fauxklore

I went up to New York for the weekend. The primary purpose of the trip was going to a Brooklyn Cyclones game with bugsybanana and her mother. The actual travel was straightforward enough, though Amtrak failed Line Management 101 at Union Station Friday evening by just herding people into a holding area by Gate D and letting a mad rush ensue when they opened the gate. We ended up leaving about 15 minutes late because of some unspecified minor mechanical problem, but it didn’t matter much.

I stayed at the Moxy, which is convenient to Penn Station and very modernistic. For example, the bathroom tiles are meant to look like a swimming pool, complete with a "no diving" sign. The sound proofing wasn’t terrible, though there is street noise – which is a problem at most hotels in NYC. They do provide earplugs, but I hate wearing them.

I had planned to do some shopping Saturday morning, but it was pouring out. So I went back to the hotel after getting breakfast at a nearby coffee shop and napped a bit. I left about noon to head downtown and get a kasha knish at Yonah Shimmel’s for lunch. It had stopped raining, which was good, as I was going on a walking tour.

Big Onion Tour – Satan’s Seat: I’ve done tons of walking tours in many cities, but it had occurred to me that I had never actually done one in New York City. Looking at various options, I found Big Onion, which has a pretty wide selection at a reasonable price ($25). I chose one called Satan’s Seat: New York During Prohibition. The tour started at Houston and the Bowery and finished in Greenwich Village, in front of Chumley’s. The guide, Sarah, is a grad student in history at Columbia, and she talked knowledgeably and entertainingly about the era. She started with McGurk’s Suicide Hall, a notorious saloon and hotel of the late 19th century which catered to prostitutes, several of whom killed themselves there. It was the existence of places like that which was part of the impetus for the temperance movement.

Carrie Nation and her hatchet were talked about, as was Margaret Sanger as a different example of how women were trying to reform society. There were stories about Tammany Hall, political corruption, and the rise of Fiorello LaGuardia. There were also bits about jazz music, including stops at Minetta Tavern and finishing up at Chumley’s, where the address of 86 Bedford Street allegedly led to the term to "86" someone.

All in all, it was an interesting tour and I would definitely consider doing other of their tours in the future.

Brooklyn Cyclones: It’s a long subway ride down to Coney Island, but the ballpark is a short walk from the station. It’s a lovely little park. The play wasn’t really impressive, but one doesn’t expect much at the A-short season level of the minors. Still, the game was close and the Cyclones beat the Aberdeen Ironbirds. My only complaint was that the concessions lines were long and slow-moving. Overall, I had a good time and it was definitely worth getting another ball park checked off. Of course, there’s a couple of hundred minor league ballparks and if I continue at the pace of getting to maybe three per summer, I’ll have to live into my hundreds. Which seems unlikely, at best.

The trip home on Sunday was also uneventful. Or, at least, I assume so since I managed to sleep from about the middle of New Jersey to about Baltimore.

Speaking of Baseball: Oh, what a weekend! The Red Sox sweep of the Source of All Evil in the Universe is just so sweet, especially since it happened despite Chris Sales being on the DL. Yes, I know it ain’t over till it’s over, but just let me gloat for a day or twelve.

I am not entirely sure how I first found out about The One Day Hike but I stumbled upon their website a few years ago and was intrigued by the idea of walking 50 or 100 kilometers (31.1 or 62.1 miles) along the C&O canal towpath in one day. The dates never worked and the distance was daunting. But, when my friend, Suzanne, was asking about an interesting challenge to pursue this year, I thought of this. We decided the 50K was challenging enough and marked our calendars. It's a good thing we were paying attention to when registration opened as the event is limited to 350 hikers and it sold out in under half an hour. By the way, we had tried to talk other people into signing up, too, but everyone we know universally agreed it was an insane thing to do.

