Apr 01, 2009 14:14
So, some updates and such.
Since my last update, quite a few things have gone down. Such things include another insulator hunt, spending a day with Josh, Laura's wedding, spending a day with Mike and Chris, and then spending a day with my pap. Will update on each of these for future records.
First, the insulator hunt, which was last Friday. It was a beeyootiful day, so I went out to Mars to finish off one last segment of track that would connect previously done sections of track itno one long completed section. It was kinda like the golden spike. Anyways, I parked in some restaurants parking lot near where I left off last time and started walking. The tracks soon went into town, which made me nervous. I kept an eye skywards, but didn't really try to take anything since I was literally walking through the middle of town. At one point I walked past this old RR station that was turned into a museum or something of some sorts and I noticed two guys inside through a window. I kept walking a little faster and, once I got about 40 or 50 yards away I looked back and saw that they were both standing on the tracks looking at me with one of those "what the hell do you think you're doing" looks (i am pretty good at recognizing that one). I turned around and walked briskly off the tracks and disappeared into town, trying to act like I was just on a walk and using the tracks as a shortcut or something. Eventually, the tracks made a turn and I was able to hop back on em. I probably missed about 10 poles or so with who knows what on em. Sometimes town poles will have better stuff since everyone else is scared to grab it and you can't exactly shoot it in town. Anyways, I got back on the tracks and kept a good eye over my shoulder for awhile, but they eventually went back into some farm fields and away from people, so that was good. I found a few yellow green Star 162s and also another Olive green Star 162 (woohoo!), as well as a CREB 145 SN 22 and some others. I came home with 6 insulators with a book price of around $90-100 bucks for all fo em. Not bad!
On the walk back I steered well clear of the train station lol.
The very next day I drove out to Westmoreland mall to meet up with Joshie and Liz, who were preparing for Laura's wedding. Josh and I walked around the mall while Liz was getting her hair done, then we dropped her off at Laura's afterwards and went to kill a few hours in the country. The wedding was near Connellsville, so we went out there, bought a hoagie (what kind of hoagie? a hoagie) and took a hike on the rail-to-trail path. We soon came to a bridge that crossed the yough and went over to the RR tracks on the other side (where I hunted for insulators on the way out to Ryan's a few weeks back). We walked the tracks back into town and then dodged a train and went up onto the hill. Our choice was to cross the HUGE abandoned RR bridge or go further into town and cross the RT 119 bridge, which was a little out of the way. We chose the RR bridge and, once the train had passed, we started to cross it.
It was a little sketchy, at best. The thing was long abandoned and some of the ties were not in that great of shape. They were all rotted, for the most part. Some of them would crumble a little under your feet. There was an iron grate walkway off to the side, but we didn't trust the welds at all (which, if they failed, would send you on a real trip). At least the rotten ties were directly over the huge iron bridge supports, which weren't moving. In some points there would be a few ties missing and there'd be a big yawning hole down to the river, tracks or ground below. Those sketched me out more than anything, since you had to step down onto the bridge support itself and then back up onto the next tie. The bridge was waaaaaay longer than it appeared from the ground (and higher), and it took forever to just get halfway across. I kept picturing a cop seeing us from Rt. 119 and then waiting for us at the other end, but thankfully, that didn't happen. We eventually found our way across and then walked back to the truck, running into a homeless/drunk guy on the way (who had an affinity for "peace" and "three blondes with hard nipples waiting for him in heaven (don't tell my wife)". He was something else, and neither Josh or I had much of an idea on how to respond to him other than to laugh and agree with just about everything he said.
