Here they are. I didn't put up Kraiger or his kid... they never agreed to go on my blog in exchange for a ride to Secaucus.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Photos of Last Saturday
I've been so tardy on getting up the photos of last week's canoeing expedition! But I finally got a chance tonight, since I'm in a hotel in Vineland, New Jersey, and don't have any distractions. (More on that tomorrow.)
Here they are. I didn't put up Kraiger or his kid... they never agreed to go on my blog in exchange for a ride to Secaucus.
Here they are. I didn't put up Kraiger or his kid... they never agreed to go on my blog in exchange for a ride to Secaucus.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Faded Us
My former neighbor (Helen) and I went for a walk down the street last night to see how our old block was doing. We took her dog and greeted the old men hanging around outside the sneaker shop.
The sneaker shop has moved out of downtown.
"His business was all on the computer anyway," explained Larry, the sixty-some-year-old who'd lived in my former apartment when he was four. "So now we rent the store."
"We" was him and a gaggle of old men. Mostly Italian men, all from the neighborhood. There was a computer-printed sign taped to the curtained display window that had once held sneakers.
Members only.
"How does it work?" I asked.
"We each pay a hundred dollars a year. It's nice in there. We have a big TV and we can just hang out."
Cute. I'm pleased the guys have a hang-out. They used to hang out in front of the pizza shop and before that in front of the deli.
Helen and I walked around to our own block. We talked to some neighbors, who told us "facts" about our old building that were just theories we'd come up with when living there. "They didn't use primer the first time, they didn't paint it right."
"No," I explained. "That was our first thought but actually I have a photo of the building primed from 2002, before any of us moved in."
"Oh, well, they didn't use outdoor paint."
"No, that was one of our theories, but when we got it repainted, we made SURE it was the right paint. We later learned that cedar chips and you have to maintain it. Some people say you can use stain instead of paint."
They looked at us skeptically. Our theories from 2004 had become lore, fact on the block, our own conjectures passed back to us as certainties.
One of our neighbors thought Helen looked familiar but couldn't place her.
"We both lived right there," I explained, shocked.
And I realized.
The people on this block have been here for 60-70 years. We were just there for a few years each.
Forgotten already, just a couple single women passing through. The gossip we'd produced had become incorporated into the bible of the street, but our names and faces were already faded.
The sneaker shop has moved out of downtown.
"His business was all on the computer anyway," explained Larry, the sixty-some-year-old who'd lived in my former apartment when he was four. "So now we rent the store."
"We" was him and a gaggle of old men. Mostly Italian men, all from the neighborhood. There was a computer-printed sign taped to the curtained display window that had once held sneakers.
Members only.
"How does it work?" I asked.
"We each pay a hundred dollars a year. It's nice in there. We have a big TV and we can just hang out."
Cute. I'm pleased the guys have a hang-out. They used to hang out in front of the pizza shop and before that in front of the deli.
Helen and I walked around to our own block. We talked to some neighbors, who told us "facts" about our old building that were just theories we'd come up with when living there. "They didn't use primer the first time, they didn't paint it right."
"No," I explained. "That was our first thought but actually I have a photo of the building primed from 2002, before any of us moved in."
"Oh, well, they didn't use outdoor paint."
"No, that was one of our theories, but when we got it repainted, we made SURE it was the right paint. We later learned that cedar chips and you have to maintain it. Some people say you can use stain instead of paint."
They looked at us skeptically. Our theories from 2004 had become lore, fact on the block, our own conjectures passed back to us as certainties.
One of our neighbors thought Helen looked familiar but couldn't place her.
"We both lived right there," I explained, shocked.
And I realized.
The people on this block have been here for 60-70 years. We were just there for a few years each.
Forgotten already, just a couple single women passing through. The gossip we'd produced had become incorporated into the bible of the street, but our names and faces were already faded.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A Closer Look
Taking a closer look at our canoeing route here, we can see that it was a beautiful day to canoe the Meadowlands.
And here's how urban it is. This is right outside Manhattan. You can see not only the Empire State Building but also one of the spurs of the New Jersey Turnpike.
And here's how urban it is. This is right outside Manhattan. You can see not only the Empire State Building but also one of the spurs of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Local Tour
Goodness... I am starting to repeat my own adventures.
Okay, not starting. Long-time readers went across Southeast Asia two years running with me, then tolerated Cape Town to Kampala in both 2001 and 2005.
Last year, in June of 2008, I went canoeing in the Meadowlands. Helen, Roberta, Tom, and I went, and it was a fascinating way to spend the morning...
...before I boarded a plane to Vegas to go on a Grand Canyon rafting-camping trip.
The Meadowlands were a bit obscured by the week that followed.
I went canoeing again this year, on Saturday with Kraiger and his kid. I tried reclining in the middle of the canoe but the kid only lasted about 10 minutes before she wanted to swap places with me.
Turns out several people are fascinated by this excursion. The Meadowlands have a reputation of being filthy and polluted, of stinking and being an illegal dumping ground.
New Jersey isn't just home to crowds, the NJ Turnpike, and stinky oil refineries. It also has Pinelands, forests, beaches, and a piece of the Appalachian Trail. NJ suffers from an image problem. Why would the Meadowlands be any different than the rest of the state?
Since 1969, the Meadowlands Commission has been trying to control illegal dumping, preserve the wetlands, and restore the damaged parts. The area I was canoeing in, Mill Creek Marsh, was restored starting in 1996. I'm not sure when canoe tours started but there is a public launch. If you have your own canoe or kayak, you could row around for free.
I don't have a canoe, so I have to wait for the public summer tours. You can book them (or pontoon tours) here.*
We paid $15 a person, which included canoe rental, life vest, paddles, and a guide. We were rained out of our first-choice date in June.
