Aries in Amerika...

[Aries]

Hi all,

I'm planning a trip to the USA during my vacations

I'd like to visit some GM friends...and I would be planning my route accordingly

So if you have some time or even a roof to offer, I'd be much obliged

I would be exploring the east coast.

Most likely (confirmation will follow)

I'll leave on July 10th to NY and my return is planned for the 6th of August

If anyone has good advice or is able to help...PM me

I appreciate it

[Slice]

I would have helped but you spelled the name of our country wrong. AMERICA!!!!!!! :P

[DiTomasso]

I would have helped but you spelled the name of our country wrong. AMERICA!!!!!!! :P
He spelled it right, its in his native language :D

[Aries]

He spelled it right, its in his native language :D

;) so it is

[Pure_Evil]

:D you know my vacation time is limitted :bawling: but you can crash at my place all you want :D

let me know how your schedule works out and we'll get together and have some fun!

[Caged Anger]

dang....would say you could stay in Western Mass...but the folks have been rather....aggravating and I doubt you would want to endure that. Feel free to stop by though, and I know Sepra doesn't live more than an hour away from me.

[Die Hard]

Wow, good luck Aries. Glad you are going for it :thumbs:

[Mad Fox]

welcome to the greates place on earth ( after disney)

[Slice]

;) so it is
Pffft Slang.

[PJ'l_Master]

i would have to say that the areas by pure and myself are probably the most densly populated w/ {DS} / gamemeccians

[Thundarr]

Hey Pure, would you consider putting up 2 more peeps? James and I would love to try to make it out there even if just for a few days to meet Aries!!! We've got some great camping gear too, so if'n that comes into play, we would be sooooo happy! :D

[Pure_Evil]

do you have to bring Jamesy??? :P

I have room for 2 more, even Camus! :D

can you pick up PJ, he's soft and cuddly ;)

[Thundarr]

We could bring him if we drove, but we might fly in, LOL, might be a little uncomfortable in our luggage...

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

If you arrive in South Florida I have a comfy couch. Slice is roughly 2 hours south of me.

[<<Hybrid>>]

Good luck there mate... take some photos of hot chicks!

[Aries]

I've booked my flight and I will be flying to NY on the 12th of July and returning from NY on the 6th of August

I'll spend the week of 16th-23rd July in NY with a friend

the other time I will spend at Pure's in Connecticut (thanks on beforehand)

I might make field trips to other people...but that will entirely depend on my tight finances ....


Picture: Pure's crib

[Pure_Evil]

:D Update. Aries is officially in CT. I'm sure he'll update you.

So far, so good. I was late picking him up thanks to one highway being closed for some emergency :banghead: then typical NYC traffic jam. But he was patient ( he had no other choice :P ) and once we hit the road, the laughs began. He's already had quite a few laughs over the car he's using for the trip :D

Hopefully he'll enjoy the states and hanging out with me and a few other GM peeps :cool:

[Die Hard]

Congrats Aries, so glad you made it. Nice one Pure :thumbs:

[Aries]

Hello everyone :)

I made it over the ocean :P
I flew from Brussels to Zurich and from Zurich to NY
in Zurich they announced that they had overbooked the flight and for a moment it was unsure whether I would get a seat...
Special security check interviews were held before boarding the flight to NY

The flight went well and we even arrived early at JFK NY: the plane landed at 3:20 pm local time...it was not before 4pm until I reached the front of the immigration check waiting cue though....only to be sent back to the back because they gave me the wrong card on the plane (the white one instead of the green visa waiver)

By the time I got through immigration and got to bagage pick up, my bags were already standing off the conveyor belt (luckily undamaged)...I proceeded through customs and made my way to the arrival terminal to be greeted by....no-one

No sign of Pure...
So I sat down on my flashy two-coloured (yellow-red) Japanese suitcase tucked my black Complete Finishers cap slightly over my eyes and leafed through my manga book

when Pure_Evil showed up we immediately recognised each other.
Traffic out of NYC was fairly fluent all things considered. There was not a dull moment during the drive to CT

We stopped for my first Double Whopper (and counting) on American soil
and pulled up at Pure's crib

Pure introduced me to the 1337est ride since the back to the future delorean: the Subaru!
Especially the 'killer seatbelts' freak me out/crack me up everytime!

So we rolled these *cough*pimp wheels*cough* (Aries behind the wheel) to the local grocery store and backing up Pure's driveway already provided enough material for an episode of reality tv driving academy :P

:wave:

Pictures: American flag, my means of transport (mtb & subaru), a view of the killer seatbelts

[Die Hard]

Hehehe. So who's is the Subaru, yours or Pure's?

Keep the stories coming you guys. Great stuff :thumbs:

[Slice]

Welcome to the States! I am from Connecticut originally and you need to go to Jonny Ads for whole belly fried clams. That is, if you like seafood. Nick's is pretty good as well. I am not exactly sure where Pure lives in CT but it is worth the drive. My brother lives in Wethersfield which is just outside of Hartford, the capitol.

[Caged Anger]

hey there buddy, great to finally put a voice to the name on the screen. Glad to see you made it in one piece and hope to hear back soon.

There was naturally a glitch in what i told you. The week of the 25th is going to be tight due to a trip to Cape Cod. If you could get on MSN at some point, I hope we can work around this problem. if not, at least I got a call from the Belgium Dude!

[DiTomasso]

Hi Aries have a nice time out there and keep us posted with stories.

Great to c that there are great gamers / friends in the GM communnity

:thumbs: :thumbs: to PE :D

[Aries]

hey there buddy, great to finally put a voice to the name on the screen. Glad to see you made it in one piece and hope to hear back soon.

There was naturally a glitch in what i told you. The week of the 25th is going to be tight due to a trip to Cape Cod. If you could get on MSN at some point, I hope we can work around this problem. if not, at least I got a call from the Belgium Dude!


we'll get around that don't sweat it...it'll probably be somewhere during the last week then from the 30th till the 5th of August

[Thundarr]

we'll get around that don't sweat it...it'll probably be somewhere during the last week then from the 30th till the 5th of August
Awww, I was trying to get to CT that weekend the 2nd to the 6 or 7th
:bawling:

[Aries]

Awww, I was trying to get to CT that weekend the 2nd to the 6 or 7th
:bawling:

nothing is set in brick yet stormy ;-) Pm me or call Pure and we'll work something out both for Caged and for you :woohoo:

[Aries]

Story of day two ( I know there's been a delay...due to the collecting of material for these stories...nuff said)

I woke up early (7am) thanks to Daisy and decided to explore the surroundings by bike...so I got Pure's mountainbike pumped up and ventured outside

Pure's neighbour told me to stay on the sidewalk so I did and headed into the direction of downtown Southington.

I passed by tons of stores and commerces...and I had made the right decision: due to my choice for the bike I had plenty of time to look around at my own pace

I passed by famous names such as Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, Walmart, Blockbuster...

I also went by the fire dept. Headquarters where I got a glimpse of the nice 'engines'

I arrived in downtown Southington and came across a manga shop...apparently I knew more about it than the owner (not surprisingly since the owner sold a bit of everything in his shop )

On my return I showed a little too long interest for the BMW 328i on the parking lot of a second hand dealer so I talked to the salesman and compared prices

such high end engine is rare in Europe because of the tax pressure on it

Eventually I got away without shelling out all my money ouff

In the evening we had the typical New Haven style pizza (from which we are still eating the leftovers two days further) :thumbs:

[EXEcution]

OMG this is such cool news Aries. Unfortunately we can't "meet up" due to me being in Russia and all. Great to hear that you like it in the US, its like the 'omg'est' place on earth!

[FUS1ON]

Aries these are interesting to read, keep them coming. I'm looking forward to the Day 3 installment :)

[T I K]

Hey Aries great reads on your trip to and in US of A
I know your having Great time, especially getting to hang with friends and Great peeps like, Da Pure and other GMeccians :cool:

Wish you had more time to see other parts of USA! Time to plan for future trip :thumbs:

Unfortunately this is the last day of my summer vacation (from work) :bawling: Just got back from our week of 4 wheel atv riding on trails in the Beautiful Mountains of Colorado, but what a blast !!

Hey has Pure taken you to IHOP to try their Belgium Waffles ? Heh sorry for dat, just had to throw that in........ HF Aries !! :D

[Pure_Evil]

Aries left this Morning for NYC and I'm not sure how often he'll be in a internet Cafe`, so I'll throw in a little of what we did Thursday and Friday.
Day 3:
Aries and I were thrown a curve ball when a friend of mine stopped by the house and cut down a tree for me in the front yard while I was at work :eek: I knew Kevin was going to take the tree out, but he told me he would do it at his leasure, without warning. :o Needless to say, Aries and I spent some time cutting and moving tree branches out of the front yard :( I decided to make up for the work, which he seamed to actually enjoy, as did the women driving through the neighborhood :cool: by picking up {DS}Moqarna and going to a mall, the to

HOOTERS!!! :D His first trip to Hooters and his first time meeting Moq. Yankees Red Sox were on TV and I got into a little ..uhhh.. dicussion with a Red Sox fan near by :P a good time by all!

Day 4:

I'll let Aries tell you about his eventful day, but at night, we went Clubbing in Hartford. The first bar we went to ended up being quite lame, just loud music and everyone hanging out in their clicks. Would've been OK with the lanwar croud, but not just 2. So we walked around Hartford a little and ended up at a dance club. Aries seamed quite at home, while I felt a little old :o but that changed quick once Aries started moving.

You see, most guys in Hartford dance like this http://bestsmileys.com/dancing/1.gif :D

Not Aries. He's more like http://bestsmileys.com/dancing/11.gif but better. It was quite the sight when Aries walked down to a corner of the dance floor and started moving. It took about a minute for a woman to come up and start dancing with him (well, she tried to keep up) then 2 of her friends came by to dance next to him, then another took pictures :jammin: He put on quite the show, I was thoughrouly impressed, and quite proud too. :thumbs: Later on, there were a few young men with real dark tans ;) showing off to each other with their dance moves in 1 corner of the dance floor and the music picked up a bit more to Aries liking, and since that was the only free space on the floor, Aries danced over. At first the guys mocked Aries style and hand movements, but Aries didn't care, he just turned it up a notch more, what was mocking turned to shock, then respect, needless to say, they just stood back and watched the show, they were toast! That was one heck of a good time :D I can't wait to go back there with him in a couple weeks, maybe bring a few others along for the fun.

So far it looks like he's having fun, and I sure as hell enjoy having him here. It's a ton of laughs :cool:

[EXEcution]

At this rate i think Aries is having second thoughs on coming back to Belgium. I mean if you could be a god in the states why bother with Belgium? :D

[Caged Anger]

man, Pre, don't let him come up to the Berkshires. Complete dullsville. It seems like he's havin so much fun, I'd hate to have him bored up here! :thumbs:

[NightBreed]

Damn..I wish I could have joined you two !!! Of course, I don't fit in at all in any dance club but I'm right at home in Hooters !! :)

Hey Aries..if you're in the west-side of Manhattan next Saturday morning the 23rd, look ( or listen) for us to come thru.. :thumbs:

I'll be at Ground Zero !! (http://www.groundzeroindependenceride.com)

[Thundarr]

I've got enough frequent flyer miles for one Round Trip ticket and unfortunately it's looking like James won't be able to get time off work, so if I can get the vacation time off (all depends on this coversion we are working toward), I'm shooting for flying out either the 2nd or 3rd of August and returning that Sunday the 7th if that's a good time for you guys, still... :thumbs:

[Pure_Evil]

You're more than welcome to come out Thundar :D

Caged, he's looking forward to meeting you and heading up there. Meeting new people and seeing new places is what it's all about. Besides, he'll get to see where Little Evil lives Pittsfield :rolleyes:

[PJ'l_Master]

the people demand videos...


