Life on the farm

Just trying to get home on Wednesday

Posted on May 29, 2013 by farm2011

What a crazy day this was! I work about 8 miles from our farm, so it’s really not that far away. You would think the weather should be about the same right? Well on Wednesday that was not the case at all.

During the later afternoon we were watching a storm come through and where I work we really only got maybe around an inch of rain in the afternoon. So I thought no big deal right? Yea, that’s not the case. When I was driving home I was just amazed on how much the water was running out the fields that I was driving by and thought to my self that it really seemed quite odd. I couldn’t figure out where all the water was coming from because it sure didn’t rain that much did it? Well, the closer that I got to the roads to our farm I realized that we definitely got more rain that an inch at our place. They were predicting spotty showers and I guess our area was one of the heavier spots. When I turned on our road, I was still thinking that it wasn’t that big of a deal other than everything is still going to be wet, but then all of a sudden I had to stop the car. The water was running over the road coming from the fields. The fields were so wet that there wasn’t any place to go but to overflow into the next one and using the roads to do it. OK. So now I’m sitting on the road trying to figure out if I should go through it or not. I kid you not, just as I was looking and evaluating the situation my phone went off saying that there was a message. It wasn’t the normal message noise so it really caught me off guard so I looked at it. This is what it said.It was a SIGN! So being just a little bit more superstitious that I should be, I decided not to go through the road. Of course there really wasn’t any place to turn around so I thought, ‘heck I can just back up’. OK, I was kind of a long way from the turn off, but if you live on a farm you just know how to back up for some reason. So I’m backing , backing, and then our neighbors pulled up. They gave me one of those looks like, really? (Yea, maybe I should have turned around on the road.) But they said that the water in front of us didn’t look too bad and they were going to go through it. They tried a couple of other ways to get to their house and most of the roads were blocked. So we both went through this water and everything was fine. The one thing that scared me was if the water washed out part of the road and then you end up sinking into the road with your car. But this wasn’t an issue here and we kept going. As I was following them, the next spot looked they they were having some trouble with their 4 wheel drive truck, so I decided to try a different route. I was so close to our house, but I really didn’t want to chance it. But as the time went on, I knew that most of all the other roads were blocked and I came back to look at this one road again. Another neighbor drove by and said not to try it because the water was pushing his truck when he drove in it and it probably wasn’t the safest. OK, back to the highway to try to find another way home. By this time, the water was going down and I could tell that I was just at the end of the bad stuff. As I’m heading into town, the firetruck had the highway closed, so I wove through the streets that were passable and soon I was on the other side of our farm and then in our yard. After talking to Kyle to try to figure out just what in the world was going on, he said that it rained so hard that everything was just white outside. Some of the area farmers said that we got 3 inches of rain in 15 minutes. Now I don’t mind that the roads get closed, or taking 40 minutes to drive home instead of 8, but a lot of the corn in the fields had gotten covered up with the top soil and I’m not sure if it’ll push through or not. Daryl has lived here all his life, and this was the first time that we’ve ever had so much rain that you literally couldn’t get home. And for our town? The last time that there was water flooding main street was in 1947.The boys ended up going into town to help sandbag and within the next hour or so, all the water had went down. What weird weather we’ve been having, that’s for sure!

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It stopped raining!

Posted on May 28, 2013 by farm2011

I’m really pretty sure that you’re getting sick of me writing about the rain, and the cold, and…. So today I’m going to write that it didn’t rain this afternoon! I know, it’s kind of a shock for all of us. Since it wasn’t raining after work, I’m still working on our flower beds. This is the first year that I’ve grown petunias, and they kind of turned out pretty good. I’m going to let them grow in a little bit and then I’ll snap a couple of pictures. But for now I took a picture of the garden and after I showed it to someone today, they said that it looks really good if you are a duck or a frog. Yea, everyone’s a comedian.

