Audra & Jeremy's First Anniversary
Get Away
(the clean parts)
This page was constructed on the road during May 10-13
2001 using a cheap-ass digital camera and a not-so-cheap-ass Dell
laptop. Navigation was provided by Streets & Trips, a road
map program. This page is purposely simple, and there might be
typos. I have not sized any graphics... so your browser might
flip out at the size of the photos. This isn't high-art or journalism...
it's just for fun.
DAY I - On The Road Again (Jeremy)
We arrived early on Thursday and checked into a very
nice room.
Our room at the Pine Barn Inn, Danville....
Then we went to Sakuntala... an Indian restaurant in
Bloom. The food was very good, but vastly different from the larger
establishments we've been to. The host/owner/cook was very friendly.
We were the only people there during the lunch hour. After lunch
we went to CVS to get some tissues and had some terrible service
from the rude cashier. Then we went to Muggsy's used CD store
where I serendipitously found the X-men DVD, and Audra found a
Cure CD. Then we were off to Bloomsburg University to relive memories...
Audra visiting her alma mater. HAAS at Bloomsburg University.
JD becoming one with art...
Of course, visiting the University wouldn't be complete
without a traffic violation. As we came out of HAAS, Audra exclamed
profanities at seeing the parking ticket on my windshield. We
were parked legally, but didn't have a visitor pass. Audra was
able to beat some sense into the campus police receptionist, and
we were on our way, sans ticket.
A church on Main St in Bloom...
Later Thursday afternoon, as we were getting ready
to change for dinner, I realized that I didn't pack any black
socks. So, on our way into town, I had to stop at the dollar store
to get black socks. After changing my socks in the car, we were
off to Russell's for a light dinner.
Dining al fresco at Russell's
We both had the fried eggplant appetizer and seafood
bisque soup. Audra had the spinach salad, while I had the spinach
and feta salad.
After dinner we went to BTE to see Acadia. We both
enjoyed the play very much. I'd say it was probably in the top
5 of great performances I've seen. After the play we went back
to the hotel to watch the X-men DVD... but I don't remember much
of the ending.
DAY II - Back to Nature (Jeremy)
JD at the 94' Ganoga Falls.
Since the weather was looking good, we decided to go
to Rickett's Glen, a large State Park in Central PA. After breakfast
at Dunkin' Donuts, we drove about an hour North of Bloomsburg
on Rt. 478 to Rickett's Glen.
After scoping out the layout, we hiked the entire Falls
Trail, which is labeled as "very difficult" and totals
roughly 6 miles, not counting some double-backing that was necessary.
It took us about 3 hours. By the end, Audra was becoming dehydrated.
Like major scamutz heads, we only brought one bottle of water
with us, which was finished on the first half of the trip. So
we had to break out my water purification pills, which take 30
minutes to activate anyway... Audra survived, but not before the
trail kicked her ass.
The pictures that follow are just a few of the shots
I took. The digital camera maxxed out at 15 pictures, so there's
a few that I can't post just yet from my "real" camera.
Most of the terrain was the same throughout, but the return hike
was rocky and featured many stone staircases that looked cool.
Audra on the beginning of the trail that would later
kick her ass...
This is what most of the scenery looked like, with
both steep and flat stretches of trail.
Audra almost stepped on a small snake, whose head can
barely be seen in this crappy close-up digital photo.
Zahi Hawas would have been disappointed that we found
no "mummiz".
After a very active day, we decided to splurge on a
fancy dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had been checking out
their tasty menu in the elevator, where they had convieniently
placed it for all to see. But when we went to dinner I was told
that the menu I saw was not available, and that I had to choose
instead from their "scaled down" menu. The reason had
to do with Bloom's graduation weekend, and the influx of out of
towners they were expecting.
Still, the meals were good. I ordered the teryiaki
chicken and crab dip appetizer, while Audra ordered the scallops....
and the same app. The deserts were really good. I had the mocha
cheesecake for dessert (highly recommended), while Audra had the
creme de menthe parfait (it is but wafer thin).
DAY III - What the hell do we do now?
(Audra)
After an evening of arguing over the air conditioning
(on or off), we awoke to the sound of torrential rain... something
which had the potential to make planning the day very difficult.
