Notes 📍

Today I am finally feeling recovered from my Pennsylvania trip. Another hot, humid sunny day, though the weatherman is warning that soon enough it will turn to severe thunderstorms. But I think it’s probably the best day to go down to Corning to explore and check out some of the preserves. Mom keeps insisting I should go to Corning Museum of Glass, but I didn’t go on vacation to spend it inside a building even if it turns out to be rain.

Yesterday was just a terribly lazy day, recovering from my Pennsylvania trip. 🥱 Just a lot of things have been on my mind since going down to PA, the dirt and smells, how truly dark and nasty the smoke from people burning garbage was down there. I guess after all those years of the burn ban in New York I forgot what it meant to live out in the country in burn your household garbage – everything from junk TV remotes and old underwear to hay netwrap, milk jugs, wet paper, old CDs, Styrofoam egg cartons, egg shells and banana peels. Stuff city people stuff in the same plastic bags, the garbage truck pulverizes and gets hauled to the growing mound on the outskirts of the city, often farther and farther into the hinder lands where people protest less. 🔥 But burning that shit in smoldering barrels is still considered acceptable practice in PA.  I mean I burn most of my packaging up in woods, but usually I seperate out the organics, don’t have a lot of electronic waste, and I burn it hot to start campfires.

The mountains just get bigger as you leave the Finger Lakes, especially as you head farther south and west. ⛰️ Though ultimately they do end up at the about the same height. Much like the hills in much of New York outside of Adirondacks and Catskills. But it’s a very different feel. I did enjoy going to Pennsylvania, driving around with my windows rolled in my F-350, taking in all that country air. 💩 🛢️ The Pine Creek Gorge is just a memory and photos now. I’ll get back, indeed I am planning a night or two stop over in the Allegheny National Forest come November on my way down to Ohio and West Virigina in essentially three months form now. ⛽ Hope though gas prices will come down before then, as I am a bit horrified every time I gas up the SuperDuty though really compared to my lifted Silverado, the fuel economy isn’t that much different, and the large displacement engine and good brakes is so much better descending the mountains.

Yesterday I got up remarkably early, was aching, smoked some dope, finished up some work outstanding from Tuesday, and then decided I needed another nap to process all I saw in Pennsylvania. 😴 Ultimately though after lunch I went to Enflied Glen and spent 5 or so hours on the beach in the swimming area, just laying and listening to an audio book about the Citibank building engineering disaster, actually finding the 66 degree water to not be too cold but quite refreshing. 🏊‍♂️ Yesterday was surrpringly warm and humid, by evening when I drove back to camp it was so smokey that I was wondering if I was driving into a rain shower. Just wildfire smoke ahead of the front expected to bring thunderstorms this afternoon. I thought by mid-day after a good lunch, I would be clear headed and dope worn off, but I was sleepy and just out of it all day. Just processing those rundown farmsteads and those many trash fires I saw in Pennsylvania. I idolize that life, but those farms and homesteads are often dirty and pungent. The people are so poor too. I mean I live in a completely dirty and run down apartment – I need to plug the holes to the outdoors again in my walls before heating season comes in two and half months – but I admit I am doing quite well, overseeing a minor but important division for the State Assembly, doing all kinds of important date work. In Ithaca last night, there was a fire and police emergency of some sort blocking NY 13, and traffic was insane on the Main Street, and I struggled to find Walmart, almost twice stumbled into people walking in Walmart, had to make a tricky merge, and ended up getting overpriced ice again a really sketchy gas station. But I made it back to camp relatively early, laid back in the hammock before riding to bed pretty early. Too cloudy, and too tired to do much of anything yesterday.

Today’s goal is to leave for Corning around 9 AM. 🕒 I am going to need more gas for the SuperDuty today when I am down in Corning, that long trip to Pennsylvania plus the more ordinary vacation trips means the miles add up. ⛽ But at this point, if I fill the tank in Corning, odds are good I’ll be fine for a rest of vacation. Outside of getting some olive oil and maybe bananas and fruit this evening and more ice on Friday, expenses should be done for vacation. It’s kind of silly to think that way on vacation, as I make good money, and my vacation is far less expensive then most, but I know I am still stealing from my future, even if the smell of all that livestock and those kind of nasty burn barrels in Pennsylvania has me starting to question my dream of the future. 🔮 But I’ll never generate that amount of suburban trash, either to haul to landfill or send up in smoke like so many do in rural PA. And I question the poverty even if I dream of a simpler, closer to earth life with hogs and cattle, a burn barrel and an off-grid cabin. I kind of like the smell of grain and even hay and cattle, but some of the manure shit can be pungent!

People say I should visit the Corning Museum of Glass when I am in Corning, but I didn’t really go on vacation to spend time inside or pay $30 bucks to look at a bunch of unburnable trash. 🥃 I am more leaning towards seeing the downtown on my mountain bike and then doing some hiking in the Erwin WMA and any other nature preserves or state forests down there that strike my fancy. When the weather turns foul this evening, I’ll probably pull off the road, hide in the SuperDuty until the worse passes, then head back to Watkins Glen. The Watkins Glen library is open until 7 PM tonight, so that’s a good chance to get caught up on any work there is, upload photos. Get ice cream once again on Glen Dairy Bar 🍦 – only three more nights exist on vacation – maybe ride or walk along Rock Cabin Road and Catharine Creek Marsh – come back and have a good campfire. 🔥 Both because i expect a rather cool and damp evening after the thunderstorm, and speaking of garbage, I’ve accumulated a lot since my last fire on Sunday, and some of it is the wet organic stuff that kept things from fully burning in he last fire. Have a good supply of wood and lighter fluid, so hopefully this fire will send it all up into smoke.

So yeah, it’s been a week in the woods. 🌳 🌲 A week ago on Thursday Ieft Albany a little after 8 AM to visit the Video Lottery, I mean Video Teller Machine to get my small domination bills, bacon and fuel before driving out to the Finger Lakes in the rain. And it’s been a pretty good week weather wise, despite the alarmist forecasts.🌧️ It’s been kind of a laid back week, not a lot done, fewer adventures then years past, though I often compare one summer compared to 15 years of cumulative adventures. Not Michigan but good to get away for 11 days,. And it’s been pretty easy. Well, it’s time to head off to Corning.