I didn't manage nearly as much training as I'd intended to, but I did enough to figure that I could survive hike day. There is a shuttle bus for 50K hikers to their start point (at White's Ferry). The shuttle goes from the Shady Grove metro station, so it made sense to stay at a hotel out that way overnight and not deal with potential metro delays. (I actually stayed in Gaithersburg both Friday and Saturday nights, figuring that I'd be tired enough not to want to drive all the way home after the hike. That was definitely a good decision.) Suzanne flew out from Los Angeles on Thursday and was staying at a different hotel nearby, by the way.

Finding the shuttle bus in the morning was slightly challenging since the directions said to go to the "old parking structure." It would be better to identify that as the 2-story parking structure since the new one is 6 stories and relative height is a lot more obvious than relative age. Still, that was the only real glitch in an extremely well-organized event.

On arrival at White’s Ferry, we picked up our bibs and signed the liability waiver. I had filled out the medical form on-line, but others did it on site. We also got a handout with a map and miscellaneous information about the hike. Then we had a bit of a wait for the official start time. Finally, hike director Mike Darzi gathered us around, gave a short talk, and we were off. I am towards the left (facing sideways and wearing a blue plaid hat) in this picture from the start point:

The first stretch of the 50K hike was actually going back towards Washington for about 3.5K. People started bunched off and gradually spread out along the way. Suzanne was, of course, already way ahead of me, allowing her to get this picture of me while I was still out-bound and she had already turned around. By the way, the turn-around point was well marked with people and bicycle patrols, so it would have been effectively impossible to miss it.

50K hikers don’t need to check in when they get back to White’s Ferry, but they can still avail themselves of the support station there. I grabbed a peanut butter sandwich for an early lunch, which I ate while I continued on the path. The next support station was at the 17.5K mark at the Moncacy River. I had stopped a little before that to use a port-a-potty, bandage a developing blister, and change socks. That enabled me to fall in with a group of people who were also changing socks at that point, and we would walk together off and on for much of the day.

Because I had made that atop, I pretty much just checked in and out at the Monocacy River support station, other than refilling my water bottles. (I had my platypus water system filled with plain water and a small bottle of water which I added half a nuum electrolyte tablet to. This combination worked very well for me.) Should one have needed it, there were plenty of food options and a first aid station available there.

The next stretch was 10K to Point of Rocks. This was actually the hardest part of the hike for me, primarily because of the one thing I had not brought along – namely, insect repellant. I felt surrounded by gnats and, combined with growing blisters, was wondering exactly why I was doing this. There was an Amtrak train passing by and I thought about how nice it would be to be sitting comfortably watching the same scenery passing by. But I gave myself a “you can do it” lecture and kept pushing on. When I got to the Point of Rocks support station, I got a bowl of soup and took off my shoes. By the time I was done eating, I felt ready to re-bandage my feet, change socks again, and push on.

I felt really good for a while after that. The Brunswick support station (aka Camp Flamingo) was 10.6K away and I enjoyed the first 7 or so kilometers of that. I was starting to fade, when one of the people on bike patrol asked me if there was anything I needed. I had plenty of water and snacks, so I said, “no.” And she said, “okay, how about a joke?” That’s an offer I never turn down and it proved to be just what I needed. By the time I got to Camp Flamingo, I realized what I really wanted was caffeine. And, right at the entrance to that support station, there was a nice big urn of coffee! I’m normally way too much of a coffee snob to drink commercial coffee, but it was exactly what I needed at that moment. I also decided that it was a good idea to get a more professional job on my blisters, so stopped by the first aid area. Patched up (and with a final change of socks), caffeinated, and refreshed (I also ate an orange), I was ready to go on. (By the way, I see now that there was supposed to a map of the final leg as a handout at this station. If there was one, I never saw it.)

The group I had been walking with off and on decided to drop out, largely because one guy’s feet were in bad shape. But I soon ended up walking with a woman who had done the hike 4 times before. Eventually we reached the spiral metal staircase up to the footbridge over the Potomac to Harper’s Ferry. I’d worried about missing this point, too, but there was a volunteer on hand to make sure people turned off the towpath to it.

