Index of Crash-A-Rama!!

Keith's Graduation from CIA
(otherwise known as the infamous family trip to New York and back!)

You may have noticed that I'm going to do this in a slightly different format. Rather than just give an index, I'm going to write the story of the trip, for those of you who didn't have the fortune of going with us. Or is that the fortune of not going with us? I'll let you decide. It was an adventure, but that is usually par for the course with the Votapka family. Read on!

It was January, and my parents reminded me that Keith was graduating from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in February. They told me that they had arranged the travel to Poughkeepsie (we were taking the train) but coming back presented a small problem. Keith didn't know whether or not he would be staying in Poughkeepsie. If he was not staying in New York after he graduated, we would have to bring him and all his possessions back down to Florida. My parents asked me to check online to see how much it would cost to rent a U-Haul or some other moving truck to bring his possessions back down South. I checked, and the cheapest rates I could find were over two thousand dollars!! My parents were perplexed, as they did not want to reserve the moving truck if Keith decided to stay in New York. With this type of situation, I suggested renting an SUV. That way, we would have a vehicle, and would have the luxury of making the decision to rent the truck or not, depending on what Keith decided. They agreed, and so I set up a reservation with Hertz (www.hertz.com) and they actually had a location near the small town of Poughkeepsie. The plan was starting to come together. We would take the train up to Poughkeepsie, and drive back down to Florida. It seemed simple enough.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004
The day to leave came quickly -- I met my parents at the South Orlando Amtrak station and we had the traditional lunch at the cafe across the street (whose quiches make for a delicious lunch!). We went back to the station, and I took some photos:
1) The Orlando Yard
2) Down the track
3) Mom and Dad at the station
4) Me
5) The yard
6) The yard
7) Approaching Amtrak train
8) Group Photo in Orlando
We left Orlando after lunch, and I took some photos on the train ride through Orlando.
9) Orlando
10) Orlando
11) Orlando
12) Orlando
13) Orlando
14) Orlando
15) Orlando
16) Orlando
17) Orlando
18) Orlando
After riding through downtown Orlando, you pass through downtown Winter Park. It's a beautiful ride, right through the central park in Winter Park.
19) Winter Park
20) Winter Park
21) Winter Park
22) Winter Park
23) Winter Park
24) Winter Park Golfers wave from Hole 6
25) Winter Park Golf Course, Hole 4 (A dogleg left between the church and the cemetery -- we call it "Purgatory")
26) Winter Park Golf Course, Hole 4
27) I couldn't have timed this any better...
Sanford is the next stop.
28) Train station in Sanford
29) Sanford yard
The Auto Train is also in Sanford, and the regular Amtrak commuter train goes right by the Auto-Train yards:
30) Auto Train yard
31) The "Ghost Train"
32) The Auto Train
33) Auto Train yard
34) Factory
35) Mom and Dad having fun (relaxing!)
36) Palatka

We would ride the train on up to Charleston, where we would meet my other brother Kevin. We were hoping that he would be at the train station early, and not leave us sweating like the last time we met him on a train ride. That would have been the time he was to meet us in Jacksonville, and fifteen minutes before the train pulled into the station, I was looking at my Atlas on the train, guiding him via cell phone to the train station. But he caught the train then, and we were pretty confident that he would meet us without any trouble this time.

37) Jacksonville
38) Jacksonville
39) Jacksonville
40) Jacksonville
41) Jacksonville yard
42) Jacksonville yard
43) Jacksonville yard

The Jacksonville station is one of the finer stations in Florida, and the commuter train always stops for about fifteen minutes here for the passengers to stretch their legs. I took the opportunity to catch some quick photos:

43) Jacksonville station
44) Jacksonville station
45) Jacksonville station
46) Jacksonville station
47) Jacksonville station

The train ride up the East Coast is very relaxing, and it is great fun to watch the world pass by. The bustle of the workday has no choice but to stop as the crossing gates come down, and it gives one almost the sense of royalty to watch as everyone else has to wait as you continue on your journey. The train ride is comfortable and forces one to relax. You're not going to be doing anything for the next eighteen hours if you ride the train from Florida to New York, so it's a perfect time to get caught up on your favorite book, crossword puzzles, or those projects you've been putting off. I had to study for a class in my Master's degree program, and it was a perfect atmosphere to study, with the rhythmic clank of wheels upon rail, the soft murmur of voices in the coach car, and the gentle rocking motion of the train.

Well, perhaps not so much a perfect atmosphere for studying, but for sleeping. I woke up for the dinner announcement. Dinner on the train is always fun. There is something about eating dinner on a moving object that is just captivating. That could explain why there are rotating restaurants on the tall towers in the world. We as humans aren't content at just watching the scenery outside; we want the scenery to be moving by so that we can have a sort of "live show" while we eat. In any case, eating in the dining car makes for an enjoyable dinner, especially trying to drink from a glass that, due to the rocking motion of the train, tries its best to avoid your mouth at all costs.

We met my brother at the Charleston station after dinner. This time, he had been waiting for us...for almost an hour. The train was apparently running a little behind schedule. At least he made it. 48) (Group shot) Since Kevin hadn't gotten to partake in the dinner on board the train, he was pretty hungry (since he even avoided dinner to be at the train station on time). So we got some food at the snack bar and tried to catch some shut-eye. I had gotten a lot of sleep before dinner, so I decided to go to the lounge car to play Warcraft on my laptop until the wee hours of the morning. After a while, I became too tired to play any more, and went back to the coach car and went to sleep.

