Back at it!

I have once again decided to enjoy my own reality and this time head out yonder westard, previously unseen by me. I originally was going to title this post "On the Road Again", and copyright infringements aside, it just didn't really do me justice. I am more than just on the road although in the past week and one day since leaving Houston I have put around 1800 ($300 in gas) miles on my new car and perhaps 1.8 miles on my feet, so in essence I have traveled 1000 times more on the road than off. It's also the second time in one year that I have done this thing in my car. So perhaps I have just proved that I am indeed "On the Road Again"

I am just about to head off to an Arizona Diamondbacks game so I will leave you briefly the reason as to why am doing this adventure. Most everyone is at least somewhat puzzled as to why I am continually leaving home, although I have run into a few people who are completely hands down in favor of me doing his. Even a 64 year old man gave me his full blessing for this journey along with some encouragement to visit Perth, Australia. The best I can offer as a reason comes from a quote from a young man who did something similar to what I am doing, only about 16 years ago.

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future."

In statistics we take a wide variety of samples before we draw conclusions and thus I feel it necessary to continually take samples of this world before I can truly feel content with settling down. My travels are just a small means of taking a small sample of what's "out there".

I am just ridiculously lucky to be able to travel in my own way.

NY to Toronto to Houston to Puerto Rico

My dad was kind enough to go to take us along with him to an annual employment lawyers conference. Yup, crazy as it sounds I am in Puerto Rico at this amazing hotel with mountains at my back and an ocean at my feet. This place is beyond a doubt the nicest place I have ever stayed and probably the most expensive. A beer is 8 bucks and fries are 14.


There is an entire 18 hole golf course carefully carved delicately into the forests that cover the grounds




Before this, I spent 24 hours of driving getting home from Toronto, Ontario. Toronto was spectacular. I met up with my long time friend Marina, who lived in Houston and Greek danced with me throughout high school before she moved up with her family to Toronto.

Texas Teddy turns 26

All public pics are at http://picasaweb.google.com/greeksquared


Somehow I am 26 years old. I am sure my parents have had the same sentence cross their minds today. Seriously though, I never thought I would ever be this old. I actually remember in high school not being able to fathom any year beyond 1999. It just strikes me as odd that I am 26. I came to the Bronx this weekend to go out in the city for my birthday. My Aunt and Uncle fixed me a special Greek dinner and even got me a cake.

Before leaving upstate NY I visited the home of former president Franklin Roosevelt. His family has this massive 30 room, 3 floor house on about a 2 mile strip of land that overlooks the Hudson river. The president grew up there and would take many of his esteemed guests such as the King and Queen of England over for some Bar-b-qued hot dogs.

He is buried with his wife in this fantastic garden that has about 20 different kinds of roses that were all blooming.


A couple interesting facts about FDR. He had an affair for a good part of his marriage that his wife didn't know about until his death when the woman showed up at this funeral. Apparently FDR's daughter helped keep his secret from her mother. FDR is the only president to be physically disabled. He became paralyzed from the next down when he was 35 from infantile paralysis after a weekend vacationing on a small island off of Maine. It is extremely rare for someone of his age to get this type of paralysis. After becoming president he started the march of dimes foundation dedicated to his disease.

My family in Marlboro has been over the top ridiculously nice to me. My laundry has been done, folded and even put in a dresser. My bed made. Spontaneously taken to places around town. Given superb food every night. I actually got yelled at and called "a pain in the ass" for not taking as much food as I wanted out of the fridge.


I went out this weekend in the west village in the city with my cousin and his racous group of friends.


I was cleverly nicknamed Texas Teddy at some point during the night and it stuck for the rest of the weekend. The bars don't close until 4 a.m. here which would seem excessive except that we didn't leave the Bronx until 1:30 and stayed on the train for an hour and then spent another half hour carousing around once we got out. We didn't step into a bar until a little after 3.

