Archive for the ‘Great american train adventure’ Category

no pants subway ride – january 9, 2011, all are invited

January 7, 2011

 

All are invited to participate in the 10th Annual No Pants Subway Ride. The event will take place at 3:00 PM on Sunday, January 9. Everything you need to know is in this post. Please read it carefully!

REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATION:

1) Willing to take pants off on subway
2) Able to keep a straight face about it

**THIS IS A PARTICIPATORY EVENT. DO NOT SHOW UP UNLESS YOU PLAN TO TAKE YOUR PANTS OFF. THIS INCLUDES THE MEDIA.**

DETAILS

When: Sunday, January 9 at 3:00 PM, Sharp! (Over by around 5:30)
Where: Six meeting points spread out all over New York City. Details below.
Bring: A backpack/bag and a metro card.
Wear: Normal winter clothes (hat, gloves, etc)
Facebook: You can RSVP to the Facebook Event

Complete logistics below:

HOW IT WORKS

There are six meeting points this year. Take your pick.

Astoria: Meet at Hoyt Playground – Google Map
Brooklyn: Meet by the Old Stone House – Google Map
Downtown Manhattan: Meet at Foley Square – Google Map
Queens: Meet at the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park – Google Map
Uptown Manhattan: Meet at the Great Hill in Central Park – Google Map
Williamsburg / Bushwick: Meet at Bushwick Park (AKA Maria Hernandez Park) – Google Map

Everyone should meet at their chosen meeting point at 3 PM. Please be on time. Feel free to be early.

At the meeting points, participants will be organized into groups and assigned a specific train car. Once everyone is divided up we will all head to nearby subway station[s]. Do not talk to others once you enter the subway system. No one knows each other.

Sit in the car as you normally would. Read a magazine or whatever you would normally do. Your team leader will have already divided you into smaller groups, assigning your group a specific stop where you will depants.

As soon as the doors shut at the stop before yours, stand up and take your pants off and put them in your backpack. If you’d like to use a briefcase, purse, grocery bag, or whatever instead of a backpack that’s fine too. If anyone asks you why you’ve removed your pants, tell them that they were “getting uncomfortable” (or something along those lines.)

Exit the train at your assigned stop and stand on the platform, pantless. You will wait on the platform for the next train to arrive. Stay in the exact same place on the platform so you enter the next train in the same car as you exited the last train.

When you enter, act as you normally would. You do not know any of the other pantless riders. If questioned, tell folks that you “forgot to wear pants” and yes you are “a little cold.” Insist that it is a coincidence that others also forgot their pants. Be nice and friendly and normal.

All train routes will converge on Union Square. Your exact route will be explained at the meeting point, and may involve a transfer.

You can wear fun underwear if you like, but nothing that screams out, “I wore this because I’m doing a silly stunt.” Wear two pairs of underwear if it makes you feel more comfortable. Don’t wear a thong or anything else that might offend people. Our aim is to make people laugh, not piss them off.

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to read about previous No Pants Subway Rides.

Please leave your cameras at home and resist the temptation to snap photos with your iPhone, etc. while the event is happening. Take as many as you like before and after the event, but during the ride we really want people to enjoy the experience of participating rather than documenting. It detracts from the mission if everyone is taking photos of each other rather than keeping a straight face. Don’t worry, we have photographers assigned to every meeting point who will take great photos.

This is always a blast, and we look forward to seeing you there. You may bring along friends if you like, but make sure they get a chance to read all of these instructions.

See you on the 9th!

(Information for participating in other cities is here.)

Be aware that by participating, you recognize that Improv Everywhere is not liable in the event you are injured, arrested, or worse. By choosing to participate you are still responsible for your actions.

