Black eyes and poverty.

Hi. I promise theres less pics than the last one. by 30.

I arrived in Hartford CT today. I was looking for a McDonalds. I must've headed towards the poor side of town. That's what it sure looked like. I was stopped at a light and there was a fairly young black woman with a child in a stroller with her hair covering her left side of her face. It was obvious to me what she was trying to conceal. it wasn't covered too well because a man walked by and apparently said something to her (lots of people just walking around on this part of town), after that she moved her hair more over her eye. but it was obviously swollen and blackened. =(  anyhow.
I don't have a whole lot to say this time around. (I stand corrected after re-reading and adding pics, sorry for this misinformation)
I left DC.... but before i left DC i saw a couple of more sights. i was sighted out. Heres some pics. My buddy David Craigs band also played two shows while i was there. here's a couple of pics from each.  We also went to a comedy club. oh man. that was my first comedy club experience. I thoroughly enjoyed it. the main guy was Pete Correale. Funny New Yawker. Here he is on David Letterman if this works. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8u-3sD1lko)

Marine Iwo Jima  War Memorial. i didn't realize it was this big. look at the little people in front.

the Torches playing before The Twins of a Gazelle

 I must say...the guy with the banjo was in between a song and the owner of the shop was walking by and the banjo player asked the owner for some water and held up his cup. the owner said, "get it yourself buddy" and pointed to the water container. ha!

Twins at Rhode Island Reds

I got to ride the DC Metro

Bad pic of Twins playing at BellFlur Warehouse

The lovers and their kids.

Quito to the right had a tear coming out of his eye, he was so sad to see me go. or maybe it's eye boogers.

the colors.

At David Craigs second show....I got a call on my phone from Maine. ooooooh.. Maine. I only know 2 people in maine. It was my old Street Preaching, bus-living-in buddy Shenon. I was SOOOOOO excited to hear from him. it's been way too long. I wasn't going to head that direction cuz i didn't know how to get a hold of that guy...and here he is calling me. We chatted on the phone. I told him what was up with me. He said, "adam, you're always welcome at my house." Anyhow, I left DC and headed towards NYC. I stopped in Newark NJ to sleep. That morning i had missed a message from Shenon to call him as soon as I got the message. Sure enough....I was welcome at his house he said, but it certainly didn't sound like he wanted this non-believer there. He said some other things....no need to mention them.. It just kinda bummed me out. I guess, based on the way he said things, ultimately it was my decision not to go. I'm not mad, nor sad anymore. it's all really understandable to me. He was really nice about it. ....So no Maine.. but I decided to continue up the coast towards Boston anyway. Some scenery along the route.

more eye bangin colors

uufda. i love tunnels. So many tunnels.

That day I hit up NYC just across the Holland Tunnel. No stories to tell. I spoke to my friend Lissette from TX. she's from New Yark.  She tolks like dis. Her hunny was sick so she gave me some pointers as to where to park to check out the city. I was gonna try to sleep in Brooklyn per the idea of David-Craig, but i found a pretty decent spot on Greenwich Ave.
i parked and rode around on my bicycle. The pics to follow. I met a guy. His name was David Nipatela. He was in jail for 8 months for having a half pound of weed on him. he was a real tough guy. in the next three weeks i coulda stayed in NYC and he woulda got me hooked up in the trade school for 3 years which i woulda had like 45 certs in construction. he told me like 12 of them with no hesitation. I didn't know what any of those were except for the OSHA (and I really don't really know what that acronym stands for other than it's safety stuff). he showed me the one of the tats he got while in Jail.
moving right along. I just walked around. I took some pics of the time square area pretty late. That place is hoppin at all hours. The pics.

it's them.

i thought this was humorous. get a job u dork!

street performer jumps over 4 innocent humans with a flip.

the scene at like 10p.m.ish. lots of people.

This was a huge lcd...i'm in there.. i'm giving a peace sign. can u see me? lower left.

the empire state bldg raising that roof.

