Adventurenet.net

August 17th, 2024 6:35 am

I sometimes wait to buy tickets for travel and events in case I sleep in or in case I may not be able to make it to a place in time.

Sometimes this gives me more travel freedom and sometimes this comes back to haunt me.

Today it came back to haunt me.

I did not buy cheap Amtrak tickets the night before and now the price has gone up significantly to get to Providence, Rhode Island from Boston.

So today I am going to find out what a business class seat on Amtrak is like.

Let’s grab another donut and coffee and start the day.

Oh, the other AirBnB cat.

I don’t think I caught this one’s name.

Let’s call her “Sniffer.”

Good Sniffer.

So expressive.

Here’s the bus stop by the coffee shop that takes me to the subway in the morning.

Garbage gulls.

Amtrak life: Head in, find a sign, wait for a track number, get in line, find out that there is a gap in the line and that you’re not at the end, get in the actual end of line, learn that the Google version of the ticket doesn’t show the seat number and that you’re in someone else’s spot, find the actual Amtrak ticket and move two cars up to your seat.

Easy.

So.

Business class.

I think there’s more leg room?

I’ve only taken short trips on Amtrak so far.

The next time I take Amtrak I will try to get up and explore.

I have not yet seen the observation deck or looked through the kitchen car.

I feel like I’m missing out by not taking advantage of these perks, but it also feels weird to get out of my seat during the trip.

7:30 am

One more Amtrak oddity that I noticed during this trip is a feature to bid on an upgrade.

I took a quick peek at this option to see if I could bid a single dollar and maybe get moved to a nicer seat, but there is a $15 minimum and I didn’t want to spend that much on an upgraded seat.

I may give it a shot next time I take a train ride, though.

I am curious what the level above business class is like.

It is a smooth train ride and we arrive on time.

9:50 am

I have a little bit of time before my first event of the day and so I make a short detour to the post office to purchase stamps.

Oh! Year of rabbit stamps.

I’ll buy these.

Lovely conversation with the postal worker here as well.

Today’s priority item is to visit Roger Williams National Memorial and attend the park ranger talk.

I realize now that my detour to the post office is not on the way to the memorial as I accidentally punched in the address to a hospital and not the park as my final destination.

Oops.

Providence is not a large city and it is easy to make a correction in the map software on my phone to get to the park on time.

I take a quick look around the park and snap a few photos while waiting for the ranger to arrive.

I like to learn about various plants as well.

I keep an app on my phone that I can use to take pictures of plants & trees to help identify them and learn about their uses with the hope of being able to spot them more easily in the future.

I like that I am now able to identify certain types of trees by their leaf shape, for example.

During covid I was stuck indoors and this was a goal that I set for myself. To learn more about plants and trees and be able to indentify them.

I also wanted to learn about bonsai trees, but thanks to an unexpected move to an apartment without a balcony the bonsai goal was put on hold.

Well, that and the Japanese maple seeds that I purchased and sprouted were fragile and didn’t survive a fall when a strong wind blew them off of the plant shelf that I had.

It was a bit pricey to import seeds from Japan and only have two of them sprout and then neither of them survive, but if I ever get another balcony I would love to revisit this topic again.

Here is a plant that I was looking at while waiting at the memorial.

Notice how the pictures are of the various parts of the plant. Fruit, leaf, bark, flower.

I love having this app (PlantNet) on my phone.

So, about the Roger Williams talk.

This person is a truly fascinating topic.

One of the first things that came up was a person saying “We have a statue of him.” to which the ranger replied “That statue is baloney!”

He then went on to explain that Roger Williams went out of his way to make sure that no one ever drew his likeness for the news or allowed any photographs to ever be taken.

He was a humble man and would have hated to have a statue made of him.

So between his desire to not have something like this and the fact that the likeness is based on pure speculation, I agree with this park ranger.

The statue is baloney.

