Jay Gaulard Blog

Fife’n Drum and Bull’s Bridge, Kent, CT

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I know that I have told you in the past how much Laura and I like to eat lunch at the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT every Easter. We have been doing it now for about four years. It usually is a very good time. Well, unfortunately, yesterday was our last visit to this restaurant.

I am going to try to keep this short and sweet and not too much like a restaurant critic. Let’s just say that it seems like there is some new management and a new chef at this place.

The wait was very long during each portion of our two course Easter lunch and the food was amateur at best. It seemed like the dish washing dude was back there cooking too. I swear it seemed like there were parts of my dishes that were from a can. To me, “warm potatoes” does not mean potato salad that tasted like it was straight from Costco. A vegetarian dish does not mean boiled vegetables. Oh well, there’s $80 down the drain. We didn’t even stay for dessert…my favorite part. We just left the money on the table and left. During the last 20 minute wait to have our plates cleared from the table, three different waiters walked by and looked at us at least seven times. We kept wondering if our waiter had gone home. Well, as it turns out, as we were leaving, Laura caught sight of this guy eating at the bar. What the hell? If you can’t tell, I am a little annoyed. To think, I still left a tip…A TIP. I didn’t have the patience to wait for any change. I swear, if we had stayed any longer, they would’ve started vacuuming the floor while people were still eating. Yes, we will have to find a new place to eat on Easter.

To simmer down, we went on our traditional hike at Bull’s Bridge. I have a few posts about our previous hikes. It’s a really neat place.

Since we have been down the same trail so many times, I thought it would be a good idea to check out the top part of the trails. Laura might have been a little disappointed because she wanted to go on a real hike. I will have to make it up to her. We took lots of pictures and video. I will upload the video today and post it here.

This is a photo of the front of the Fife’n Drum restaurant in Kent, CT. I don’t even know why I am showing this. Perhaps someone from the restaurant will read this post and mail me a refund check.

This is the monument in Kent, CT.

These are two shots of Bull’s Bridge itself. We got lucky with very good weather.

These are all shots of the river. The water was rushing very fast, due to all the rain we have been getting. We didn’t see any kayakers like we have in previous years. Maybe the water was going too fast. I sure wouldn’t get in there.

Videos of the Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

Ahhhhh…this is my last one.

I am trying to upload all my old videos and this is it. Thank freaking goodness. Now, I can erase this from my todo list. One of these days, I am going to get rid of that list altogether.

One summer long ago, Laura and I decided to visit the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz. You know, it’s part of the ridge. Anyway, I took some video in the back part, near the lake. That’s the best part anyway. That’s the part everyone comes to see. One of these days, we are going to paddle around in one of those canoes.

Here is some video…

A Nice Day For An Autumn Walk

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

We were going to go for a hike this afternoon, but I feared the ground would be swampy when we got to our destination. I wanted to hike down to a pond a few acres away. I think we’ll get to that another day, but for today, we stuck with our usual walk down the road.

I have to say, for all those people who put off hiking in the summer because it’s too hot, today was the day for you. Weather.com tells me it’s 44 degrees outside…perfect for walking or hiking. No sweating and no freezing. Just perfect.

In an unusual move, I thought I would bring the camera along. It’s nice and sunny, so I knew the photos would come out nicely. Wanna see a few?

This is a piece of property down the road that both Laura and I are very jealous of. I am not sure how many acres it is, but they have a pond, a grassy area, a main house and another house out back. They also have a table and chairs set up near the back of the pond. I would like to drink my morning coffee there.

Moving further along, there is a river that flows pretty much along the entire road. When Rob came up to visit a while ago, we looked for salamanders under the rocks in this river.

This is Laura’s favorite house on this road. It’s an old white farm-ish type house. It’s hard to see back there, but what I was trying to get a picture of was the nice driveway and Pacasandra planted off to the right.

I just had to grab this one on our way back. The sun was hitting it and the leaves were bright yellow. Also, this is a great stone house to look at.

Wandering Home - By Bill McKibben

Saturday, October 6th, 2007

Ahhh…my first audio book. I don’t know how Laura finds these things, but she does.

I like to think of her sitting at her computer, very studiously analyzing and contemplating my psyche. “Who is Jay?” she would ask herself. “What makes this guy tick?” In actuality, she probably sees what is popular that day on Amazon, but we try not to think about that.

I can’t get over the clarity of the new stereo I installed in my car today. Just a moment ago, I walked outside, across the driveway to it. I sat down in the driver’s seat and turned the key. The radio came on so I could hear 95.5 WPLJ, down in the city. I changed the channel to 100.3 Z100. It’s remarkable how clear the radio receives the signal. My old one never did that.