We drove to the canoe launch in Secaucus, which is past Home Depot and on a dead-end road to the east of the Secaucus center. Kraiger's kid was fascinated by a dead fiddler crab on the launch, and then by a wild bunny. She followed the bunny until larger people came along and loudly scared the bunny away.
Rampant reeds called phragmites grow wild among the wetlands. There are channels through the phragmites, and we paddled through them, viewing egrets and herons.
We did not spot any elusive muskrats. We did spot a wild soccer ball and what appeared to be a redneck house, blasting loud music across a yard filled with a dirtbike, quad-bike, and assorted BBQ setups.
The sun was strong and after an hour of paddling, we were just getting tired when we headed back to the launch. Henry the Ford Taurus was waiting for us, with a container of fresh watermelon.
*If you can't get on the public tours, try renting a canoe or kayak here.
Okay, not starting. Long-time readers went across Southeast Asia two years running with me, then tolerated Cape Town to Kampala in both 2001 and 2005.
Last year, in June of 2008, I went canoeing in the Meadowlands. Helen, Roberta, Tom, and I went, and it was a fascinating way to spend the morning...
...before I boarded a plane to Vegas to go on a Grand Canyon rafting-camping trip.
The Meadowlands were a bit obscured by the week that followed.
I went canoeing again this year, on Saturday with Kraiger and his kid. I tried reclining in the middle of the canoe but the kid only lasted about 10 minutes before she wanted to swap places with me.
Turns out several people are fascinated by this excursion. The Meadowlands have a reputation of being filthy and polluted, of stinking and being an illegal dumping ground.
New Jersey isn't just home to crowds, the NJ Turnpike, and stinky oil refineries. It also has Pinelands, forests, beaches, and a piece of the Appalachian Trail. NJ suffers from an image problem. Why would the Meadowlands be any different than the rest of the state?
Since 1969, the Meadowlands Commission has been trying to control illegal dumping, preserve the wetlands, and restore the damaged parts. The area I was canoeing in, Mill Creek Marsh, was restored starting in 1996. I'm not sure when canoe tours started but there is a public launch. If you have your own canoe or kayak, you could row around for free.
I don't have a canoe, so I have to wait for the public summer tours. You can book them (or pontoon tours) here.*
We paid $15 a person, which included canoe rental, life vest, paddles, and a guide. We were rained out of our first-choice date in June.
We drove to the canoe launch in Secaucus, which is past Home Depot and on a dead-end road to the east of the Secaucus center. Kraiger's kid was fascinated by a dead fiddler crab on the launch, and then by a wild bunny. She followed the bunny until larger people came along and loudly scared the bunny away.
Rampant reeds called phragmites grow wild among the wetlands. There are channels through the phragmites, and we paddled through them, viewing egrets and herons.
We did not spot any elusive muskrats. We did spot a wild soccer ball and what appeared to be a redneck house, blasting loud music across a yard filled with a dirtbike, quad-bike, and assorted BBQ setups.
The sun was strong and after an hour of paddling, we were just getting tired when we headed back to the launch. Henry the Ford Taurus was waiting for us, with a container of fresh watermelon.
*If you can't get on the public tours, try renting a canoe or kayak here.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Urban Safari
I took this photo from a canoe in the Meadowlands this morning.
The tan sliver across the middle is the back of Mill Creek Mall on Route 3. The skyline just beyond includes the Empire State Building.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Contemplating the Future
"Once in a while you find yourself in an odd situation. You get into it by degrees and in the most natural way but, when you are right in the midst of it, you are suddenly astonished and ask yourself how in the world it all came about."
This is the opening passage from Kon-Tiki, Thor Heyerdahl's book about crossing the Pacific by raft. And I love it. The Talking Heads say this well too, of course, in Once in a Lifetime. But this is so much more apt as most odd situations don't seem so odd until you're in the thick of them. Opening theme parks in the desert near Iraq, for example, or fleeing an angry hippo by the Nile, or even something as innocuous as boarding a freighter for Australia.
I'm thinking about this a lot right now. 2011 is the ten-year anniversary of MariesWorldTour.com, when I went around the world for a year by public transportation. I've been determined to stay home. But I've been here almost two years now. The terrific malaise I suffered initially is completely gone now. The gulf of depression that opened up when the workaholic in mom jeans told me I had never mattered is a distant memory and symptom of his problems, not mine. I'm done. I spring back when touched, perfectly baked now and ready to take on the world.
Should I go backwards this time? I want to go to West Africa. Why stop there? I've been meaning to take on India again, wanting to stop a while in Bali, and I've been curious about Borneo and Madagascar. And there's that not-so-small matter of Brazil that needs checking out.
But I have a frequent flyer round-the-world ticket. How arbitrary would it be to take ships this time out when the plane is free? What would YOU do?
I wonder too, how long I'll have to plan before I have said it out loud so many times that I'm compelled to make the jump. Back. Back out there, into the marvelous, exhausting, inconvenient unknown.
"Please don't die," said a certain comic book writer. That's a factor too. I push it, I know. I don't feel that I do anything unusually crazy, but there is the occasional close call.
Let's rephrase the question. What would YOU do isn't quite how it should be asked.
What do YOU think I should do?
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Everyone Loves A Parade
I put together video of the Jersey City Bolivian parade so that everyone can enjoy it.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Duh
I do hope you will all forgive me for assuming someone was moving in today and had hired a moving van company with a rather odd name.
Every Day's A Party
The Andean music echoing through the streets should have been a tip-off, but I just learned that the festival happening on the streets of JC today is a parade for Bolivia! I didn't even know we had a Bolivian population here.
I'm grabbing my camera and will report back.
I'm grabbing my camera and will report back.