Adventurenet.net

Tuesday November 5th, 2024

Last night a took a picture of these candy covered stroopwafels and shared it with a friend in The Netherlands.

He was not impressed.

Today I sent a postcard to Czechia. Or The Czech Republic. I know the name of the country changed, but I still see most folks refer to it as The Czech Republic. Not sure which to call it, but this postcrossing user has a prompt about what you believe to be the most useless item is.

I wrote about the first thing that popped into my head.

Electric can openers.

These are not the most useless item that I can think of, but I don’t care for them.

I find them more difficult to use than hand can openers.

Like you have to get the feel for electric can openers to use them.

Not for me.

Wednesday November 6th, 2024

Postcard to Malysia.

This is a picture of pronghorns.

On the back of this card I shared how much I enjoyed my recent visit to the theater where we saw The Play That Goes Wrong.

Friday November 8th, 2024

This is an image of Iran’s Great Salt Lake Desert as viewed from space.

On the back I discussed the Broadway lottery.

My partner and I recently purchased two surprise tickets to Broadway shows.

Each for an upcoming Wednesday evening.

I’ve been spending this week trying to find a plan for Saturday, but the national park website’s calendar section has been broken for several days and now today, Friday, the calendar is working again and I found a nearby tour, but the instructions say to call in to reserve a spot in the tour, but no one is answering the phone. I have called several times throughout the day.

I was hoping to post somewhere “Going to this thing, if anyone wants to come.” but with so many delays and confusion around if this even will be happening I think I’ll just show up by myself and hope for the best.

I have not yet made any friends in NYC and I am hoping to maybe find folks who like to get the park passport stamps and take tours like this.

That seems like a nice thing to do with friends, to me.

Oh, another treasure hunt book has been published!

Saturday November 9th, 2024

Heading out to Fort Tompkins.

Some notes.

For my passport stamp book this destination is Gateway National Recreation Area, which is actually three locations in two different states.

This visit is to the Staten Island location marked on the above map under Fort Wadsworth Visitor Center.

There are some interesting events at the Sandy Hook Unit, but it is much more difficult to get to that location without a car.

Jamaica Bay Unit is also an option, but I haven’t seen as many events around this location.

From Astoria, I take a bus to the subway, to Manhattan where I hop on a bus to take me out to Staten Island.

This will be my first time visiting this borough and I have now been to all five.

Long ride ahead of you?

Send a postcard to Tony.

Staten island is not as walkable as other parts of New York City.

There were times that I’d have to take an alternate route or walk in the road as the sidewalks here are unreliable.

For example in this picture above there is a sidewalk to my left, but it is overgrown and unwalkable for about a block.

Above is a picture of the overgrown sidewalk.

But it’s not too difficult to get around and I’m just being judgmental about a small difference.

This place isn’t all weird or anything.

They have perfectly normal bridges, for example.

What is that on the bridge?

Staten Island is weird.

And it turns out their Sycamore trees dump these sticky apple things on the ground.

Joking. Joking.

It’s a perfectly fine place.

After a short walk I arrive at the park!

This place has all kinds of old buildings around and it seems like several of them are used by the national park service.

I wonder if I could talk a ranger into going on a tour of these buildings and seeing all of the unused space?

Look at how big this place is!

There’s no way they’re using all of those rooms, right?

The visitor center is open and I get my stamp real quick.

There are two rangers here and they confirm that the tour is today, but I’m not 100% sure if they say I can register in person before they leave.

So I will lurk and read the displays.

They have a cannon that plays audio of people loading and firing the cannon when you enter the room.

So this fort had a bunch of weapons pointed at ships that might try to push their way into the bay.

There was also an underwater net to catch submarines.

And if you attempt to come in on foot, there’s a bunch of holes in the walls to point guns out of.

On both sides.

Why not try taking the hallway in?

More gun holes.

(I forget what they’re called. There’s a term for these).

There are many original structures here still.

And here is the inside of the courtyard.

Notice the walkway at the top with nothing to stand on.

On the other side of the courtyard there’s another walkway that’s only one level up.

Jailhouse.

Jailhouse bathroom.

No going upstairs.

Outlets without grounding. On wood.

Kitchen ventelation.

Rusty old pipes.

This is a hole in the floor to a room that is flooded with water.

That what spot on the left is a reflection of the flashlight.

Another old pipe!

This place has suffered from break ins and vandalism.

Look at this giant bug!

Into the darkness.

Much of this is built out of sandstone.

Whoa! Look at this old thing!

Death stairs.

Here’s another view of that upper level walkway that doesn’t have much to stand on any more.

Some of the death stairs are blocked off.

The tour ends and I am now able to explore the outer areas.

So that felt like urban exploration, but without the risk of arrest.

Oh, and the reason that I couldn’t register by phone in advance is because there are only rangers here on the weekend.

I think the “call in to register” aspect was added back when this was open every day. (Pre-Covid).

Nice place, but the tour is certainly the highlight.

Check out the lower level by the water.

On the way home I stopped at 8-Bit Burger.

Nice food here.

Sick video games, too.

Funny thing happened here. I was playing the SNES version of Sunset Riders and the table next to me noticed and we had a fun conversation about the SNES and how much fun Sunset Riders is.

Keanu says “Hi.”

Oh, and that fort is named after someone who loaned the government a bunch of money and went broke because of it.

If I ever loan anyone money I will add this as a stipulation upon failure of payment.