I opened the package of the audio book, “Wandering Home - A Long Walk Across America’s Most Hopeful Landscape: Vermont’s Champlain Valley and New York’s Adirondacks,” by Bill McKibben. I really didn’t know what to expect. My mother has been raving about audiobooks ever since she lived back in Brewster. I think they helped make her drive everyday to work in Danbury a little bit easier. She used to say, “My car can steer itself on the trip to work. That’s how used to it I am.” I think she really believed that at times. Well, when she told the story, she sounded very convincing.

I pushed the CD in the brand new slot. Everything is so shiny. The radio stopped and the CD started. A very faint, but clean guitar sound started. It got louder, and then a very soothing voice, that introduced himself as the author, Bill McKibben, began to speak. I though, “Ooh, this is going to be good. I listened for a few minutes and turned the key back, so the sound stopped. I didn’t want to ruin the first part of the story during a time when I wasn’t focusing on it. I turned the key forward, so the CD turned on again. Yup, it picked up right where it left off. This was going to work out fine.

So what’s the story about? Well, Bill’s website tells it like this…

“The acclaimed author of The End of Nature takes a three-week walk from his current home in Vermont to his former home in the Adirondacks and reflects on the deep hope he finds in the two landscapes.”

That’s not all, you can read the rest here.

As you can see, I am quite excited about using my frontal lobe even more than I currently am. It is going to be nice to break out of the mold of NPR and bad local radio. Yeah, it’s going to be nice.

Picture of Sam’s Point, NY

Friday, September 28th, 2007

I grabbed this baby on the way to work this morning. I would give it two more weeks before the leaves are changing in full force. I always say that the changing leaves are prettier after the second half. I mean, instead of half green, half colorful, the leaves look better half colorful, half bare. That’s when they really stand out.

Here is a great shot I got from Rt.52 of Sam’s Point, high up on the Shawangunk Ridge.

Sam’s Point in the Hamlet of Cragsmoor

Monday, August 6th, 2007

Yesterday was pretty fun. We did something that I have been waiting a while to do…to go hiking at Sam’s Point in the Hamlet of Cragsmoor. If you remember, we went up there on Christmas. That was pretty cool, but I didn’t get all that many great photos.

I have been suggesting that we head up to Sam’s Point again and I guess my suggestions paid off. Laura was gingerly excited about the hike. With the hike, came nice pictures, so here you are…

Here we are, down in the parking lot, looking up at the cliff. I thought I really wanted to do the whole walk around Loop Road, but at that point, I was thinking about just getting to the top of the cliff and coming back down. Laura made me do the whole loop. She is a woman of power and not to be underestimated.

At the top of the mountian, past South Gully Trail and High Point Carriageway and about half way through the almost three mile walk, I took a few photos of Lake Maratanza. Using my awesome Photoshop skills, I pasted them together.

A bit past the lake, there was a trail down to the ice caves and Verkeerder Kill Falls. We didn’t walk down that way, but it was a good opportunity to get a shot of some mountains, probably the Berkshires, because we were facing East.

After we made almost all the way around, I begged Laura to take a picture of me. Here it is.

These are some pictures I took of the Sam’s Point lookout. There were a bunch of shots, but I had to narrow them down to these. They all kind of look like each other.

This was a cool big rock we passed on the way back down to the lodge (if that’s what it’s called). Again, I pasted a few shots together to get this one.

This is the bottom of the trail, back at the lodge. Prett cool, huh?

Samuel Adams Double Bock

Monday, August 6th, 2007

I had to write this post. Along with my three reasons for living (fiber, vinegar and mulch), I love beer. I am not a huge beer drinker, but I do love a nice, rich, creamy beer. The darker and richer, the better. With that said…

…I had the best beer of my life yesterday. After Laura and I went hiking up at Sam’s Point, we drove up to Emmanual’s in Stone Ridge. We did some shopping for our Harry Potter date later in the evening. We haven’t seen any of the Harry Potter movies and thought it would be cool to jump on the band wagon, or off the wagon, whatever. While we were shopping for very expensive food (everything is expensive in that store), I decided to refill my beer stash in the fridge. I ran out last week and have been feeling the loss. I decided to pick up some Sam Adams Double Bock along with some Honey Brown.

I was so excited to get home to open the bottle of Double Bock. I have never tried it. I got home and popped the top off. I took my first sip and said, “WOW.” I handed the bottle to Laura and had her try it. I have to say, it is the richest, creamiest beer I have ever had. I like creamy beers and this topped the cake. I just had to write about it because I was kind of excited. Give it a try.

I am going to have a bottle of Honey Brown tonight so I don’t spoil a good thing, but tommorow, I will be back to the Sam Adams.

