November 24, 2015 evening

Good evening. The Tuesday work day has come to a close as we inch towards the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday and the full moon tomorrow night.ย Right now it’s around 39 degrees and clear withย occasionalย clouds.ย The moon is already pretty bright and big, nearly a full moon. The sunset tonight was at 4:26 PM and tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:27 AM for 14 hours and 30 minutes of darkness. The first day of winter is rapidly approaching on December 22nd — less then a month away. Then the days will start getting longer

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 22. West wind around 6 mph becoming calm in the evening. In the morning, it will become a pretty pleasant day.ย Sunny, with a high near 46. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the afternoon. For turkey day, look for some great weather — mostly sunny, with a high near 55. South wind 7 to 10 mph. Almost summer-like.

Started listening to some holiday music for my commute home. While it seems like it just was the holiday season, it’s yet that time once again. At least the snow has held off for a few more days then in recent years. The city has held off on Christmas decorations downtown so far, except for a few wreaths on city hall.

Back to my musings about the past weekend…

Heading up to Malone last Friday it started to snow pretty hard and the wind was blowing ominously. I stopped at Stewarts and got milk and more firewood. They are well priced for kiln-dried wood that is legal to bring across state lines and distances greater than 50 miles in state. I also stopped at Walmart and bought a bunch more bungee cords. I was afraid with the wind I wouldn’t have enough of an ability to tie down the three tarps I had bought to use as a wind and rain shelter with the expected high winds expected on Saturday night.

As I was heading out from Malone to North Lawrence the sun was rapidly setting in the sun. Fortunately I somehow remembered the turn, and when I got to the camping area, it was exactly as I remembered it from six years ago. The CC Dam Camping area is somewhat cramped sites but when I was there I had the place to myself bar some hunters setting up at the other end.

I set the tarps and tent up primarily in the dark but I had lights hooked to my inverter to help. I think I did a good job setting up, while I sipped a cold one or two for a while. Everything was set up by 6 PM and I got a campfire started and the Big Buddy Heater. Had some hot dogs and chips for dinner as it was easy.

Retired to bed around 9 AM as the heated tent was warm and I was tired from the long trip up there. I also knew how short the days were and wanted to go hunting at daybreak and explore the Deer River State Forest. It was a good first day on the trip even if everything didn’t go quite to plan.

November 24, 2015 update

As we move through the 9 o’clock hour, we are at about the freezing temperature. I got somewhat of a late start this morning as I was not used to waking up to the cold and having to climb out of bed to turn up the heat. Camping can spoil you.

It was a beautiful trip up through the Adirondacks on Friday. I havenโ€™t been up to Plattsburgh in years and havenโ€™t driven the Adirondack Northway in late fall on a clear day in years. The Greens and Northern Adirondack Mountains were crystal clear, driving along the Northway. If there were more legal spots to stop along the Northway and I had more free time, I would have stopped and grabbed more pictures. Photos are nice, but I always have memories too.

Without my phone working I didn’t have have Waze, so no advanced warnings of police traps. I normally rely on the Waze speedometer, as the truck’s speedometer is off, especially as you increase in speed. I blew past of famous police traps in Keeseville, as you descend past Pok-o-Moonshine, around 64 mph on the Big Red speedometer which is over 70 in real speed. I saw cop glance at his radar unit but he didn’t stop me. I eased off the gas for the rest of the trip.

Finally make it to Plattsburgh a little after 12:30, then stopped at Gander Mountain to look around in buy some 20-gauge deer slugs. I knew I wasn’t necessarily going to drop a deer while I was up there, but figured it would be better to have them not. I was annoyed that they asked to see my drivers license and took down my license number when I bought them. Its just kind of creepy, especially as Cuomo hasnโ€™t implemented his ammunition database, as I donโ€™t really like the idea of government or a private business keeping track of what Iโ€™m buying. I donโ€™t have to give them my drivers license to buy almost everything else like beer and cigarettes, especially now that I look well over 21 years of age.

Stopped at Plattsburgh State and walked around. Even with my jacked up truck, finding street parking was not difficult on Drapper Ave. There always seems to be parking there. A lot has changed and a lot has remained the same on campus. There was a new building on Drapper Avenue, which made me almost miss my turn to that road. Hawkins Hall is mostly the same. The Hudson Hall Annex is new but that was under construction. They are demolishing and rebuilding the elevated walkway around campus. I was hoping to stop by the Political Science department and see some of my old professors but the department was all closed up. They may have been teaching classes. It seemed like there was a lot more African Americans on campus then I remember from back when I went there. They recruit from all over the state, and recently have been offering free tuition to local students who have an โ€˜Aโ€™ average. Snapped a few pictures for memoryโ€™s sake.

Stopped at the Plattsburgh Municipal Library so I could get on the wifi to try to switch over phone to an old but partially working phone. While the StraightTalk website was up, it took a while to figure out how to make it work for that purpose. At first I could not figure out how to switch to an old phone, but eventually got it to work. Killed probably another half hour doing this, and by the time I was back to my truck it was quarter to 2 PM.

I had previously planned to leave Plattsburgh no later then 2 PM. This would get me to either the Deer River area or CC Dam Association / Brasher State Forest camping areas before 4 PM or somewhere there around depending if I had to make any stops. I did have enough time for a quick trip over to Point Au Rouche, but by then I was pushing 2 PM so basically I went to the beach, walked out on it too and snapped a quick few shots. Not having my phone to give me directions, I wanted to make sure I left plenty of time to get up there, lest I get lost or have to drive in the darkness. I was finding my way exclusively by memory of six years ago and the times Iโ€™ve made maps of state forests and studied road maps. Fortunately I have pretty good map memory.

NY 190 was as boring and congested route as always. There was two different speed traps on the road but I limited my speed and kept my truck a safe distance from cars ahead of me which were constantly stopping and turning. The sky turned gray over this super boring road in Indian and wild hillbilly country out by Altona. The wind and then snow squall picked up. It was frigid by the time I arrived in Malone. At least the snow wasn’t sticking at that point as the mercury still read about 35 degrees.

To be continued. I’m near myย destinationย stop.

November 24, 2015 morning

Good morning. A chilly start to this Tuesday at 22 degrees and clear this morning. Later partly sunny, with a high near 42. Southwest wind 3 to 6 mph. Should be a nice day as we get closer to turkey day. Sunset tonight is at 4:27 PM. Full moon tomorrow but we should be very close to full tonight.