Posted in art, fashion, friends, Great american train adventure, opportunities, public art, Uncategorized, video | Leave a Comment »

onward to the land of golden sunsets

November 8, 2010

another day of travel packing and dragging suitcases to another train. thinking of where we’ll be next but first getting out of here.

downtown reno

reno bus station

and of course a cowboys pickup truck

new cowboys horse

pretty cool buses but i think some of them are diesel fuel, don’t remember if this is one of them. but soon our delayed train, yes another one and the same old excuse freight train in front of them. but the train station is comfortable and not too crowded.

here comes the train

baggage is still handled the old way which is pretty cool

baggage wagon

we are traveling coach because our ride is only a few hours over the sierra mountains again we get behind another freight train almost to a walking crawl. but by this time on our trip i am getting bored taking pictures out the train window but iam surprised to not find any snow in the mountains.

dead pine tree

so during our last lunch aboard amtrak while mary was chatting with another dinner across the way i drifted off watching this flower change color as the light changed.

table flower

but soon we are to arrive

rocks & trees

but none too soon for my taste we pull into our final train destination. martineze,ca.

martineze station

martineze station clock tower

how do we get to our motel. mary has the station manager call us a cab but along comes one named ‘the chosen one’ whom we hail. we feel lucky to have found him and  arrange to have him pick us up in the morning and return us to the station for our three hour thruway bus ride.

 

 

by the sea

 

it seems like paradise after being cooped up in the train for almost to the hour a week. there wasn’t one train where everything worked, no lounge car had working restrooms and our last train from reno didn’t have a door that closed between cars and i wondered what it was like going through the 4 mile tunnel from denver, the train crew warns people not to travel between cars then. but our tunnels weren’t than long but still how do they keep these cars in service?

but here we are at least for a week before ending our trip on virgin america going home. what we came to do, get married happens on the day mary had wanted. monday we did a location scout to find our place and i think we did alright. it was a sunny afternoon when we started getting dressed and ready then the fog rolled in and we thought shi…. but just as soon as we started the ceremony the sun came back out warming us up and making for some pretty cool pictures.

wedding ceremony spot

that’s mendocino in the background and the ocean crashing on the rocks below. so now we are man and wife. who would have thought that 6 years ago this is the way it would turn out? hey you never know

outside our window

is life art or is art life? does it really matter?

 

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Posted in art, Great american train adventure, living life to it's fullist, Photography, travel, Uncategorized, weddings | Leave a Comment »

sunrise and frost

November 4, 2010

i wasn’t prepared to find fog rolling in over the lake and the car covered in frost as we woke up for the sunrise. the question is always do i just sit here and enjoy the moment or do i grab my camera and start snapping away. but i thought this moment i wanted to share so i woke mary and began a very long day. she started taking pics out our rooms window while  i had to run down and start the car and turn on the heater then run back upstairs gather my camera . defrosting the windshield took awhile, but we got out of town in time to capture a couple of images before everything changed.

foggy grand lake, co

then looking south towards shadow lake

shadow lake,co

 

and then it’s all gone and coffee & hunger sets in, where to get a good cup of coffee and  plan our day. we decide to go back into the park for another encounter with wildlife after a cup of coffee and a microwaved sausage and biscuit off we go to the park. this early morning we found the ground covered with frost as our car had been but no wildlife. we drove up a dirt hunters road where we had seen elk the day before and stoped to explore the area. oh well maybe we got a couple of christmas cards out of the effort.

frosty field

frost covered pine cones

then back to town and on to adams falls which feeds the grand lake. whoo hoo i though a powerful ice covered falls. it was easy enough to find and park at and the trail was too deep in snow but had been traveled well before us. what we didn’t know wa we were headed up to the top of adams falls and not the bottom. it really isn’t much to see, just another snow & ice covered rocky mountain stream but after the effort of walking up the mountain why not take some pictures. after all i had carried my tripod and telephoto lens along so what the heck.