(of aries' dancing hacks that is, oh pure you can be in there too i suppose:rolleyes: )

[Caged Anger]

thx Pure, I'm looking forward to it myself. Mention too that the Clark Art Institute is very close of he's into that kibd of thing

[Die Hard]

of he's into that kibd of thing :confused:

[Caged Anger]

*kind, my bad

[EXEcution]

thx Pure, I'm looking forward to it myself. Mention too that the Clark Art Institute is very close of he's into that kibd of thing
If there's anime art then he will be! :eek:

[Aries]

Aries left this Morning for NYC and I'm not sure how often he'll be in a internet Cafe`, so I'll throw in a little of what we did Thursday and Friday.
Day 3:
Aries and I were thrown a curve ball when a friend of mine stopped by the house and cut down a tree for me in the front yard while I was at work :eek: I knew Kevin was going to take the tree out, but he told me he would do it at his leasure, without warning. :o Needless to say, Aries and I spent some time cutting and moving tree branches out of the front yard :( I decided to make up for the work, which he seamed to actually enjoy, as did the women driving through the neighborhood :cool: by picking up {DS}Moqarna and going to a mall, the to

HOOTERS!!! :D His first trip to Hooters and his first time meeting Moq. Yankees Red Sox were on TV and I got into a little ..uhhh.. dicussion with a Red Sox fan near by :P a good time by all!

Day 4:

I'll let Aries tell you about his eventful day, but at night, we went Clubbing in Hartford. The first bar we went to ended up being quite lame, just loud music and everyone hanging out in their clicks. Would've been OK with the lanwar croud, but not just 2. So we walked around Hartford a little and ended up at a dance club. Aries seamed quite at home, while I felt a little old :o but that changed quick once Aries started moving.

You see, most guys in Hartford dance like this http://bestsmileys.com/dancing/1.gif :D

Not Aries. He's more like http://bestsmileys.com/dancing/11.gif but better. It was quite the sight when Aries walked down to a corner of the dance floor and started moving. It took about a minute for a woman to come up and start dancing with him (well, she tried to keep up) then 2 of her friends came by to dance next to him, then another took pictures :jammin: He put on quite the show, I was thoughrouly impressed, and quite proud too. :thumbs: Later on, there were a few young men with real dark tans ;) showing off to each other with their dance moves in 1 corner of the dance floor and the music picked up a bit more to Aries liking, and since that was the only free space on the floor, Aries danced over. At first the guys mocked Aries style and hand movements, but Aries didn't care, he just turned it up a notch more, what was mocking turned to shock, then respect, needless to say, they just stood back and watched the show, they were toast! That was one heck of a good time :D I can't wait to go back there with him in a couple weeks, maybe bring a few others along for the fun.

So far it looks like he's having fun, and I sure as hell enjoy having him here. It's a ton of laughs :cool:


Addendum by Aries

Day 3
I was in Pure's basement on the comp and when I went back upstairs to get a drink I noticed a big truck on Pure's front lawn...so I went outside and saw what the Oracle had predicted...a guy was cutting down the tree in Pure's front garden with the help of the trucklift and a chainsaw. I offered to help and made some smalltalk...afterwards I cleared the road and the sidewalk and when Pure got home we both started cutting the branches up and stacking them in smaller piles to be picked up later. In the evening when we went out we stopped to pick up Moqarna...I'll tell you that man has the strongest handshake grip I have ever felt. We rolled to a mall and there were plenty of strong stories and laughs in the car. The reason we went to the mall was that Pure finally decided to leave the cro-magnon era and get with the 21st century: he bought a cellphone *insert applausse*. Meanwhile me and Moq were having pseudo philosophical discussions in Sneaker-stores. Then we continued our nightly travel and pulled up at hOOters. Us three sat at a table in the corner (Moq reproaching me that I didn't position myself ideally to appreciate the specific 'atmosphere') but nevertheless, the prettiest and most sexy waitress (IMHO) of the joint greeted us with big....bambi eyes and smile. We ordered and had lots of laughs. Pure and Moq started an animated conversation about baseball and the Yankee-stadium which resulted in a verbal rumble between Pure and the Red Sox fans from the adjacent table.
The aforementioned sexy doe returned to our table and begged us to fill in some sweepstakes coupons with which you could win a trip to a baseball game...I wonder if they'll fly me over if I win the prize.

Day4

Pure had given me the hint that there could be an anime convention nearby. So I looked it up on the internet and found that Connecticon ( http://www.connecticon.org ) was taking place that weekend. What a coincidence (since this wasn't planned on beforehand)! The event would start on friday and continue throughout the weekend. Because I had to go to Ny on Saturday I only had Friday to check it out. I heard that the convention started at 8 am so I did my best to get up early...result: I got up by 9 :-/
This would also be my first thorough test of the 1337 ride that Pure lend me, the 'Subaru'. I drove the rusty lightning by myself on the unknown Interstate of I-84 to Hartford, the capital of CT. Amazingly the scooby even held up at 70mph! The event was held in the brandnew Connecticut convention center, right next to the river. It's a spacious convention area overlooking the water. Downside of this all is that they obviously still had to pay to bills...resulting in a pricy Parking ticket and entrance fee. 25 dollars for a one day ticket o.O! Compare: the biggest anime convention in the Benelux FACTS only charges 7 euro/day ( http://www.facts-convention.com/ ). As I was standing in line for the ticket I noticed around me that this event attracted the usual array of otaku's, freaks, cosplay and cat-girls (cosplay=costume play...people dress up as their favourite anime character by means of home-made costumes). I was dressed normally, but I did take the effort of wearing my Asterix and Obelix T-shirt (which I was complimented on multiple times by more knowledgeable guests and visitors). I got in the convention around 10 am...only to find out that the dealer's room wasn't opening before noon Grrumbl...(that's what you get for 25 bucks...). So I checked out the other areas first. The anime screenings were of a varied nature: fantasy (Harry Potter), recent japanese anime, classics (Otaku no video, Ranma 1/2 the movie...) and animation TV-series for the American market. Next to that there were workshops: to learn about voice actor dubbing, rpg cardgame tournaments,...and interviews with Guests! Then there was also a gaming room! It was supposed to have a LAN area with comps but they didn't finish setting that up till 2pm. They didn't have Ut2k4, only Quake 3 and COD. There was a big folding screen put up in the middle of the room where you could play a different game on each side of the screen: Gamecube, Xbox Halo, a Japanese game controlled by a pad with balls you had to knock on. Tekken was played on the outside of the room and there were also several DDR pads and big screens. When the dealer's room finally opened...I discovered that only one of the stands had an item from my favourite series (Saint Seiya-Chevaliers du Zodiaque-Knights of the Zodiac) and those were chess pieces 5 dollars each (without knowing which character you'd get...too expensive for my liking. Most of the stands were occupied by aspiring comic artists selling their own parapharnelia or promotion material. I got Pure an autographed poster of BRA-MAN ;-). Ctrl Alt Del comics ( CAD) who claim to get their inspiration from video games was also featured there. One of the comic artists present there was an 18 year old Dutch girl, author of http://www.stuffsucks.com (click with confidence, no pron however). It was nice to meet her and I enjoyed the opportunity to speak some dutch again. Furthermore there were resin sculpturs, dvd sales, action figures and collectibles, obscure t-shirts and even an imitation-weapon shop: ninja stars, ninja claws, samurai swords... (which sold well until the conventions security found out about their warez and a big discussion followed between the convention center responsibles, the anime convention organisation and the owner of the stand.... Unfortunately I didn't find what I was looking for ( Saint Seiya Bandai action figures-yellow box originals 1986-1992) and must conclude that the American anime scene focuses on slightly different series than the European market. By the time I had my fill of browsing the stands ( who IMHO couldn't compare to our FACTS convention) the LAN gaming was still not operational. So I picked up the car and drove back to my base at Pure's.

Conclusion: Very expensive price (especially if you only go one day). The convention center was so big that it gave the impression that the organisers could hardly fill the rooms. The anime screenings were of a good quality and in comfortable seperate rooms. The dealer's room was a bit of a disappointment as far as opening time and variety of goods (depends on your personal interest)

Later that night we went clubbing in Hartford...but there's not much I have to add to Pure's report about that ^___^ I'm still an amateur dancer though who just improvises to the music without any schooling whatsoever. I would easily get smoked by (semi-) professional light and dark tans altogether. Good times to see Pure's jaw drop through the floor *grins*.


Pictures: Kevin and his truck cutting the tree, Aries @ Hooters

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Sounds like you're having a fun time. :thumbs: Thanks for sharing your version of events. :)
Do you have any pics to post?

[Mad Fox]

Looks like a great time.... I bet Caged's will be just as fun!

[He Is Legend]

i wanna see some pics :(

[Aries]

Patience will be rewarded











eventually

[Aries]

Day 5

a friend of mine was flying in from Belgium to visit NYC together. So for a week I left my base in CT and went to NYC. I travelled to NY by train, Pure dropped me off at the New Haven railway station and I got on the train to NYC Grand Central Terminal (Metro North railway). Pure said the carriages were nice....they seemed a bit old fashioned to European standards but they were comfortable. Trying to understand the speaker messages is a challenge though. Luckily I didn't have to transfer and arrived at Grand Central Station after a 2 hour trainride. The station was indeed impressive as Pure had predicted. Nice architecture with ample use of marble and big windows with specific iron decorations. The ceiling contains some sunsigns (among which an aries :P ). This was only the first step in my journey to meet my friend at JFK airport. I followed the signs in the terminal that led to the subway and bought two 7-day unlimited metrocards (for cheap and fast public transport in NYC). I didn't quite knew what to expect from the NY subway and I was a bit nervous whether it would be safe. I took the S-line shuttle subway from Grand central station terminal to Times Square 42nd street. From the Times square station I could walk through underground to the Port Authority subway station which would connect me to the A-blue metroline that eventually would connect to JFK. I was careful to take the Far Rockaway destination and not Lefferts Boulevard because I needed to transfer at the Howard Beach station. From Port authority to Howard Beach is no less than 27 stops though. I was packed with my luggage but luckily the metro was not that crowded. Reading or pretending to read in my travel guide also helped diminish the nervosity. Soon I was confronted with a typical metro scene...a girl entered the carriage and asked out loud to buy candy from her to help her stay away from trouble ... I acted according to the advice I got and as a stoic NY'er I concentrated on my book. The hues of skin changed more and more as we approached the Brooklyn stops. Eventually at Howard Beach I got out and made my way to the JFK Airtrain transfer...the Airtrain is a fairly new connecting service between the subway and the airport terminals...My metrocard was of no use here, I had to pay 5 dollar extra to use the Airtrain. The Airtrain followed the airport terminals in chronological order and made a circular loop. As I needed the 8th terminal (of 9 ) I had to pass patiently by the other terminals first. I took the train in New Haven around 10 am, arrived in GCT NY around 12 pm and arrived at the JFK terminal at 2 pm. The flight was scheduled to land at 3:30 pm. I knew that immigration and customs would add quite some time to that...but I did not think it would develop into an unreasonable delay. I chose a seat close to the monitors and continued to read. Terminal 8 is narrow, small and looks filthy. My friend landed on time (3:30pm!) but when he got to the terminal it was already past 5pm O.O!! That's a big delay imho for immigration, bagage pickup and customs. We ordered a superhuttle van service to drive us to the door of our hotel (at this point we were looking for convenience). The Supershuttle minivan drove to a few other terminals and when the van was filled we drove to Manhattan and everyone was delivered to their hotel. They allowed to store our bagage ( at no additional cost) while our room was being prepared. We took advantage of the preparation hour to get our first impressions of the NY atmosphere by walking down the 7th avenue sidewalk to Times Square. The Billboards and the copywriting was amazing. The Lehman Brothers building even used their whole building as a billboard to project moving publicity onto. We took our first pics of the colorful neon signs of Times Square.

