Alexandria 2

Ok, so I know I'm a bad blogger.  Its hard to keep it up everyday and when you miss a day, it feels like you have twice as much work cut out for you the next day.

So here are some updates:
I've explored Alexandria especially the area called Old Town.  It is beautiful and reminds me of the interest that both my father and I have in architecture.  My step mother confirmed this after I had this thought.  I also went to Jones Point Park just to run Max and came across the Mt. Vernon Trail which follows it's way along the Potomic River to Washington's historic home.  I didn't do the walk since it was raining and I had alot to do back at the house.
I've had the chance to speak with alot of folks here.  It seems like none of them are acutally from here though.  Reminds me of Boston or NYC in the sense that it is relies on imported talent and residents.

I also found a great hole in the wall breakfast spot (another connection to my father) called Jack's Place.  Why the hell are these a dying breed? 

I also keep seeing bumper stickers that I want to take pictures of. "Kids for Coal" is my current fav.

Kinda great news: I have a car alarm.  It is installed and I need to go to another shop because Beast Buy (incorrectly spelled intentionally) does not buy their staff tools and I now need to go and find the Best Buy installer that has taken it upon themselves to buy a $100 programmer for the alarm called a Bit Writer.  That said, there are certain functions that I was counting on being active, that are not yet.  And while I'm ranting, why can't google's blogger have spell check built in?  I got the kid back buy making him give me the whole tour of the car while filming him using my flip.  So now I have a my own video tutorial and proof as to how suavely incompitent he was.  I hope the guys at the next best buy get a kick out of it because they will be cleaning up his mess.



While we are on the vengful side of things, I have ot tell you about something that tikkled me today.  Car number 29 of the local Alexandria cab company was driving reclessly and honking at me to go faster then flew into the oncoming traffic to get ahead of me.  The after he got stuck behind someone trying to turn, he ended up behind me again and didnt like that... So long story short, I let the guy get infront of me, got out my phone and call his boss (the number is on the cab, LOL).  From a stop light, I expalined the boss the situation, and then was reassured "No problem, I'll call him in to have a chat with him".  He turned to the dispatch mic, hailed #29, got a response (the cab driver in front of me had picked up his mic), and then said "Come on over to dispatch.  Your day is over".  At that point I'm like "Oh crap, I'm right behind the guy.  What if he goes postal right here in front of the Masonic Monument.  Is this how it all ends???
The cab driver, floored it when the light changed and that was that :)

While we are on car stuff, I was overdue for an oilchange and liked the local flavor of this sign. 

Speaking of local flavor, have I mentioned the great videos at http://www.bronxflavor.com/ yet?


I have been in Alexandria doing some trip planning and work on the car.  I had a whole session of unpacking the car, setting up my "overnight" bag and I packed my camping backpack for a four day camp (no food or water yet). 

I am planning on getting to Shenendoah National Park soon.  The weather has really killed this weekend's chances and although it is going to get dryer up there Mon-Wednesday, the low temps will be in the 30's.

 TONIGHT...CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS IN THE EVENING...THEN RAIN



LIKELY WITH AREAS OF DRIZZLE AFTER MIDNIGHT. AREAS OF FOG AFTER


MIDNIGHT. LOWS IN THE UPPER 30S.
.SUNDAY...CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE MID 40S.
.SUNDAY NIGHT...CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS. LOWS IN THE MID
30S.
MONDAY...CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN SHOWERS. HIGHS IN THE LOWER 40S.
.TUESDAY...PARTLY CLOUDY. LOWS IN THE LOWER 30S. HIGHS AROUND 50.
.WEDNESDAY...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS IN THE LOWER 30S. HIGHS IN THE MID
50S.
THURSDAY...MOSTLY CLEAR. LOWS IN THE LOWER 30S. HIGHS IN THE UPPER
50S.

 
I have spoken at lenght with a certain ranger at the park via phone and she has helped me pick out a good trip that will hopefully entirly avoid me from having to deal with the 1-4 feet of snow that is covering most of the park.

OPEN THIS MAP BEFORE YOU CONTINUE

She has picked out the Whiteoak Canyon for my hiking and also says that Cedar Run Falls might be accessable.  The parking area is White Oak Parking Area and I will probably camp on the Cedar Run Link Trail as it is much lower in elevation and hopefully warmer.

I really wanted to start off my trip with a nice dry camping experience.  I'm going to use the car as a backup shelter and hope that the walk between the Cedar Link Trail and the parking area isn't a difficult one.  As far as how long to stay, I'm going to bring 4 days of supplies and play it by ear... The weather being one of the larger factors.

I still need to call back and ask qabout food being left in the car (bears don't care about the brand of alarm you just bought) and if I need to have an actual bear box (for food) to hang in a tree or if a garbage bag is good enough.  I think this question is specific to where I am camping and therefore want to check back about that.

I have my snoshuz's (see pic left), but no snowshoe's, so I'm going to have to stick to a limit of 8-14 inches of snow before I need to turn around.  The falls should be roaring given the snowmelt and the rain the mountains are getitng.  This trail apparently has more falls per mile than almost anywhere else on the east coast.

After that, I hope to go to Farmville, VA.
Here is the route between the parking lot (I think that is it) in Shenondoah to the center of Farmville.

View Larger Map

In the meantime, the car is packed up, I've done laundry, cleaned the room I was staying in at my aunt's house, gladly helped her with a ton of chores and am just waiting for my Garmin gps to update its maps.  I knew something was fishy with the GPS when it messed up a few things in Boston recently, and then it kept not knowing about the outbreak of no left turn signs that D.C. seems to have recently suffered.  After that, I realized, Yo this GPS is about to get me a ticket!  So I have endured 5 hours of Garmin downloads and now the actual upgrade process via USB cable.  Its excruciating.  And that's why I suddenly have time to update the blog :)

And the worst thing about being nickle and dimed by Garmin after you have bought thier system (they want 110 bucks for updated maps), is that Amazon has it for $95.  WTF? You gonna nickle and dime me and then overcharge me when I can go around the block and get the same thing from another guy?  I enjoy waiitng for the downfall of suck a cocky company.  Maps and gps chips wont be propriatary for much longer (if they even are still).

So I have been out of NYC for a week and haven't missed it at all. 

Download is done! I'm off to Nick's in DC.