Month: November 2012

How Clean Are Those Motel Sheets?

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After 5 nights of camping in Acadia National Park, we spontaneously decided to spend one more night in Bar Harbor, the touristy, trendy town abutting the park. “Spider Web,” an Agatha Christy mystery, was playing at the local theater, and a room was available at a simple motel on the main strip. We left our luggage in the room, ate a quick dinner and headed to the theater where local talent entertained and exceeded our expectations.

It was late when we returned to the motel. With three beds, two doubles and a twin, the room was perfect for our family of four. As we took turns brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed, it was my son who discovered something first. “There’s an ear plug in my bed!” he exclaimed. No doubt about it. That was an ear plug. And it wasn’t brand new.

I turned back the covers on my bed. Human hair laced my pillow and crumbs added texture to the cotton sheets. My daughter found additional hairs on her bed as well.

Ewwww! How could we sleep in these sheets? We contemplated getting our sleeping bags from the car but reminded ourselves we were paying $100 for the privilege of staying here.

By now it was 11:30 p.m., but my husband left to wake the owners. Living in a small house connected to the motel, the owners hadn’t yet gone to bed and when told about the condition of the sheets were suitably mortified and blamed it on the cleaning service. Although they offered to make the bed themselves, my husband said no thank you. He just asked for the sheets since it was late, and we were all in our pajamas.

Two years later, we decided to stay in one of those places with single room log cabins while driving up to Vermont. Breakfast was included at this good size lodging, complete with a pool, playground and fire pit. With our own front porch and a sitting area, we discovered games and books in our cabin in addition to the usual bed and bath. But as we got into bed, I turned back my sheet in horror. A black hair lay diagonally across the pillow case, and another one on the light blue sheet below.

After a trip to the office for clean sheets, we decided the dryer must be to blame. Although we enjoyed staying at these privately owned motels, it will be chain motels or hotels for us in the future, complete with industrial size dryers and, we hope, no extraneous human hair.

Trips taken 2007 and 2009.

Hanging Out at Punkin Chunkin

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When we weren’t watching the machines, we were watching the people, on ATVs and golf carts, on couches on top of pickup trucks, wearing orange and black, some with real pumpkins on top of their heads.

We caught glimpses of Kari, Tory, and Grant from MythBusters interviewing people for the Science show on Punkin Chunkin.

We perused the many booths along the Midway, bought mittens and apple cider, tasted hot sauce and BBQ sauce, and ate pulled pork and crabcakes, funnel cakes and apple pie.

We left the Punkin Chunkin after sunset, tired and cold but ready to return next year to Bridgeport, Delaware, for another 3 days of competition, people watching, and fun.

Trip taken November 2012.

Checking Out the Big Guns

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When we weren’t getting ready to launch a pumpkin at Punkin Chunkin, our team was visiting with other teams in the 15 divisions, checking out their machines (catapults, trebuchets, air cannons), watching their launches, and making notes for next year. The competitors were friendly and open, everyone eager to show off their machines and to add a word of insight or advice.

We watched the various methods of human power used on some of the machines (hand crank, bicycle, rowing machine, even climbing a hamster type wheel).

We checked out Pumpkin Slayer and watched the machine shoot its pumpkin 1283 feet in the Adult Human Powered Division (decent but less than the world record it set in 2009 with a chunk of 1984 feet) and watched the Smokin Lamas set a new world record with their first chunk (1586 feet) in the Adult Centrifugal Human Powered Division.

We marveled at Inertia II, a centrifugal machine. After learning how its machine works, we watched as Inertia II threw its last pumpkin 2,688 feet, just 49 feet shy of the adult centrifugal world record set in 2006.

We held our ears and scanned the sky as the air cannons sent their pumpkins flying thousands of feet. With names like Spit Fire, Chunk-n-ology, Old Glory, and even the Hormone Blasters, the air cannons were sleek and colorful.

Young Glory III won the Adult Air division with its launch of 3,887 feet while Hormone Blasters won the Adult Female Air division with its launch of 3,500 feet.