David, the guy fresh out of jail. prison. whatever.

so many of these lying around.

this guy popped outta nowhere to help the damsels in distress.

You know. I don't really know what people do on vacations. My trip is kinda random like my life. nothing is really thought out or planned. i just take what comes. i do minimal looking into things and just go where the wind blows. where my mind goes. on my tippy toes. i just follow my big nose.
I find myself working in the A/C field. Wanna know why? Cuz I came back from Maine in 2005 (time with Shenon and Family) and was interested in this girl. She had a daughter. We were really good friends and I think I thought I should marry this girl. Now before going to Maine, I was working as a teller at Broadway Bank. Before being a teller I was a pizza guy for like 6 years. Neither of which could support a wife and kid. So I saw a commercial and an ad in a paper advertising the trade of A/C. So i went. There's nothing wrong with this at all. I'm just not a very technical person. At least I don't think so. So when i was in Maine, I met all these macho guys,... handy...tough ... strong....hairy...well..not too hairy except Shenon...but they were manly men who could build houses from scratch, use chainsaws, fish with their hands, fly like the eagles and all other sorts of man-type things. They were men of many trades. Up in Maine, from my recollection (which isn't worth quoting ever), these folks learn so many things cuz when winter comes they end up looking for any type of work..so they learn soo many different things. theres only so much u can do when the snow is 15 inches high...maybe 30.. i don't remember. I just remember they were super handy. well....i wanna be handy, i thought to myself. I've always wanted to be handy, it's what i associated with men...handy = tough hands. I have soft hands. i guess soft hands = woman! one of the guys in maine even said a good trade to get in would be heating and a/c....he said "you'll always have work". which is true. heating in the winter, cooling in the summer. so i took his advice. I don't regret this stuff.. i'm just sharing how I just go with the flow and it works.... for the most part. I excelled in the trade school. I was the guy that all the other guys asked questions to when the teacher was out of the classroom. i like that. i don't know why i'm not good at the trade. maybe i just need to stick with it. Laurie my co-worker back in TX says i have commitment issues: with women, with my house, with my jobs, with dogs, with my cars, with my religion, .....with everything. i know it might look like that and all. ... .. but..... well i have nothing to say about that. =)
so i'm rambling. I just said all this stuff which has nothing to do with my trip. I tell one thing for sure i have commitment issues with is humans. i don't like getting too close. It gets too awkward. I'm the kind of guy who gets really deep with a lot of people....yet, not many of these people are around me a whole lot. I don't let them. I avoid them like i avoid spicy food. i'm not too comfortable divulging about it that much more. but I will tell you this was the case even when i was a christian. Most of you who read this will have a different perception of this....but, well, i know what goes on in my mind.

OH MY. back to the trip.
after hiking around NYC and times square I went to find a place to have a drink. I rode around on my trusty bike. My bike needs a name, please suggest one. He's burnt orange. She's trusty. It's never let me down. I found this place not too far from where i parked my car. Parked my  faithful bike and walked a little bit more. I found a place playing some reggae. I like reggae. It's fun to wiggle to. After a drink and some wiggling I decided it was time to hit the hay. so i started walking back to my bike. This walk looking for my bike turned into an hour or so of walking. These streets were soooooo confusing. i don't know what the heck was up. It was sooo frustrating. I thought it was jacked, but it couldn't have been, cuz i couldn't even find the area where i parked it.  I ended up reading about the area where I was in the following day. In the early 1800's, it was one of the rebel areas (Greenwich village, i think thats where i was) that didn't conform to the big street layout plan for the Big City. I read that lots of people typically get confounded in this awkward triangle layout. I didn't have that much to drink. =)

