NYC/New England/Boston '07/'08

The old 2007 has come to a close in almost the same way as it started: on Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. Very much different context, though: milder temperature, sorer feet, no fireworks around the Liberty lady and different crowd. The highlight of the whole holiday period has been the company of my dearest Dr Francioso, whom I am most happy to have introduced on to American soil for the first time!!

So...3° time in NYC in the span of just 12 months, uh? Not bad! Still, there is so much to see and so many restaurants to try out and so many more pictures to be taken....curious, though, how I always end up doing, eat, photograph the same things.
...uhm, maybe it's because I like doing those things!?! I should look more carefully into that issue!

Anyhow...NYC has always got something new for the visitor's eye: the new Times building, the New Museum (HELL YES!...see pic beloe), the new street arrangement/intersection/patio style outside Chelsea Market...
So far I have only experienced NYC in a cold to freezing kind of situation, which certainly has its own beauty! Having said that, I'm sure it'd be nice to see some leaves on the trees in Central Park or to sunbathe in Washington Sq. This is why my new year's resolutions include a visit to the BA with no less than 75F/23C in the shade. I so need to give my NYC photos a new look...

Besides, after almost 5 months in Western Mass. I have finally managed to explore something else beyond my immediate surroundings and spent 3 days in Boston. I will just point out that Boston (or I should say 'Boooooston' as they say it around here ;) struck me for being incredibly tidy and clean; urban and metropolitan but neighboury and tranquil at the same time. It is rather arduous to pin down the spirit of a city in just a few days, especially when touring the most beaten areas and neglecting others which are, supposedly, out of tourists' reach. I was also positively surprised by the quality of food, fish above all! Boston clam chowder was just delicious...and I had my 1st time with Dr Monica: ate my first oyster ;) (Boston's Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge in the pic)

Photos of the above two weeks are to be found here. The album also contains those taken in Old Deerfield, MA...but since I cannot be bothered to write about it now, I'll only redirect you folk to this link: Historic Deerfield.
__

Piccole perle del Road Trip 2: The Exorcist

We ended our quick visit to Washington DC with a night stroll along the streets of Georgetown, a neighbourhood in Washington known for its quaint houses, its fashionable bars and restaurants and for Georgetown University. (For the Italophones or Italo-sympathizers among you, readers, Beppe Severgnini used to live in Georgetown while working as a foreign correspondent and, as far as I know, his former house is now a must-see for Italian tourists who have read his books. I personally didn't go...but I was tempted! I just didn't remember the house number any more!!)
Well, while visiting the area, cinema-buff Mr Steve Race became firmly determined to go find the STEPS! "Which steps?"-asked I. "The steps where the priest is precipitated by the hand of an evil spirit"-said cinema-buff Mr Steve Race. Before I began seriously worrying for his mental health (it had been a long, exceedingly hot day after all!), Steve explained that Georgetown had been the set of the infamous 1973 movie "The Exorcist". At that point we had to find THE STEPS, which didn't seem to be an easy task, given that: 1-we didn't have a guide or a map; 2-it was night; 3-I was exhausted, hungry and very little patient ; )
It was only by an unexpected stroke of luck that we happened to pass by a very steep descending set of steps and I could see in Steve's eyes (pretty much like Sylvester's eyes when he sees Tweety) that we had landed in the right place.
...to me, that was just a bunch of steps...not very well-lit, to be honest. However, how very much reassuring it is to watch a kid having fun while playing on his own...

