Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Hanover, NH



Location: Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Visited: October 2012

We visited the Hood Art Museum mostly to see the amazing Night Hunter House by Stacey Steers, but we also browsed a bit around the Australian Aboriginal art exhibit. And I got to use more gorgeous leaf pictures to fill out the page, so that makes me happy.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Bennington, VT



Location: Bennington, Vermont, USA
Visited: October 2012

This is one of the many places I never would have visited were it not for Markeroni. The sun came out just in time for my stop at the Bennington Battle Monument. The view from the top was simply gorgeous, as the leaves had almost all turned. And only $2 to get in!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Kinderhook, NY



Location: Kinderhook, New York, USA
Visited: October 2012

I was with a friend who decided to enable my Markeroni habit, so we stopped by Martin van Buren's Lindenwald for a little bit. It's a cute little place, but what really tickled me was the timeline in the brochure titled "A Master Politician's Magical Career". What, did he attend Hogwarts? "Yer a wizard, Martin!"

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Ashland, PA



Location: Ashland and Centralia, Pennsylvania, USA
Visited: October 2012

I took a solo road trip a few weeks ago and my first stop was The Pioneer Tunnel in Ashland, PA. The first part was a steam train ride, where the scenery was gorgeous, if a touch chilly. It was a little weird, as the train started out by going backwards to the end of the line, then coming back forward again. Afterward, I took the coal mine tour. I'd never been in a real mine before, and it was pretty fascinating. The headlamps they used to use had an open flame, which was a bit of an early warning if you hit "heavy air" (air without enough oxygen), as it would go out and you might have time to escape before suffocating. On the other hand, if you hit a pocket of methane, your day was pretty much ruined. At one point the tour guide turned out the lights without warning. I'm not sure some of the other folks in our group appreciated that too much. He also commented that, back when this was an operating mine, the "wishing well" we'd just passed had no grate over it, and in fact descended some thousand feet straight down. Safety first!

My next stop was Centralia, famous largely for its inspiration of Silent Hill.

Centralia, like much of this part of Pennsylvania, was a mining town. About fifty years ago, the government decided to make use of the empty mine shafts as landfills, and filled them up with trash. When they got full, they had this brilliant idea to set the trash on fire in order to make more room. The fire caught a vein of coal, and then things got really bad. The fire has continued to burn all this time, and they expect it to continue for another couple centuries at least. There isn't much to see today: mostly weeds and cement slabs where buildings used to be. There aren't even any street signs. The only truly interesting part is Graffiti Highway, the closed-off section of 61 where the fire caused it to collapse. The entire length of it is covered in graffiti of varying quality.

This isn't the sort of place I'd expect most people to feel is worth the hours one would have to drive to get there (it's pretty much as far into the middle of nowhere you can get in that part of the country), but I had a good time and am glad to be able to say I was there.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

One Year Already



We here at the Glue Stick Tourist are celebrating our first birthday! It's been a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy this random collage I made from stuff I picked up while at an apple orchard in rural New York. It's not really site-specific (and the lovely fall images are actually from Vermont) so I decided it'd make a nice mid-October anniversary piece. I should have other spreads from my road trip posted soon. Here's to another year of adventure! :)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Luray, VA



Location: Luray, Virginia, USA
Visited: October 2012

Because we'd never been, my husband and I visited Luray Caverns. It was beautiful, though a touch overpriced. While there we also visited a small car and carriage museum, which was reasonably entertaining if a bit small. Be sure to check out my husband's photos. Very neat to look at, but probably not worth visiting multiple times.

We also drank Dr. Wham. The end.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Fairfax, VA



Location: George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA
Visited: September 2012

As part of the annual Fall for the Book event, we got to see one of my favorite authors and readers, Neil Gaiman. He was receiving an award, but before that he read an excerpt from his upcoming novel, answered audience questions, and then read an entire short story from an upcoming anthology. And I had a stupid grin on my face the entire time. If you haven't listened to Gaiman read, you are missing out.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Baltimore, MD



Location: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Visited: September 2012

Through the One Maryland, One Book website I heard about the Literary Mount Vernon guided walking tour. My friends and I had a great time exploring Mount Vernon (the Baltimore neighborhood, not Georgie's house), followed by a delicious lunch at The Owl Bar. I admit I'm not such a fan of Baltimore most days - especially if I have to drive anywhere - but this was a lovely outing.