So i found my bike after inquiring to a Mexican who asked me for a lighter. "no lighter, but I'm looking for my bike." I found it like 3 minutes later. I love mexicans!!! They're so....you know.. Great!!!
I went to my car and slept in the spot i parked. I've never parked in a neighborhood before to sleep.
Well. Not a good idea. by the time i went to sleep it was past 3am. do u know what this means? Daylight in like 3 hours. There's no way i'm waking up in 3 hours. by 5 o'clock the trash guys were out. There was like 10 bags of trash right next to my car. They scratched up my bumper....my head is on the other side of this bumper. I'm trying to sleep and my car is being hit by the trash men. like 5 bumps. It was awkward. before u know it, the hustle and bustle began. Shortly after was the guy who waters plants. Hey..I just happened to parked right next to this huge plant. So he's watering the plant and at the same time, watering my window. =) I hide myself pretty good in my car. soo most people can't really see me in there unless they put their face to my window. But I'm never too positive about that when they are actually outside my window. So...what next. Well, i happened to park my car in front of some fancy business i guess. A business that has a door man. A door man who stands outside of the building right next to my car ALL THE TIME. he never goes inside. how awkward. By this time it's prolly like 7thirtyish and i realize people are walking around like crazy. hundreds of people... well, that's over exaggerating.. but honestly there was always someone walking by my car. ugh. i know i'll never see any of these people again....and i know i shouldn't be too concerned about them seeing a guy pop out of his car. but i'm not there yet where i'm fine with people seeing me pop out. maybe later. This morning I woke up with two mexicans right in front of my car waiting to be picked up for work. anyhow. the doorman started talking to someone facing the other direction. I got sooo excited. I put my pants on and jumped out the side door and walked away blending in with the crowd! <high 5!>  excellent!
I walked around the block and then walked to my car. heh. the guy didn't have a clue. well maybe he did.. but in my mind, he didn't...and that's all that matters.

the next action was the following day at Central Park. I'd never been there. I knew it was big. But i didn't know how well planned out and landscaped that place is. Gorgeous! Huge! Here are a few pics hopefully.

before Central park, shot from Hoboken NJ

Left Manhattan NY, Right Jersey City. Under the water is the Holland Tunnel.

Starting Central Park photos.

These fall colors bring joy to my soul.

a castle by the great lawn (i think that's what they call it)

photo from the castle

Dirty Urchins- Amazingly entertaining.

Nightfall from the Park.

I left NYC pretty late. Drove several miles to Connecticut. I slept in a place called  Stamford. It's right down the road from where Pres Bush the first grew up and has a huge house. I stopped by for some coffee and chit chat about the economy. ehhh?? ehh??? are you awake? i know this turned out to be long.. but hang in there. I'm just about done.

playing with reflections in the rain at Stamford

I continued down the road to New Haven CT where Yale is. Checked out some music. The next morning hit up Yale. I know you've heard of Gutenburg?  yes? yes! of course! He's the guy who invented the moveable type printing press making it possible to mass produce literature. The first thing to be printed? the bible of course. This allowed the word of god to be in the hands of the common man, giving opportunity for freedom from catholic teachings and now opening it up to 1000s of interpretations. This was the beginning of the information age. I think this is what triggered the spreading of knowledge on a mass scale during the age of enlightenment. Anyhow, they had one of Gutenbergs Bible's at Yale! They had thousands of books from the 1400s-1500s. It was sooo neat.  Here's pics. Some folks who graduated from Yale. Eli Whitney (Cotton Gin). The Clintons, Hillary and Billary. The Bush's, Pops and son. and Noah Webster as well. Very gothic looking buildings. My photos aren't all too great. I was experimenting with reflections.

the leaves began to fall in CT

working with reflections

these guys gave me some candy

Bach's original work

thousands of books from antiquity. thanks gutenberg.

2 original gutenberg bibles. if u want to look at this pic and hear info call 203.672.4380 and push 2#

people admiring the bibles

the building housing all these goods.

I left there and am now in Hartford CT. Didn't see much of the town except drove by the capital to stop and take some pics.. but i took a wrong turn and it took me like 3 miles out of the way. No biggie. I'm gonna decide where to next when i get back in my car. It's either Mystic CT or Boston. Much love to all u who read this stuff. .
by the way. please help me come up with a name for my bike. suggestions welcome.