This was one of the best ranger talks that I have ever been to and I will be sending this ranger a thank you card as well.

At this point in the day I only have one other solid goal and that is to have coffee milk at a restaurant.

Coffee milk is a delightful drink in this area.

It’s like chocolate milk, but made out of coffee.

It is a sweet drink.

I’ll ask around about other things to do while I’m here as well.

Folks are mentioning various sites and shopping areas and tonight also has an event called WaterFire, but it just makes the song Fire Water Burn by Bloodhound Gang get stuck in my head.

Off to food and I’ll figure out what’s next.

There’s a lot of nice trees in the area.

One thing I’ve noticed since moving to this part of the country is how many maple trees there are.

…

Mother. Fucker.

See this leaf?

I have confirmed with PlantNet that this tree is what I suspect it to be.

This is an Acer Palmatum.

A Blood Maple.

One of the seeds that I imported from Japan.

Just growing here on the side of the road.

Free seeds just dangling off the side for anyone who wants them.

I spent real money to have these shipped to Texas…

Y’know what?

It’s fine.

Maybe next time I want to grow some trees I can take another trip to Providence and just gather up some freebies.

They’re setting up fire pits in the water for the WaterFire event tonight.

11:59 am

Lunch time.

Olneyville New York System Restaurant

Here’s a local famous place for hot weiners & coffee milk.

I ordered “two all the way” & a coffee milk.

Fresh from the tap coffee milk secured.

Delicious. 🤤

What a cool restaurant.

Okay, so I ordered one dog to try it out, loved it and then ordered two more.

I would love to eat here again.

Okay, back to the city center to wander aimlessly up and down the shopping area.

Is that…

a Red Bull vehicle?

One of the items on my adventure list is to go to a Red Bull extreme sports event.

I will need to look into this to see if something is happening here tonight.

Lovely plants in this college lab window.

Earlier in the day I asked the park ranger about locations to visit and things to do in Providence and he mentioned a shopping area.

1:04 pm

Time to take a break.

I visit the shopping area, but I’m not interested in spending a lot of money and so I visit a coffee shop and ask the barista what they suggest.

I receive a dragon fruit coffee drink.

While taking a break I research local events and how I’ll be returning to my AirBnB in Boston.

It turns out I didn’t need to spend $60 on an Amtrak as there’s a $15 train that connects the two cities.

So I’ll be taking that back to Boston and noting in the future to look into all modes of transit an not just the first one that Google Maps suggests.

I will also look into the WaterFire event that is happening in town.

Oh, they’re having a wakeboarding event.

That’s why Red Bull is here.

I will note this location and look for other events in the area.

I should also stop by and figure out where the best place to sit will be.

Yes, first I’ll head to the venue to look around. I see that there’s a theater here and I want to see the new Alien movie, so I’ll probably do that to get more rest before the wakeboarding event.

I should start to learn how to identify birds.

There’s an anthropology museum on my walk, I’ll stop for a quick visit.

This is a wonderful exhibit of African art.

For example, there are paintings on burlap which is something I have never seen.

There are also scepters here.

I should have a scepter.

I did not take any pictures (go check it out).

Back to working my way towards WaterFire and the theater.

Okay, here’s the waterway where they’re setting up the fire pits.

I’ll follow this to the larger area where the wakeboarding event is setting up.

I made it!

This looks amazing!

There’s a big seating area a quarter turn around this lake, but there’s a wedding happening, so I’ll just kind of skirt around them while scoping out the seating.

Hmm. A little to “head on” from here.

I’ll probably sit on the side somewhere.

If I show up early enough I should be able to get a primo seat.

Off to the theater!

I’ve only walked about two blocks at this point, but I don’t see a theater and the map on my phone is telling me I’m very close.

There’s a giant vent blowing out hot air that was an uncomfortable surprise in the summer heat. 🤔

I don’t think it was smart to point that right at the pedestrian walkway.

But I must continue to find the theater!