pictures: NY grand central terminal (pic too dark), my friend arriving at JFK, Lehman brothers billboard, Times Square

[Thundarr]

And soon enters Thundarr into the action!!! I am arriving Tuesday evening staying til Sunday, can't wait!!! :cool: :thumbs:

[Aries]

Day 6

On our first full day in Ny we strolled along the most known streets (at least by name) and did some (window)shopping. We valued the fancy shops at 5th Avenue...especially because the airco coming from their entrances was a welcome change from the subway roster heat boosts that we had to endure walking on the pavement. Soon less sterile happenings caught our eye...the french community was celebrating for example and they had a couple of streets filled with stands promoting french tourism and french products (there was also a meeting of old citroen vehicles). Then we crossed Madison Avenue where the whole Avenue was closed for a series of stands selling all sorts of stuff from souvenirs to smoothies and strawberries dipped in chocolate. We walked and walked, the atmosphere leading us on. We also visited some trendy flagstores such as the Diesel and Levi's stores. The Diesel store's concept was very nice....you had one way to go up and then you had to go round to arrive at the exit. There was a bridge in between the entrance stairs and the exit where a Dj played live music. That created a nice mood. The Levi's store had jeans piled up from the floor to the high ceiling. During our walk we also got some heavy rain showers and my friend got a free surfing opportunity when a cab drove by a little too close to the curb.

Picture: Citroën 2CV meeting

[Aries]

Day 7

We had breakfast at the 'Bread Factory' on 7th Av close to Penn station and while munching our overexpensive croissant and all-powered-up smoothie we made a list of things that we definitely wanted to see or do...Satue of liberty, Empire state building, Central Park, Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim,...
My friend suggested that we could take one of the double-deck bus tours which were advertised on the street corners of Times square. We looked at the folders and decided to go for the NY Classic...a package of 4 tours: Uptown, Downtown, Brooklyn and Nightloop plus tickets for the statue of liberty and the empire state building. The condition for all of this was that we had to do it all within 48 hours. Our sightseeing adventure started off with the Uptown tour...our busguide gave us lots of good advice...not to eat around expensive Times Square but to go to Ninth Avenue....to buy a copy of TimeOut NY to know what's going on in the city ( it gives a very detailed weekly overview of all activities and hotspots). The Uptown tour went from 8th Avenue drove uptown around Central Park to come back down on the East side. On our way we saw quite a few interesting places: the Lincoln Centre (nice architecture building where the opera and theatre companies have their home), Juliard dance school (remember save the last dance), the building in front of which John Lennon got shot, Columbus circle, Harlem and the Apollo theatre and the expensive homes on the Upper East side. After finishing the Uptown tour we used the subway to get to Battery park with the intention of catching the ferry to Liberty Island. We arrived around 4pm and they told us the ferry's were not going to the island anymore they were only returning from it at this time. We were a bit disappointed (already used to the late opening hours of NY) and had to change our plans. We decided to go for the Empire state building instead...we got to this skyscraper just before the evening fell and this was also just before the big crowd. There were no less than 6 waiting cues before you got to the observatory...a weird system which also demanded patience. We even saw KingKong strolling through the hallways while we waited. The view from the observatory on the 86th floor was great though! You could overview NY from above and that was a whole different perspective ...you no longer felt like ants in between towering buildings. When night fell and the city lit up its lights it was another kind of magic sight.

Pictures: inside empire state building, on the observatory, nightly view of Manhattan NY

[Aries]

We started day 8 in the hope to do as much of the sightseeing that we booked as we could cram in one day. We took the Downtown tour which was a bit of a disappointment due to the guide who wasn't as good as the one from the Uptown tour. Actually it was a relief to get off the bus. We did get our first impressions of Soho and Union square on that trip though. Then we rushed towards the ferry for Liberty Island....there was no info desk to verify our tickets at so we got in line for...the security check...they even made me take out my handkerchief :rolleyes:. Somebody looked at our tickets while we were in line but made no remarks...Finally we boarded the ferry and on our way to Liberty island we first got some unique shots of the skyline from the water and then shots of the statue of liberty as we approached it. After arriving on Liberty island we walked up to the base of the statue, we put our backpacks in lockers that were fingerprint operated and then we ran into...a sign saying you needed other tickets to go up the statue and that there were no such tickets sold on the island! A bit of an ackward time and place to give us that information :down:. So all we could do was stroll around the base of the statue and make some pictures from there. The sea breeze was nice and there are some grass fields to rest on too. We got back on the ferry and after a stop at Ellis Island it brought us back to Manhattan. (for those who are curious tickets for the statue are to be obtained in the Clinton Castle in Battery Park across from the ferry security check line). It was past 3pm as we got back so that meant the Brooklyn tour was not riding anymore that day...We went to Central Park to relax and rounded our day off on the Nightloop...this time we had a very entertaining busguide who told us about Bryant Park and it's free movie screenings sponsored by HBO, about the NY library where 'you can read between the lions' on its stairs,... We crossed the Washington and the Brooklyn Bridge and had a shouting contest with another bus from the same company.

All in all we got good value in the sightseeing package...the quality of the tour highly depends on the guide though and be warned about the statue of liberty tickets

Pictures: Liberty island ferry view of Manhattan, Liberty island ferry approaching liberty island, statue of liberty, nightloop on the sightseeing bus

[Aries]

Day 9

We were ready for some Art and having heard so many good things about the Moma, museum of modern art we went to check it out. The admission fee was quite substantial (20 dollars) and we wer curious to see if it would be worth it.
But it was! It even exceeded our expectations. The variety and the quality of the artworks was wonderful. It ranged from original classic masterpieces to highlights of design throughout the years (even up to the iPod), industrial design art (a helicopter and a car), architectural classics ( F L Wright) and modern projects (a new destiny for the elevated train tracks in Ny Greenwich village). The original masterpieces included a big collection of Picasso, Mondriaan, Liechtenstein, Andy Warhol, Monet, Duchamp, Kandinsky...and a few renowned Belgian artists such as Rene Magritte, Broodthaars and James Ensor!
To see the such a quantity of quality originals was just overwhelming. On top of the outstanding quality of the permanent collection there were a few theme exhibitions...two about photography ( Mount St Helens series and another about life in the USA) and one about the art of the French artist Cezanne. After experiencing this amazing amount of top quality art we went to the inner garden of the museum to ponder about the works at the pond. Picasso's goat and Duchamp's horse were also present.
We were so smashed and impressed that we called it a day

Pictures: Moma Monet painting, Moma broken obelisk, Aries resting in the museum's garden before Duchamp's horse

[DiTomasso]

Great reading :thumbs:

[Mad Fox]

Wow you have done alot

[T I K]

Nice writes/reads there Aries, Thnx for the sharing. I can see you writing the next NYC for Belgian's Tour Guide !! :D :thumbs:

[Caged Anger]

the next entry into the log is sure to raise some eyebrows :rolleyes:

[He Is Legend]

sounds like you had fun

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Great stuff Aries, thanks for sharing your adventure. :)

[Pure_Evil]

well... Aries is on his way home :) :( :)

Thundarr, Little Evil and I dropped him off at the van company that was taking him to JFK. It was a experience to say the least. Kind of sad to see my friend go, but happy that he's going back to his Mother & 1337 dog. I know he must miss them after being gone for 4 weeks. Aries is truly a great person and friend and will be missed, we shared so many laughs. When the van departed, first thing Little Evil said was "I'll miss Avram" and Paul only spent a few days with him. I thought it was great when I called Paul, that he asked to speak to Aries :)

I must say, every time I've met someone form GM, I've been impressed, and I've met many of you :) From spending time with Aries, I not only learned about Aries & Belgium, I also learned alot about myself. ;)

I'll see you soon Aries, thanks for the company.

GG :thumbs:

[Aries]

Quick note:

I made it back to Belgium safely and I am at home again :wave:
Thanks for the kind words Pure I can only confirm them :) I will miss you all too and will never forget the good times we had :thumbs:

Don't despair kind GM folk...I will continue the reports of my adventures in the US if my elephant memory will permit me (eventually accompanied by visual material)

special :wave: to Moqarna, Thundarr, Caged, Mad Fox

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

I love a happy ending. :)

Nice to see you home safe.

[Aries]

Moma had taken up much of our energy on Day 9 so we decided not to have two consecutive art museum days (we moved up our plans to go to the Guggenheim) and went shopping & neighbourhood exploring instead.

Shopping
This time we went to the BIG names of NY shopping: Macy's and Bloomingdale's. Both are huge shopping centres with many floors and a diverse array of products (from clothes to furniture).
Macy's still sported many 'old school' escalators with wooden steps. Some of the escalators are very narrow (steps for one person)which can be claustrophobic. Navigating through the store and finding the floor you were looking for wasn't that easy. One thing to console the consumer who ends up at the top floor on his search (women's wear, furniture floor, bridal clothing)...there are several elavators at the top to bring you back for a 'respawn'. Macy's had a whole floor dedicated to men's shoes and suits (from Puffy's Sean John suits to Donald Trumps...with or without pink tie) The most interesting thing to look for in these shopping centres are the sales! Macy's had a 70% off sale on selected Timberland models...too bad my size was not available. Their collections of Diesel and Puma shoes showed originality and boldness. A new brand that I discovered was Steve Madden shoes (not seen in Europe).
Bloomingdale's put the men's section in the basement and soon we got the general idea...designer clothing and expensive pricing! Woolen pullovers of $600 Leather jackets $2000. You were afraid to take a closer look at something you liked and if you felt courageous you turned the price tag with trembling fingers...when store clerks asked if they could assist you with anything you got a sheer heartattack, noticeable in the hasted rhythm and too highly pitched reply "No, thank you I'm fine". The Diesel clothing even seemed more expensive than in the Diesel flag stores of the city. A remarkable brand was Swiss Victorinox...stylish classic and sporty at the same time with a touch of swiss originality and almost affordable (still looked a bit snobby though). I did find a sale at Bloomingdale's, I bought a pair of Merrel Yeti Moc's at 50% :woohoo:. The featured Nike Shox in Grunge edition were an eye-catcher at the shoe section. On a side note Bloomingdale's also sold discounted T-shirts from the NY candidate city for the 2012 olympics campaign ;)

Soho
fun neighbourhood to stroll through and do windowshopping...very trendy shops and stores. Soho LAB for original shoes. Yellow Rat Bastard for street clothing and accessories (a T-shirt with the Atari logo caught my eye, but it was too expensive imho). Urban Outfitters (where you can also find books on Russian criminal tattoo's and a calendar with a 'position' for every day), Puma store. One of the big trends seems to be that new hip clothing looks like it's been worn and is in a used state. Emblem usage of old soccer T's or old olympic outfits are still in swing too.