The towpath is very flat but the route through Harper's Ferry involves a steep uphill climb. That's on a sidewalk, but still, it is a steep uphill climb at a point after you have already walked more than a marathon. Still, there's just about a mile to go at that point, so there really wouldn't be any reason to quit. I trudged onwards, telling myself "one more step." And, then, there it was - the finish point at the Bolivar Community Center! The first thing they do is take your picture.

I'm not crazy about the photo since my hair is a mess (thanks to the hat during the day and my headlamp after dark). And I am slouching. I should have at least taken my hands out of my pockets! But, still, I am smiling because I succeeded.

I ate some pizza while waiting for the bus back to Shady Grove. I tried to call Suzanne (who had, of course, finished hours earlier), but had no cell phone signal, so had to wait until I was back closer to civilization. During the ride back, I dozed off a bit, but I was happy and satisfied.

So, what worked well and what didn't? My water strategy was very effective. I am also very happy with the new headlamp I'd bought at REI. And bringing a few changes of socks worked well for me.

My biggest failure was not realizing I would need insect repellant. I also brought way too much food with me. I had cheese crackers, salmon jerky, and my favorite trail mix (Trader Joe's makes one with just cashews, almonds, and chocolate). There was enough stuff and of enough variety at the support stations that bringing all that along was really unnecessary. The other thing I noticed was that the things that hurt during training didn't, but new things did. For example, I'd put a heat patch on a spot on my back that had hurt on some of the longer training walks, but it was my left hip that annoyed me during the hike. Similarly, the blister pads I'd put on my little toes worked well, but I got blisters on the part of the balls of my feet towards the instep. And, on my right foot, which normally never gets blisters, no less! I guess the message is that you can protect only against some problems, but there will be unanticipated ones.

Overall, I am very very happy that I did the hike. It was a good, but achievable, challenge. The Sierra Club volunteers did an excellent job with running the support stations and having the bike patrols and just, generally, anticipating needs I didn't always realize I had. I would definitely consider attempting the 100K at some point, though not for a few years.

I should add that I recovered surprisingly quickly. I was able to socialize more or less normally at a party at a friend's house the next day, for example. And I was back to my usual whirl of activity the next weekend. But that's another (yes, overdue) entry.

Completing March, I had a bunch of travel in the latter half of the month, partly to feel safe about meeting the terms for the United challenge I was doing (which I did succeed at).

It started with a theatre binge in New York, for which I actually flew up to JFK, which is not as convenient as the train, though the Air Train into the city makes it tolerable. Before the theatre going, I had time for my usual midtown stroll, which involves a number of personal touchstones. I feel reassured whenever I go to New York and my favorite places – the Chrysler Building, the Salmon Building (which I only learned the identity of within the past year), and (most of all) the library with its lions – are still there.

The motivation for the trip was the Encores production of It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman, a musical I love the score of. I love the score even more after seeing this production. Encores does concert versions of forgotten musicals and their interpretation of “concert version” means cutting out a large part of the book, though they leave enough dialogue to make things easy to follow. One of the things I particularly love is the orchestration, which has 3 French horns, 3 violas, and none of those twerpy violins. (I took viola for a couple of years in school, so am biased against those screechy guys who stole the melody while I got to play three notes every 10 measures.) The downside is, of course, the earworms that got set off and I hereby apologize to everyone who had to listen to me humming “You’ve Got Possibilities” and “The Woman for the Man” for the next week. (I also love “The Strongest Man in the World” but it is not quite as sticky. In fact, the only song from this show I don’t much care for is “It’s Supernice.”) Anyway, the staging was clever (using a cardboard figure to do the flying, for example), the cast was right on the mark, and the show was sheer fun. There was a talkback afterwards and a particular thrill is that Charles Strouse and Lee Adams were there. By the way, a fun bit of theatre trivia is that all of the scientists referenced in the song “Revenge” are real, although the dates of the Nobel prizes are changed.