This is a little addition to the original post - What the heck is it with these stupid age verifications on these beer websites? Heaven forbid someone under the age of eighteen read about beer. Yes, that’s it, let’s keep them so sheltered that the minute they turn twenty one, they get totally blitzed. Like they aren’t going to put in a fake date anyway.

I remember one time, back when I was seventeen, I read about a beer in a magazine. I was so inspired that I went out and bought a keg. Yeah right.

Hiking Up Mount Beacon

Sunday, June 10th, 2007

If you are reading this post, you have probably seen Mount Beacon (Beacon Mountain). Maybe you didn’t even know you were looking at it. Just doing a Google Search surprised me…there are so many people interested in this mountain. Here are some interesting links…

- Beauty atop Mount Beacon
- Gateway to Mount Beacon Park
- Save the Mount Beacon Fire Tower
- Mount Beacon Amateur Radio Club
- Mt. Beacon Incline Railway

I always knew there were a bunch of radio towers up on the moutain, but I was not aware of how many people love this place. I once new a guy…yeah, I knew a guy who used to ride a quad up Mount Beacon. Boy, he told me it sure was a difficult ride. The bottom was easy to get up, but once he hit the old ski slopes, it was nothing but huge rocks. That is pretty hard terrain for a quad.

I have heard many stories about Mount Beacon, but I really don’t know what to believe. Here is what I do know…the mountain offers a view over the City of Beacon, NY. There are radio towers, among other towers at the top of the mountain. There are also some old fire towers up there too. It offers some really great ATV riding as well, but you didn’t hear that from me.

Here are the rumors that I heard, which may very well be true. You can see New York City on a clear day. There used to be an old ski lodge at the top of the mountain with ski slopes going down the face. There was a trolly type thing that used to get pulled up the mountain. Who knows…

One of the most interesting things to me is the reservoir at the top of the mountain. I have some photos of that below. Well, what am I waiting for? Let’s see the photos…

See, I told you there was a reservoir on the mountain. This old broken down sign tells us that the reservoir holds 125 million gallons of water.

This is a view across the reservoir to one of the old fire towers. This particular one is towards the back/side of the mountain and is not as well known as the one people generally talk about at the front of the mountain.

This is a photo of the Mt. Beacon reservoir dam. Yeah, this holds all the water back, so don’t jump on it.

This photo is a view from the top of Mt. Beacon. This view overlooks the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and the Hudson River.

This is a photo taken from the same spot as the last one, but looking more North up the Hudson River, towards Kingston, NY.

Do you have any fables, myths or truths about this mountain? I would love to hear them.

The Ashokan Reservoir

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

Wow, what a long day! If you read my previous posts about Stephanie and James’ visit, you know what the heck I am talking about.

As I mentioned before, we got a little lost on the way to our destination, but it was worth it. As we were driving to Woodstock, we happened to get a few glimpses of Ashokan Reservoir. When we first saw it, I think I said, “What the…?” It’s is a very neat place. The pass right by the New York State DEC. Their little area kind of reminded me of Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The landscape, not the music. HAHA.

Anyway, I am going to keep this quick, but I just wanted to post a few photos. If you are in the area, stop by and take a break. You can also click the link above to get all the details about this cool reservoir.

Hiking at Bull’s Bridge - Kent, CT

Monday, April 9th, 2007

Every Easter, Laura and I try to go to dinner at “Fife’n Drum” restaurant in Kent, CT and then hiking down at Bull’s Bridge. This has become a little tradition for us. It gives us something to look forward to during this time of year.

Yesterday was pretty fun. We got into Millbrook and took Rt.343 down to Dover, NY. 343 has some of the nicest houses on it! I just love to look at those places…horse farms and all that. Reminds me of one day in the future when I will sit with my feet up laughing at my past.

We took a bunch of back roads all the way into Kent, CT. We made it to Fife’n Drum about a half hour late, but the dude let us in anyway. The people over there in CT are a little different than the people that we live near. I am not sure they would put up with the barking dog my neighbor has. Yeah, they seem like the kind of people that might have a little problem with that, if you catch my drift.

Dinner was good, even though it was at 2PM. The thing that makes this day so much fun, is that we get to go hiking down at Bull’s Bridge after dinner.

Bull’s Bridge is a little covered wooden bridge right off Rt.7. The bridge is nice, but the hiking is nicer. There is part of the Appalachian Trail right next to it.

We go hiking all the way down to a small campground. I think it’s called 10 Mile Campground or something. It’s about a mile down the trail. There is so much to look at along the way…like an overlook and rapids and all that. It’s pretty damn cool.

We spent a few hours hiking and then came back to head up to Laura’s parents house for some dessert. Overall, I would have to say it was a rather enjoyable day. Enjoy the pics!