Date: 2007-09-25
From: Virginia Beach/Williamsburg

To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

Whoa, what a change! Had a great time in NYC, visiting peeps from college, and even high school. It was a really interesting experience, in general, just due to having been so isolated from society for two months. I stayed the second two nights with a good friend from college. Her apartment was in Brooklyn, where I'd never been before, except to eat in Williamsburg, which was not nearly as rough as where she was living. Due to how our schedules worked, I didn't get to Kelli's place until around 9:30 at night. When I got out of the subway, I walked past a playground overrun by thugs--I tried not to make eye contact, but I couldn't resist looking through the fence to see what was going on. Unfortunately, it was too dark, as I was walking down the side of the street without street lights--probably not the best idea. I got to a police station, and the first cop car parked in front of it had all of its tires slashed...another bad sign. Then, as I approached the actual street corner in front of the police station, I noticed a piece of plywood that was about 3' by 5' and painted in an aqua and purple checkerboard pattern. Doesn't sound too special, does it? I didn't think so either, until I got close enough to see that it was smeared in blood. I've seen my share of smeared blood, and this was a lot of blood, by about any standard. I quickened my pace. I was fortunate enough to arrive in one piece to the apartment, and found Kelli returning with a bunch of PBR; it was going to be a good night. There were a bunch of other Mary Wash kids there, and we sat on the fire escape and drank PBR and talked about life. Despite being in the slum, there were quite a few $70,000 cars that drove by. I wondered how many of millions of dollars of drugs passed in front of me, something told me that it was more than a few, but it was all good.The next day a huge group of Mary Wash kids went to a really late breakfast (1pm) and had a great time. I was able to get some authentic Mexican food, which was nice. We all just sat around for the rest of the day and didn't do much. I attempted to watch some weird sequel-type to the Wizard of Oz, but I was too tired, and crashed.My last day in the city was rather uneventful. We caught breakfast at a little diner, after I had the pleasure of experiencing another fortress of an inner city PO. The lady was really nice, and there weren't any immediate indications that the bulletproofness was quite as warranted as in Astoria. I parted ways with Kelli, after we talked a long time about life over overly-sweetened coffee, with promises to meet again at the Mary Wash homecoming this fall...it should be a good time. I went to the Manhattan Eastern Mountain Sports store, to find a clerk who didn't know what sleeping bag liners were. At least he was able to point me to the "camping department." The whole place seemed like more of a Northface-peddling place for NYU kids than an outfitter, so I decided to keep my money in my pocket.I gave myself ample time to get to the airport and through security due to my terroristesque looks, so I took the bus from Grand Central Station after poking around a Barnes and Noble and getting a book on economics (decided to pass up Woodward's exostentialist philosophy recommendation, the jacket of which seemed to indicate a bit too much depth for a break from hiking), and an Economist. There were a bunch of signs in the bus, basically begging for tips. There was even a sign that said "tips make my great day even better!" Too bad the dude didn't even bother to tell us what terminal we needed to get off the bus at for our airlines...no tip for you. Then, he told the dude sitting next to me to get off at the wrong place; the guy seemed rather upset when he caught back up with me in the same terminal, 45 minutes later. I did not run into any problems at security. My general thoughts about TSA employees is that they are the ones that can't keep a job at McDonalds or Taco Bell (no offense to those who can). Plus, they took my half-full tube of toothpaste, because it was .3 ounces over the limit. The last time I flew, my cousin walked through security with a completely full Nalgene! Who needs uniformity and consistency? Another interesting aside; the dude that checked my ID told me that I didn't look anything like the picture on my ID, then signed my boarding pass and let me go. He was right; my teeth have changed, I no longer wear glasses, I have a beard, and a fro--there are basically no similarities between me and my photo, and his solution was to tell me this, and not ask for alternate ID. So reassuring. My flight went well, however, so I shouldn't complain. Whatever.Today, I decided to finally wash my sleeping bag, which has been fermenting in a box on the front porch for the past few days. I headed to the local Blue Ridge Mtn. Sports, to get down wash, which I expected to cost around 10 bucks. I ended up spending $130! I got a sleeping bag liner that is rated to add 15 degrees to my bag, and bought a down inflatable sleeping pad! High class; I'm really excited to sleep on it. I am going to head back to the trail with just the new pad, and mail home my 3/4 length Thermarest (it's too cold to not have anything under my legs), and then when it gets even colder, I will have the bag liner sent to me. The guys at the store were really helpful, and I had a good time talking with them. Plus, the discounts were awesome; 50% off on the pad (originally $140), plus they wrangled up a 20% off coupon for everything else. I was also able to get ahold of Gregory, and they confirmed that my pack is fixed and ready to be sent back to the trail. They have replaced the material that ripped with webbing, which is stitched and riveted to the straps! The guy was excited to learn that Osprey does not give out loaner packs, and that I was really happy that I had chosen Gregory, because despite the fact that I was really upset when I discovered the tear, I never experienced a true failure, and they were awesome about getting me a loaner, and retrofitting my pack to new standards. I stayed up last night until 2am reading every single one of Gatorgump's journal entries...they were great! I also put pictures up on Facebook, and I am going to start adding photos to this, as well. I have requested a directlink to my journal, which will be www.trailjournals.com/kirkroberts. For those of you with the link that has all of the numbers and things in it, it will continue to work, and you can use either one.