As if that wasn’t enough theatre fun, after getting my New York deli fix (ah, full sour pickles!) I went to the Musicals Tonight! production of Strike Up the Band. Anybody who knows me knows that I believe that the Gershwins were the pinnacle of American music. This was also a concert production in the more conventional sense – actors carrying scripts, a piano instead of a full orchestra – but it was still a lot of fun. The production used the 1927 version with some of the 1930 songs (e.g. “Soon”). I haven’t verified it, but I suspect consistency with the 1990 studio cast recording. At any rate, the show does have a bit of a Gilbert and Sullivan feel to it (which is a good thing) and is very very funny. The performances were, however, a bit uneven.

In the morning, I flew from EWR to BOS, where I met up with ron_newman and nonelvis (who had, somewhat surprisingly, never met before) for brunch in Somerville. After food and lively conversation, I took a long walk, using slightly vague directions, to Mount Auburn Cemetery. The only real issue was figuring out where to get off the path around Fresh Pond and return to the street. It had been years since I had last walked around the cemetery, but it was as pleasant a walk as I remembered it being. Then I walked up to Harvard Square, browsed at (but did not) books at the Coop, and got the T back to the airport for my flight home.

I spent the first Pesach seder with friends. The highlight was a discussion of Chad Gadya which centered on whether or not two zuzim is a good price for a kid. I admit to not knowing the exchange rate for the zuz and I am not up on the price of goats in any currency, but it was still amusing late night conversation. The second night was saner.

Then I did a quick day trip to Louisville, Kentucky. I did the two-state Volksmarch event there. I opted for just the 11 kilometer version because I needed the extra time to tour the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. The factory tour is highly recommended. I got to see them making opening day bats for David Wright of the Mets! They were also putting the finish on Ryan ZImmeran’s bats. I’m now more conscious of how customized bats are for major league players. I continued a little beyond where the walking route did and succeeded in finding the plaque that commemorates the writing of “Happy Birthday.” The walk also had a stretch through parks along the Ohio River and crossed a bridge to Indiana (and back).

The trip home featured a flight delay on the first leg from SDF to CLE. Since I was concerned about my connection, I asked about being protected on a flight from CLE to IAD, which was scheduled for an hour after my CLE to DCA leg. Instead, the agent rebooked me on Delta via DTW. The DTW flight got to DCA just a half hour after my original flight and I credit Delta flights to Alaska Air, so that’s okay, but it was weird. (Looking at flightaware after the fact, it looks like I could have easily made my original connection, by the way.) I am still working on getting original routing credit from United.

Finally, my friend Suzanne flew out here and we did a couple of training walks for the One Day Hike. We did 13 miles on Saturday and 8 on Sunday, which is decent. But, of course, walking 31.1 is still going to be challenging. Challenge is good.

One of my theories on travel is that it is worth going somewhere if my time at the destination is at least three times the transportation time involved. I have violated this a few times, generally for frequent flyer related events where the journey is the destination. But, in general, it’s a rule I try to adhere to. It provides an excellent justification for a long weekend trip to London, which I did at the beginning of the month.

United has a daytime flight from IAD to LHR, which is wonderful. You leave Dulles at 9:30 in the morning and get in at about 10 p.m. Seven hours and daytime makes this perfectly reasonable to do in coach. The flight was remarkably empty. It was an older plane with somewhat limited seatback entertainment selections, but I was still able to find two movies to watch. One for the Money was not as good as the Stephanie Plum novels, but still pretty entertaining. Albert Nobbs was, alas, merely dull. Food was mediocre (breakfast was choice of omelet or french toast, snack before landing was sandwich and chips) but not horrible.

I’ve heard horror stories about immigration at LHR in recent days and they did appear understaffed at terminal 1, but I got through in under a half hour. I got some money at an ATM, bought a pay-as-you-go Oyster card (something I really ought to have done a couple of years ago), and took the tube to Earl’s Court. I stayed at Base 2 Stay Kensington, which was relatively reasonably priced and very convenient. The room was small, with a twin bed, but had a refrigerator and microwave and free internet via the television (somewhat slow but useful for things like checking opening hours and weather).

