our esteemed houseguests for the weekend. They also brought along "Junior", their 10-month old Pomeranian. Yes, we had a surrogate Kodi for the weekend. We spent the weekend mostly around the campsite, walking around and relaxing. We spotted and socialized with new and old friends, as well as fellow LJers
climatebearnj, mondragon and showmeonthedoll. Definitely one of the better Hillside weekends, especially weather-wise.Sunday morning we pulled up stakes and made our 9+ hour trek to P-Town. The weather for driving was great until we hit Massachusetts, where we were hit on and off with some serious rain. It did not slow us down much to speak of. Still, it was about 8pm that we hit Provincetown and Coastal Acres campgrounds. We checked in and headed over to our initially assigned spot. I mulled over how I was supposed to maneuver the big rig into the tight little spot when the man from the office showed up, replete in rain gear, to move us to a more accommodating spot. Seems he saw what we had brought for equipment and realized it was not gonna fit. So, from Site 2, we were directed onto Site 40T. I uncoupled and set up the trailer in the rain and hordes of mosquitoes and then relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Monday was spent riding around town, getting our bearings, sightseeing and relaxing. We discovered that our (cute) neighbors had with them their (you guessed it) Pomeranian. We had another surrogate Pom for the rest of our stay. This one was named "Precious" (cue Gollum quotes).
Tuesday was spent for the first half getting ready for my little LJ get-together. Fail. No one showed up, for various reasons, probably the last minute site move or difficulty in finding the place or whatever, we had lots of food for the rest of the week. After a while, we headed back to Commercial Street, where more bloggers and friends were spotted and/or socialized with, some items for the trailer purchased and fun was had.
Wednesday's highlight was whale-watching on the Dolphin Fleet boats. I've never done this before (nor has Jeff), and it was amazing. Humpback, Minke, Finback and other whales were cavorting, feeding, spouting and doing all those things that whales do, but all around the vessel, and up close. Lots of pictures and some video was taken, and we overstayed our journey because there was so much activity. Awesome. This is definitely on the must-do list of things when we return. To celebrate, we had our big seafood meals at the Lobster Pot, then hit the street some more for shopping, socializing, and looking at all the eye candy.
Thursday we walked the breakwater and beaches, took a dip in the water, did more exploring and whatnot. In the evening, we watched our buddy Troy Rusnack perform while we ate food and watched the bears go by. This was also the first event we attended which was part of the P-Town Bear Week run package we signed up for. Since many of the events were either in conflict with what we wanted to do, or we just were not interested in, we decided that next (and subsequent) years will be done without bothering with the run itself. We will pick and choose and pay the (very reasonable) admissions for the events we actually attend instead.
Friday was spent doing more of the same that we had been doing. It was our last day there, so we hit Bubala's for dinner, ending the day at the Crown and Anchor for their annual Fireman's Ball fundraiser event. It was a mob scene. We soon tired of the sardine-can feel and headed out into the courtyard where we found many of our friends doing the same thing. Maybe I am getting old, or possibly tired of the same old boom-tsss music and overpriced, overiced bar drinks and cramped quarters (even outside!) at the clubs. Still, the fun was had, our last day at P-Town a success and we got back to our site feeling like we had a great week.
Saturday was spent pulling up stakes and driving all the way back to Dornsife PA to Jeff's parental units and our homesick-for-us Kodi. With the stops put in for gas and food breaks, it was over 12 hours of driving. I guess in my zeal to get back 'home' and pushing the 18 year old truck beyond what it was designed for, I blew out second gear in the transmission (for the second time). I limped the trailer back to the parent's house (it was not far at this point), where we unpacked the food, leftovers, etc and called it a night. Kodi was incredibly glad to see us, as you might guess.
This morning I woke up, fiddled with the trans to make use of only first and third gears, packed up our goodies and things along with Kodi and headed home. No problems on the way. It was good to be safe at home, with a mostly successful vacation behind us.
Will we do it again? Youbetcha. Things that will be different? Do any of the 'events' piecemeal. Have any of the personal parties at a public venue/restaurant (if at all). Possibly skip Hillside, or just do the vacation in the off-season instead. And get a new truck.
PTown bound
Jul. 5th, 2007 07:53 amIt wont be long till Jeff and I begin our trip north for our much needed time off. First couple days at Hillside, then up to Provincetown. There is fun for LJers to be had on the 10th, details here. If you would like to come, (and I hope you do!), let me know. My # is 443-812-6030, if you'd like to meet up anywhere, gimme a call. Hell, gimme a call anyway.
Hope to see yas!
Hope to see yas!
