end of the motor tour

so, my dad used to live in Buffalo back in the 60s and told me about the original Buffalo wings, which were made at this place called Anchor Bar. i have also been lectured by a friend from Buffalo about the proper way to make them and how to judge them. i ended up parking close to downtown and walking ten-ish blocks to get to the bar. well worth the journey.

[good ol' New York hotdog stand]

Buffalo is pretty neat. it's got an old feel about it and lots of abandoned buildings like Detroit, but that's mainly on the outskirts. the subway runs underneath Main Street and pops up above ground in the downtown area so that there is no car traffic. i thought this was a rather clever way of manipulating the city via infrastructure. i also thought the highways were laid out nicely. reminded me of Dallas in that everything seemed to piece together well without having to do crazy things from intersection to intersection.

[Frank & Teressa's Anchor Bar, home of the ORIGINAL Buffalo wings]

i forgot to take one of the menus with me (they were printed on newsprint and had the story of the wings in the centerfold) and left without pictures of the motorcycles inside. maybe it was the delicious wings, beer and conversations at the bar.

back to the point of the trip to Frank & Teressa's: i can definitely see that these wings were the original. i mean, they were exactly as they should be; fried to crispiness, delicious sauce that's not ridiculously hot AND they were huge. i have been told that if you let the chickens get too old in order to obtain good sized wings and legs, you can crush the bones with your teeth and be a slight bit disgusted. nope, not here. straight, simple and to the T.

at the bar i met an older man who was really into photography, a marine that had lived in Jacksonville NC and a dude who had been snowboarding for 21 years. again, how can people not have things in common? got a bit distracted, though, and had to take a quick pace back to downtown. getting to the airport was cake. i didn't know anything about the price of parking, so i just went to the one farthest from the airport. there i had to depart with my buddy the Bug and put the road trip on hold for a while with some air time to visit Tim.

waterfalls are definitely wonderous

slowly, but surely. i only get two hours of time on the computers in Schlow Library. gotta get crackin' on fixing the laptop at least to the point of Internet use. =(

so, i had the joy of being at Niagara Falls for the Canada Day fireworks. sorry no photos of the pyrotechnics. i had no idea on the time of festivities and didn't have my camera ready. then i really just wanted to sit and watch the show. got to try out night shots of the falls, though. check out the album, for sure.

[both the American and Canadian falls]

there were a lot of international people, which i thought was really cool. couldn't find a bar close by (that wasn't an American chain), despite all efforts. festival-ish stuff was set up at the end of the Rainbow Bridge was all pretty G-rated. i could have wandered deeper into the bustle, i suppose, but i was exhausted. there's been lots of walking on this trip; sooo much cheaper AND i dig the slow pace to absorb everything.

[Canada from the Rainbow Bridge]

i've seen tons of bridges on this trip and am getting quite attached. they each definitely have a personality of their own, especially ones that cross borders. the checkpoints at the ends compare to airports and train stations in their design. i think it's the union of motion and structure that draws me to that sort of architecture. the building seems more like a mechanism and not just a stolid mass. where's Nick to back me up?

transportation is just another thing that defines a city. Sandman readers, Gaiman talks about the fear of cities waking. i say that buildings like airports and train stations are the arteries that keep moving even while a city sleeps.

[the American checkpoint]

anywho, the American checkpoint looks great, but charges 50cents. wtf? i only had a five dollar bill and nothing Canadian the change machine could convert for me (it only had one option which i, of course, did not have). needless to say, i ended up with a shit ton of quarters AFTER i had to get change to do my laundry. there are worse things in life.

the next day i didn't feel like paying $10 to park again and just walk the same path. i paid the same amount, but this time on Goat Island, which i have never been to before. i saved the Cave of the Winds for another time and just walked around the park to the point by Horseshoe Falls and the small islands on either side of Goat Island.

i have got to get a friend who flies helicopters.