The Move-Phase 2: WV to VA

Out of all the states (9 including our destination, Massachusetts) we drove through on our road trip, Virginia was the one we spent more time in. We passed the WV-VA border on the evening of Tuesday 14 August, one day after our departure from Kentucky. As you approach the south-eastern part of West Virginia, the territory becomes more and more mountainous due to the presence of the Appalachians, a vast mountain system, which runs inland parallel to the eastern coast and which, in its most developed areas, runs across the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. So we drove on, always on the I-64, until we got to a little town called Buena Vista (marked n.3 on the map). We reckoned it was quite obvious why the place was called 'nice view' (although not quite sure why in Spanish!) considered the proximity of the mountains. Yet, the late night hour didn't allow us to appreciate the surroundings. We ended up spending the night in a motel (the 'Buena Vista Motel'...how unexpected!), which, at $44/night, gave us a truthful and spine-chilling Tarantino experience.
A spine-chilling sensation (this time due to the temperature) awaited us the following morning, when, up at 6 am, we hopped on the car and headed towards the Blue Ridge Parkway (n°4 on the map and marked by the black rectangle). This is also the reason why we had resolved to spend the night in Buena Vista: we wanted to ride along the parkway in the day light to appreciate the view at its best.
This is a 469-mile long (approx. 755 km) National Parkway, which runs north-east to south-west between Virginia and North Carolina and offers spectacular views on the valley below. The drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway is said to be especially beautiful in the Fall when the foliage turns to the colour range of red and yellow. We only drove north, along the parkway, for about 40 miles until we got on to I-64 once again. Nonetheless, it was a very inspiring and refreshing short drive.
I wished there had been an Italian bar on the way: 'cappuccino e cornetto' would have just been the perfect finishing touch!! Next stop on our trip schedule was Thomas Jefferson's house at Monticello, a stone's throw from Charlot- tesville. Taking advantage of an early rise that day, we opted for a serious, pancakes/eggs and what-not breakfast....oh, did we enjoy that (the 'cappuccino e cornetto' were easily forgotten!). Enough about our eating disorders...
Monticello (n°5 on the map) is the name of the estate that Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd president of the USA, designed and had built. It was at Monticello that Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Indepen- dence (adopted on July 4, 1776) and conceived the idea of the University of Virginia (founded in 1819). From his house at Monticello, Jefferson could actually see the area where the university complex was being built in Charlottesville. In the picture featuring me in the pink T-shirt (not particularly flattering, but the reason I've posted it will follow...before you say/think anything!) a small breach through the trees is visible on my left (I've cropped and enlarge the detail for the most short-sighted of you). The white, Palladian (actually designed after Rome's Pantheon) construction far in the distance is the Rotunda, the focus of Jefferson's architectural design.
The visit at Monti- cello has been rather inspirational, not just for the location, peaceful and austere as it is, but for its being the concrete and tangible realisation of a man's dream. Monticello seems to be one with Jefferson's socio-political inspiration (which I know little of anyway! That's all gut-feeling....hey, I was on holiday after all!!).

Piccole perle del Road Trip 1: The S'more Pizza

While crossing west to east the state of West Virgina we decided to stop at a supermarket (...OK, I'm not proud to say this but it was...Walmart!) to get some fruit, if you can call it so. I tend to fall for supermarkets, crappy as they might be. I can easily get lost and spend lots of time between aisles, reading, comparing prices or just attracted by unseen specimens of pre-packed food, which I won't buy anyway, but I just like to know that they exist. My grandma Elda used to want me to take her shopping for food (instead of my mum, n.d.a.) upon my returns from the UK to Italy, because she said the way I could arrange boxes and packets etc. in the trolley was unparalleled ;)
Anyway, as I was keeping myself busy at this (and Steve was grumbling because of this!), hear what I found: a S'mores Dessert Pizza, which is (for those of you who might STILL ignore what 'S'more' means...please, go and review older posts and you'll be enlightened) a pizza with chocolate, Graham crackers (something like 'biscotti secchi' in the old continent) and marshmallows! Well, I could not resist having a picture taken of me holding such a rare breed of pizza!
...and no, I did not try it!

The Move-Phase 1: KY to WV

(TOT: approx. 1600 miles/2500 km. Click on map to see the entire itinerary)
So here we are: the days I have been planning since May have finally arrived and I am 'on the move and on the road' making my way up to Massachusetts. A little sad to leave friends behind me in Lexington and a truly unforgettable year in Kentucky, a little excited to relocate to a new a state, start a new job (though always 'the same'), meet new people, set up a new house, a little worried about whether I am actually going to be able to make it up north-east with my cute, yet at times problematic, car. Oh yes...and a little bombarded with whole the appropriate recommendations received before setting off for this trip ('you should get a phone!', 'you should get a spare tyre!', 'you'll have to remember to check here and there!').