The primary object of the trip was seeing the exhibit at the Natural History Museum on Scott’s Last Expedition and I did that Friday morning. The museum was an easy and pleasant walk from the hotel. I thought they did an excellent job of highlighting the science that Scott’s men performed, which is one of the key differences between his expedition and Amundsen’s. There’s a lot one can criticize Scott for (especially his last minute decision to add a fifth man to the polar party). But seeing the replica of the Cape Evans hut and the samples in the work area, really brought out that his was a scientific expedition and not a mere race to the Pole. I was also pleased that they had a lot of material both on the Western expedition (“the worst journey in the world”) and the Northern party. The latter is truly one of the great survival stories of all time, as the men, who’d planned a six week trip, unexpectedly wintered in an ice cave when the ship was unable to reach them and then managed to walk to the main expedition hut. All in all, the exhibit was well worth a couple of hours.

After grabbing a quick lunch, I took the tube east to the West Ham station. Why was I off to the industrial wastelands of East London? The Olympics are coming up and London Walks had a walk that took in the Olympic venues. I’ve done several of these walks over the years and I’ve enjoyed all of them. This one was largely along a greenway that had been built on top of the sewer system. The guide talked about the history of the area, which included pointing out the gas works where the rockets used in the War of 1812 were manufactured. There was one very dramatic building, resembling a cathedral, which turned out to be the main pumping station for the sewer system. There was also plenty of trivia about the Olympics. Eventually we reached the Olympics Park area and had excellent views of various venues, including the stadium, the aquatic center, and a rather dreadful modern sculpture that looks like it should be a roller coaster. At the end of the walk, we were near the Pudding Mill Lane station of the Docklands Light Rail, making for an easy connection back to the tube and central London.

I meandered over to Leicester Square and bought a cheap ticket to see Top Hat that evening. I had time for a pub dinner at the Wellington (delicious smoked haddock fish cakes, salad, and roasted potatoes, but rather bland Cornish ale) before the show. The stage adaptation of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie was reasonably entertaining. The plot was silly and a bit sexist and the first act could have used some tightening up. (Bear in mind, however, that I dislike farce.) But the Irving Berlin score (which includes such songs as “Cheek to Cheek” and “Let’s Face the Music and Dance”) is excellent. The performances, by Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen as the leads, were excellent, with strong support from Martin Ball, Vivien Perry, and Stephen Boswell. All in all, it was an enjoyable evening.

Robert and I may no longer be conducting the world’s longest running brief meaningless fling, but we are trying to be civilized and made plans to get together on Saturday to do a foodie walk of the West End. Neither of us had quite realized that this was not a tasting tour. Instead, it was just a normal London Walk, but with a focus on food-related sites and stories. That was probably better for us, anyway, and it was definitely entertaining. The sites included the Ritz, Fortnum and Mason, chocolate and cheese shops with royal warrants, Italian delis, a gelato shop (where we did get samples) and, eventually, Chinatown. We took advantage of the latter for lunch after the tour. All in all, I had a good time and we got along well enough that maybe we can continue to be friends.

I can’t go to London without a visit to Foyle’s, one of the greatest bookstores in the world. I took advantage of the visit to replace my dated copy of the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetables, as well as to buy Alexander McCall Smith’s new Professor Dr. von Igelfeld book, which is not yet available in the U.S. (and was a quick and enjoyable read).

As for Saturday night, I had done a quick look at the website of the Society for Storytelling and found out about Story meal. The concept, eating a meal and listening to stories, was right up my alley. The location was a short walk from a tube station and easy enough to find. The storyteller for the evening, Fema Martin, was more literary than I might have preferred, but she did tell (rather than read) and her pieces were interesting. The conversation was as appealing as the stories, with a wide range of attendees. And the food wasn’t bad, either. I would definitely go again if I were in London when this is happening.