[Maid of the Mist getting pushed away from the falls]

the Falls got me on a camera trip and i used the Garmin to find camera stores on the way to the airport. no satisfaction. oh well, more time to kill walking through Buffalo.

oh mountains, how i love thee

so... this is the view going up to the Adirondack Loj:

[the Meadow]

now this is more like camping than being in someone's yard. granted, i was still at a campsite. i know all these posts are going up late, but i'm in State College, PA right now and i'm definitely putting backpacking out in the Black Moshannon on my agenda.

yes, i stayed in a tent and not the lodge. i did get fed at the big house, though. cooking at a campsite by yourself is really depressing. i'd probably only have hotdogs anyway. the food was great, they served local brews and i got to talk with people. met a couple that had been hiking in Die Schweiz, a military man, Canadians from where i had just left in Ontario and a doctor who knew that the Tar River runs through Greenville. i'm telling you, how can people say they don't have anything in common with SOMEone!

put up my tent in the rain. expected hail, but got none. the next morning was bright and sunny, so i squeezed in a hike to Mount Jo before the 7hrs to Niagara Falls.

[overlooking Heart Lake from Mt. Jo]

the trail wasn't very established. i'd like to say that it was basically walking up a stream; just rocks and wetness. that's not exactly my bag of chips. i'm always a little worried for my noggin, especially when i'm alone. it also means lots of bugs. i need to take pictures of the front end of my car.

[going down from Jo]

so, i like winding mountain roads. well, out of nowhere it opens up to this lake (probably a reservoir) and i feel like i'm in Ireland. gorgeous. there was a little pull off point with a porta-john and different groups of people picnicing. there was also a dude with a sportbike, but he was napping.

i made due with my Bug instead. the curves in the Adirondacks must not be marked correctly because i was definitely going from 80 to 90 through '50mph' turns. maybe my speedometer is broke.

[the Cascade Lakes somewhere on the way to Keene Valley]

speaking of roads in New York, most are for shit. the ones that are actually marked as rough, just got paved and are smooth as glass (see above photo). the bridge i took back into the States the day before, Seaway International?, seriously looked like it was falling apart. there also weren't any other cars on it while i was, so i thought that maybe the bridge was closed and i wasn't supposed to be on it.

i made it to the falls that night for Canada Day fireworks, but i'll keep those shots together.

Canada's capital

[Parliment in Ottawa]

'welcome' to serious road trip time. the plan started with waking up at 7am to drive Katie and Eva (this time on Katie's birthday) to Toronto for their 11 o'clock flight. we were at the wedding reception until at least 4am. 'nuff said. when the alarm went off, nobody budged. i figured i'm the driver, i need to start moving. Eva tried to tell me something while i was in the shower, but i couldn't really hear the message. i-read-the-ticket-wrong-the-flight-is-at-10-omg-we-need-to-leave-now! i told Katie that her birthday luck better keep me from getting a speeding ticket and hauled ass to Toronto, cutting off a third of the expected time to get there. poor Steve was the only witness to our departure.

apparently the girls made it home alright. i wouldn't find that out 'til the end of the day. i just grabbed some Tim Horton coffee and headed out of town for about an hour, where i found a decent parking lot and crashed for a spell. bought a jug of apple juice, good to go.

i discovered that the camping site i had planned for was actually just a house that let people camp in the their yard. i wasn't ready for all that, and i figured that i hadn't gotten more than 4hrs of sleep and i'd be on hard ground the next two nights, so i opted to just get a hotel room. those beds were nothing like the king-size in the cabin and lacked three warm bodies as company. oh well, i pulled the curtains tight. it was raining anyway.

[Gatineau across the Ottawa River]

i had forgotten about Canada Day. here i was thinking 'woah, Canada is way more patriotic than the US.' silly me. actually, i was bummed to not be able to spend the holiday in the capital.