Little Italy
We visited this area mostly to go out eating. We ate at La Dolce Vita where the italian food is of basic quality but the service is warm and friendly (at least if you have the nice waitress we had). Another time we went to Lupa's where you often have to wait in line to be seated because of its popularity, we now also know why the Italian food there was of very good quality.

Chinatown
I had expected more of this. My disappointment with Chinatown is mainly that it looked a little filthy and the 'open' fish stores (some fish were still twitching in the basins at the side walk) didn't help for that image. If you are looking for cheap chinese imi...euh I mean replica's this is the place to go. (but don't buy too many of them or you'll get in trouble with the contraband authorities). I didn't find the anime goodies I was looking for which added to the disappointment.

We also bumped in to a group of breakdancers showing their skills which was nice to look at.

[PJ'l_Master]

We also bumped in to a group of breakdancers showing their skills which was nice to look at.
and then aries owned them with his dancing skillz
:eek: :D :cool:

[Pathos]

What a supremely kick-ass thread! Thanks for all the "share time", Aries! Had a blast reading and absorbing every post like a delicious confection... yes, picture me in my PJ's jumping up and down screaming, "GO ARIES! GO ARIES!" and you begin to get a vague idea...

Oh, and big kudos to Pure for his assists, and Thundarr for the cameo exposition. Good stuff gang!

Now someone come to Australia so you can post about my moisturising routine... [wax on, wax off]

[Aries]

I had read in my travel guide about the cable ride to Roosevelt Island and how it allowed to see (some of) Ny from the sky (and much cheaper than the NY helicopter skyride). So we went to check it out. When we got to the Manhattan start point of the cable line (a block away from Bloomingdale's), it looked deserted...we still decided to go up the iron stairs and take a look...and to our surprise it was open. We didn't have to pay an admission fee because we had our 7-day unlimited Metrocards. We stepped into the cable cabin (made in Switzerland I noticed) and waited until the operator deemed it to be filled with enough people to go to the other side. This 'ride' offered us a view of the street immediately below us, the buildings (and their poorly maintained rooftops) on each side of the street and more postcard like the views of the big Iron bridge to Queens and the East River (you could almost see which garbage was towed away underneath you by waste transport ships ;) ). To my surprise the 'ride' to Roosevelt island was very short and soon we arrived at Roosevelt island. There's not much to see on the island itself...high-rise flats and the occasional sports field. However the breeze of wind when standing at the edge of the island looking at the River was very welcome. If you felt adventurous you could try and follow the river edge around the island. But this was too hot of a day for such crazyness. So we went back to catch the next 'ride' back to Manhattan.

After having recuperated on day 10 from the art bewilderment of Moma we were ready for another dose...this time offered by the Solomon Guggenheim museum. We got there about an hour before closing time. Waiting in queue for the admission tickets we were already franticly searching our wallets to scrap together the (most likely substantial amount of) necessary dollars . Admission for adults was $15 dollars (written on the wall). When we got to the front of the line we were told a completely different thing. You could 'donate' whatever amount you wanted. Running out of money at the end of your NY week we both reached for a $5 note...upon which the ticket lady informed us that most people donated $1. So we followed her advice and payed a dollar each to get in Guggenheim (what a deal!). I don't know if this strange and cheap 'donation procedure' had anything to do with the fact that we arrived during the final opening hour. First we deposited our backpacks and bags at a special counter. Then we took the elevator to the highest floor (travel guide tip) and spiralled down from there...gravity leading us through this wonderful building designed by Wright. Form and function went well together. There was a special exhibition about the Spanish artist Oteiza whose works were flown over from the Bilbao sister museum. Oteiza experimented with shapes and materials (mostly stone and metal) with original sculptures as a result. Oteiza's tangible experiments were instruments for the artist to conceive an almost scientific (empirical) study of the manipulation of space and shape. Remarkable was the fact that the artist also gave meaning to the void and placed it in his scientific framework. For example he made several sculptures about which spatial possibilities you'd get if you rearranged the components of a sphere. First the artist would think about the concept or idea...then he would sketch it or even do a rough experiment with cut out shapes collaged onto other shapes. Afterwards he would develop it in 3D sculptures of metal or stone. It was intriguing to follow the artist's reasoning and to see his resulst. Apart from this main exhibition there was the Kandinsky collection which Solomon Guggenheim had gathered during his years as mecenas.

After closing time we left Guggenheim and the music from a nearby garden party lured us to an entrance of Central Park not that farfrom the museum.
There was a stairs which led up to the Runner's path around the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis lake in Central Park. We watched the sunset over the lake in silence for hours (side view).

A fitting end to our week in NY

Pictures: evening falls over central park's jaqueline Kennedy Onassis lake, gazing at it

[Aries]

On day 12 I got up early to catch the 8 o' clock Metro North train from Grand Central Terminal to New Haven. I went underground at Times Square and took the Shuttle subway directly into GCT. My train departed from track 100 or so which gives you an idea of the magnitude of this train station. The train ride from NY to New Haven takes 2 hours (also because there are many stops). As scheduled I arrived around 10 o' clock in New Haven. The minute I stepped out of the train station building, I was greeted by Pure AND 'little' Evil. It was an honour for me to meet LE. Little Evil was wearing a kids Yankee jersey. So I asked this young man a question about baseball...as if this was a magic switch, Little Evil turned into a speech waterfall and so I heard my first stories about his baseball adventures...this continued even in the car all the way driving 'home'. I deposited my stuff at Pure's and LE deemed that after the theory it was time for some practice. Pure then took us to a nearby sports field with a few baseball areas. Btw if you need any sports goodies call 1-800-PURES TRUNK. We took out the necessary baseball equipment: a bat, a helmet, a baseball (for junior players) and a glove. I was fitted with the glove which according to Pure was nearly as old as I am myself. As a first exercise, I was assigned the role of catcher at first base, Pure on pitch and Little Evil at bat. Whenever LE hit the ball Pure would catch it and throw it towards me. LE ran for his life (and he's pretty fast for a 5 year old) to be safe at first base. I wasn't used to the glove yet and dropped quite a few balls :-/ It was fun though.

Next I took a swing at Pure's pitches...LE showed me how to hold the bat. I learned the concept of 'strikes' and 'fauls'...somehow we didn't get to the home-run part :rolleyes:.

After that it was my turn to pitch, I tried my best to follow the directions (over the plate towards the catcher's glove) but one of my attempted 'fast balls' was too much on the inside and hit Little Evil in the stomach. Pure coached his little soldier to be tough and he didn't cry. I think he will remember to dodge the ball from now on....and as for me....I'm not aspiring a pitcher career yet.

Then the Evils taught me what a 'double play' in baseball meant. With this tactic the players try to throw out two players of the opposing team in one play. LE was positioned between 3rd and 2nd base, I stood my ground at first. The training went as follows: Pure threw the ball into the field, LE caught it, ran to second base and threw it to first where I was supposed to catch it. We repeated this routine for a while and Little Evil does well when he's focused.

Back home old Pure was granted a break while I kept Little Evil busy with indoor basketball (children's size). LE high-fived after every score and it was lots of fun. In the late afternoon the three of us played some catch-ball in the field next to the fire dept.

It was a very active but amusing day :thumbs:

[Aries]

On the 13th day me, Pure and Little Evil made a field trip to one of Connecticut's state woods. We parked the car on the outskirts of the woods and followed the path inside. You could tell the woods were well maintained and it was very peaceful and beautifully green. Here and there you could see information signs, arrows or colour signs to mark trails,...
Little Evil scanned the ground to find rocks he could throw into the water later on. Pure taught Little Evil to use his 'quiet voice', focused his attention on the details of the wildlife and in general passed on a sense of respect for nature. I discovered that among the rocks of our path there were quite a number of 'shiny' rocks with quartz minerals in them. I picked up a few to take home as a souvenir (don't worry there were enough of them so that I didn't harm the nature). After quite some walking we arrived at the Beaver pond. It was marvellous. I had never seen such a beaver pond, numerous trees were sticking out of the water...several of them chopped by beavers...you could see the fortress of the beavers in the middle of the water. Furthermore there were beautiful water lily's and bird houses mounted against poles for the wild ducks to nest in. You could walk over a wooden bridge to reach a observatory shed. If it weren't for Little Evil's active energy we could have sat there for an hour just enjoying the sights and sounds.
We moved on through the woods towards the firetower. In order to get there we had to climb a small hill. The firetower is a iron observatory tower with some info about the structure of the woods and what those places actually were that you could see from up there. It also explained how they had cut an area of trees in the valley to give space to the recovery of some lower level plantation. After that we went to our final stop in the woods, the waterfall. It had been a dry weather period for some time and therefore the waterfall wasn't that overwhelming but it was still a very nice sight.
Finally we hiked back to the car. When we got in Pure turned up the AC and suddenly I smelled a stench. I checked my shoes and found nothing. As the smell wasn't going away I asked pure about it and he DID discover something on his shoes...I laughed as he was frantically moonwalking over the grass outside of the car :P Little Evil wasn't even aware of what was going on.

Pictures: Beaver pond, waterfall in the woods

[Aries]

Day 14 marks the beginning of a lazy week. I figure that it was time for me to recover from the NY week and the very active weekend that followed it. Negociations were held to visit Caged Anger and to fly in CF Thundarr. As usual Pure went to bed early and I stayed up longer playing UT2k4 and watching some TV. I found out that there are a few anime series aired around 1am on TV: Inu Yasha, Full metal Alchemist and Cowboy Bebop :wootrock: . When I finally went to bed I must have hit a safety underneath the bed because when I lay down on it, it crashed under me :eek:
Pure didn't even woke up from the noise :P Unable to fix the bed again (because I'm not familiar with the system) I took my sheets with me and went to sleep on the living room couch. I knew I'd only get about an hour and a half of sleep before Pure would rise to go to work though...In the early morning Pure fixed the bed with duct tape and I could move back and sleep some more Zzzz...

[FUS1ON]

We need to start a fund to keep Aries on the road full time so he can keep posting his adventures.

[Aries]

We need to start a fund to keep Aries on the road full time so he can keep posting his adventures.

I'm game for that idea :P :woohoo:

[Aries]

Day 15

Nothing much to mention.

I biked along Queen street to downtown Southington to get to the post office and buy some stamps for the postcards I brought with me from NYC. When I mentioned that some of the cards had Belgium as destination, the lady at the post office said she was born in Belgium (what are the odds!)

Pure and me went out eating at a 'brown bar' which supposedly was known for its buffalo wings...so I ordered those...what a mistake...that stuff was hardly edible and there was almost fewer meat around those bones than on a burned asian chicken (when you order fried chicken in asia they give you burned to the bone meat formerly known as chicken). Funny how Pure didn't go for the wings but had nachos instead (I should have known). Pure had a long face because the Red Sox won.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Great stories Aries! :thumbs:

[Pure_Evil]

Day 15

Nothing much to mention.

I biked along Queen street to downtown Southington to get to the post office and buy some stamps for the postcards I brought with me from NYC. When I mentioned that some of the cards had Belgium as destination, the lady at the post office said she was born in Belgium (what are the odds!)