My garden is not looking so good

When I was done with the flowers for tonight and was putting everything away, I could hear a little kitty noise and after I figured out that it was a little kitty I started to look around. I saw Reno running around in the yard with a kitty in her mouth and I knew that this was the noise I was hearing. I went to grab it and it wasn’t hurt, so that’s good. Now I’m sure that you’re guessing that into the house this little kitty went, and you’re right. We had a mother cat that got killed a couple of days ago, and I’m thinking that this little kitty was hers. And as far as Reno goes, I’m glad that she found this little kitty otherwise we wouldn’t have known that they existed and they would have all died. After I got her settled into a small box in the house, I went back outside and started to look for a water hose for Daryl. As I’m walking through the barn, I saw Reno with her ears perked up and looking at the cows hay pile. But the noise wasn’t coming from the hay, but up in the hay loft. So upstairs I went. I started to look around and found one little black kitty just sitting there all by himself. Poor little thing. Then I kept hearing more and more noises. By the time I got all the little kitties out of the barn walls, we were the parents of 5 new little kitties. I was really glad that no one was in the barn with me because there’s kind of a process to bring little kitties down the ladder. You put them all in your shirt and then hook the bottom of the shirt in your mouth to make a type of sling for them. It works pretty good but I’m guessing not the most flattering. When I got down from the loft and started to walk to the house, Daryl asked if I couldn’t find the water hose, and then he saw the little kitties and just smiled. So now the original box that I had was for sure not going to work and I got an even bigger one. But we found out that these kitties were so small that we have to use the bunny bottle that I got at the vet’s office to feed them. The boys are on a two hour rotation with these kitties to feed them. I’m just hoping that they can get their bellies full so they sleep all night. They’ve gotten pretty loud once they’ve come in the house!

Everyone needs to get bottle fed

4 of the 5 new additions to our house. Well for a little while

So you know that I was getting the water hose, but I guess I didn’t say why. It was time to clean out the gutters and with all the wet weather that we’ve been having, the gutters couldn’t keep up and it started to drip in our entryway. Now we’ve worked really hard for our new roof and addition, and this just isn’t cool. So Daryl and the boys went up on the roof and I was in charge of making sure that they always had enough water hose up there. After awhile, I’m thinking that I was the one getting the most wet, but since I asked Daryl and the boys to clean it out tonight, I guess getting wet and a little dirty wasn’t going to kill me.

The guys cleaning out the pine needles from the gutters

It seems kids are fearless doesn’t it? William literally on top of our house

And for supper? Well we had fried morel mushrooms that my brother gave us. Yum!

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Memorial Day Program and our Town

Posted on May 27, 2013 by farm2011

The Memorial Day program is kind of a big thing for our local towns. Now there’s not that much that goes on, but it’s something that you usually participate in to show your support. What happens is that all the local churches have a service, then after the service the Marching Band from the High School will march from a designated spot to where a small program was going to be held. Since we have multiple area churches in our Cluster, this scheduling of the band is down to the wire. The kids have to go to all the towns that make up our Cluster and after preforming and getting something small to eat, you’ll see the bus taking off to the next town to march. Our church was the last one on the list for the day and with the crappy weather that we’ve been having, we didn’t have anything outside for a program, and had it in the ballroom instead. This is the first time that I can remember that they’ve had the whole program in the ballroom and it was really kind of nice. There were so many people that wanted a seat, that around 40 people had to stand in the doorway or outside and listen to the program. I think this is so cool that the town would get together to hear the same poems every year, and show respect for what the day stands for. Now you’ll see every neighbor that you have during this program and after it, well there’s popcorn to eat and lemonade to drink.

After the program when Kyle and I were leaving, we walked by this old building on our Main Street in our town that someone was working on. It looked like they were gutting the building and I knew that there was some talk about having it condemned. So we did what anyone in a small town would do – we went and introduced ourselves and asked them what they were doing. It didn’t seem to offend them, and they were pretty eager to answer our questions. What they were doing was exactly what we thought they were . They were gutting the inside, but then they were going to get it ready for a new business. Now in a small town of 440 people, and a lot of them living out in the country, having a new business I think is a pretty big deal! Who we talked to was the Dad of the owner, and what he said was that his son who lives in California bought the building and was going to put his business in it. I’m not sure just exactly what the business was going to be, but he said that his son is an Engineer and has a couple of different Patents and he wanted to use the building as his main office and a showcase for solar and geothermal. He said that their family grew up not too farm from our town and bought the building when they saw it. He said that they are also working on bringing back the integrity of the building. I absolutely love the ceiling tiles and they were going to redo the front door to what it was originally. Kyle and I had a really long discussion on what businesses that our town needs to stay alive when we were driving back from New York. The only thing that we didn’t know was that there was something in the works as we were discussing it. How cool is that? I took a picture of the inside while they were working, it had a lot of dust in there so the picture isn’t the clearest. But you can kind of make out the cool ceiling tiles if you look close. I was so excited about them cleaning up this old building and fixing it up to how it started, that I had to hold back on saying that we could help them clean it up. I think they would have kind of been freaked out on that. Just a little bit too friendly.