[the locks below the Chateau Laurier]

i really wish i had time to check out all the museums and landmarks, but the riverfront behind Parliment will have to do. i don't know much about the layout of Ottawa, but i found it easy to navigate. the public areas were gorgeous (i couldn't expect less from a nation's capital) and i would definitely go back. there are lots of parks around the city and i didn't even cross into Québec.

[chipmunks playing by the Canadian 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier']

by the way, seeing chipmunks in the city is pretty cool to me. i wish i had photos of the black squirrels too. damn gray ones have taken over the States. anywho, on to New York.

Robbie & Stu

so, from the story in Guelph, i left before the rest of the party to pick up Eva and Katie from Toronto. unfortunately, Eva had just flown back from visiting her family in Ireland on Thursday, slept Friday away with minimal time to spend with her dogs and was now flying to Canada on her birthday. luckily her dad is a dear and gave her coupons for free beer on the plane.

we missed a tour of local wineries and barely had time to put on swimsuits and splash about in Lake Ontario at the bed-n-breakfast before the crew returned to go to the ghost tour at Fort George. like i said, it was a very busy week.

back at the BnB, it was party time. there were tons of bottles of wine and a good sized bottle of Southern Comfort. we were just chilling on the back porch, but we stayed up late into the night. the bride may have gone to bed at one-ish, Eva held on 'til two, the groom popped us popcorn at three, Katie crashed shortly after and i found myself babbling politics with Stu's friend Steve long after that. i tried going to bed (me, Katie and Eva had a cabin separate from the house with a king-size bed and let Steve-O take the futon), but i was too wound up from all the activities and no time to myself. i mean, weddings are a big deal, Robin is close to my heart and i think about stuff too much as it is. i'm guessing i didn't really go to sleep until 5am.

breakfast was fantastic and at 8 o'clock. i milled around almost to noon, caught up in getting know all the new faces, before Eva and i jumped in the lake to wake up. Katie joined us after a bit of coaxing (and her calling me the baby for hating the cold). note: Eva is laughing at both of us the whole time because she is from Ireland and swims in their frigid ocean quite often. Carmen gets most of this on tape and i get out to take a shower and start on my responsibilities as photographer.

[Stu and 'groomsman' Carmen]

[Eva and Jessica helping with the lacing of the dress]

the ceremony took place at Balls Falls in a little church from the 1800s, with the reception in a barn across the street. my favourtie photos are right before the wedding where the bride and her dad are prepping for their entrance. as excited as i was, i cannot fathom where Mr. Angell's mind was.

[beautiful Robin]

there was an accordion player with a 3,000 song repertoire for the initial reception and while i did the formal photos. that ordeal was quick an painless, complete with the usual quirks. insert all sorts of inside jokes that are beyond what i can explain in this blog. =)

[the Weeks and the Angells]

[Stu and Robin with her sister Glynnis]

i promptly laid down my camera after finishing the formal shindig and dug into dinner wholeheartedly. i scooted Robin and Stu out for more photos by themselves before the craziness of toasts and first dances started. maybe it was a bit selfish, but i made it the end of my duties and lost myself in all the happiness.

cheers to Robbie and Stu! i love you with all my heart.

old friends, new faces

sorry about the gap, but there is no way to avoid being immersed in your best friend's wedding. i even slacked on taking pictures. the drive from Pittsburgh to Guelph was cake. the dude at the booth on the Peace Bridge didn't ask for any ID, everyone speeds like a demon and i arrived right as Robin got off work. she ran out of her beautiful Bluebell Cottage with a huge hug and i was immediately turned around to get her wedding dress altered. that was the last i drove my car for several days, but those days were more jam packed than everything on this road trip so far!

after returning from the seamtress, Robin showed me around the house and the remodeling (recontruction) she and Stu were doing. we then went on to staple up plastic covering for the bare insulation in the room i was to be sleeping in. screw all you that don't think this was a ton of fun. i am heavily considering going back up to Guelph at the end of this summer and spending some time helping Stu while Robbie's at work.