Pure and me went out eating at a 'brown bar' which supposedly was known for its buffalo wings...so I ordered those...what a mistake...that stuff was hardly edible and there was almost fewer meat around those bones than on a burned asian chicken (when you order fried chicken in asia they give you burned to the bone meat formerly known as chicken). Funny how Pure didn't go for the wings but had nachos instead (I should have known). Pure had a long face because the Red Sox won.


lol, edited out poor Julie :rofl:

[NightBreed]

:( Damn..I'm sorry I missed you here in Ct., Aries... Pure sent me a PM too but I just lost track of the days...


Next time !!! :thumbs:

[Stepping.Razor]

This is a kick-ass thread.
Thanks Aries!
Glad you had fun in the USA :)
That Evil family sounds like fun too :D
Mostly i wish i could have seen them dance moves :eek:
i hope you visit again soon :thumbs:
any more stories?

[DiTomasso]

next next more more :D :thumbs:

[Aries]

Day 16

Pure took half a day off from work to go to Boston together (which I highly appreciate knowing how tight his schedule is). So around noon Pure came home from work and we got ready to leave for Boston. We drove on I-84 east in the direction of the Mass(achusets) turnpike. The consecutive short nights started to have its repercussions on ole Evil's bio rhythm....so Pure decided it was time for a beauty sleep. We exited the interstate, parked the car and switched places. Now it was my duty to drive the plymouth neon to the Mass turnpike and eventually to Boston. I got behind the wheel, put the neon in drive and accelerated down the ramp....when I got parallell with the Interstate, a Peterbilt truck was right next to me and this giant truck wasn't willing to move to the second lane to let me in. Gritting my teeth I got on the first lane behind the Peterbilt. At that moment I noticed a second Peterbilt truck moving up on the second lane...if I didn't take any action I would soon be enclosed by those two Peterbilts which would mean that my start on the interstate would be slowed down to a 'surplace'. With the spirit of a Kamikaze pilot I floored the gas on the neon (mind you this all happened while Pure was trying to start his nap in the passenger seat) speeding alongside the second Peterbilt towards the free space on the second lane. I jumped into the narrow gap between the back of the first Peterbilt and the nose of the second and continued speeding like a spear until I had also overtaken the first Peterbilt :ha: :jammin: (don't try this at home folks). Peterbilts 0 - Insane Aries in a plymouth neon 1. I continued to drive in a more appropriate manner and when we got to the Mass turnpike I paid the obligatory toll and startled the man in the cabin by being friendly and wishing him a nice day. Eventually Pure woke up and he co-piloted me into the centre of Boston. We parked in an underground garage at the Commons. When we got out, Pure delicately removed the Yankees-sticker from the back of the car and hid it in the trunk :hmmm:. The parking garage exit dropped us in the middle of the park and we tried to find our way to the visitor's centre. On our way we saw the US Air Force with a recruiting stand. We arrived at a corner of the park and luckily there was a map there. Thanks to the map we found the visitor's centre...which was a bit of a letdown because apparantly the main goal of the centre was to sell guided tours to tourists. Believing in our own capacities we decided to find and follow the freedom trail on our own.
Secret agent Evil adviced that we follow the guides in historical clothing (respect to knee-stocking wearing men in the summer heat :rolleyes:) from a distance...a plan which was soon to fail. On our way I caught a glimpse of the main water area in the park and it seemed that people were allowed to run through the shallow water of the fountains. Thus we arrived at Beacon Hill street with it's characteristic red brick houses. We arrived at the former residence of John Hancock (where you can also find a statue of John F Kennedy) and looked at the convex golden roof. A little further on the pavement there were shocking cardboards about the history of mental patients treatment. Surely a sign of a very open-minded city. Not knowing how to continue we retraced our steps. Suddenly Pure detected a red line and claimed this was an indicator of the freedom trail and that we should follow it. I vaguely remembered spotting such a line on the map which to my recollection only lead back to the visitor's centre. I tried to convey this to Pure but he was convinced the red line was the way to go (as if it were the red line of Ariadne). We DID end up back at the visitor's centre :doh: but we DID find the start of the freedom trail there which WAS marked by a red line across the pavement. Our first stop on the freedom trail was an old cemetery where some of the famous former inhabitants of Boston were buried: John Hancock, Paul Revere,... I admired the symbols and art (skulls with angel wings) on the tombstones and you could even see how it developed through the years. Some bimbos who apparantly lack the ability to read (do not touch the tombstones warnings) were patting the graves and some even stood on graves to take a picture...sad how some tourists behave. Next we visited (Pure made a donation and we could enter)the King's chapel...a church in neo-classic architecture once donated by the English King with privately owned (one for each family) pews. These pews were designed according to the wishes of the family...you had sober ones in the back with many bible holders (probably for large families) and there were more luxury ones in front. The pulpit stood in front (whereas in many European churches you find it in the middle) and it's roof was designed to direct the words from the preacher to the public. The governor of the state had the most luxurious pew in this church. We moved on to Boston's old city hall which is now a restaurant....successful recycling of public buildings they call that these days.
The façade of this old city hall was impressive and there were a few statues in front of it (e.g. Benjamin Franklin's). Following the freedom trail further we arrived at the old house where in history people decided to take action and start the Boston Tea Party. By now the 'free' part of the freedom trail was an unveiled illusion and we didn't deem the house impressive enough to shell out the money. Continuing our walk we bumped into a group of breakdancers at the Quincy Market. We watched their show (which was amazingly similar to the one in NY) and rewarded them for their efforts with a small donation. Quincy market proved a nice place to wander around...you could either walk through the indoor market halls and their shops or enjoy the sunshine and stroll along the stands outside the market halls. We didn't stay that long though because Pure was getting an itch from all the red B's around... We passed by Boston's little Italy and Revere's equestrian statue to end up at road works. After crossing those we got to Boston bay and we tried to catch a breeze at the waterside to cool off a bit. Lots of jellyfish in the bay btw. From that side of the bay we could see the end stop of the freedom trail: the USS Constitution (old navy ship). In order to get there we had to cross a big iron bridge with lots of traffic. Eventually we arrived at the USS Constitution and to our surprise there was no entrance fee. We went on board and admired the beauty of this old ship. At the same site there was also a more modern navy ship to visit, the USS Cassin Young. We explored that one as well. The long walk of the freedom trail mixed with the heat had drained a lot of energy from us....so we decided to refuel at a local ice cream shop! The custom made ice cream mixes were a slice of heaven. I had the berry berry berry good mix (sweet ice cream with raspberries, strawberries and blueberries...thus explains the triple berry). The personnell of the shop sang for Pure because he tipped them a dollar. This concluded our visit to Boston and we headed back to the car. We had heard news about approaching storm weather and just before we got back to Connecticut we were hit by rain showers. We made it back to Pure's home just in time for {DS} ut2k4 practice but found that there was no power supply. The fire department did have electricity so we crossed the street and I got to meet some of Pure's colleagues. Apparantly lightning had struck in a few places and that caused the power failure.

Pictures: J. Hancock residence in Boston, J. Hancock's tomb, Old city hall Boston, quote by B. Franklin, Breakdancers at the Quincy market, USS Constitution, USS Cassin Young

[FUS1ON]

I'm sorry bro but anything longer than 2 paragraphs I print out and take to the bathroom as reading material. BRB :D

[Aries]

I'm sorry bro but anything longer than 2 paragraphs I print out and take to the bathroom as reading material. BRB :D

Beware of laughing farts :P :rofl:

[Mad Fox]

I love these stories

[Black Rose]

great stuff Aries :wootrock: more more more please :D

[solid snake295]

great stories Aries! :thumbs: sounds like you had tons of fun :thumbs:

[Pure_Evil]

The Boston trip was a BLAST! Although I must say, I thought Aries wanted to kick my ass over the start of the freadom trail fiasco :D I wish we had time to spend a few days there. Even though I root for every NY team (except the Knicks) and against EVERY Boston team, Boston is still my favorite city.

Quote of the day

Typical America, they call this the freadom trail, yet nothing on it is free :thumbs:

[Dan2]

Great storys, Aries!! Sounds like you saw everything. You have an excellent memory to recall such detail. :thumbs:

[Aries]

Day 17

By now we got confirmation that Thundarr would arrive the next week and I was already looking forward to the upcoming weekend at Caged's home.
In order to provide some diversity in the menu, Pure decided to make some HOME-MADE fast-food for a change :P. He fired up the grill outside and got the hamburgers and rolls ready. The temperature of the grill seemed to vary all the time and Pure believed the fickle grill was running on it's last legs. The hamburgers (american style with cheese on them) did taste good though. I liked them even more than the local BK's.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Man, I am so ignorant.....I just assumed everyone (around the world) had a barbecue. *Me hits self with rubber chicken. :)

[Aries]

Day 18

In the evening Pure announced that we would be going to a Baseball game :woohoo:. I was very excited about this. We were hoping to get to the stadium in time. We drove to the New Britain stadium and as we queued on the parking lot we saw a lot of people in front of the entrance. We donated money for the boot (held by friendly firemen) and got to our parking space. Pure had general seating tickets thanks to which we both got in for only $5 :thumbs:. As we walked in I feasted my eyes on several stands that were selling lots of stuff from goodies to food and drinks. We moved on to our seats and I must admit, we had an extraordinary view of the whole field :cool:. Our seats were facing the side of the field where you have the stretch from 3rd base to home. We sat high enough to have a nice overview of all the bases, the pitcher and the one at bat. Pure adviced that we move across the stairs to the other block of seats to avoid the hornet patrols. The view was still great. The game was between the home team 'New Britain Rock Cats' and the 'Norwich Navigators'. We had gotten there just in time because we only sat a few minutes when they announced the national anthem. The singing of the national anthem and the whole stadium taking time for it, was something that impressed me a lot! It was beautifully sung (even though I heard twice the land of the brave and not the land of the free ;-) ) and both teams and the public participated in this moment. That is a tradition that has been fading in Europe. I know most people of my country don't even know the lyrics to the national anthem and many sports athletes don't know it either. The game began and the atmosphere in the stadium was very fun...mascottes were trying to get the crowd in the mood, vendors would sell beers or cotton candy, people would applaud for a good play or effort and some would even take notes of the score. It didn't take long before I caught the vibe and started cheering for the Rock Cats too :jammin:
At the game I got to see some of the techniques that we practiced with little Evil performed by the players on the field like for example the 'double play manoeuver' I learned to observe the game closer and started to notice finer details such as players on 1st base who were trying to steal 2nd while the pitcher was in movement... In all honesty I sometimes had to look on the scoreboard to see whether it was a strike or a faul but I enjoyed myself a lot. The entertainment in between the innings was funny: all sorts of mini games would be organised often with participation from the public (mostly kids) e.g. kids running vs. mascottes. You could tell that the home team really did an effort to entertain the kids and to fill the gaps between the innings (imho a good point for the rock cats team). I left it to Pure's expertise to get us some snacks during the game and I thoroughly enjoyed the fried chicken with dip.

Even if we didn't get to a Major League game (because the tickets were too expensive and Yankee stadium isn't around the corner) I did enjoy myself a lot and I think I caught on to the fun atmosphere of baseball.

When we got home Pure invited me over to the firehouse where they had a spaghetti with meatballs and Italian bread with spread meal. I shook hands with the firemen of engine co 5 and Pure gave me a short tour (communications room, meeting room, Engine garage, historic fire cart for parades).

