A Limoncello Kinda Day

When Chris is in a hokey mood he likes to say, “When life hands you lemons, make limoncello.” Well, yesterday we got a couple of lemons – three to be exact. They’re the tires on my car. We slept in a bit (read that as Chris slept in; I was up at my usual 6:15) and Chris went to The Bagel for bagels (surprisingly good bagels for being outside the NY Metro area – yes I am a bagel snob). Anyway, upon his return he stated, “Your tires are bulging; we need new ones, now.” Great. We knew I was going to need new tires soon but had hoped they could make this trip but there were bubbles on three of them and there was no way, I felt comfortable driving home with those tires.

So first we looked on Super Pages but then Chris followed by suggestion and called AJ to see if he could recommend someone. He recommended Palmer’s in Morrisville, a few miles up the road.

Chris called Dave at Palmer’s and told him our problem and that AJ recommended him. Dave made some phone calls and found four tires for my car that he said he would have at the shop on Friday afternoon (today) and what time would we like to come by? So we have a 2:00 appointment for today. The tires are going to cost about $450 which is great because our Volvo dealer had quoted us a much higher price. Oh and before you think poorly of my car or Volvo, I have over 37K on these current tires so it was time for new ones.

Well, once we worked all that out, it was late, and since the starting point for our day’s bike ride, the Jericho Jubilee was almost an hour away, it was late and rain was threatening for the afternoon (basically, we didn’t want to be in the midst of a forty mile ride, if it started to pour).

Originally, we had wanted to do that Double Ferry Ride but it has a killer hill on it and to be honest it intimidates me. We may still do it on Sunday, but when we get to the hill, if it’s too much, we’ll just turn around at that point.

Anyway, so now we’re to late in the day for the bike ride and the weather isn’t great so we opt to visit Wiessner Woods instead. Well, big egg and bagel breakfast wasted on a leisurely walk through the woods, but it was still beautiful and peaceful. Here’s Chris checking the Yankee score while we’re in the woods. Isn’t technology grand?
You can see the trail through most of the woods is pretty clear and easy to navigate.

After walking through the woods for a couple of hours, we did a bit more shopping, popping into Fine Wine Cellars where we bought 1/2 a case of that Merlot from the other night, some more O’Reillys and then we had them pick out three Burgundies for us since we trust their judgement. It was great fun hanging and talking with them and the only thing that could have/would have made it better would be if they had cracked open some of those babies.

Next stop, Harvest Market for more bread, a shot of espresso and some greens for salad. We picked up an awesome Asiago Onion Loaf and a baguette – both still warm. When we got home, we heated up the potato soup we had bought there the other day, and that, with the bread was fabulous.

After lunch, I hung out but Chris decided he wanted to tackle Smugglers Notch on the bike. It’s something like 9 miles up from our house (only he didn’t know that when he left), and a 2000 foot climb. Well, Chris got to what he thought was the top, turned around, and came home (down that 10% grade hill in the rain – not fun), only to find out when he checked the route on my computer, he had another mile to go before reaching the top. He was pissed; he says he’s going to do it again today.
After he showered, we hit the road for another easy hike to Moss Glen Falls. It’s not a long hike (like 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile) but at the end, after some scrambling up a hill (by the way, scrambling to me means using all fours for a bit of a climb – but this wasn’t bad), you’re greeted with some great photo ops.

Actually, come to think of it, you don’t need to scramble up to get the great views; but it’s nice. When we got to the top, we shared a Long Trail beer Chris had bought, sat for a bit, then climbed further to the snow mobile path that we followed for a while.

My one disappointment with the three hikes/walks we’ve done is the lack of wildlife we’ve seen. We finally saw a squirrel out by the falls yesterday, a red one, but he was too quick for a photo. Other than that, and very few birds, nothing, until this little guy crossed our path as we were leaving.

We went home, cracked open a bottle of wine (or two), and had some cheese, pate and bread while we read for a while. Later, in the night, we made that pappardelle with the pesto (good), and watched the pilot for Battlestar Gallactica – man that is one intense show. I couldn’t fall asleep for a while after that.

Well, Chris is sleeping in this morning, so it looks like instead of the four hour hike up Mount Hunger, we’ll be doing either the Sterling Pond Trail or the Lake Mansfield Trail. More later.