[the upstairs room for me, Jessica, Kevin, Amy and Sam]

the next day was Robin's birthday and everyone had their own errands to do at the beginning of the day, so i got directions to the nearest grocery store to get the fixin's for a birthday cookout. i also spent a lot of time on this blog. =) sweet tea and pasta salad was done, burgers ready for the grill, just in time for Jessica and Kevin arriving that evening.

keep inserting pre-wedding errands for the following two days, and tons of them. after the bday celebration we all worked on clearing space for a party and prepping the pets for their sitter. in between clean up of the aminals, i played with them and took some photos. worse than little kids, i say! quick lowdown: Ludo the German boxer, Pig the Boston terrier, Petie the cockatiel, Guy the Guinea pig, two turkeys, two roosters, ten or so hens and three chicks.

[the main rooster]

after all that the girls went back to attacking the reception's playlist. we all chilled in the upstairs room listening to music. the boys were tuckered out from moving wood and scaffolding, but Robin, Jessica and i must have still been running on high octane after squeezing in a half hour of Latin dance aerobics at the Y. we proceeded to ditch them and have a girls-only night in downtown Guelph.

[Jessica and Robin working on the playlist]

we still popped out of bed bright and early in the morning. i think this time the energy came from being the last day in Guelph. there was to be a party with family and friends that night, plus all the stuff that didn't get done in the past few days. all was well with lots of outside help, though, and decorating was pretty much our only responsibility. i wish i had photos of our hanging fish lights!

Amy and her fiancé came in from the Toronto airport promptly as festivities began. i got to meet most of Robin's friends and Stu's family that i had heard so many stories of and it was wonderful to see Robin's family too. we chatted the night away catching up and telling new stories.

it is such a joy to share this experience with Robin and Stu. those few days i spent in Guelph were amazing. i'm still debating how much of the wedding photography i want to show. not having an editing platform is proving to be more unproductive than i anticipated.

Iron City

you guys are going to have to bear with me. i had troubles reformating my laptop and didn't have time to get a bootleg copy of the Adobe Suite for PC. in short, my photos on this road trip are not going to be edited. this may not bother you, but i am definitely going bonkers.

so, after crashing with some bros that already had a hotel room, it was off to Pittsburgh. Tim just moved there from Raleigh and the city was a convenient halfway point on my way to Guelph for my best friend Robin's wedding. like i said, it's wedding season. i arrived Sunday afternoon and kicked it with Tim for a few hours. he had to leave for St. Louis early in the morning, but left me a key to the house and free day for roaming the 'Burgh.

please understand that both sides of my family are from PA and when i say 'from PA' i mean, 'from Steeler Country'. none of that Philadelphia nonsense. if you don't get it, i've got to leave it at that.

[Carnegie Science Center and Heinz Field, complete with Duckie]

in addition to not having Photoshop to edit my images, i've also been disappointed with my writing so far. blogs used to flow much better for me. what happened? then i realized that it used to be a lot more personal (and useless) before i did this documentary thing with pictures. somehow i've got to use this blog as a precursor to my senior exhibition. that is a forewarning that i might start babbling.

back to Pittsburgh. it is such a beautiful city in all the ways that i like. it's plopped down over the hills, naturally splitting into different areas by the rivers. i don't think i've ever seen a city so affected by geography, the land being the essence of the development. Tim's roommate, Lyndsey, didn't have many options for getting around the city. we talked about the T and the bus system, but after trying to decipher the schedules for downtown, Oakland, Southside, Mt. Washington AND trying to fit them together... yeah, i just walked.

their place is on the very end of Southside at Handler St. (hike up through some woods and you can look down on the practice field!) and i've been down Carson St. before, so that wasn't a problem. i went across the 10th St. Bridge, the way i had driven in the day before, and ended up by the county jail, which i had mistaken as an apartment building with a lot of gymnasium noise. silly me. more on the beauty of the city: i'm an artist. i love edgy and grunge. there is not more appealing of an envrionment than a blue-collar cityscape.