The only thing scheduled without question was our dinner with
Kris and Scott Remish, college chums of mine who live in Millville,
but that was not until 6:30 pm and it was now 10 am. The plans
tentatively included visiting the Susquehanna Valley Winery, a
few farmers' markets, and a few parks in the area... all outdoor
activities. The rain was indeed going to make keeping ourselves
busy difficult.
Before setting out for gas and breakfast, I stumbled
into the inn's office, grabbed a handful of brochures, and ran
to the car. We got gas, got disappointed when Burger King was
no longer serving those yummy croissandwiches, and, setting out
to find a suitable place to eat, made a right turn out of fear
of crossing the heavy traffic that would have been necessary in
making a left. Ten minutes later, we were able to find a place
to turn around. For those of you familiar with Harrisburg, this
was the equivalent of accidentally crossing the Forester St. Bridge,
going West, only to find there is no place to turn around for
MILES. Eventually we got to a Perkins, where we actually had GREAT
service! They must not have an interdimensional portal that sucks
away all the good waitresses and waiters, leaving only the pod
people bent on destroying the human race the are usually our servers.
(If this reference is too obscure for you, kindly contact Mike
Kattner. He'll be happy to explain.)
So we had a handful of brochures full of information
on places we had no interest in visiting, when we came across
Clyde Peeling's Reptiland! Surely this was the type of place which
inspired Weird Al Yankovic to write his family travel ballad,
"The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota." But, it was
better than sitting in the hotel room watching TV. So Jeremy finished
his omlett and I finished my Eggs Benedict and off we went to
Allenwood!
Route to Reptiland
We made the 25 minute trek northwest to Reptiland in
Allenwood. It was much cooler than we thought. We arrived an hour
before the presentation, so we got to look around a bit at the
outdoor exhibits (the weather was being manic depressive- sunny
for 20 min. to half hour streaches interpersed with drizzles and
torrential downpours- so we actually got to see the outdoor animals).
First, a pond full of snapping turtles, with a great big sign
saying, "TURTLES WILL BITE" for all the idiots who didn't
bother to wonder what these turtles might snap AT. Next, the tortoises.
They are big and slow. Make that S---L----O----W. They just kind
of stare at you. The only way you knew they were real was that
some of them were eating...loudly. We looked in on the emus next.
I know, I know...EMUS ARE NOT REPTILES. Apparently this little
oversight doesn't bother Clyde Peeling, seeing as how he also
has a very large and loud peacock as well as several amphibians
on site. One emu appeared antisocial. It wouldn't even eat the
food Jeremy tried to give it. The others, on the other hand, were
quite alert and eager to take whatever you were willing to give
them.
In the big building were the alligators. On first sight,
the large male (napping at the bottom of the pool) didn't even
look real. He looked like one of those props cheesy amusement
parks have decorating their log flume rides. He had changed positions
when we went through again later, so I guess he was real. The
female definitely was. It was explained to us later by the zookeeper
lady that normally the keeper could enter the habitat pretty easily,
but not since the lady gator had built a nest. The gator looked
around with that "do you feel lucky, punk" look on her
face.
After looking at the alligators a while, we attended
the little presentation (Jeremy writes more on that below) and
then were shown through a door in the gator house we had previously
overlooked. They had all sorts of snakes, turtles, and tortoises
(the REALLY big ones) along with river monitors (think alligator
with the look of a ferret) and these very tiny, very cute and
VERY poisonous electric blue frogs.
Jeremy's Notes...
I enjoyed the trip to Reptile Land. I was able to feed
some emus, and learned about the rare 10-legged Chinese tarantula.
Here are some pictures...
This was a treat...
but I'm not sure about this.
I got to feed some jumpy emus... man, can they peck!
Aghhhhh!
The wildlife lady actually showed us an actual baby
alligator and an actual boa. She actually let us pet them both,
and actually they were quite tame. Oh, and did I mention she actually
said the word "actually" about 100 times during the
actual presentation?!?!
This was the view from our hotel after returning from
the winery. Notice the Tolkien-esk evil tower.
Later that same evening we drove to ... (more to come)