The trip home was pretty painless. It was a newer plane, with audio-visual on demand. I took advantage of that to watch Young Adult, a very interesting movie starring Charlize Theron as a writer struggling against her own immaturity. I also watched The Bucket List, which I had surprisingly never seen before and mostly enjoyed.

Overall, it was an excellent trip. I could have used better weather and I wouldn’t have minded another day, but it was definitely worth even such a short excursion.

I may have misled people a bit with my protein query. I'm not looking at anything particularly radical - just something to be somewhat more conscious of when grocery shopping and meal planning. For example, I can choose a higher protein alternative for, say, breakfast cereal (or, for that matter, Greek yogurt over regular yogurt).

My biggest event of the week was the change in my commute. We had a nice cushy private bus from West Falls Church to the Mark Center. Key word is "had." On Tuesday, it switched to a metro bus. Not only is it less comfortable, it is just an "express" not a non-stop. Apparently "express" means it stops only every 3 blocks instead of every single block. It takes 20 minutes longer. There is much grumbling.

I did a minor experiment on Wednesday and took advantage of excellent, spring-like weather. I walked from the Mark Center to Ballston Metro. If I figured correctly, that is just under 5 miles, which is a nice distance for a weeknight mind clearing walk. Most of it was pleasant and I noticed a couple of potential route alternatives that might be even nicer. Given that it still gets dark early and I have a terrible sense of direction, I was loathe to deviate from the route I'd planned. As the sun returns, I plan to see what happens if I pick up some of the trails, instead of sticking to streets.

Finally, my knitting group had a yarn frenzy last week and this. One of Tom's coworkers inherited a large quantity of yarn (and related books) and, after keeping half of it, passed the rest along to him. He picked over things and kept some, but he still had 13 some odd tubs of yarn and 3 boxes of books to share. Free yarn doesn't count as stash accumulation, right? And free books don't take up bookshelf space. I even know what I intend to do with some of the yarn I took.

Since the weather was nice out, I walked to the Georgetown University Hospital from the Rosslyn metro, instead of taking the shuttle bus this morning. It's a pleasant walk with just one very steep block (on 35th between M and Prospect). I do admit to a preference for modern smoothly paved sidewalks over the Georgetown bricks, but the architecture is nice and I appreciate the exercise. I will particularly note a sculpture in front of a house on Reservoir Road (more or less immediately across the giant lawn chair at the Duke Ellington School for the Arts). It's a man with some sort of elongated ears. My assumption is that they're donkey's ears and he is, therefore, King Midas, but I could be wrong. It's an interesting piece, anyway. And one of the donkey party animals is just a few doors down.

I walked back a slightly different way (still using 35th Street, but turning down M to stop for lunch before taking the metro from Foggy Bottom). I often find this frustrating since M Street often has a lot of very slow moving tourists, inevitably walking 3 or 4 abreast. I have a theory that hospitals release patients onto M Street right after hip replacement surgery as a form of physical therapy. But it wasn't bad today at all, so maybe they don't do hip replacements on Monday mornings.

Anyway, later in the day, I was reading the Dr. Gridlock chat on the Washington Post's website and one of the subjects was pedestrian safety. My experience with this walk (and walking around the city on Saturday) reminded me of a key point that the planners who are lamenting pedestrian death seem to have missed.

Namely, the lights are designed to favor drivers and bear no relationship to how long it might take a pedestrian to cross a street. Again and again, I cross little one-lane streets where the count-down timer indicates that you have 60 seconds (or more) to cross. And then you come to 6 lane streets where they give you a mere 20 seconds. This has got to be a significant hazard for the mobility-impaired.

Perhaps the best approach is the one in my neighborhood. The light at our corner (which leads to the metro station) gives you only about 15 seconds normally. But, if you push the pedestrian button, that increases to roughly 40 seconds.