A Little Night Music & The Empire State Building

I last blogged about the Tripper Bus to NYC, but didn't say much about the trip itself.  So now some catch up.

The main purpose of the trip was to catch up with some friends from grad school.  It was a short trip though (arriving late on Friday and leaving at noon on Sunday), so that didn't leave much time to do anything.  We did want to see a Broadway show though.  As we stood in line at the TKTS booth in Times Square Saturday morning, we were debating what to see.  We asked around some local folks & when two guys back to back recommended A Little Night Music, we decided to go see that.  To kill time until the afternoon show, we went to the top of the Empire State Building.  Well, given the long lines to the attraction, we barely made it back in time for the show. We probably spent 1 hour standing in line and 15 minutes at the top, if that.  I should've known better....

The show was a nice way to get out of the heat for a few hours mid-day.  We got great orchestra seats for half-price.  The star of A Little Night Music was Bernadette Peters, which was another reason why we wanted to see the show.  It was a great show, but not sure I would've given it the raving reviews those guys did.  Then again, they were gay, so that might explain things a bit.

The rest of the evening was spent wandering from bar to restaurant to bars.  Bars haven't been my thing recently.  It's a bit hard to believe that when I used to live in NYC I used to go to the bars with colleagues couple times a week, staying out until well past midnight, stumbling into work the next morning still.  Certainly none of that going on these days.  Yeah, it's a bit boring but my body says tough - no drinking.  Oh well.  Probably best to stick to healthy hobbies anyways :)

TripperBus to NYC

NYC is roughly a four hours drive from DC so you'd think it'd be pretty easy to do a weekend trip. Au contraire, mon frere! Traffic at every point on the way to NYC - the beltway, around Baltimore, the NJ Turnpike, and tunnel entrances - is horrendous. Driving in the city is probably a nightmare if you're not used to it. Parking is a whole other story. The cost of driving to NYC is not cheap either. It'll probably cost you a tank or two of gas, crap loads in tolls, and about $30 a day in parking. So when I let a friend talk me into meeting up with her in NYC, I looked into alternative ways to get to NYC.

My first choice was to take Amtrak. From Union Station to Penn Station, the ride would be absolutely traffic free.  Unfortunately, Amtrak charges a ridiculous $250 for a round-trip ticket.  You could get that to under $200 if you travel at ridiculous hours, like middle of the night.  Well, that didn't save me anything except the drive so I decided to look into the buses.

I first heard about the Chinatown buses a while back from a visitor who was looking for a cheap way to get to NYC.  Well, a quick search online turned up all kinds of choices.  Apparently these Chinatown buses got so popular that competition started popping up everywhere.  These days the standard seem to be proper coach buses with A/C & toilet, as well as free wi-fi.  Prices generally range from $20-30 one way.  There were so many options to choose from though, and I had no idea which bus to use.  There's Bolt Bus, MegaBus, Vamoose, DC2NY, Greyhound, and probably a few others.  BoltBus seemed to be the popular choice but was sold out for departure times I wanted.  MegaBus had some bad reviews.  DC2NY advertises itslef as a "luxury" bus but I couldn't really tell what it offered that other buses didn't.  Greyhound seemed like a good deal if you book online, but they wouldn't guarantee that you'll get on one of the nice new buses they are introducing (and I have an image of their older fleet of buses being ghetto) on DC to NY trips (& it wasn't clear if the new ones ran from NY to DC).  Vamoose almost looked like a really good option with good reviews and departure point in Virginia (more convenient for me).  But then I found TripperBus, which seemed to offer exactly the same for $10 cheaper. 

I was able to book my tickets the day before my Friday departure, so I was very surprised to see that it was a full bus there and back.  These buses must be very popular.  Getting on at Arlington had its advantages, since you get your pick of the seats.  It's been a while since I've ridden in one of these buses, and they were about as comfortable as an economy seat on a plane (i.e. not very).  For $25 (one-way) though, you can't complain.  They gave you a bottle of water, which is good to keep you from dehydrating.  However, a pit stop doesn't seem to be guaranteed.  If there is one, it is 10 minutes.  If you're a woman, you need to rush off so that you don't get stuck at the end of a long line that forms at the lady's room.  So at the pit stop, you have a choice to pee or buy food, not both.  These bus drivers don't seem too keen on waiting for people too.  The driver on the way back acted like he was about to take off with a missing passenger but the lucky person got on in the nick of time.

Another thing about these buses is that they are probably never on time.  Buses aren't immune to traffic, yet they never seem to take it into account for their schedules.  They seem to leave on time (unless there's a problem with the bus), but my bus arrived in NYC 1.5 hours late, and arrived back in DC 30 minutes late.  The metro and/or cab rides on both ends also adds to the commute time. 
 
All in all, I wouldn't say it was a very comfortable trip.  Going in your car would probably be more convenient and comfortable.  However, the drive is probably more like 5-6 hours with traffic, and driving in traffic is no fun.  There's also significant savings with the bus, too.  Driving would have cost me over $100 if I include $60 for 2 days of parking.  The bus trip was $50.  Since riding the bus is not any better or worse comfort wise than driving, I would base any decision to take the bus on the cost factor.  If there's many of you in a car and it's cheaper or about the same to drive, I say drive.  Otherwise, these buses aren't a bad deal at all and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for cheap ways of getting to NYC.

