Plymouth Detour

I'm writing this from my friend's guest room in Racine, Wisconsin. Tomorrow I'm heading to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to meet up with Kelly and Angie and get the second leg of the tour started. Since I'm on the road again, I went through my back through my insane backlog of photos, and rediscovered a few from our detour to Plymouth Rock.

There were only a couple of times on the first leg of the tour where we actually had time to pull over if we saw something interesting on the side of the road. The first was Gettysburg, which was on the way from Richmond to Harrisburg. We didn't stay long, just grabbed some post cards and used the facilities. I would have stayed longer if we could, since there was a reenactment that day.

A week later, we were heading to Cape Cod from Salisbury when we passed a sign for Plymouth Rock. All the girls were in agreement when I asked if anyone wanted to see it.

Plymouth is a beautiful colonial town with a boat dotted harbor and tons of places where you can buy ice cream and salt water taffy and miniature Mayflowers. (I actually don't know if you can buy mini Mayflowers but I would just assume such things exist, and probably in bottles.)



The rock itself is an interesting attraction. I just kept looking at it and thinking how weird it was that we built this little temple over a rock in a cage. A rock that may or may not be the rock that the Pilgrims may or may not have set foot on when they landed. What would the archaeologists of the next millennium think of it? My guess is sacrificial altar.


I felt less than enthusiastic about taking photos, because I was only able to use either my portrait lens or my telephoto lens due to my breaking the kit lens by dropping it on the floor in Richmond. It was back in Boston being repaired, and I was struggling with working with lenses meant for very specific purposes. I'm so glad I had them, though, even though the telephoto is unwieldy and requires you to barely breathe while using it. I hadn't been able to use my camera at all until we got it to a repair shop, because part of the lens mount was still stuck on the camera, and I didn't want to mess up anything further by trying to get it off.


We listened to a tour guide talk a bit, checked out the Mayflower II, then headed back to the highway. Yes, another tourist attraction checked off the list, but I'd love to come back to New England with Maya and Trevor and do a proper tour of the area. Self guided, of course.

Where Am I?

Hop over to Angie's blog for my recap of our Philadelphia stop on the Northeast leg of her tour.



We'll be on the road again in about a week, hitting the Midwest this time around. We're using IndieGoGo to raise a little gas and food money. Perks include postcards from the road, t shirts, and downloads. Please consider contributing or sharing to support independent music.



And come check out the show if you're in or near any of our stops!

August 31 Fort Wayne, IN
September 1 Lansing, MI
September 2 Cincinnati, OH
September 4 Chicago, IL
September 5 La Crosse, WI
September 6 Madison, WI
September 7 Winona, MN

Parks and Recreation: The Highline

"The High Line is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for the High Line’s preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It is now the non-profit conservancy working with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to make sure the High Line is maintained as an extraordinary public space for all visitors to enjoy." Source


Though the Highline isn't on the list of 40 Free Things in NYC list that I referenced frequently during my stay, I think it definitely should have been included. I didn't know if its existence until Sweet Fine Day posted about a family excursion to this unique park. I immediately knew that it was right up my alley, and ventured down to the Meat Packing District on a gorgeous, rare, non humid evening. (Seriously, New York in summer was hot like Arkansas but with less central air.)

I entered at 10th Ave and 14th St, which is a two block walk from the 8th and 14th L stop. There are several entrances along its 1.45 mile stretch, and it is fully wheel chair accessible. All three times I visited, it was moderately crowded, but not teeming with people. It's a fantastic place to catch some rays, people watch, do a photo shoot, or grab a bite from one of the local food vendors. I think it'd make the perfect locale for a first date.




















The rest of my pictures are here.

Out of curiosity, I looked up pricing for some of the newer buildings that bordered the park. Basically, if you want the Highline as your backyard, you'll want to be willing and able to shell out around $3k a month for a 500 square foot studio.

If I had that kind of money it'd almost be tempting.

Tuesday Tunes: The Cat Came Back

How many of you remember this from your childhood? I don't remember which cable network played it--maybe HBO--but it had this way of getting into one's head. For the longest time I thought it was a They Might Be Giants song.

This song was my mantra for the five weeks that Maryjane was missing while I was gone. She disappeared the day after I left. I didn't hear anything about it for two weeks, because, during the summer, she has a tendency to wander. Her usual routine is to go out at night, appear briefly to be fed the next evening, then immediately ask to go out again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Sometimes she would go away for a few days, and just when we started to worry, she would return.

This time, she was gone long enough for assumptions to be made, that she'd found a new home or had been killed. We were in Washington, DC, when Maya first told me that she was missing and for how long. I had to keep it together, though, because I was working, we were trying to load in a show. The ability to compartmentalize comes in handy at times like these.

I did break down a few times, but mostly I just kept singing this song and reminding myself of my friends' animals that had come back after longer periods and great distances. I even had a cat that had come back after more than a week, after being hit by a car! I tried to accept that she was gone, but I also kept that spark of hope that I would get a message that she was back.

And it came. Merely a day after I had cried to Angie about how I was still holding out hope, Maya let me know she was back, and she was scrawny, and weird, but alive.

I've been looking at her in awe ever since I got back home, wondering what secrets she holds. What happened in those five weeks? It was a record breaking hot summer in Wisconsin, yet she survived.

She's totally awesome, and I'm glad I get to have her around for a bit longer.

Picture an Hour: July 31, 2012

I definitely let the month slip away from me, and the last day of the month was uneventful, but that's kind of the way it goes with these posts most of the time. It's about capturing a normal day.

11:07 AM: Rainy morning. Definitely a staying in kind of day.


12:14 PM: Pulled out the beads to work on some jewelry.


1:24 PM: After a few distractions and a lot of indecision, I got a good start.


2:34 PM: Clear weather and a finished necklace meant it was time to figure out what to wear for the day.


3:03 PM: Sauteed southern greens and leftover sweet potatoes and corn bread for lunch.


4:50 PM: Dressed! Attack of the headless blogger!


5:32 PM: Some budding street artists were at work with their sidewalk chalk.


6:29 PM: Did a little shopping. Screw 5th Ave. 125th is where it's at.


7:25 PM: Because, why not?


8:22 PM: Judging the Country Videos Ourstage competition. Angie won.


9:37 PM: Tea time. Blood orange and hibiscus.


10:21 PM: Good night! Well, sort of. I was actually up until about 2:30 but I was just k-holing into my laptop.

Angie's a Winner!

Just wanted to give a huge shout out to my girl Angie, whose video "All in My Head" just nabbed the Grand Prize in the Ourstage.com July video contest! This was the first month it was entered, which is fantastic considering there are videos in the contest that have been there for months!

If you haven't seen it yet, check it out, and let her know what you think.




We've entered Angie in some other contests on the site for August. OurStage is a really fun way to discover new music, because you don't just go vote for one artist, you actually have to listen to other artists as well. Though you can judge for particular artists you like, meaning they come up in the rotation more often. It levels the playing field and makes it less of a popularity contest.