 

adams falls, co

snow covered rocks

 

we both got some nice pictures of snow capped rocks and ice. shooting snow & ice isn’t easy as exposures can be tricky. but moving along the ridge line as other couples came alone we found ourselves moving back towards our car. hey what happened to the falls, we were hoping to see the bottom of the falls and not the parking lot. so we drove along the lake front until we ran into private property signs stopping us.

when on thinks of seeing a waterfall, at least i do, i think of seeing where the water falls i.e. the bottom like pictures of nigara falls. but sine there doesn’t seem to any dramatic pics of falls and lake what else to do? we there are hot sulphur springs close by so why not try there? off we go. when we get there what we find are a resort of sorts actually hot tubs of sulphur water  and not very appealing to us. one long family in a exposed tub just didn’t feel like something we’d like to join. mary asked about something more natural but got a very vague answer about being up the road etc. oh well

we spent the rest of the day looking for gifts to bring back for the girls  who are much easier than my son. they love everything at least for awhile. then diner at our hotel grand lake inn which we  find is being sold by the owner to a nice couple from lubbock texas whom we have a talk about how we find accommodations on our travels. what is important to us i and how we search for things.

traveling is exhausting especially one such as this hauling bags on and off trains moving into different hotels trains and cars is a lot of work and it’s not over yet. so crawling into bed and snuggling comes early for us. being up for the sunrise isn’t usually my time of day since i’ve always worked nights. but another sunrise another day.

sunrise, grand lake, co

sunrise , grand lake , co

sunrise, grand lake, co

sunrise looking at shadow lake, co

well now we move on to reno, nv to visit marys friends, i’ve never been there so we’ll see what it’s like.

 

 

Posted in Grand Lake, Great american train adventure, Photography, rocky mountain national park, travel, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

great american train adventure continues to chicago

November 1, 2010

The lake shore limited dropped us at lovely Union station Chicago.

 

art deco sign

 

 

 

union station chicago

For a major city train station, union station is clean and quiet. The main waiting room is detached from the train waiting rooms, which are in a newer annex across and under the street under a newer building along the Chicago river.

I was struck how calm the station was even though there were many people wandering around. Union stations main waiting room was practically empty except for the tourist photographers,

Union station waiting room

not like crowded penn station in new york which probably has 8 police at any given time hanging around the waiting room. We didn’t see one police person in the entire station and yet it wasn’t a homeless hangout. Did we miss something?

Using our limited time in the city we wandered around a few blocks also fitting in lunch along with picture taking. Chicago is a mix of the old and new on maybe a more human level than new york. What we saw beyond the new buildings were the unique items at least to us. Yes it was cool and windy but the day before they had hurricane winds which was the talk of the lunch crowd around us.

boats chicago river

 

Sightseeing boats cruising and tied along the Chicago river. counterweight bridges on major streets that still work, how cool is that?

bridge tower

just in case

 

 

We did see an interesting building approaching Chicago with a statue on top. The Chicago Board of Trade

chicago board of trade

who the statue was on top of building we’ve no idea nor any pictures. But following our quest to the building we found the Chicago loop-elevated subway.

loop tracks

chicago loop elevated train

the old with the new, see somethings can co-exist quite nicely. things don’t have to be torn down to make way for the new.

But it was time to catch the zephyr a super liner train. Cool right?

Zephyr

Well the super part of the train means they can get more people on because it has a double deck of compartments. Which meant to us that the top bunk has less headroom, so low that mary couldn’t sit up in bed and had to roll into it, which was different than the lake shore.

The zephyr has a lounge car with strange seats. I remember as a kid seeing ads for lounge chairs that swivel along with glass windows but these are plastic/metal and designed for little people.

Zephyr lounge car

Train travel in America is so different than other parts of the world. We’ve traveled by train in italy and japan. In italy we did a sleeper while japan was the bullet train. Somewhere a decision was made to let train travel fall by the wayside to the more glamorous air travel. What we find is that the older population enjoys train travel, who really likes airports? The new bus terminals of travel.

Train travel lets one relax and enjoy the scenery, which is impressive. I’ve driven across the country 3 or 4 times and moving at 60 mph I’ve never had the chance to just enjoy the beauty of the country. Sometimes I found myself not taking pictures out the train windows, just enjoying seeing what passed before me. Very relaxing.

Farm

Next stop Amtrak station Granby Colorado, to the town of grand lake, gateway to rocky mountain national park.

 

Posted in Chicago, Great american train adventure, photography contests, travel, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »