Category: Adventure

Decided to finally attend the Maker Faire, which I’ve kinda wanted to do for a couple of years. It just looked really cool to me and making stuff is always good.  I asked NGM if he wanted to check it out too, and we made the adventure to experience it in person.

First I woke up pretty early so that I could drive to NGM’s home. I remembered how to get there and everything, and didn’t take a single wrong turn. This is a big achievement for myself.

We then departed from his home and went to Trenton (I think that’s where we were) to board a train to NYC. The train ride was pretty exciting, I really don’t get out much. However, what would make this trip forever standout were the completely drunk/high couple seated behind us.

They were truly amazing and I doubt my words could truly do them the justice they deserve. They were completely shot and I have not idea how they even walked onto the train (without tickets of course). The whole ride up they didn’t shut up once and constantly talked about some amazing nonsense.

Here are some excerpts that stood out to me:

• wow (said like a million times)
• asked if they had disabled tickets
• the need of rain jackets
• a tall building that is exactly 1776 feet high
• trading in their Sebring for an Altima
• crosswords make your brain smarter
• how do you spell 2?

They appeared to be getting on NGM’s nerve, as well as the rest of the train’s as well. I didn’t mind and just took in the entire treasure for what it would be. It was truly amazing.

Once the train arrived in NYC, we boarded the subway to the New York Hall of Science inQueens where the Maker Faire was held. It took a little while to get out there, but the journey while interesting, wasn’t as eventful as the train ride for me. Sure there were some very weird people on the subway, but not as amazing as the train couple.

When we arrived to the Maker Faire, I was pretty overwhelmed. There was just so much going on, it took a while to figure out where to go and what to see. Once we walked around for a bit, and settled in we started to check out the various exhibits.

There was some really interesting stuff and it’s always impressive to me to see people actually making stuff and not just relying on a big company to make something that they have to then go out a buy at a Wal-Mart. I have a whole lot of respect for that crowd, that’s not an easy thing to do.

I mostly wanted to check out the electronics stuff, mostly the Arduino tents. I’ve been meaning to make something cool using that. There were some pretty amazing robots and other little contraptions that were very impressive too.

Though one of the coolest things I saw, and the only thing I bought a kit for were the Wool Buddies. Apparently you can make simple little stuff using wool and poking it with a needle. Some of the little critters offered were really cool looking to me and I would up buying a blue whale one that I’m hoping to complete soon.

We did check out an impressive Mentos and Diet Coke show. It was pretty amazing what those 2 guys were able to pull of with a simple combination. Also of note was the human mouse trap. Just like the board game, but much, much bigger. They put on an entertaining show.

The food there was a bit strange. I got a weird grilled cheese, tator tots for lunch. Eh, not so good but not bad. Then we got fancy ice cream sandwiches. I got fried chicken and waffles flavored ice cream on mine. I thought I’d be a bit adventurous, and it turned out to be not so bad.

After the faire, we stopped in Manhattan to get something to eat. The place we went to was some diner employing some Broadway people. I kinda hate Broadway, so having all the staff constantly singing way over the top renditions of songs was quite annoying. The food also was sub average, so I gotta say I was a bit disappointed with dinner. Oh well, I won’t forgot how annoying the staff was to me though.

Subway and train ride how were pretty smooth. No insane couples seated behind us, but we couldn’t stop quoting them the entire ride home.

Good stuff and a pretty awesome event. Even if you’re not into all that building stuff, it’s still pretty amazing to check out.

I’ve been thinking of doing something interesting down the Egg Harbor River since it’s around where I work. So when the invite for some tubing came up, I surely agreed to join in on the fun.

The location of this fine adventure was the Winding River Campground in Mays Landing. It was pretty simple to get to and also very simple to do. Just go inside, pay to rent a tube ($15 plus a $5 deposit that you get back when you return the tube), fill out a form then you wait for a van to come and pick you up. The van kinda reminded me of Tony Mocelli’s van in Who’s the Boss. It was a short ride and he dropped us off at a little park and then the mighty river would take us back to the campground where our car was parked.

The river itself was pretty nice and seemed clean to me. There was an occasional floating plastic bottle, beer can, etc. but not too much stuff. The water temperature wasn’t too bad either. I was expecting colder water, so it was nice to be a bit warmer than expected.

The actual adventure took a couple of hours. I’m not sure exactly when it began, but I’d say it was 2.5 to 3 hours total of tubing fun. I really enjoyed trying to steer around a the river by paddling with my hands against the current at times. It was difficult in spots, but I seemed to get better at it as the day wore one.

I also really liked helping others navigate and get unstuck from branches too. There were some tricky spots, but I was able to steer a defeated tuber to safety during the second half of the adventure.

What really surprised me the most was the level of river people. The majority of them seemed to be very strange and from poor reality TV. Many even sounded to of had accents of sorts I couldn’t determine. I’d say they were river folk.

A gentleman with magic marker on his head was a very close talker to my tube, but I was kind and attempted to educate him of the finer things in life such as the amazing film Milo and Otis. I’m not sure he understood it’s importance to society, but oh well I did try.

There was also a very strange man who helped give me a push off into the right direction. Though he nearly stole one of my fellow river travelers, apparently it was just a joke and she was released to freedom.

All in all it was a pretty powerful experience and one that I would like to try again.