Mohonk Mountain and West Point Academy

The past couple of days I went to see The United States Military Academy at West Point and hiked up and through Mohonk Mountain. The only thing I knew about West Point before visiting was that it is the home for Army football. I had no idea it was in New York. The idea of the Military Academy was first conceived in the late 18th century and was recognized as an educational institution in 1803. It is situated just along the Hudson river at a point where the river bows westward an extreme amount. It was strategically placed here to maximize its area around the Hudson and give it a superior edge against enemy forces that wanted to pass through the river. Unfortunately since 9/11, visitors who do not come through by bus tour are not permitted on campus. But, the museum was open.




The next day I went with my cousins Alex and Jimmy up Mohonk Mountain. The Mountains in this area are actually small, small enough that the folks around here call them hills. The hike up Mohonk is completely different than that of the other hiking areas around here. There is actually very little hiking to be done. You are basically manuevering up a jungle gym made for adults. There are multiple enclosed rock areas that you have to squeeze into. Some areas are so tight that I was told someone actually gotten stuck. Many other obstacles require ladders and bridges to get across them. At the peak there is a gigantic almost medieval looking tower that overlooks the entire region.



To view the rest of my photos just go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/greeksquared

Upstate New York and back "home"?

Its hard to say that I had seen enough of the city but after three weeks I think it was time to move on. If I stayed any longer I might just have never left. Luckily for me I have some cousins about an hour and a half North in a small town called Marlboro. The town, probably not more than a few thousand, is situated just inside the Hudson river valley. I'm not sure if you call it upstate NY but its further upstate than NY city so that's what I'm calling it. I am staying on a house which was built more than 200 years ago. It used to be a bed and breakfast and one at one time was the brightest spot for town nightlife. There was a small dance hall in the backyard, a 2-3 acre backyard at that. From here, outdoor thrillseeking is not too far away. Lots of good hiking, kaykaing, bike riding, fishing, and camping await. Yesterday I went with my cousins Alex and Sofia to a "mountain" top to explore Lake Minewaska. The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular. Another. The lake was very tempting to take a swim. There were multiple areas where amatuer cliff divers could launch themselves safely into harmony. Hopefully I will be back with some swim trunks. There was also some life in the lake...a tadpole here and outside.. a hawk.

We left a little early because I had made plans to go to a previous home of mine in Ridgefield, CT, a small town of about 20,000 tucked just inside the Western border of Connecticut. I lived here in the summer of 2005 where I had an internship with Schlumberger. I stayed with an unbelievably great family. I don't think I've lived a better summer. I had an entire upstairs attic with a TV and bedroom all to myself. I had a really sweet house Mom whom prepared dinner almost every night of the week and would also take me to soccer games and even went hiking with me once. My summer Dad is an outdoor enthusiast who took me out in the water by boat a couple times (see also: fishing, hunting, and traveling through rockies with son for a week with no contact from civilization). My house brother is actually set to star in a nationally released motion picture this coming fall called Margot at the Wedding with Jack Black and Nicole Kidman. My house sister is a ginger haired beauty planning for college. So crazy, last time I was here she was just finishing freshman year.

When I came back, the whole experience from 2 years ago seemed to instantly come back and revive itself. A delicious dinner was prepared lots of catching up was eagerly done. I even ended up spending the night in my old room. It felt fantastic to be back.


Random observation and question...

As I was driving to the hiking area yesterday there were quite a few motorcycles on the road. The good weather probably helped. For a small period of time there happened to be one of the motorcyclists directly infront of me on the road. Every time that he passed an oncoming motorcyclist he would put his left hand out as if to signal that they were in some kind of bike cult or something and the other guy would do the same. Thoughts? (Thanks Alex)


Picture note: I am now using picasa.google.com to host all my pictures. This software by google even lets you digitally edit photos and seems to have many more features than photobucket.com which I was using previously. (Thanks Marion)

I can't seem to get the slideshows to work in my original post...why is there no pause button?? My blog entry about NY is below the slideshows.

Trade center slideshow