Fun and Games Dept

With on-call week behind me, the next adventure that is on the horizon is the “JPnEarl Great Jeep Tour 2006”. In less than two weeks, Earl and I will be on the road in our Jeep Wrangler, driving across the country and back within two weeks. Major stops along the way include Louisville, Ky., Phoenix, Az. and Deadwood, S.D.

I. Can’t. Wait.

I’ve been dreaming about this trip all my life. I’ve been salivating about it for the past six months. I think the idea of this upcoming trip allowed me the luxury of making it through another Upstate New York winter.

I have to be careful and try not to overdo with the plans; there’s a couple of spots we wanted to see that I think we’re going to hold off on and until another time. We’ll still hit most of the states that we originally planned on hitting, but I think it’s important that we kick back and take it at a reasonable pace, so I’ve cut back on a couple of the sidetrips.

I’m trying to be really good with my healthy ways for the next two weeks so I have room to fudge with my weight a little bit. Wait. Did I just say fudge? Fudge? Chocolate Fudge? Peanut Butter Fudge? Oh my gosh, I could eat my weight in fudge right now and go into sugar-induced bliss.

I’m sorry, where was I, oh yes, talking about how much I was looking forward to sticking to the healthy plan while we’re on vacation.

This week we’re figuring out the layout of the Jeep; Earl’s regulations for carry-ons rival those of the airlines and the flight attendant has been replaced by a portable cooler. At least the passenger seat can recline all the way back.

The countdown is on. I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Trail Bridge.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

A few years ago Earl and I began a tradition for our Easter celebration. Every Easter we have our first picnic of the season, regardless of the weather. In Upstate New York the weather could vary wildly; there could be three feet of snow on the ground or it could be 80 degrees. One never knows.

Normally we go to a state park for our picnic, but this year I was on call, so that meant staying within 20 minutes of the house. Luckily, we live a stone’s throw from the famous Erie Canal, which has a recreational trail that runs the length of it. This trail will eventually go from Albany to Buffalo. From what I understand, it’s about 3/4 of the way complete. The portion near our house is relatively new.

So we took a nice walk along the trail, clocking in at around four miles. There were a few people out on the trail as well, mostly fishermen and a couple of families getting some fresh air.

After our little walk, we settled down to the small park at one of the canal locks. It’s a beautiful park, maintained entirely by volunteers. It’s very well kept. While there, we had our traditional ham and mustard sandwiches and assorted picnic salads. For dessert, Earl had cut up some fresh strawberries.

I guess I realized you don’t have to travel a long way from home to have a good time. Sometimes there’s good things right in your own backyard.

Earl and I ventured up to my dad’s house for a family gathering this evening. We hadn’t seen my dad or his girlfriend since the beginning of February, so it was good to get together and catch up on family news and such. We were joined by my aunt and her husband, as well as my sister, her boyfriend and his son who is going to be two this week.

All in all it was a good time. Karen made some great little appetizers and chili for dinner. I guess she grew up eating chili over rice, which I had never heard of, so we did the same. It was delicious. It made that extra hard workout at the gym earlier today all worthwhile.

We caught up on family travels and adventures; it seems traveling comes naturally to me. We need to do this more often.

A little Saturday morning fun. Click on the big “play” button to watch the little movie.

Still recovering from last night’s iPod earphone debacle, I jacked into the gym’s entertainment system for my 60 minutes on the spazzmaster machine. You know, there’s not much on television on a Friday night. Then I discovered a show that I really enjoy.

“The Ghost Whisperer”.

At first I thought this show was a knock-off of the very popular “Medium” on NBC, sort of like “I Dream of Jeannie” was a knock-off of the very popular “Bewitched” back in the day. But there appeared to be little else appealing so I thought I’d give it a try.

I love this show! First off, Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character as woman who sees dead people is believable. I wasn’t expecting that. Secondly, Vanessa Lengies, who played Roxanne on “American Dreams”, was guesting starring and I’ve always enjoyed her performances. Thirdly, Vanessa’s character’s father was played by ever present guest star Daniel Roebuck and he always gives a good spin on whatever character he’s playing whether it’s as a lawyer on Judging Amy, a doctor on Lost or Cody Bank’s father.

I really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this show, but watching “The Ghost Whisperer” tonight made the 60 minutes on the spazzmaster fly right by. Unfortunately, it was followed by the crappy “Close To Home”, which I refuse to watch since it knocked “Judging Amy” off the air last fall, tanked horribly and moved to Friday nights where it has enjoyed moderate success. I must admit I tried to watch the first few minutes of “Close To Home” but I found that it didn’t grab my interest at all (my bitterness about the cancellation of “Judging Amy” still lingers), so I opted to watch “America’s Funniest Videos” instead. That should tell you how much I didn’t enjoy “Close To Home”.