Pictures: Southington fire dept. engine co nr 5, New Britain Rock Cats vs Norwich Navigators

[DiTomasso]

Thank God theres more coming :rolleyes: :thumbs:

[Aries]

Day 19

As planned I would spend the weekend up in Massachusets with Caged Anger. This meant that Aries would meet Adam(s) ;-). I started out on this quest with the help of Pure's road atlas, handwritten directions and the tRusty Subaru ^___^. Instead of taking the highway, Pure had sent me along the back roads to MA to which he added "you'll enjoy this trip if you don't get lost; if you do get lost, you'll curse this trip". The handwritten directions were quite complete and accurate, allowing me to progress swiftly.
Not withstanding the quality of the directions, they did misguide me at one point. My unfamiliarity with the American road system was more to blame than Pure's directions though. What happened is the following: I looked at my sheet of directions and saw that I had to turn right at the 20/8 junction. Not long after that I arrived at a 20/8 junction and turned right. I continued down that road but started to get more suspicious by the minute because I seemed to be following route 20 whereas I was supposed to take route 8 north into MA. My suspicion was confirmed when after numerous sidewinding bends I stopped at a T-junction where they had road signs (again) at the side of the road). I checked the signs with the road atlas and was now convinced that indeed I had taken the wrong road. I still didn't quite understand where I went wrong until I turned to the Massachusets page of the road atlas and noticed a similar 20/8 junction (but this time with a shield icon around the 20!). Obviously Pure's directions were meant for the latter junction up in Massachusets. I decided to turn the car and return to the point where I had taken the right turn by mistake...I believe I speeded a bit on the way back because I was a bit frustrated about the dumb loss of time.
Finally I got back on the right track...drove into Massachusets and remembered Pure's warning "in MA they won't hesitate to make it clear to you that driving is a privilege and not a right" so I retracted my right foot a bit more. On my way I did enjoy the rock formations, the green foilage, the trees, the mountain rivers, the sight of bikers passing by...this was after all a relaxed road trip. It seemed that as I got closer to my destination, the interval between 'tag sales' was getting shorter and I passed many of them...some even caused hazardous traffic as moms would pull over abruptly to check out the Tag sale on the side of the road. I passed by places such as Dalton and Hinsdale and finally approached Adams...as a meeting place Caged and I had decided on the McDonalds of Adams...so I was on the lookout for the (in)famous logo. When I spotted it, I carefully entered the parking lot (which is always a trick since you have to squint your eyes to read the signs that say entrance and exit and preferably take the right one).
At the far end of the parking lot I saw a guy and a girl in waiting pose (I was three quarters of an hour late :doh: ). I didn't have to wonder for long if the guy was Caged because they were holding a big-ass cardboard sign with "Belgian guy" written all over it in what was almost smurf-blue. I pulled up right next to them with my 7331 Suby, entangled myself from the suicide seatbelts and got out of the car. They asked: "you don't happen to be a belgian dude" (I refrained from smacking them for calling me a dude) and I said "I guess I am". I shook hands with Caged and he introduced me to his cousin Rachel. Caged's enthusiasm urged him to put forward the generous proposition of going somewhere to have lunch and he would pay for it. After such a trip I liked the sound of a good lunch (but I wasn't going to let Caged pay for all of it). My observations lead me to believe that McDonalds apparently is often a reference point to meet people but this seldom leads to consumption with the guests at McDo itself (think that through marketing brains). In this case we ended up having lunch at the Firehouse cafe on Park Street (if I'm not mistaken). The cafe was decorated with things related to firemen and their job. We were lucky enough to get seated outside so we could enjoy both our lunch and the weather. During lunch I, Caged and his cousin had a nice conversation and I immediately felt at ease with these sympathetic people. After lunch I followed their car to Caged's home (because he claims I would have never found it on my own). Entering Caged's driveway was definitely an experience...his house is built on a hill with two sloping fields on both sides: one huge hayfield goes downhill towards the street and one other big field goes up even more to end at trees surrounding lower pond area. The view was magnificent (to me). It is such a nice display of nature and serenity (but I understand why Caged would disagree when he has to pick up all the hayblocks). To make the picture complete I noticed a 'lawn ornament' and a red tractor just before you get to the house. I'm forced to admit, my 7331 Suby isn't the most bad-ass pimp ride in GM anymore ;)...Caged Anger's 4-wheel drive Cherokee 'lawn ornament'-edition has got me beat :bawling:. Not long after I arrived I met with Caged's parents, friendly and hospitable people who gave me a warm welcome (although I was a total stranger to them). I dropped my stuff off in the guest room where I found that the service was way better than in the NY Pennsylvania hotel :down:. One other family member who greeted me with possibly even more enthusiasm than anyone else was Bruno...Caged's German Shephard, half-horse in size, bursting with reckless youthful energy (only 2 year's old) and presumable originally from a junkyard (Caged deducts that from the adrenaline rushes, the dog gets when he jumps into one of the vehicles). One of Bruno's favourite passtimes is to fetch whatever is thrown...and to make it challenging Bruno often offers whole branches to throw. Caged took me and Bruno to the pond to show the dog's swimming skills...unfortunately Bruno's orientation's skills aren't up to par to his swimming so sometimes he'll loose track of his toys in the water :-/
When we got back to the house, I noticed a basketball hoop and me and Caged played some fun one one one B-ball. We had to be carefull not to shoot too many airballs because otherwise the ball would fly down the hayhill. Let me warn you folks, when Caged turns his back on you that's when it gets dangerous....he namely has a wicked hookshot! I had a good time and both the atmosphere and the setting were excellent to relax in. I think Caged was scared that this rural setting would bore me and that he couldn't keep me entertained...so every five minutes, he would say "So, what do we do now?" But it didn't bother me at all and I enjoyed the calm of the summer Berkshires a welcome distraction from the past NY and CT weeks. In the evening Caged's family had organised an excellent BBQ with hamburgers, hotdogs, grandma's German potatoe salad, fruit-mix dessert and Mad Fox's brownies. They had invited their friends and I also met with Mad Fox there. We discussed all kinds of things around the camp fire and had a good time. Mad Fox showed the SUV (Ford expedition) he was driving and I made them (MF & CA) pose with the 'ultimate' cherokee (remove hornetnest after popping the hood). To top off the evening we drove into Adams town to look at the gathering of oldtimer/classic American (muscle) cars. Unfortunately it was close to the end of the event and already getting dark (especially for the camera shooting) but we still got to see many nice machines: pontiac GTO's, old Corvettes, chrome engine hot-rods, a pimp car with glowing dice,... (who said Adams couldn't be funky). When the car parade was over I sort of blackmailed Mad Fox into buying me an ice cream and got into an intercultural mix-up of scoops: in Belgium you order a # of ice cream balls and you pay accordingly...I thought that the advertised 'scoops' corresponded with 'one ice cream ball' so I ordered a two-scoop ice cream...only to find out later that Mad Fox's one scoop looked the size of THREE european ice cream balls...needless to say that out of politeness towards MF's tractation I licked like a maniac to finish my SIX ball-size two scooper of chocolate ice cream mmmmmmmm.

Pictures: Welcome to Adams MA, Caged and his lawn ornament, Caged Anger and Mad Fox, Car parade on park street

[Caged Anger]

:watchmovi :watch:

[Mad Fox]

The best segment is next

[NightBreed]

I arrived at a 20/8 junction and turned right. I continued down that road but started to get more suspicious by the minute because I seemed to be following route 20 whereas I was supposed to take route 8 north into MA. My suspicion was confirmed when after numerous sidewinding bends I stopped at a T-junction where they had road signs (again) at the side of the road). I checked the signs with the road atlas and was now convinced that indeed I had taken the wrong road. I still didn't quite understand where I went wrong until I turned to the Massachusets page of the road atlas and noticed a similar 20/8 junction (but this time with a shield icon around the 20!).
Hahaha..I know exactly where you were...nice riding up that way !!! :thumbs:


:confused: Any pics to add to this great story ??

[FUS1ON]

a big-ass cardboard sign with "Belgian guy" written all over it

:funny:

[Aries]

the next entry into the log is sure to raise some eyebrows :rolleyes:

Day 20

On Sunday I got up early and joined Caged to go to Church. The cathedral he and his family attended was over a century old (built around 1903 I believe) and Caged's father had shown me a book with the artwork of the church...this alone already legitimized a visit. Me and Caged took the Suby and drove to the service of 8:30 am. We parked near the Church and as we walked towards the entrance, I noticed a bronze statue of the recently deceased Pope right next to the church. It was obvious that the Polish Catholic community in Adams, MA didn't forget about their roots and were proud of their accomplishments. Inside the church was an overwhelming display of all kinds of artwork. No doubt this was all the work of skilled craftsmen and each piece was a piece of art on its own. However because of the abundance of decorations it sometimes gave me an impression of being piled up against each other a little too much. The overload of pastel colours and the tacky lighting (of halo's and around sculptures) didn't do the artwork of the church justice imho. Other than that it was an amazing Church where you could spend hours studying the detail. The service was lead by father Boyle and a remarkable guest priest. Caged and Mad Fox had already informed me that father Boyle owns many buildings (including the liquor store facing one of Adam's churches) and property in Adams. He apparantly lives in a mansion with restricted access and lives in discord with the nuns who run the local school. The remarkable guest priest was from *****ia, he spoke English but with an original take on grammar and accent so that it was kind of hard to follow his sermon. Basicly it came down to the fact that he was happy to come to Adams, MA because of the generosity of the people and he claimed their contributions would help the evangelisation process in *****ia (which is a dominantly Muslim country). He also thanked the nuns for his lodging. At one time during the service three service servants appeared of which two uniformed and they passed the pews for donations. To my surprise they repeated this routine once more...and I couldn't help thinking which percentage of the donations was going to father Boyle's mansion...

At the exit of the Church you could buy blueberries from one of the fathers of this community.

Outside the Church we cheered on the competitors in a run-bike competition where Caged's sister participated in the running event.

Then me and Caged drove back to the house where we figured out what we were going to do during the rest of the day. I noticed a museum on one of the local area maps: The Clark's Institute...We decided to go there with a visit to Mt. Greylock as a wildcard because it was also on that way. I drove the Suby and Caged was my co-pilot. Caged inserted an AC/DC cd in the cd player and we were on our way. We drove through the centre of Adams in the direction of North Adams until we got to a little bridge which made you go up a little and then downhill towards a traffic light. We descended towards the traffic light and just before getting to the intersection I noticed that the light changed to yellow. Because driving through Orange/Yellow is a severe offence in Belgium and because I thought I could still stop in time...I hit the brakes...the Suby stopped and instinctively I looked in the rear view mirror...I saw the bumper of a car coming down at us and it was clear that he hadn't expected my stop. In a flash of seconds I warned Caged and waited for the hit. BANG. What I did next is an example of being STUPID. I handled the whole thing totally WRONG because I was in a shock and didn't feel at ease in a foreign country where I didn't know the details of the regulations. I appologize for that to Caged and his family.

We got out of the car and I took a look at the damage. To my surprise there was hardly any damage to the Suby (only a big trail of rust on the road that had fallen off from the shock). This was thanks to the towing knob at the back. There was actually more damage to the car that hit us and for example his licence plate was trashed. I asked Caged if he felt any injuries but we both didn't feel anything (at first)...this is were I made the first mistake...I should have known that whiplash injuries often only surface later. Because there was hardly any material damage and because we didn't feel any physical damages (probably from the shock) so FOOLISHLY I minimized the situation and only exchanged addresses with the other driver. Without us sollicitating it, there was a Police car and an officer at the scene within minutes. When I looked over my shoulder I even saw a Fire Engine truck and four firemen...I felt embarrassed that they had to gear up for such a small accident but the officer reassured me that they had to drive out on every call (the accident happened close to the city hall of North Adams and close to the Police and fire station). Since I didn't report any physical injuries the police officer figured the damage was under $1000 and thus not worthed to make a big deal out of it. So in the end I FAILED to make an official report and left the scene with insufficient information about the other driver's insurance (I write this up so people can learn from my stupidity...I should have let the officer take care of all the paperwork and ask him to do everything by the book).

Instead we left the scene and continued our journey to the Clark Institute museum. Caged finely remarked that the cd player never skipped a beat :rofl: (I must credit him on his humour). Once again the Suby proved to be a sturdy machine. We were still a bit shaken but I was determined not to let this unfortunate event ruïn our day. Eventually we found the Clark's museum. This museum is located in an almost parklike setting and it's a minimalistic white rectangular building. We entered the roomy lobby and paid the entrance fee ($10 for adults and free for juvenile Caged :-p). We fetched a plan of the museum and started our discovery. The first room we went in explained how the museum had come to be...it highlighted the architectural concept and emphasized that the surrounding green area was part of the plan as well. The art collection itself is thanks to Mr. and Mss. Clark who collected art with a passion. (there was a biography of these benefactors and their money flow was also explained...Clark belonged to the family which became rich thanks to the Singer sewing machines).

We then moved on to the proudly promoted temporary exhibition: Jaques Louis David from Empire to Exile. JL David was one of the most demanded painters from Napoleon's time and he also made several works commissioned by the emperor (e.g. Napoleon's equestrian painting crossing the Alps, the crowning of Napoleon's concubine to empress, a portrait with the typical hand in vest pose). Inevitably his career as a painter was influenced by the political consequences of the French Revolution and the restoration of the monarchy afterwards. This is also reflected in the title of the exhibition....JL David was Napoleon's empirical painter at one time but when the monarchy was restored he was forced to flee because he had voted in favour of the death of the king. Guess where JL David fled to?! He fled to Brussels (capital of Belgium) and thus spent his exile years in Belgium (what are the odds of bumping into my tiny country in MA?!)

The themes of JL David art were either connected to the Revolution and Napoleon or drawn from (ancient Grecian) Mythology. He was also one of the highest sollicited portrait painters of his time...People requested a portrait painting by JL David to emphasize their status.
Not withstanding the fact that David's art was mostly in function of his rich clients, from time to time he added his own ideas via details in the artwork (the portrait of the head of taxes was on a canvas of an ackward narrow&high format and the facial expression looks smug; his interpretation of Amor and Psyche caused uproar because he depicted Aphrodite's/Venus's son as a common teenager after lovemaking; he made two versions of the historical/mytholigical theme of Leonidas who fought the Persians till the death of him and his men at the Greek Propylaeic to allow the rest of the Grecian army to escape...Napoleon disliked that theme because he considered Leonidas as a loser, nevertheless David devoted two paintings to these heroïc events).

There was also a self portrait of the painter JL David where he disguised his own physical trouble ( a tumor in his cheek) by painting it in the shadow.

During his period in exile he didn't paint much historical themes anymore (which at the same time allowed him to examine and experiment with drawing styles and other themes) but the quality of his work remained. The works were now commissioned by the French art-loving community in Brussels and other former emperical court members in exile.

After this elaborate and high quality temporary exhibition, me and Caged check out the permanent art collection of the Clark. It was an impressive collection of works from several known artists (Degas, Matisse, Rodin,...) from the Italian Renaissance to Impressionists and Victorian times. The collection also included an elaborately decorated piano and lots of eating silverwork and porcelain from Europe to China. There was also a Belgian artist among the permanent collection which I hadn't heard of before.

I can definitely recommend a visit to the Clark institute because of the wonderful collection of art and the excellent concept and service of the museum. You could put this museum among the NY musea without blushing.

Eventually we scratched the visit to Mt. Greylock...partly because of the accident and partly because the weather wasn't good for the visibility up top there.

I said goodbye to Caged's family and thanked them for the wonderful stay I had there :thumbs: and left for Connecticut again.

Pictures: hot rod (see previous day), imprint of the licence plate of the driver that hit us, Caged's Family pic

[Aries]

Hahaha..I know exactly where you were...nice riding up that way !!! :thumbs:


:confused: Any pics to add to this great story ??

I have stories for 5/6 more days, then I'll add the pictures to it ;-)

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Thanks again for sharing your experiences Aries. Looking forward to your next entry. :)

[Caged Anger]

:tounge: darn NY (State) drivers

:D The folks loved Aries...think they want him to come back soon. he has a completely different outlook on the world around us :thumbs:

[FUS1ON]

he has a completely different outlook on the world around us :thumbs:


For me I think that's a lot of the charm of his post. He reminds me of some of the things I have around me and take for granted or as commonplace and it's neat to be reminded. :)

[Aries]

Day 21

This day was to be a quiet transit day between the Berkshires weekend and the arrival of CF Thundarr on Tuesday...The only things I had planned was relaxing, writing and posting my postcards and doing the laundry...

...But of course it turned out differently...

In the morning I got an alarming phonecall by Caged: he had seen a chiropractor and they discovered that he had sustained an injury in his neck...

(Ironically he only had an injury on the left side of his neck because I had alarmed him just before the hit and at the time of impact he was looking to the side mirror)

The fated fall-out of my stupidity the day before had started. A hectic three-way communication between me, Pure and Caged began...We collected as many information as we could: advice from the car insurance company, Massachusets police phone number, Travel insurance was contacted, an appointment was made with a chiropractor to check me out (because I didn't feel 100% either).

Soon it became clear that the exchanged address information of the other driver was insufficient to contact him and thus we lacked the ability to bring his insurance into play. :doh:

Later that day I visited the chiropractor who ran electric current through my body and popped my neck like popcorn. Conclusion: I had a whiplash.

I called the MA police to ask them if there was still a possibility of reporting the accident...in an impolite way they said that I should come back up to North Adams MA with the vehicle for them to make a report.

All of these events disturbed my mood and I was angry most of all because it was my own fault that I had to deal with all the bs.

Luckily Pure as always had a sober outlook on the situation in which he didn't fail to point out I had acted in a dumb way (stating the facts without reproaching me) but he also taught me to put it aside and move on.

The ideal way to patch this bad day up was to go out with Pure and Moqarna to New Haven for pizza at PEPE's. According to Pure and Moq this was the best place to have pizza :wootrock:. Moq picked us up in his nice pick-up truck (Chevy Silverado if I'm not mistaken) and I was introduced to the excellent kidnap feature of a double cabin pick up with tinted windows...you can't see if there's anyone in the back seat and the back doors only open when the front doors are opened (somehow that's scary). When we arrived at PEPE's it's reputation of extraordinary pizza was matched by the waiting line in front...according to Pure and Moq's expertise the line equalled a waiting time of an hour and a half. So I took a picture of the waiting line, to show them back in Europe that fast-food isn't always easily obtainable in the USA. Pure stared down the teenagers in line who wanted to protest against this invasion of their privacy...it goes without saying that this tactic worked :P And after the picture we ran to the building on Pepe's parking lot where they serve the same quality pizza but where the line was considerable shorter :ha:
We ordered two relatively small pizza's and one big one: one with fresh clams (spelling?), one with brocoli, bacon and cheese, and one with pepperoni, tomatoe and cheese.
Us three almost completely finished (no pun intended) those pizza's. Only 5 pieces were left for breakfast/lunch the next day.
We had quite some laughs over dinner and it was a great evening.

Pictures: visiting the chiropractor's office, Pepe's pizza

[Aries]

And soon enters Thundarr into the action!!! I am arriving Tuesday evening staying til Sunday, can't wait!!! :cool: :thumbs:

Day 22

This is the day that CF Thundarr would arrive. She flew in from Michigan via Newark to New Haven (Bradley International airport). There was some delay on the Newark transfer but all in all her flight went well. Kudos to Thundarr for being willing to fly in and hang with us :thumbs:. So me and Pure drove to the airport to pick her up. As Pure drove around the parking area, I went inside -armed with my CF cap- to greet Thundarr. She noticed me almost immediately and waved. A minute after that her luggage arrived and we went outside to look for Pure. He drove by, we hauled the stuff in and were on our way to our Connecticut base. On monday, a new grill had arrived...and this was the perfect occasion for Pure to test it. Grilled chicken was on the menu and Pure did a decent job.

Afterwards Thundarr slipped into a tight T-shirt (Stormy Co-captain) of her pool league team to go out to a local pool hall. They even included me in their pool games although I lack any skill for that game. Much to my surprise I won the first round against Thundarr and next I had to play Poolshark Pure...this time I wasn't as lucky. In the meanwhile Thundarr was getting excited over the special seats who looked like miniature mechanic bulls. The games continued with wins and losses for everyone. Most of all we had fun throughout.

[Aries]

Day 23

While Pure was at work, me and Thundarr decided to go on a field trip to Yale University and it's Peabody Museum (of natural history). We took the Suby and drove to New Haven. CF Thundarr is a good co-pilot, the biggest difficulty of the trip was finding the right entrance on the Yale private parking property. Eventually we found the Peabody parking zone and squized the Suby in between the numerous cars. As we walked from the parking to the Peabody museum entrance, Thundarr's attention was captured by a giant piece of rock...which is destined to be the base for a huge Dinosaur advertising the museum. The Dinosaur isn't in place yet but there are descriptions of what the final result will look like. If you thought the rock was impressive, the architectural detail of the Peabody's museum will totally amaze you. Even more noteworthy than it's outside is what Peabody has to offer on the inside...their collections and exhibitions are wonderful and very educational. The first collection we encountered on the first floor was the native american art collection. The Peabody museum holds a rich collection of items with a big variety in origin (tribes) and usage. My jaw dropped often and I came eyes short to absorb all what was shown. These items show beyond a doubt the depth of some of the native american cultures. There were eskimo dolls with different clothing outfits in several layers...in a superior quality then the most luxurious barbie dolls and most likely which a much more utilitarian usage (these were probably used to educate kids on how to dress during the season's and which animal skins were used for it-my guess). I also saw a children's toy which was a toy and an educational device for the hunt at the same time: it consisted of a piece of wood with a hole on one end, there was a string and a wooden pad in the rough shape of a seal attached to the first piece of wood...the goal was to use a miniature harpoon, shoot it through the hole in the piece of wood and hit the seal in the head. There were decorative belts (with metal and mineral stones) and decorated leather bags which put the fashionable items in trendy stores to shame. As I walked through the exhibition I learned that some of the native american items (such as a big Sioux chief's war feathers) were donated to one of Yale's former professors because of a personal friendship between the Indian leader and the professor. After running into some native American tribes on one of his study expeditions, the professor had listened to the Chief's stories about abuse and maltreatment of his people. Back in the academic and political world the professor lend these native American tribe(s) a voice and helped bring out this unjust treatment to the general public and better their condition. The exhibition did not limit itself to the native tribes of the USA but it tried to give a sample and an overview of the total native tribe culture...therefore there were also items of Polynesian and Aboriginal tribes included in the exhibit. I learned that there was a specific Polynesian tribe which already had a developed form of capitalism :eek: with a certain type of seashells as a currency! I believe the native american art collection is permanent and it's definitely something I can recommend.