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Memorial Weekend

Posted on May 26, 2013 by farm2011

When we got home last night from a friends house, I noticed that there was something kind of funny in the yard. Now if you lived on a farm this could be anything from something that the dogs drug out from under an old shed, or maybe something that they got from a field nearby. But it was such a long time since we had any trouble with extra junk in the yard, it kind of took me by surprise. But it was late, and I wasn’t that interested in it, so off to bed I went. But as I looked outside this morning, it reminded me that I better go and investigate it a little closer. The closer that I got to it, the more clearly I understood just exactly what it was. So, you know me – off to the house I went to get my camera and when I came back, I found who I’m pretty sure was the culprit. I guess you can make your own judgement on this, but take a look. Yea, pretty sure Ms. Reno was bored and took it out on one of our pillows. She’s been really good with our patio cushions this year, so I’m sure hoping that this isn’t something that she’s going to start again!

With being Memorial Weekend and everything, it has been a really soggy one at that. We were planning on picking rock this weekend, and I hate to even admit this – but I wish we could have done it. It’s been raining all morning and I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much thunder in the day time as I did today. I mean, you really shouldn’t have to turn on the fireplace at the end of May to get the chill out of the air should you? Then to top it all off, the electricity went off. And if you have ever been out in the country and your electricity goes out, you know that there isn’t a whole lot that you can do. So with our options really pretty limited, we got out some cards and played a couple of hands of euchre. We knew that we were going to play for a little while because I also thought it would be a great day to go to the movies. We haven’t been to a movie for a really long time and once the weather turns, I’m pretty sure that we won’t make it back again for awhile. After the movie off to a Graduation Party, and then meet up with my brother and sister-in-law. My brother is really pretty good at mushroom hunting, and he even had extra mushrooms this year that he said that we could have if we wanted them. Now you don’t have to ask me twice and tonight they’re safe in our refrigerator. I think we’ll have them tomorrow for dinner. As for tonight? Well the fireplace is still on and we’re all kind of just hanging out. I’m hoping that the weather will be at least a little better tomorrow so I can plant my flowers. But as for planting the garden? Yea, that’s for sure not going to get planted this weekend.

Posted in Family, Our dogs | 2 Comments

Boys home

Posted on May 25, 2013 by farm2011

How nice it is to have both boys home for awhile. William will be spending the summer here because his job is only a few miles away, and Kyle will be here for a month and then he’ll start his job back in New York. But for now, I’m thinking that it’s pretty nice having both boys in the house. The only thing that I’m not used to is making meals. With Daryl and I only home, the meals change. We found ourselves just finding anything during the week and then going out on the weekends for supper. So this is kind of a change for me to go back to cooking again. Now I’m not complaining, it’s just a change thinking about groceries again. So for snacks today I made a batch of cookies and have two pounds of beef jerky cooking.

So another change is the amount of laundry that we’ve got again. Now normally I really enjoy doing laundry, but the weather today is so crappy that nothing can be hung out on the clothes line. Because the area in our laundry room is very limited where I can hang wet clothes, I’m only doing a couple of loads a day until we can catch up. Both boys have also been busy working on organizing their rooms and their clothes, and I know that there’s going to be a road trip to Good Will in the near future.

I mentioned that it was really bad weather today. It’s windy, rainy, and also cold. Not very good for the Memorial Day activities! One friend of ours always goes on a motorcycle ride this time of the year, and yesterday in Wisconsin he said he had snow flurries. OK, that’s probably worse than our weather. But with the wind that’s out there today, I had to put my flowers that I bought yesterday in the car shed because the crazy wind was just whipping them around and banging them up. I was just thinking of that guy from the greenhouse and how disappointed that he would be in me if he saw them blowing around like that.

The bottom got kind of banged around a little bit.