[steel steel steel]

there is also the age factor. Pittsburgh has been around for a while and seen plenty of ups and downs; it's had the time to establish a character. i never took Latin, but i think the courthouse was built in 1884. in the bridges alone, you have a timeline of the city displayed by the dated engineering and aesthetics.

[the Pittsburgh courthouse]

after walking a good bit downtown i went back across the Smithfield to Station Square and got on a cheesy boat tour. i can only walk so much in one day and definitely wanted to at least view the other parts of Pittsburgh. the Point was very impressive. just looking at it from a visual standpoint, it is a very dominate composition.

[the Allegheny, the Point and the Monogahela]

wide angle city shots make me happy, but the goddamn cloud shadowed the skyline and the boat was turning the corner too fast. it may not sound like much, but the sun reflecting off the PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) building covered with, oh, glass windows is quite nice.

i really wanted to go up the Duquesne Incline for photos of the Point (and do that again at night), but it was again the walking issue. i got off the boat and it was almost 5pm and the Mon Incline was right across the street.

[downtown and Southside from above Station Square on the Monogahela Incline]

from left to right are the Smithfield St. Bridge, the T and the Liberty, Birmingham and Hot Metal St. Bridges. aerial shots of Pittsburgh are amazing. the Monogahela River is known to be dirty and Lyndsey said that one of her friends took a picture from a plane that showed, where the Mon merges with the Allegheny, the Ohio River was distinctly split through the middle in two different colors for a good distance. anywho, Mt. Washington, at night, with the fisheye... so i can get the city lights draping the hills.

this town touches my heart in so many ways. i wish i was a settle-down type. Pittsburgh would definitely be my top choice. it kinda always has. there are a lot of things from my past that are so deeply rooted, i didn't even realize how much they affected me on the surface. the South is great. i call it home, but Pennsylvania is who i am. got a little growing up to do, though, i suppose. i'm itching to investigate the Continental Divide and it will be my next long-term destination. big mountains are my lover. yet, Portland is good-looking AND might be a better provider. we'll see. ;)

KKΨ wedding

wedding season is here. KKΨ is an honorary music fraternity serving collegiate band programs across the country. this past weekend two of my brothers (not literal, it's still a guy and a girl) tied the knot in Roxboro, NC.

[Tbird in the parking lot]

[the new Mrs. Wade]

it was great to see so many of my brothers again. being a service frat, we're dedicated to volunteer work, so of course people were showing up the day before the wedding helping the bride Liz with preparation. we also know how to have a good time after working hard. ;)

[classic KΣ chapter]

our night was topped off with the treat of having Jason's funk band, Hot Politics, play at the reception. first, he's a charter member of our chapter in the fraternity AND they are quirky enough to have a euph in their ensemble. we all got the chance to bask in our music geekdom and share a day of celebration. congratulations to Doug and Liz!!

[Jason Bullock on euphonium]

First Born Community Development Center

i stumbled across this organization when looking for volunteer work during darker days. First Born is run by people who go to a church together, but independent of the actual church... complicated subject that is not the purpose of this post. basically, my pictures were taken for the group's presentation at a sponser banquet. what they do is put together boxes of food to be donated to low-/no- income people in the area with diabetes.

quick lowdown: the South is full of people with diabetes. it's also very rural, so travel is a factor for the poor. food products for a diabetic diet are often more expensive or hard to come by. i mean, these people have all sorts of foot problems, so it's not like they can go out and tend their own expansive garden. First Born Community Development Center has a very well-orchestrated program for helping these people.