The next exhibit was a temporary one which gave a total overview of all the scientists involved in anthropology, evolution theory and the excavation of early human fossils. From Darwin over Leakey to the most recent discoveries. Both the scientists and their findings were highlighted. The exhibition offered such an abundance of information that even if we were willing and tried hard, we just couldn't keep reading every bit of information provided. It wasn't limited to tons of text either: video material, artifacts (among which the fossile bones of skeleton 'Lucy'), archeological excavation material, reconstructed models of early human skulls to be compared with the current homo sapiens skull etc... Once again the close link between Yale university and the Peabody museum provided just that little 'extra' to the exhibition because thanks to that bound there were for example letters included from Darwin to a Yale professor and a cartoon drawing from another scientist relativating his own work during a visit to Yale...

The third part of Peabody (still on the first floor) was the typical natural history part of the museum: Reconstructed skeletons of Dinosaurs...some life-size. Explanations of how the different bone and teeth structures reflected the different needs in movement, gripping and eating. Extinct animals of which stuffed versions were put against a painted background of their presumed habitat.

Then we moved on to the second floor...A biography of the Yale professor who had the Peabody museum built was provided (the museum had moved to another building over the years but in memory of the original they built in the original lion's head welcome plate into the current building). The changes in meteorite stones that fall on earth were explained with real samples of meteorites in the different stages. Thundarr used a one dollarcent coin to try out an educational device which showed the mechanism of a tornado (with documented material about a dual tornado in the region many years ago).

On the third floor, we first encountered a collection of natural minerals...in all sorts of shapes and colours, next were displays of stuffed contemporary North American wildlife (Aries, Grizzly, Polar bear, mountain lion,...) followed by an extensive exposition of (stuffed) contemporary bird species of Connecticut state (with a remarkable reference to the DoDo). Last but not least there was also an exhibition of ancient Egyptian art and artefacts.

The Peabody Museum is a must to visit and provides tons of interesting things.

We managed to see the entire museum and by the time we were finished it was closing time!

Once out of the museum, me and Thundarr decided to stroll along the buildings of Yale university and discover the campus by foot. We passed by many remarkable buildings, many of them in a castle or fortress like style...each with their own function or origin (class of 1954 building, environmental studies,...). What particularly surprised me was the big spaces of beautiful green areas that were planned in between the buildings of the university. There are tons of parks where students can let their minds breathe. We walked a few blocks in the heat and then we headed back to the car.

Back at Pure's we went out for pizza at a local place in Southington where the owner has decorated his place almost as a museum of hot wheels (toy cars under the tables, larger miniatures on the ceiling, logo's everywhere)

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Another jewel. Thanks Aries. :)

[Die Hard]

Another jewel. Thanks Aries. :)
Absolutely true. Great stuff Aries :thumbs:

[Pure_Evil]

Definately a bunch of great memories :D :thumbs:

[Aries]

Day 24

Due to the aforementioned circumstances, I had to drive back up to North Adams Massachusets if I wanted to report the accident to the local police there. So with gentle force, I persuaded CF Thundarr to accompany me back to the Berkshires. She hadn't seen the green drive up there yet and who knows we might even get the chance to combine the police report duty with more interesting activities in the area. We took the Suby and the directions I used previously. Thundarr co-piloted again and this time I wasn't confused by the 20/8 junction. We got to Adams, but I didn't knew the exact location of the police station nor of the traffic light where the accident had happened, so I decided to drive up to Caged's house to check with him. At Caged's house his sister told me he was on an excursion but she could help, pointing out both the police station and the accident site on a local area map. Meanwhile Thundarr got acquainted with Bruno :P Once I got the necessary information, I drove to the North Adams police station. I was greeted with the same impoliteness as before (on the phone) by the dispatcher and after I politely insisted an officer came out of the enclosed to station to make up the report of the accident. I fetched my papers from the car and the officer made copies of it, listened to my story and made some notes. He then told me they would try to track down the driver that hit me and they would keep me, Caged or Pure posted about the progress of the file. It would take them a few days to get it all together though (Up to today I nor Pure nor Caged have heard from them...to swerve and deflect imho).

After this 'business' part of our trip, me and Thundarr looked for a nice place to eat. It was a little past noon and the stylish sportsbar/jazzlounge/cafe/restaurant we found (I believe it was Gideon's) was calm and quiet...excellent to relax and enjoy the food. Thundarr had tomatoe soup and a salad and I took my chances on the white lasagna. The food was good and this gave us new strength and energy to explore the surroundings. On the local area map with sightseeing spots, I had seen the Herman Melville Arrowhead. Amazed at the proximity of the house of the author of Moby Dick, I decided to make the leap from white lasagna to white whale.

We went on our way and soon found out that the distance and direction of the roads on the local area map were drawn with artistic imaginative licence.
However we didn't get discouraged and co-pilot Thundarr unscrambled the road directions and eventually we found Herman Melville's Arrowhead (which is a cool name for his old house and barn). We just missed the last tour...but we were able to catch the atmosphere from the old barn which was part educational room and part gift shop: T-shirts with slogans such as 'Call me Ishmael', bumperstickers, miniature whales and much more stuff. Thundarr bought a nice (photo) book about the Berkshires and I bought a comic version of moby dick with historical notes about the book and whale catching of the time (might come in handy in class one day).

Then we headed back to Connecticut. When Pure got home he offered us an extraordinary experience which both me and Thundarr had anxiously anticipated: he took us across the street to the Firehouse to try on the full firemen gear. Pure first suited Thundarr up. She stepped into the big boots and pulled the oversized pants up. Pure gave her a fire protection skullcap made of the same material that Nascar racers use. Next she tried on the mask for the oxygen. When that was strapped on right, she slipped into the jacket and Pure attached the oxygen reservoir to her back and placed the respirator on the mask. Behold Darth Thundarr :wootrock:. I still have to add one interesting detail to this description. The oxygen pack is equipped with an alarm that will emit a high peeping sound when it senses that the fireman hasn't moved for a certain amount of time (this is an emergency signal to locate firemen in trouble). So everytime this happened during the suiting up, Pure would order Thundarr to shake her booty :rofl:. Fully clothed as a firewoman, Thundarr got some heavy duty breaking and entering tools to pose with.

Next it was my turn to get geared up. I got the honour to wear Pure's new equipment. I went through the same routine as Thundarr and let me tell you two things: it weighs and makes you sweat (even without moving). I tried to dash with the suit and the performance was ok (for my physical condition) but it did feel strange to run with those boots. As an accessory I got an axe :jammin:. After expressing my curiosity about the waterhoses and connection pieces, Pure put me to a practical test. I accepted the glove(s) for this challenge (both literally and figurally speaking). The assignment was to connect the waterhose to the heavy iron connection piece which would normaly be on a fire hydrant at the side of the rode. I had to do this with the 'finer' firemen gloves on and tighten the connection with the help of an iron tool. After a few attempts I succeeded. This was a great experience, thank you Pure and Southington fire dept. engine co nr 5 for giving us a faint idea of how it feels to be a fireman. Pure had selected a quiet night for these experiments but throughout the whole thing we crossed our fingers that there wouldn't be a real firecall so that we wouldn't have to rush out of the gear...when we got back on the doorstep of Pure's house (remember just across the street) Pure DID get a beeped for a real firecall...just our luck that we had done 'playing around'.

When Pure got back from the call, on Thundarr's suggestion us three went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. I had a Brownie special ice cream with brownie chips in it. It was yummy and it's definitely something you won't find in Europe.

[Aries]

Day 25

In the morning Thundarr and Pure visited a Castle and did some hiking.
I went to Sturbridge MA to visit a friend.

In the evening we first dined out at a popular Mexican restaurant. The atmosphere, service and food was great. There were even Mariachi's to liven up things while you were eating.

Later that night me, Thundarr and Pure went clubbing in Hartford again. We visited the same club that me and Pure crashed earlier on my trip. This time there was more dancing competition for me. Right next to us stood a tall and very flexible breakdancer whose skills and moves were amazing. My jaw dropped by just looking at it. Nevertheless I still had lots of fun and I danced without caring about my whiplash. There was a foam party going on so we stayed at the outskirts of the dancefloor, which coïncidentally was an excellent spot to check out the hotties on the dancing stage ^___^

[Pure_Evil]

:cool: hotties indeed :cool:

[DiTomasso]

:rolleyes: :D :thumbs:

[Aries]

Sounds like you're having a fun time. :thumbs: Thanks for sharing your version of events. :)
Do you have any pics to post?

Pictures are added to the relevant posts thanks to the edit function ;)

[Sexyjess]

looking cute n sweet as always aries ;P

[Caged Anger]

great insder images of the jeep...just what everyone needed to see....its bad enough you can see it on google earth, :rolleyes:

[Slice]

That's so cool you went to Pepes. As a kid we would hit that place up for a slice after a night of partying in New Haven. I pretty much grew up about 10 miles away in a town called North Haven.

[Die Hard]

Great pics Aries. I see you came equipped with a supply of CF hats :D

[NightBreed]

Awesome thread !!!!! Love the pics !! :wub: :thumbs:

[Aries]

Great pics Aries. I see you came equipped with a supply of CF hats :D

Every member has their own CF hat ( a donation from leon-sama) and we are just proud to represent!

I brought mine and Thundarr brought hers ;) :thumbs:

[Scorch]

Nice stuff! :D

[Thundarr]

So glad to see all the pics put in here I have my own to add, I will get on it very shortly as I just got back from another weekend out of town visiting my grandparents... :thumbs: :woohoo:

[FUS1ON]

Woot, Great peeps having fun!

[DiTomasso]

Nice pictures Aries :thumbs: , thx for sharing :cool:

[Thundarr]

Since Aries so eloquently told the stories, I am just adding my photos except for a few from Pure and Thundarr excursions... :D

[Thundarr]

What a great place, a must see!!

[Thundarr]

Beautiful architecture!!

[Thundarr]

9 foot tables are not my forte, right guys? :o

[Thundarr]

Views from Caged Anger's house... Sorry I missed meeting you and Mad Fox!! :( Bruno is definitely a HUGE dog and what a sweetheart, I played throw the stick with him while Aries got directions from Caged's sis... :D

[Thundarr]

Arrowhead... :)

[Thundarr]

What fun this was!! Thanks so much for this experience, Pure!!! :thumbs:

[Thundarr]

More of the firefighters!!

[Thundarr]

These are of a great hike Pure took me on! It was great fun and very scenic, was strange to me to see rhododendrons out in the woods, normally I only see them as landscaping plants!

[Thundarr]

Beautiful!

[Thundarr]

This was before we left for the club. I must say, Mr. Aries sure can dance! Very talented!! :cool:

[Mad Fox]

I think that every year Gamemecca should have a vacation thread where the ppl og gamemecca shae photos and stories of their vacations

[Thundarr]

Got a couple cute shots of Little Evil at the Rock Cats game Sunday afternoon... :wub: Was a great time, thanks so much to Pure for the hospitality!!! :cool: :thumbs:

[Die Hard]

Great pics, thanks Tundar :)

[He Is Legend]

Great pics