So I hung this planter in the car shed for now. My plan for today was to get all the outside flowers and garden stuff done, but with the wind that’s blowing outside – no way! And for Day 2 of our running program? No outside running for today. But you know what? I weighed myself this morning and I gained two pounds. Not cool. Not cool at all!

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Flowers and Running

Posted on May 24, 2013 by farm2011

After work on Friday, I found myself driving to a local greenhouse to just check out the flowers that they had. I was trying to convince myself that I really didn’t need to buy any today, and as I was walking back to the car after I just ‘checked’ it out, I realized that I wasn’t so successful with that. Now you know that you might just have bought too many when the guy working there, and another Customer, have to help evaluate your storage in your SUV and then also help you load the flowers in it. Too funny! But as I was driving away, I started to think about the conversation that I had with the guy who was working in the greenhouse. There was one hanging plant that was absolutely beautiful and I was thinking that it was too big for what I needed. But he said a couple of times that this was probably the prettiest plant that he’s bought all year and that he just knew that it would the first one to get bought. OK, so I bought it. But when I got it home, I needed some place to hang it. I had on of those larger Shepard hooks, but the plant was too long and it was dragging on the ground. I told you that it was big right? So after walking around the yard with it and trying it on a couple of different spots, I ended up hanging it on the old gas pump. It doesn’t even look too bad there!

Maybe too many flowers in the car?

One of the things that Kyle and I talked about in our car ride home from New York was the upcoming 5k in our town. I asked Kyle if he’d help me get ready for it and he said sure. Now to let you know from the start – the last time I ran was probably 26 years ago. And even that’s debatable because it could even be more! Kyle wanted to start our training on Wednesday night already, but I was able to buy some time because I said that I needed some new shoes before we started. OK, so this was kind of the truth. I did need some new shoes, but I also wasn’t mentally ready to start running. I mean we just talked about it that day and all. But as for tonight? I couldn’t come up with any excuses not to go and after we did some pre-stretching, off we went. I can’t imagine how I looked, but I didn’t really care at this point. I was just trying to look straight ahead and keep moving. It didn’t take me too long to figure out that eating the leftovers that was in the refrigerator before we started was probably not the smartest idea that I’ve ever had. But as far as the running goes, I think I did OK. We took turns running and walking and even though we only did 2 miles, it didn’t take that whole time for me to know that man oh man I’m out of shape! So I have a month to get better at this. Now I’ve started and stopped a couple of times getting ready for other 5k’s, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to stay with the program this time. I guess the next four weeks will give me the answer.

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Heading Home – Wednesday & Thursday

Posted on May 22, 2013 by farm2011

Well, Daryl went off to the airport on Wednesday morning, and Kyle and I went back to sleep for awhile. But it was one of those times that once you wake up, you might as well get up. Now this was too bad that I couldn’t fall back asleep, because we had quite a bit of time to just kind of goof off this morning. But we did manage to take things a little slower, and I double and triple checked the room before we left. Then one more time, I checked it again. I don’t know why I don’t have enough confidence that you can actually pack everything without having to check the room multiple times, but I guess I don’t.

So we’re off. Now I was excited to have our adventure begin to head back home. Kyle usually has a lot of jokes and laughs a lot, so I knew that it was going to be a good time. But 6 states in two days, Yikes! Well it was just us on the open highway and the Chevy Impala heading to Iowa. OK, so I have no idea how many different radio stations we had listened to, but it was anything from the ‘Frog’ radio that really didn’t play too bad of songs to just about anything else. We got a good laugh out of the Frog radio because when you’re radio announcer’s name was Jeremiah the B, you just knew that it was going to be some topics on the radio that you’ve never heard before. I didn’t quite catch what his name stood for until Kyle said, Jeremiah the Bullfrog – remember the radio station was called the ‘Frog’. OK, so we got to listen to the Frog station, and other stations that had country (which we got pretty good at some of the lyrics), and then you could throw in some rock music. But what station gave us the most topics to discuss on our trip? Well, that was an easy one – it was the Public Radio stations when they had guests on. Now some of those guests were pretty out there, but some were interesting to listen to and usually started a pretty good conversation.