Thanks all guys for all your support. I mean it: GRAZIE 1000 and keep fingers crossed for me ;)

Let's start this almost-live story of how the road trip/move is going/went (past and present tenses will be alternating for the sake of immediacy and a better rendition).

Steve and I left Lexington on Monday 13 August after a really fun weekend (more later on this) at approximately 5 pm. Sunny and hot afternoon it was. The roof was down, all the bags in; water and sun lotion at reach. The first map was spread out on Steve's knees and all the others lined up for the following days. It doesn't even feel like I am ACTUALLY leaving and I am not going to be back (at least soonish); that I am going to have to take up new habits, learn new whereabouts, deal with new people (oh gosh...new people to deal with!). Start all over again, in brief. It simply feels like I am going back to mine and I'll soon catch up with all the people who have made my stay in Lex very normal and not just a phase.

Off we go, heading towards the I-64, which, I soon learnt, takes you directly to the east coast. Still it was too early to think about the east coast!

To be honest there's nothing much to say about the first couple of hours spent in the late-afternoon-breeze-swept red Cabriolet, being passed by huge (and I mean HUGE!) SUVs, worried that they might start honking or booing or throw names at our slow paced demeanour. We were pretty cool and continued our drive until...

...until when, in the vicinity of Grayson (about 96 miles east of Lexington...still in KY!n.1 on the map) we heard a BOOM! Or maybe it was more a SCRATCH! kind of noise? Or a SGNACK! even better? It is interesting how a simple unknown noise can set your heart in a frantic motion and make your mouth go dry. Thanks heaven we were coming on to a junction leading to a rest area and so we pulled out, parked, got off the car and discovered that the outer part of the rear left tyre had basically COME OFF! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? We shall not know!

In brief, I called AAA (which I had joined the very same afternoon!) from the rest area pay phone and had a truck come and tow us to Grayson where we stayed in a Motel and brought the car in for service to the nearest garage the following morning.
After a total unexpected $85 expense we were ready to get in the car and on the road again on Tuesday 14 August. Our original road trip schedule was turned on its head and before even actually getting to visit something we already had to catch up with time and mileage.

Needless to say that I (the driver) became also 'slightly' apprehensive about other possible outcomes.



We finally passed the KY-WV border on the morning of August 14 and headed towards New River Gorge National Park (n.2 on the map) where, originally, we thought we would venture into a whitewater rafting trip (even if we had made it in time for the 8 am trip, though, there would have been no availability on any trip. Call it Fate!). Instead, we had a stroll around the park and enjoyed one of the most amazing views I think I've ever seen.

The river Kanawha (the New River) runs at the bottom of a pretty steep and deep valley. Near Fayetteville, in the south of West Virginia, the two banks of the valley are joined by an impressive iron bridge, which, according to the info panels provided in the park, is as tall as 2 Statues of Liberty (=302 feet or 93 m) piled on top of 1 Washington memorial obelisk (555 feet or 169.29 m) + another 20 feet left!! I will tell later on about another rather breathtaking (and spooky) bridge we had the chance to drive on. Yet, certainly the one in the New River Gorge park was the tallest by far! (see pic below)

The Garden of the Gods (Colorado part II)

...Colorado Springs' downtown might be rather disappointing, but this is not so for the surrounding landscape: mountains and rocks prelude the known-to-the-eye Far-West sceneries. This is the case of the Garden of the Gods, a public park located half an hour from Colorado Springs' downtown. [the rest is a Wiki quote...sorry, I feel very lazy today!]

This park contains conglomerate sandstone hogback formations belonging geologically to the Fountain Formation. The name Colorado is said to come from the color of this sandstone.

The hogbacks, so named because they resemble the backs and spines of a pig, are ridges of sandstone whose layers are tilted. Instead of lying horizontally, some layers are even vertically oriented. Each hogback can range up to several hundred feet long, and the tallest (called The Kissing Camels, see pic on the left) rises to a height of 320 feet tall.