first, the food is not just canned goods from door-to-door donations. there are plenty of those, but there are also heaping palettes straight from a warehouse, in addition to several 50lb bags of onions and truckloads of cabbagge. local grocery stores give them meat that is pushing expiration dates in order to be frozen and distributed. my guess is that companies benefit from donating food products and that's how First Born can afford to supply food for almost 300 people a month. like most other non-profit stuff, they also get props for gearing towards people with a disadvantage. hence, they receive grant money from our local (and substantial hospital). the end result is a box with well-rounded canned food, juice, grains, sugar-free sodas, fresh produce and bread, a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk and a bag of frozen meats every month. that is the start that so many people can't afford. some are shipped out to remote areas, but the majority are given out on a first-come/first-serve basis requiring registered eligibility. the paperwork is a necessity for record and adds a level of fairness in distribution, since there is obviously not enough for everyone.

i am very impressed with how many bases they have covered in this game. i'm sure most people don't consider the magnitude of what the organization does and how well-thought through their strategy is. when i was done filling my hours of community service, i just kept going over there. it may not be as often, but it helps just to have me spend an hour a day sorting out their massive amounts of random donations or reorganizing their mess of filing cabinets. that evolved into me taking photos for them. i hope my photos chip off a piece of the iceberg that is big enough to be of interest. please, please, please click on the images to see the entire album. the people running First Born are good people to the core and do nothing but work hard to spread their service.

i'm back to contributing small piddilly stuff until they need me for something bigger. i would love to see First Born have a webpage and if anyone is interested in designing one, please let me know. that will be my next personal project, pending my inability at finding them someone much better than me. =)

off to Ocracoke

finally, something that might be interesting. my good friend Luke is currently living on Ocracoke Island and had been wanting me to come visit for a while. this place is the gem of North Carolina's Outer Banks and you can only get there by boat. i got the idea that i would take my bicycle since the ferry ticket is a mere $3 and the island isn't but 12 miles long. when i let word to my Greenville friends, it turned into another group adventure to add to our list. much thanks to Luke for letting me ride up to his house and stay two nights with a posse of five. Three where fellow photo students (omg, the number of cameras that went) and another old friend, Katie.

[throwing popcorn on the Swan Quarter ferry]

we ended up riding separate, the girls taking the earlier boat and the guys coming in the evening. the beach was the first stop, but the sun came down hard really quick and we opted to chill at the house and meet the roommates. let me just say: 8 boys in a four bedroom house.

[beautiful Aileen lounging on the porch]

we picked up Nick and Bayardo from the dock and proceeded to cook-out, followed by night swimming at the beach. the skies are so dark and clear out there that i couldn't find many constellations because of the thousands of stars that i normally can't see. we were not lucky enough to experience it on this trip, but sometimes the plankton in the water have a bio-luminescent glow that can light up the whole ocean. at most the wet sand by the surf sparkled when we stepped on it.

Katie had to leave on the afternoon ferry the next day, but her short-lived vacation was still a blast. me, her and Luke have known each other for over ten years and i really value the time we get to spend together. that left four photographers, each with their own camera. it may have been a bit intimidating, but we went out on our own excursions while the house went to work.

[photo majors doing what photo majors do]

Luke joined us after getting off work and we headed out to the beach again. i must say, i am jealous of being able to jump in the ocean after a long day.

[a 'Bayardo moment' playing paddleball]

a little more history on Ocracoke: they were all about pirates long before Pirates of the Caribbean came out. it goes back to the days of plunder and booty in the Graveyard of the Atlantic when Edward Teach (Blackbeard) went to his hideaway in the woods of Springer's Point. in case you didn't know, Blackbeard was pretty badass. he would braid his beard with fuses and light them before battle so there would be smoke smoldering around his menacing face. we tried to catch a sunset photo op since the Point is on the sound side of the island, but clouds blocked the horizon and denied us of all the pretty reds and purples.

[Springer's Point at dusk]

we had to catch the 7am ferry to get back to the mainland with time for people to get to work, which meant getting up at the buttcrack of dawn as Luke was leaving to open the coffee shop. needless to say, if you go to the complete album, there will pictures of us passed out on the boat.

[the photo crew heading home together]

go check it out. i recommend it as a top choice on the east coast. especially Ocracoke Coffee. the owners Jackie and Garrick are awesome people, as well as most of the locals.