So about now we were getting hungry and stopped at one of those Travel Stops that sells just about anything. We needed gas, Diet Coke, and something to eat. While we were standing by the counter to have our food made, I looked over to the chalk board and it gave me an idea of what we should do on the way home. I mentioned it to Kyle and he smiled and he said why not? And off we went. The place that we was heading to wasn’t too far away and after we passed it the first time because their sign is so small, we finally found it – we were standing at the one… the only…

Did you guess this is where we were going? The Jell-O Museum

The people in the Museum were really knowledgeable about Jell-O, and there used to be a factory in the town. Jell-O was created in 1897, and in 1902 the business was bought for $450 by a Leroy neighbor. The factory was in Leroy from 1910 until 1964. I would tell you more, but I just didn’t want to spoil it for you, just in case your’e going there. After buying some Jell-O stuff, you know T Shirts, posters, other stuff…, we were off on the road again. Still smiling to ourselves because we made the stop. Next thing to talk about was if we should go to Niagara Falls. We were around 16 miles from there but decided not to go. I had been there on the Canada side, and by this time we were just hoping to get some miles under us. So down the road we went and then guess what we saw? We saw the RV and Motor Home Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Indiana. I’m not making this up. The building looked beautiful from the highway and after doing some research, it’s really kind of a big thing. It started in 1972 and has representatives for the Executive Committee and the Board from all across the Nation. Who knew right? Well Kyle said, ‘Oh no, it’s closed’ But secretly I didn’t think he really wanted to stop. It seemed like every road that we went on I swear was under road construction. I don’t know if all the roads could go bad at once, but I don’t think we went on any that wasn’t getting fixed. When we were by Indiana, and in some road construction the weather was getting pretty ugly. I was trying to remember when I watched the Storm Chasers on TV just when the tornado formed and both Kyle and I were hoping that we didn’t have to put that knowledge to the test. Just as we were driving between some cement barriers, the radio stopped and we heard the Emergency Broadcast alarm go. OK, not cool. They were announcing that there was a storm with high winds and potentially large hail just about where we were driving. Then the rain started. And when I say rain, it was like someone was dumping buckets on us. Kyle did a great job driving because the semi in front of us was being pushed around with the wind and with all the rain, we couldn’t see a thing. Much less just trying not to hit the cement barriers. The radio recommended that you seek safer areas, but have you ever tried to get off an Interstate that has you in a construction area? Yea, not going to happen. But it eventually got lighter as we drove, and we were thinking that we were just on the outskirts of the storm. I was just glad that it was over and then we continued down the road. We ran into really bad traffic in Cleveland because they merged our Interstate with some other major highways and to say it was a traffic jam would be a mild statement. But soon we were out of that also and now to get through Chicago. It was later in the evening, so even though there was traffic, it wasn’t as bad as the Cleveland jam. Now finding someplace to crash for the night. We stopped at a hotel in Joliet, IL, but no hotel had any rooms. OK But they said there was some more down the Interstate about 15 miles. But they were also sold out and started to help us find a place in the next city about 20 miles down the highway. We were lucky because there was one room left and we took it. The hotel was just remodeling and I think we were the first one to use the room that they gave us. It was really nice and we slept very well. We left around 8 am the next morning, and it didn’t take long until we saw the World’s Largest Truckstop. We still had some stuff to drink and eat in the car, so I just snapped a picture as we drove by.We pulled into Lawler around 12:30 PM and started the process of unpacking the car. It seems like we took more out of that car than we put in.

What an adventure the last couple days have been and how lucky we were to be able to have it. I know that it would have been even better if William could have gone with us, but that just didn’t happen. I hope that I did a descent job describing our time while we were in New York. I used the IPad and sometimes it wasn’t the easiest to type. So for all the typos and misspelled words these past few days, I apologize.

What was the new food for today? Kyle went and got groceries and made a fresh fruit spinach salad. Not only was it kind of pretty, it also wasn’t too bad.

As for tonight? Well the cows were left out on the grass for the first time this spring and they’re loving that we’re home.

No Ears, Sassy, and Ed in the pasture for the first time tonight

William is gone to a training class but will be home tomorrow, Kyle – he started a bonfire and is busy reading his book, Reno is sitting on the front porch, and the peacocks are screaming because Daryl just started a tractor. It’s good to be home.

Posted in Places to visit | 4 Comments

Last day in NewYork – Tuesday

Posted on May 21, 2013 by farm2011

Last day in the city today and it’ll be a little quieter. We did sleep in this morning and it felt pretty good. Today’s adventure is to check out the air craft carrier The Intrepid . This is an aircraft carrier that is also a sea and air museum. Before we had to check out of our hotel this morning, we spent quite a bit of time repacking our backpacks. Now I don’t know what happened to mine, but holy smokes it got heavy! The next thing to do was to get some breakfast before we head out. Now remember it’s kind of late in the morning right? We got up late, took showers, packed our bags, and I thought there should’t be too many people there. Wow, wrong again. Everyone must have slept in. As I was looking around the hotel area trying to figure out why all these people would get such a late start in the day, I could see them kind of looking back and probably wondering the same thing about us. Now off to explore the city one last time. As we started down the familiar street, I thought how weird it is that we’ve got used to the subway running under our feet when you are walking on the grates, the cars all stacked up like I could never have imagined, police in cars, bicycles,and horses, and all the people! But some how you take it for the norm and you don’t think much of it.Our first stop was Rockefeller Center. This area is famous for ice skating and the huge Christmas tree. So we started our walk to the Intrepid and soon we found ourselves in the part of town that’s called Hell’s Kitchen. Kyle thought just by looking at it that this was where we were, and after looking at the map he was right. It probably wasn’t the worst place that we’ve ever been in, but on the other hand probably not also the best place. Daryl couldn’t get over all the rat traps that were on the outside of the buildings. Where we were was walking was a residential area and it didn’t take long and we were soon by the museum. You could tell that we were close to where the boats came in because almost all the businesses were car dealers. Before we could get our museum tickets, we had to have our bags checked. The guy who was checking my bag said, “man your bag is heavy” Now I already knew that! We checked out the aircraft carrier and museum, and it was awesome. There we so many things to see and do that I don’t think you could see it all in one trip.After spending some time there, we started to walk to find the bus station. And let me just say that it was HUGE! It was almost a city by it’s self. I had to use the restroom there and I was watching for landmarks just so I could get back! After we knew where we had to be, we found a deli for some quick lunch. And today’s new food was Souvlaki. It’s s a seasoned skewered pork on a stick and it’s a Greek food. It was pretty good and I would order it again. It’s considered fast food for the Greek (or that’s what I read) On the way back to the bus station guess what business I saw? Cake Boss! This is famous business that has a TV show and how cool is that? I went in and asked if I could take a picture. I don’t think the workers are too shy, what do you think? After a great couple of days, we found ourselves heading back to Syracuse on the bus. This time it was a much better bus ride. We’ve been calling William every day, so on the bus I gave him a call for the day. He had told us earlier in the week about the bad weather and tornado warnings, and tonight he said another storm blew in. Nothing was damaged, but he thought our old tree grove was all leaning from the terrible winds. I’m just glad that nothing else happened if it got that windy. When we got to our hotel they also said that the city was under a tornado warning earlier. They couldn’t remember the last time that they had this type of a warning, and it looked like just some trees got blown down. Man what bad weather we’ve all had. So tonight Kyle and I pretty much crashed and Daryl got ready for his early flight home. The wake up call is 4 am. Whew! As for Kyle and I? We are driving his car back to Iowa And hotel checkout is 11:00. I watched a new movie that’s just been out where a mother and son drive across the country together. Now I have a good idea what not to do these next couple of days. But to be honest it was pretty scary how much I could relate to this Mom. I mean she had her bags filled with the hotel free soup and shampoo..hummm, she also had a book on unique things to see around the country. Now that reminds me, have I shown you the world’s largest department store yet? 🙂

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Being Tourists – Monday (part 2)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by farm2011

You should read yesterday’s post first to understand todays. (Just a suggestion)

OK, so after the Naked Cowboy episode, we were headed to the Empire State building. It was getting kind of late so we thought that there shouldn’t be too many people there.