Should be just over here.

…

That’s a parking garage.

Maybe I can walk in and find my way through there.

Um…

No.

This is a car entrance and I’m not comfortable walking into this. (Note: the car entrance is just to the right of the are pictured above).

I must have missed a building entrance somewhere, so I’ll go back to where I started.

I did miss the entrance.

The map was trying to tell me to enter the building, not go under it.

This is a giant mall.

And holy crap, it has people in it.

Remember when malls had people?

Providence remembers. They kept their mall alive.

This takes me back.

Theater food is a bit confusing here, but I get a nice meal and a nice movie.

No one asked me where I wanted to sit and I think the person at the box office thought I was with the guys in front of me as she sat me next to them.

They’re a bit chatty so I left during the intro trailers to grab my food order and came back and sat in a different seat.

This place is confusing.

The movie is fantastic.

I love the Alien movies.

Time to grab a seat at WaterFire!

This looks like a good spot.

The bench next to me is full, but I’ll sit on the ground at this fence so that I can stand here when things start up.

Oh, they’re doing a quick test run.

Awesome.

The event is all set up and now I just need to kill some time.

I’ll write a postcard to Tony.

Check out this New York gem.

Great news, some of the people on the bench circle around the event to check out other views and they decide to give up their bench spot, so I get a real seat now.

I also make friends with the other folks on the bench.

They’re from Canada and also didn’t expect to see this event tonight and came early to secure a good view.

It is nearly dusk and the WaterFire team begins to light the fires.

Time for a tangent.

In Austin, Texas where I used to live there is a small train that kind of goes in and out of business.

When it is up and running you can take a nice ride through the park.

When you’re on the train everyone waves at you.

I found this to be delightful.

I tried to make it a thing here at WaterFire.

I waved at the folks lighting the fires.

It caught on a little bit. 🙂

Amazing. What a cool thing for the city of Providence to do.

It is nearly time.

Wakeboarding time!

There’s a wire above the water that pulls the wakeboarders.

There are two performers who ride to one end over the ramp, then ride back over the pipe.

Mid-air jump.

Time to add more wood to the fire.

Holy crap!

They jumped over one of the bonfires!

I uploaded a short clip to YouTube if you’d like to see one of the ramp jumps.

An amazing event.

I’ll take a quick look around to see if there are any food or music events I want to check out before I leave.

Ohh, free Red Bull.

I’ll save this for tomorrow, I don’t want to be up all night.

Big crowd leaving the area.

Hard to move around right now.

What a great event.

Glad I don’t have to drive through this.

Del’s Lemonade!

This was another one of those Providence Local things that I was suggested, but I wasn’t able to find one!

🏆 Accomplishment achieved.

Frosty.

I don’t find any more music or food and I need to start heading back so that I don’t miss the next train.

I make the mistake of asking the Amtrak person about where to find the train I’m looking for, which is not an Amtrak train.

They’re nice about it and point me in the right direction and I catch my affordable city owned train.

These public trains are a bit rowdier, but nothing crazy.

I’ll write a postcard to Canada on this ride.

Used a D&D and an Alex Trabek stamp.

I figure since Alex Trabek is from Canada, it’s a good choice.

10:43 I arrive back in Boston.

Time for bed. 😪

It has been a good vacation.

Notes and miscelanious bits of the next few days.

Sunday morning is an early trip home.

I drink my Red Bull and head to the airport.

My last visit to the morning bus stop.

Hear are some of the stamps I got for my national park book.

Here’s apicture that my wife Lauri sent me on Discord with her commentary.

Monday, August 19, 2024

A postcard to Germany for a puzzle solver.

A postcard to Tony in Michigan.

It might be a cat in disguise, though.

And a replacement dishwasher has been delivered.

Tuesday, August 20th, 2024

Postcard to Austria.

Also I lost my dinosaur baseball cap.

I left it at a restaurant in Queens.

Penny says “Hi.”