R.I.P 2010

I will be welcoming the new year of 2011 with open arms and a smile.  My new year's resolution is to do the homework DHHS bestowed upon me over break....  With the birth of a new year, comes the death of an old.  A year with all it's own highs and lows, the year of 2010.  No, I don't have anything witty, deep, or meaningful for this, but I do have some photos and a fun story to go along with them.

My mother had decided to take a little trip to Massachusetts.  Our first stop was the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Artwork.  A rather interesting exhibit, but small.  It wasn't really worth the two hour ride up north.  Afterward, we went into the town of Northhampton, Ma, a classy little town.  The beggers, or "Panhandlers," as dad called them, were a nice touch to the community.

My favorite commentary of the trip was when three Northhampton cops passed us by on Main Street:

My mother: "There's a lot of cops in this town."

Me: "But not enough."

After that fun expedition, we stopped in Springfield to check out the "Bright Nights at Forest Park."  It was a light display set up in, you guessed it, Forest Park.  We drove through, and I took some pictures.  Some aren't all to good, but that's because it's pretty hard to take pictures from a moving vehicle.

It's suppose to say God Bless America.  Pretty hard to get a shot without a car in it here

Weird blue G clefs.

A blue carousel.

The banner above says "Seuss Land."  I thought it was called "Whoville."

Horton.  Not associated with holidays.

There was a strange prehistoric light display we drove through.  This volcano is reminding me of Jimmy Buffett

This gap between the cars is because my mom frequently stopped to allow me to climb out the window to take the pictures.  We angered those behind us quite a bit.

A crazy detailed house

One major funder of this was Hasbro games.  Hence the Game of Life.

Good bye 2010, and hello 2011.  Only thing I'm wondering is how they're going to make the glasses people wear in Times Square when they drop the ball out of the number 2011.

Powder Ridge

Powder Ridge:

Powder Ridge is a now abandoned ski resort in Middlbury, CT.  It was not large, and consisted of a rental shop, a lodge, and a restaurant.  There were five lifts, one of which was for the tubing hill on the side.  There weren't many trails, only about 12.  This humble resort did not boast much except for its convenient location, for it was only half an hour away from where I live.  It was the closest hill for most people around the state.  There are two other other hills, which are much larger than Powder Ridge in Connecticut, but they are located way up in the northwest corner of the state.  Powder Ridge was where I learned to snowboard before it went bankrupt and shut its doors for good five years ago.  Now, the buildings are left in shambles and they have been ransacked by explorers before me.  The town has purchased the land around the resort with plans to reopen and run it, but so far nothing has been done except for keeping it from being developed.  Many developers had their eyes on this hill, but the town snatched up the land.  If someone were to reopen the resort, much work would have to be done.  Everyone in my town would love to have the hill opened up again, even though it is not much, it is close and convenient.  Here's the story of my trip there.

Me, my brother Jeff, our friend Jared, and his Golden Retriever Lilly parked across from the Tilcon plant to commence the one and a half hour hike up steep hills to reach the abandoned resort.  We could not drive there because the parking lot where we would park is closed and off limits.  In addition to that, if any locals saw you driving in, they would surly call the authorities

This is the railroad that the trail, the Matabassett Trail, crosses.  This runs up to the Tilcon mine.

Jeff, (left) Jared (right) and Lilly (Middle, but I don't need to tell you that)

I wish I could rotate this.  Anyway, it says, "Oooh mommy, I can see Long Island Sound from here."  This was scrawled on a blue blaze at an overlook on the ridge the trail is atop.

Jeff and Jared traversing down one of the many steep hills. 

A scenic overlook looking west.

Some Meriden suburbs with large wires in the back.

Crossing under the power lines

At the top of the hill.  Lilly found us the top of the lifts

Electrical boxes.  Every wire on the entire site was cut

A pile of chairs

A snow gun.  These were EVERYWHERE

Jeff at the top of the lift.  This had some pretty bad graffiti.

This was the half pipe.  I'm not gonna lie, the mountain had a pretty nice terrain park

At the base of a lift.  Nothing here worked

Jared was fascinated with the lifts.  He likes machinery.

The cement chute here was the beginning of a water slide that was planned to go with the summer camp that was run here during the off season.  The slide was never completed, and this was perhaps when the owner first ran into money trouble.

Looking down at the lodge and the rental shop

Electrical boxes in a lift.

There were a couple of old fords parked in the woods.  They're trashed now, which is a shame.  People have been throwing rocks through the windows and tearing the trucks apart.  Not much was left salvageable of them.

The machinery graveyard.

This is the tire graveyard.  Tires of all different sizes.  No two were alike

Inside the maintenance shed.  There were parts of machinery everywhere

Every imaginable thing that could ever possibly involve heavy machinery was in this room, and it was trashed.  This whole place was ransacked, and nothing was left unturned.

A garage where snowmobiles and snowcats would be serviced.

Maintenance manuals and record books were strewn about in the second floor office

A filing cabinet and fridge in the office

A gigantic pump used to pump water for the snow machines up the hill

What pump would be complete without air compressors?

Now the restaurant.  There were two bars in this restaurant.  One back there and  one behind the camera.  Wish I had uploaded a couple more pictures, but you're not missing much.  That in the middle is a fireplace.  Through those doors is the kitchen.  There was nothing in there, everything had been removed.  Out those windows on the right was a large deck, and just past that was a now frozen pool that was in use during the off season.

Obsolete video games.  Alpine Racer 2.  This was in the lodge.

This was the ski patrol room.  There were SO many papers and medical equipment strewn about.  There was even an oxygen tank and map quest directions from there to a local hospital.  This place was TRASHED. Even the skylights were knocked out.  In addition to medical supplies, there were also many chemicals all over the floor.

This was a little.....foyer, I guess, on the second floor of the lodge.  This was the middle where some hotel rooms opened up into this area.  There was a roof, but the no doors in the door ways.  There never were any.  Odd construction design.  Anyway, the hotel rooms were even odder, because some were normal hotel rooms, but others were entire apartments.  No two rooms were alike.  Some were one bedroom and one bathroom, and others three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a kitchen.  There also weren't any doors dividing the bed rooms, just openings in the walls.  Also odd.

Back to the first floor of the lodge.  This cafe, deserted, of course.

This was again in the cafe.  Those are soda machines that were still left behind.  We had some fun taking apart one in the other restaurant.

Well, when you've got hundreds of ski tickets that weren't going to be sold,  you'd do some decorating with them.  These are shelves in the rental room (for ski boots, you know) and they were covered in the stickers.

The rental shop

A notebook in said rental shop.  I don't know what they meant, but the numbers had something to do with  whatever was rented that day (and broke, i believe)

Trekking up the mountain.  It's treacherous when the lifts aren't running.

And on the way back, just another shot.

So, that was what we did on the day of Christmas Eve, and it took all day indeed.  Hopefully some day Powder Ridge will open up again, and I might just get a season pass.