P-Town get-together
Jul. 2nd, 2007 11:10 pmAs many of you know (and I have been greatly anticipating), Me and Jeff will be in Provincetown for Bear Week, from July 8-14. Since it appears, via LJ postings, BearCiti calendars, BMB event listings, et al that a considerable number of people on my f-list will be in attendance along with quite a few others from the ol' LiveJournal, I thought it would be kinda cool to have a sort of get-together to share in all the blogging brotherhood and all that. To that end, Jeff and I are going to have a cookout on Tuesday the 10th, starting at noon. We'll provide the grub, you provide the camaraderie. Does that sound like fun, or what?
If you'd like to attend, leave a comment. Let me know if you'll be bringing guests/partners/friends along, so I have some idea of how much food and drink to have ready. We'll be holding the party at our campsite at Coastal Acres, site #2. C'mon! It'll be fun!
If you'd like to attend, leave a comment. Let me know if you'll be bringing guests/partners/friends along, so I have some idea of how much food and drink to have ready. We'll be holding the party at our campsite at Coastal Acres, site #2. C'mon! It'll be fun!
Weakened update
Jul. 1st, 2007 11:49 pmFirst off, I have to thank everyone who left notes of concern and encouragement in my last post. The past several days, leading up to and after the anniversary have been rough, no doubt about it. I lost my 'true' family in one fell swoop, and it's devastating. I've been trying to learn that 'family' can go beyond blood relatives. I have Jeff's extended family, most of whom welcome me as one of their own. I have a few close friends throughout the years as well. And I have my Livejournal friends. Many of you I have never met in person (though I want to, believe me). So many of you brighten my day via your posts in so many ways. To have you guys and gals send some kind words truly means a lot. I don't feel so alone.
Trying to fend off depressive feelings and be useful has been the order of the day for a while now. My upcoming vacation with Jeff to Provincetown next week has been a huge motivation. On Thursday I came home to find that the windshield fairies paid a visit to the house while I was at work and replaced busted windshields in the truck and the Mini. Granted, I have no idea of the glass installers' orientation, so maybe calling them fairies is a bit presumptive. The insurance company made it easy for me to have the glass replaced under the comprehensive policy, a few phone calls with some unusually pleasant and helpful people from the insurer as well as the installers made what could have been a bit of an ordeal a nice surprise, especially given my background mindset and preoccupations. I came home from work to find two shiny new windscreens. The MINI's glass was sandblasted badly, despite it's relatively young age. A hard hit finally started a crack, and it wasted no time creeping across the glass. The truck's glass had been busted (from top to bottom, and in several isolated places) for a while, and I figured I'd be better off replacing it before the trip to stave off any potential eager constabulary from writing me up an inspection/safety tickie. No, I dont want to have anything spoiling the trip.
More work on the truck involved installing a three gauge pod on the dash, fixing burned out and darkened bulbs in the instrument cluster, replacing the onboard charger, cleaning things up, and installing the Star Trek horns. The latter does make people stop and look around. To make the trip a bit more comfortable I replaced my old Activator II time-based trailer brake controller with a Tekonsha P3 proportional controller. No more feeling kicked in the ass every time I let off the brakes with a trailer attached. Should be a lot safer as well. For something as mundane as a brake controller, the thing comes with a GUI. Unreal.
Since P-Town is best navigated on foot or by bicycle, I pulled out our two bikes and gave them a much needed tuneup. Mine was having perpetually flat tires; the last trip to pick up inner tubes netted me ones with Presta valves rather than Shraders. Since I have no adaptors to make use of those, I needed to get the proper tubes. While assessing what needed to be done, I inflated what was already on the bike. Filled the back tire, everything looked good, only need a tube, no tire. The front was next. Tire flopping on the rim. Air it up for inspection, all's well. Get set to check it out and I am greeted with "fffffPOW!!" as the tire slips off the rim and the tube explodes from the tire. I drop what I am doing, head to the bike shop at Dick's and get three new tubes (one spare), two bells and a light set for Jeff's ride. Come home, clean up everything, replace the tubes, tune up and lubricate everything then hit the street for test rides. The good news is I can still hit about 30mph. The bad news is that it ain't for long, unlike my younger days. Ah, well, it's not like I'll be racing in Provincetown. Two shiny bikes for the week. As I put them away, I noticed a bulge beginning to show up on the front tire of Jeff's bike. I guess that will have to be taken care of too. fffffPOW!!
Been making use of the new laptop. I set it up along with the scanner in the trailer this afternoon just to be different and began scanning the few dozen photos that Jeff's mom gave me to digitize to load into the digital photo frame we got her for Mother's Day. I plan on getting a similar frame for myself to show the countless photos of Mom that I have.