Adventures in "Wild & Wonderful" West Virginia

I've been imagining there to be lots of natural beauty in West Virginia so I have been wanting to go for a while.  This weekend I finally got a 2 day, 1 night trip in.  I wouldn't say that I was disappointed, but I was very surprised at how much of a boonie WV was.  I don't think I saw a single stop light while I was there, nor a grocery store.  There are scattering of houses here and there, but miles of nothing in between in the mountainous State.  I always wondered what people who live in the stix do for a living.  It's still a mystery to me.  In any case, I'm not here to dwell on how people in WV survive, but am going to share with you some of the sites we saw on our trip.

Blackwater Falls

Our first stop Friday morning was at Blackwater Falls State Park in Davis, WV.  It didn't take us long to notice several "bear" signs here and there, and sure enough, first group of people we encounter warns us about a bear and 2 cubs "right over there."  Fantastic.  I wasn't particularly keen to get a good look, so we mosied on down to the falls.  They were nice falls, but they were too easy to access by a short walk down a set of steps.  Given that it's no Niagara, I probably would have appreciated the falls more if I had to hike to get there.  Afterward, we wanted to check out Elakala falls, but were a bit disappointed when it wasn't much of one you can view from the trail.  We continued on the trail though to loop back to our car.  That's when I noticed some ferns ruffling more than it should from the wind.  I scared the heck out of Brad when I pointed it out and we both started making more noise in hopes of scaring it off.  We didn't see anything tho so we kept on walking - and then we heard it - and I saw it!  My first bear encounter on a hike.  Unfortunately all I got to see was its big black hairy butt as it was running off.

Seneca Rocks

Seneca Rocks is what you see here.  Apparently a hot spot for climbers, hikers can enjoy a short 1.5 mile climb up to an observation deck just to the East of the jagged rocks.  At the top of the trail there is a stop sign warning hikers of the dangers of going further.  The ridge line is only 10 feet wide, and without proper equipment you could topple off the side easily.  Must admit I was tempted to go past, but the sign did its job.

Camping (in a Tipee) at Yokum's Vacationland

I figured if you're going some place like WV camping is the way to go.  As I searched for camp grounds I came across the website for Yokum's Vacationland.  Yeah, sounds like a cheesy tourist trap of a place, but they had tipees!!  Brad & I were excited about the idea, but the reality of it was a bit of a disappointment.  The tipee wasn't made out of leather with dirt or rug floor like I imagined.  Instead, it was a modern tipee with tiled floors, electricity, light, and fan.  It was roomy though, so it wouldn't be a bad place to stay if you had the right bedding - i.e. a sleeping mat to put under your sleeping bag.  The tiles made for a very cold and hard place to sleep.  As if that wasn't bad enough, there were inconsiderate people blasting crap music all night long.  Some song about "if God walked on earth he'd be a hillbilly."  My attempt at asking them to turn it down did little good so as I struggled to sleep in these conditions, all I could think was how much I'd like to go slash their tires or key the rude [ expletive ]'s truck.  On a positive note, we built a camp fire and roasted marshmallows, and that was fun.

Spruce Knob

The highest point in West Virginia is Spruce Knob, at 1,482m.  I had very little expectations for this place, but was pleasantly surprised.  The terrain reminded me somewhat of the Swiss alps, but without the snow and on a much smaller scale.  There were also butterflies everywhere, and flowers.  You can actually drive up to the top and get a panoramic view from the observation tower.  There is a hike in the area, but we opted for a short walk around. Btw, to get here, you have to go on Rt 112, which is WV's version of Bolivia's death road.  It's about the width of a one lane road but it's 2-ways, and off to one side is a cliff edge - though there are trees that might catch you if you go off the edge, unlike in Bolivia.  The road eventually turns into a gravel road for rest of the way around.

Seneca Creek Trail

The hike we ended up choosing was along the Seneca Creek Trail. I was hoping to see more water, but the creek was a bit dried up and you didn't see much of it for most of the trail. We did a loopty-loop by going up Swallow something trail to Allegheny Mountain trail, and back down to Seneca Creek via Tom Lick trail. I guess the nice thing about WV is that you can avoid the crowds. We only saw a few people the whole 4 hours. Some of the trails also made you feel like you were going off the beaten path. WV is definitely the way to go to get away from people.

***

That about sums up our WV experience. We didn't dare stay another night in that camp ground and tipee, although we planned to initially. We were glad to be back in civilization (Virginia) and in our comfortable beds that night. There were times when I wished I could get away from the hustle bustle of the DC metropolis, but after our weekend in WV I realized I could not live in BFE. Definitely need to find some middle ground I think. Anyways, as enjoyable as the trip was and as beautiful as WV is, it was also one of those trips that make you appreciate what you have. How lucky am I to have Safeway and Home Depot in 5 minutes drive? Or at all....

Logistics tip: Fill up your gas tank in Virginia - it's about 20 cents cheaper by the gallon than in WV.