We eventually did get to the wedding, though, and we changed out of our muddy clothes and got into our nice suits. The wedding was pretty short and before we knew it we were heading to the reception, which was at this cool old barn. They had a full barrel (i think) of yuengling and stuff there, so we had fun with that. It lasted till about 9 or 930 and then I went back to SVC to meet up with Bip and Nick and some others. Chris was on duty, so Nick, Mark and I went on a walk and did a little exploring. We were trying to get down into the one part of the crypt where this one crucifix was to show it to Mark, but all the doors were locked (we tried LOTS of different ways in, too), which was a bummer. We eventually found our way into the basilica, which was dark and creepy and neat, where we hung out for awhile. We left there and went for a quick walk around the cemetary but then Nick and I went back and fell asleep.
The next day I went to brunch with Chris and some others. I got ahold of Br. Maxwell and he got ahold of Br. Jeremiah who in turn got ahold of Mikey who in turn got ahold of me and we hung out at the caf for awhile. He went down to the gristmill to give a tour to some folks after that and Bip and the andertons and I went to Walmart. One of the twins bought squirt guns and we had fun with those for awhile; we eventually went for a walk to the gristmill to meet up again with Mike, but he wasn't there. We took a quick walk around the lake and soon, Shane and Caitster met up with us, followed then by Mike. After that, everyone left and Mike and I hung out for awhile. I went to Vespers, then we had dinner in the Eichstatt room and caught up, adn then I went to 7:00 mass and drove home. A fun weekend!
Then yesterday, which was Tuesday, my pap and I went for a little road trip out to Clearfield county to do a little hiking and stuff. We ended up going to Cataract, PA which is about 3 1/2 houses wide and on the w. branch of the Susquehanna river. It's a neat little town and it has some old train tracks running through it which we walked on. I was there once when I was younger looking for some rattlesnakes, but we didn't find any that time (we did find a snapping turtle and some neat lizards though!). We didn't find anything like that this time either, but it's still a neat little place. We did find an old elk skeleton though, that was pretty neat. We walked quite aways down the tracks before turning around and heading back. I didn't see any insulators anywhere, but there were some old pole stubs and parts lying around. The country was pretty nice, it reminded me a lot of the Hoback river and surrounding area back in Jackson. Once we got back to the car we drove out to some bar that my pap was telling me about and had a couple beers. That was kind of different... goign to a bar with my pap. He was BS'ing with the people there and stuff (they knew him, too) which was also weird lol. Definitely a different bar experience. He was telling me stories about his experiences with different beers and boozes and such (soco, wild turkey and the like) and I was just thinking to myself "wow" the whole time. On the drive back he was telling me even more stories about adventures him and his friends got into and stuff, it was all kind of odd, but cool at the same time. He was telling me about how him and his friends flipped a canoe on the Susquehanna and lost allllll of their stuff. The canoe was gone, the paddles, their bags full of food, clothes, gear, guns and the like. All floated away. They barely got out of the river, but when they did get to the bank, they were cold and gearless (it was april) and couldn't get a fire going. Then they noticed the canoe downstream stuck on a rock, so they went out and got it. THEN they were able to get into the canoe and catch up to their gear. THEN they noticed some guys downstream who had witnessed the whole thing from a bank. In my pap's words they were "potheads and drunks" who were out on a canoing trip with one boat full of gear and they other one full of booze and food. They gave my pap and his friends drinks and steaks and had a warm fire ready for em. They all got around the fire and the guys were smokign bongs lol. They offered to put some in my pap's pipe, which he smoked at the time, but he said no. Then I guess they got their stuff dried out and continued on their trip. It was a crazy story.
Anyways, on the drive home we stopped at this place called Dennys Beer Barrel Pub to get food. This place is famous (seriously, google it) for their "15 lb burger" which, when you add the bun and all that other stuff, weighs over 20 lbs. Some guy actually got one while we were in there and that thing was freaking huge. I dunno if he ate the whole thing or not, we left before then. We each got some big burgers (but they were "normal" sized to them) and then drove home. It was a really great, if a bit weird at times, day.
Anyways,, that's all for now. It's supposed to be nice tomorrow so I might try to go out somewhere. Friday is Josh's Bachelor party/camping trip, so that should be pretty fun. Will update next week sometime.
Peace!