Looks like I’m going to have to catch up on “The Ghost Whisperer” with reruns this summer. Thank goodness for TiVo.

After a while at work this morning, we started talking about what we had done over the weekend. It took a little while to get the conversation going as everyone was groggy due to the blasted Daylight Saving Time, but now there’s more daylight, right?

Anyways, when asked what we did over the weekend, I simply responded that Earl and I had gone to Virginia for the weekend.

“Virginia?”, they asked in unison. By the look on their faces, you would have thought I had just say, “Earl and I went to the moon and back, and since we had some extra time we made a stop at Uranus.”

I think I’ve become so whacked out that I forget that “normal” people don’t drive from Upstate New York to Northern Virginia for a ride in the country. They drive maybe 30 or 40 miles, see some cows, eat at a restaurant or go to a beach or something. And that’s just dandy! Earl and I believe our life mission is to experience as much of life as we can, so that’s what we’re doing.

Anyways, I told my co-workers about Luray Caverns and having dinner and all that. Then I listened with interest as they chimed in with their adventures over the weekend, which sounded equally as exciting but in their own way. That’s a good thing; everyone can’t be doing the same thing, it would just be too boring.

But they continued to look at me like I’m some sort of nut. That makes me proud, as I wear the title well.

Well Earl and I are back froom the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Northern Virginia. It took only eight hours or so to get home, including a lunch stop at Red Robin in Carlisle, Pa. Now we’re settling down and getting some stuff around the house so we can hit the work week full speed ahead.

I’ve posted some pictures from this weekend’s road trip. This was my first chance to use the new iWeb, which is part of iLife ’06. They’re on my .Mac site, which you can see here. Relying on the camera flash in the cavern made it very hard to capture the beauty of it all, so I didn’t post as many pictures as I actually have.

Earl and I jumped in the Jeep bright and early this morning and headed south on Interstate 81. We headed to the Shenandoah Valley in northern Virginia, ending up at Luray Caverns appropriately located in Luray, Va. These are the largest caverns in the east and I believe the third largest in the United States. Luray Caverns span 47 acres and is a fascinating spectacle to behold with a full spectrum of color to be found in this natural wonder. The tour was about an hour long and took us over 100 feet below the surface. While we were at Luray Caverns, we also enjoyed lunch and tried our hand at the Garden Maze. I’ll be posting pictures when we get home tomorrow night.

After leaving Luray Caverns, we headed north on the famous Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. A breathtakingly scenic drive, we are planning to drive this route again in the fall when the leaves are changing.

We then headed to our room at the Hampton Inn and caught a quick nap, since we must have had too much fresh air or something and were both feeling a little tired.

After recharging our batteries a little bit, we went met up with Thom, a fellow blogger that I’ve chatted back and forth with for the past five years or so. I’ve always been a fan of his blog and it was quite exciting to put a face with the words. We had a great dinner at local tavern type place and enjoyed some great conversation. I hope that we have the opportunity to meet up again, it was a good time. Plus, he has a very wise choice of haircut.

Now Earl and I are getting ready to call it a night. We have a bit of a drive to get home at a reasonable hour tomorrow, but it has been a fully enjoyable day.

Earl and I have hit the road for the weekend and have decided to call it a night in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. This is a crossroads of sorts in the central part of the state, as we are at a Holiday Inn where Interstate 81 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike cross.

We are going to continue south for three or four hours tomorrow morning and check out the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Our primary destination is Luray Caverns, on the recommendation of the manager of my group at work.

Earl and I briefly tossed around the idea of checking out the motel bar, but decided to just call it a night and hit the hay.

I love being on the road.

Tonight was a “family night” in that Earl and I spent the evening with my Mom, my aunt and uncle, my cousin and some friends. Always striving to do things in style, we went to the sold-out Billy Joel concert together after having some dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

The food was good. The waitress was rather surly, but we think she was overwhelmed by the number of patrons that were headed for the concert.

Billy Joel was excellent. The concert was at the Carrier Dome in front of a record crowd. I believe the show sold out in three hours or something like that. There were about 40,000 people there.

Billy looked good, sang phenomenally well and overall the show was a really good time. One thing I found humorous is that instead of everyone lighting lighters for encore, people now hold up their cell phone with the display lit. How’s that for a creative use of technology. Has this caught on elsewhere?

Overall, a good time was had by all.