Air cannon photos by Sandy Taft.

Trip taken November 2012.

Chuckin Pumpkins at Punkin Chunkin

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They were big and small, wood and metal, human and gas powered, but they were all designed to do the same thing: chuck or “chunk” pumpkins across a cornfield. Trebuchets, catapults, centrifugal machines, air cannons and their teams all gathered last weekend in Bridgeville, Delaware, for the 27th annual World Championship Punkin Chunkin. And we were there.

After watching Punkin Chunkin on TV last Thanksgiving, my daughter and her friend decided they wanted to enter their own machine. A little less than a year later, they were in Bridgeville with their brothers and their own wooden catapult, named the Socket Monkey, ready to compete in the human powered youth competition.

The Punkin Chunkin competition usually lasts 3 days but due to recovery from Hurricane Sandy, each team’s three launches were squeezed into just 2 days. On Friday, the teams set up their machines, weighed their pumpkins (4 pounds was the minimum allowed), and erected their own backstop to prevent those accidental backwards flying pumpkins from launching into the crowd.

On Saturday, the competition began with the youngest competitors: children 10 and under operated their own catapults and trebuchets before the Socket Monkey launched its first pumpkin into the wind at about 8:30 a.m.

As the pumpkin hurled into the sky and splattered on the ground in the distance, volunteers on ATVs sped off with a GPS to measure the distance of the first chunk: 166 feet.

Somehow the organizers managed to squeeze in two launches for each of the 115 teams on Sunday, the last few chunks occurring at sunset. The Socket Monkey’s second pumpkin landed at 126 feet and its third at 172 feet, all respectable distances for our novice team but far less than its two competitors. Eleven-year veteran team Sister Slingers launched its pumpkin 681 feet.

But fifth time entrant Team Athena’s pumpkin went the winning distance of 983 feet, a world record for the youth human powered division.

The Socket Monkey team was happy. All chunks were forward, none were disqualified, there was no machine breakage, and the pumpkin never “pied” (splattered in the air). With a few tweaks, who knows how far the Socket Monkey will be able to hurl a pumpkin next year?

According to its website, the WCPCA (World Championship Punkin Chunkin Association) “raises money for scholarships, as well as organizations that benefit youth and the local community.” The event will be televised on the Science Channel on Thanksgiving at 8 p.m.

Check out my next post for photos of some of the other bigger machines at the Punkin Chunkin.

Trip taken November 2012.

Hurricane Sandy West of Boston

/ Tara Taft / 2 Comments

We hunkered down in our small town of Stow, 30 miles west of Boston, bracing for whatever Hurricane Sandy would bring. School was canceled. The kids were home. The cabinets were full of food and the basement with bottled water. (We have a well and if the electricity goes out, so does the water.) We replaced batteries in flashlights, did the laundry, and waited. It wasn’t until late afternoon that the winds picked up. We sat in our sunroom watching the big pine trees around our house bending over in the high winds, the sliding glass door bulging as the wind hit it just right. Pine branches flew past the windows on the first and second floors and rain pelted the glass.

When the lights finally did go out, we lit candles and started playing a game, but the power was only out for about 45 minutes.

Would school be canceled another day? My kids checked the school website continuously as erroneous postings on Facebook raised and lowered their hopes of another day at home. Finally, the school appeared on the list of closings but only for a delayed start. I wondered how anyone could make a decision before daylight. Five minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive, school was canceled for the day. Wires and trees were down, and roads were closed.

I left the kids at home and ventured out and down roads littered with leaves and debris.

Yellow and red leaves still clung to a few of the trees in spite of the powerful winds the night before.

I saw a few downed trees and fallen structures and took my turn at an intersection where the traffic lights didn’t work.

At home, I picked up branches and righted and replanted a small fallen tree. Halloween was canceled in our town for the second year in a row (last year we had snow!) and rescheduled for Sunday. But we’re not complaining. The storm changed path, and this time we were lucky.