My only worry regarding the trip is the tires on the trailer. I made the 'mistake' of googling the brand ("Mission") after noticing they are made in China. I did not find anything encouraging. Even though I had no issues with the tires, all I have read are horror stories of blowouts on tires that have little use. Then comes recent news of a big tire recall involving several off-brand tires made in China (though not these, differentvillage sweatshop manufacturer). Apparently, safety testing, quality control and integrity are lost on some people. This is what the cost of 'low prices always' brings us, along with governments being lobbied into allowing the various industries to regulate themselves. Le sigh.
If you made it this far, you probably missed the teal deer.
Look for an upcoming post regarding a LJ 'get-together' at P-Town. Details to follow, but it's looking like a Tuesday lunch bash at our place. Would love to see yas!
Trying to fend off depressive feelings and be useful has been the order of the day for a while now. My upcoming vacation with Jeff to Provincetown next week has been a huge motivation. On Thursday I came home to find that the windshield fairies paid a visit to the house while I was at work and replaced busted windshields in the truck and the Mini. Granted, I have no idea of the glass installers' orientation, so maybe calling them fairies is a bit presumptive. The insurance company made it easy for me to have the glass replaced under the comprehensive policy, a few phone calls with some unusually pleasant and helpful people from the insurer as well as the installers made what could have been a bit of an ordeal a nice surprise, especially given my background mindset and preoccupations. I came home from work to find two shiny new windscreens. The MINI's glass was sandblasted badly, despite it's relatively young age. A hard hit finally started a crack, and it wasted no time creeping across the glass. The truck's glass had been busted (from top to bottom, and in several isolated places) for a while, and I figured I'd be better off replacing it before the trip to stave off any potential eager constabulary from writing me up an inspection/safety tickie. No, I dont want to have anything spoiling the trip.
More work on the truck involved installing a three gauge pod on the dash, fixing burned out and darkened bulbs in the instrument cluster, replacing the onboard charger, cleaning things up, and installing the Star Trek horns. The latter does make people stop and look around. To make the trip a bit more comfortable I replaced my old Activator II time-based trailer brake controller with a Tekonsha P3 proportional controller. No more feeling kicked in the ass every time I let off the brakes with a trailer attached. Should be a lot safer as well. For something as mundane as a brake controller, the thing comes with a GUI. Unreal.
Since P-Town is best navigated on foot or by bicycle, I pulled out our two bikes and gave them a much needed tuneup. Mine was having perpetually flat tires; the last trip to pick up inner tubes netted me ones with Presta valves rather than Shraders. Since I have no adaptors to make use of those, I needed to get the proper tubes. While assessing what needed to be done, I inflated what was already on the bike. Filled the back tire, everything looked good, only need a tube, no tire. The front was next. Tire flopping on the rim. Air it up for inspection, all's well. Get set to check it out and I am greeted with "fffffPOW!!" as the tire slips off the rim and the tube explodes from the tire. I drop what I am doing, head to the bike shop at Dick's and get three new tubes (one spare), two bells and a light set for Jeff's ride. Come home, clean up everything, replace the tubes, tune up and lubricate everything then hit the street for test rides. The good news is I can still hit about 30mph. The bad news is that it ain't for long, unlike my younger days. Ah, well, it's not like I'll be racing in Provincetown. Two shiny bikes for the week. As I put them away, I noticed a bulge beginning to show up on the front tire of Jeff's bike. I guess that will have to be taken care of too. fffffPOW!!
Been making use of the new laptop. I set it up along with the scanner in the trailer this afternoon just to be different and began scanning the few dozen photos that Jeff's mom gave me to digitize to load into the digital photo frame we got her for Mother's Day. I plan on getting a similar frame for myself to show the countless photos of Mom that I have.
My only worry regarding the trip is the tires on the trailer. I made the 'mistake' of googling the brand ("Mission") after noticing they are made in China. I did not find anything encouraging. Even though I had no issues with the tires, all I have read are horror stories of blowouts on tires that have little use. Then comes recent news of a big tire recall involving several off-brand tires made in China (though not these, different
If you made it this far, you probably missed the teal deer.
Look for an upcoming post regarding a LJ 'get-together' at P-Town. Details to follow, but it's looking like a Tuesday lunch bash at our place. Would love to see yas!
Provincetown roll call
Jun. 4th, 2007 10:45 pmIt's becoming apparent that quite a few people on my friends list have been to and/or are planning to go this year to Provincetown for 'Bear Week', July 7-14. Jeff and I were set to go last year, but due certain (and much written about here) circumstances we had to opt out. This year, however, we'll be there, staying in our newly christened Party Trailer at Coastal Acres Camping Court. I am thinking about putting together some sort of Livejournal get-together one day that would like totally rock with awesomeness or something.
Who's gonna be there? If you are, and havent, like, stealth-defriended me or sumthin, let me know. Tell your friends! Your family! The Klingons!
Who's gonna be there? If you are, and havent, like, stealth-defriended me or sumthin, let me know. Tell your friends! Your family! The Klingons!