Empire State Building

Yea, not the case. I guess I was thinking in the Meg Ryan movie, where Tom Hanks just steps out of the elevator and sees her standing there ALONE with the New York skyline in the background. Not this time. It was only us and a couple of hundred of other people all smashed on top of the building. It was kind of cool to see a view of the city from up there, but it was way too many people for me. Now this is where King Kong comes in. If you remember King Kong was on the Empire State Building and so it only seems fit that there was a chance to take your picture with him. But we stood there long enough to know that it was someone dressed up in costume, but there were many who didn’t know that and would just scream when he’d move. Next stop? We didn’t really know where to eat supper and it was getting pretty late, and by chance we found Lindy’s Restaurant. This restaurant is famous for cheesecake, but after we ate our meal there was no room for any cheesecake. We debated to go back up to Times Square but it was getting late and we had quite the busy day! We were glad to see our hotel and we hurried and went down to our room to watch the Letterman Show that we were at earlier. It was a good thing that it wasn’t on until 11:30 so we didn’t miss anything. I think we all slept really well that night, and tomorrow we’re planning on sleeping in.

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Being Tourists – Monday (part 1)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by farm2011

So our ‘To do’ list for today includes: Letterman, 911 Memorial, St Paul’s Chapel, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, Empire State building, Battery Park, and little did we know that Naked Cowboy and King Kong was going to be added 🙂

So first things first right? The David Letterman show. I have to admit I took a little more care this morning when getting dressed. You know – just in case Dave called me on stage and all. Then after breakfast, off to the Statue of Liberty we went. Since we only have a limited time in the city, we needed to get in some sites before we picked up our Letterman tickets. It was kind of foggy, so once we got to Battery Park there was a change of plans and we went to the 911 Memorial instead. It didn’t take too long to get tickets so that was great! We took a detour to see St Paul’s Chapel but it wasn’t open which was disappointing. At least we got to see it from the outside. This chapel was built in 1776 and not only did George Washington use it for worshiping, but they also used it for 911 victims.

St Paul’s Chapel

Then after walking past the hundreds of construction workers still working at the 911 site, we ended up at the Memorial and it was cool. Now to be honest I never researched this before we left so I really had no idea what to expect. But they have two infinity pools where the buildings stood, and even though it was probably the most simple idea – it was also the most striking! It had such an impact that everyone really respected it with talking softly by it. I just couldn’t imagine when these towers fell all the chaos

New Freedom Tower

By now the weather was getting really nice out and we walked down to the Piers to find out about a boat ride. This way we could check off the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, and Ellis Island all at once. Pretty smart huh? We got our tickets and found a spot on the top deck of the boat to sit because by now it was 75 degrees and sunny. This sure beats yesterdays weather! The boat ride was fun and we were able to see everything really clear. Good thing we switched those two things around. The Statue of Liberty was AWESOME!

Statue of Liberty

Brooklyn Bridge

Now to get to the studio to pick up our tickets for this afternoons show. Because we spent the whole morning walking, and we were literally way on the other side of the city,we took a cab back uptown for the tickets. And while we were standing in line, we looked over and saw the Hello Deli that Rupert owns. Now if you don’t watch Letterman you might be thinking that I’m talking kind of crazy, but this little Deli is often visited by Letterman during the show. I quick went in to se if I could take a picture of him. He was trying to take a sandwhich order, but stopped for me to snap a quick picture. OK, back to Letterman. Now we were standing in line and then we were in the Ed Sullivan Theater. It was built in 1927 so you can just imagine how beautiful it was. After we got our tickets we were given a time to come back before the show taped. We walked out with these huge grins on our faces and knew that we didn’t really plan this a couple of months ago. We didn’t have much time between when we picked up the tickets until we had to get back so we grabbed something to eat quick. When we got back to the studio we had to go to a laughing/cheering class. What we learned is that there are ‘good’ ways to laugh and cheer, and you guessed it – there are also ‘bad’ ways. Since there are no laugh tracks for the show, this is pretty important. Once the show started it was so weird! It just didn’t seem real. The guest was Will Smith and the Doc Severinsen Band was unbelievable. We didn’t know if we made it on the audience clips or not because we were in the fourth row. We were trying to figure how close we were to them and we decided , maybe 40 feet? But it didn’t really matter if we didn’t make it on TV because it was fun and it was free! After the show and we were walking on Broadway Street by Time Square, both Daryl and Kyle got these goofy looks on their face and said that I just had to take a picture. OK, but I wasn’t sure who with? Now this is where the Naked Cowboy comes in. I guess he’s kind of a legend, so what the heck?