Vacation?

Just got back from 5 day trip up to Upstate New York. Visiting in-laws always has some stress so I hesitate to call it a vacation but in between the stressful times it was really a lot of fun. On trips like this little things can make a big difference. Things like getting in one good ride, or finding the Soduku puzzle in the local paper.

Weather wise we hit the jackpot. Day before we got there the whole state was in record highs, and after one day of rain, it was into the 80s and hardly an humidity.

Went on a road ride into the country just south of lake Ontario. This place is a road rider's dream. The back country roads were spectacular. Where I was there were no huge climbs but plenty of rollers that can take your breath away. I tried to push a little, but at one point it was so pretty I just put it in the small ring and spun. At the top of a roller it was cleared out for some fields and I could see into the distance roller after roller covered with trees, like crests of green waves.

Way off to the right was the lake which was actually a little disconcerting to me. It was like a huge dark flat mountain way in the distance.

There were some of those "this will be funnny when we talk about it later, but right now it is a royal pain" moments.

1) 1 Bathroom 12+ people. Sleeping on the floor. Only choices is hardwood floor or air matress. Can't find pump for air matress. The people who know where it is are out at a concert. 4 beers into it, am obsessed with figuring out how to inflate the thing. 2 seconds of blowing induced dizziness so figured out real quick that wasn't going to work. Let's see, leafblower, nozzle too big, show vac, no blower outlet, hair dryer, opening too big.

Ended up ductaping the hose from the shop vac to my sister-in law's hair dryer.


Felt pretty smug after getting it going. Got 80% full then the hair dryer DIED. Oh man. I bought my sister in law a new one!

So then I'm back in the garage seeing how I can make the shop vac work. Why couldn't it be like regular shop vacs that have a blower outlet that you can put the hose on? This little one just had some thin outlet vents.

Right about that time they got home from the concert and showed me where the electric pump was. It took another 5 seconds to get it fully inflated!

2) Another day we are going down to the town's festival, but my sister in law locked the wrong lock, no key to get back in the house. Bathroom needed visiting. Ended up having to breaking an entry in through a screen and lift my 7 year old in through the window. He felt like superman saving the day. But he also felt really embarassed like he was doing something wrong.:


*Note this picture is a re-creation, the natural Ice beer was opened after we got into the house.

Now we are talking a small upstate New York town. And if you saw someone like myself casing around your neighboor's house you'd be suspicious. But no one called the cops.

It's nice to be back home and into the routine again.