Thursday, February 12, 2004
I woke up, and realized that it had gotten significantly colder. I tugged the blanket around me a little tighter, and looked out the window. The pale morning light revealed a more frigid countryside than that of Florida.

49) Baltimore
50) Baltimore
51) Frozen Countryside
52) Frozen Countryside
53) Frozen Countryside
54) Frozen Countryside
55) Frozen Countryside
56) Philadelphia
57) Philadelphia
58) A rare photo...Kevin, bright and cheery in the morning

After you pass through Philadelphia, the landscape starts to take on a more stark appearance. There are fewer trees, and many more derelict buildings and bridges, metal and steel structures that once had a purpose, now staunchly outlined against the morning sunrise.

59) Leaving Philadelphia
60) Leaving Philadelphia

All roads and railroads lead into New York City through this industrial wasteland, and it proves captivating, as you try to imagine what the old structures might have been used for, and what type of factories used to exist here.

61) Approach to New York City
62) Approach to New York City
63) Approach to New York City
64) Approach to New York City
65) Approach to New York City
66) Approach to New York City
67) Approach to New York City
68) Approach to New York City
69) Approach to New York City
70) Approach to New York City

The New York City skyline peeks over the horizon, and the tops of the tallest buildings can be seen. The Twin Towers used to be visible on this approach to the city by train, but now they are just an empty void that makes the skyline seem incomplete, so I concentrate my photographs on the Empire State building.

71) New York Skyline
72) New York Skyline
73) New York Skyline
74) Empire State Building
75) Empire State Building

We arrived at Grand Central Station in New York City around noon, and took the train up to Poughkeepsie. We met Keith and Zach in Poughkeepsie around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and while Keith took my parents to their hotel, Zach took Kevin and I to the house that they were renting out of. We quickly cleaned up and got dressed for dinner at the restaurant that Keith was working in, called Finch Tavern. My parents rode in Keith's Toyota Celica, and Kevin and I jumped into Zach's something or other. As we drove over the mountainous highway to get to the restaurant, we noticed that Zach's car seemed to be decelerating on the steep hills. "Oh yeah", he said. "It does that". We hoped that we didn't get to a steep hill that caused his car to stop altogether. At least he was able to gain speed on the downhills. Thank goodness for gravity. We eventually lost sight of Keith's car, which led to confusion about directions. To make a long story short, when giving directions, make sure you know your "lefts" from your "rights". After a couple U-turns, driving up an almost vertical driveway, backing out into traffic, and almost doubling back on the highway we had driven in on, we finally found the restaurant. We stepped out of the car and realized that it gets rather chilly in New York in February after sunset. We were glad to get into the restaurant, which was a converted three story Victorian house. It emanated a warm glow and the smell of savory food greeted our noses as we walked in. We ate a most incredible dinner, followed by incredible desserts, and drove back home stuffed and content. We went to bed early, as Keith's graduation started on Friday morning.

Friday, February 13, 2004
Keith got up earlier than Kevin and I did, and left the house, picked up my parents at their hotel, and went to the school with them to take care of some last minute items on the agenda. Thank goodness Kevin and I were able to sleep in, because we were able to catch up on some sleep we missed from the train ride. (The train ride is comfortable, but sleeping in a bed is always better than sleeping in a seat!) We finally got up, and got dressed and ready to go to Keith's graduation. Keith drove back to the house with Tanya following behind, and Keith and Tanya drove us to the CIA. It was a beautiful, bright winter day as we pulled into the CIA parking lot. There were no clouds in the sky, and the air was fresh and crisp. I snapped some photos of the entire gang (Kevin, Keith, Tanya, Mom, and Dad) as we entered Roth Hall to get ready for the graduation ceremony.

76) CIA on a crisp February winter day
77) Impromptu group shot at the CIA
78) Entering Roth Hall
79) Keith and Tanya
80) Keith and Tanya

The Culinary Institute of America is actually a converted monastery; the buildings used to be the same buildings that housed the monks, and which were used for the daily religious activities. As my brother Kevin found out, it isn't a good idea to talk badly about the monks while visiting the CIA, or they'll find ways to trip you up. The graduation ceremony actually took place in Farquharson Hall, which is a converted chapel. It still has the intricately designed wooden beams, sculpted statues, and precise masonry. The massive stained glass windows were also kept intact, which are the showpiece of the hall, and give it a very cathedral-like feel. I snapped some photos before the graduation started.

81) Farquharson Hall
82) Farquharson Hall crest
83) Farquharson Hall stained glass
84) Farquharson Hall stained glass
85) Farquharson Hall CIA logo

We met up with one of my mother's sisters and her family (Patty, Ray, and our cousins Emily and Corinne) and we sat with them to watch the graduation ceremony. We took up the entire row of seats (actually, we took up more than the entire row, but Kevin volunteered to let Corinne sit on his leg) and watched the ceremony. I was able to snap some pictures:

86) Happy Grads
87) Group of Grads
88) Professors
89) Solemn Grads
90) Speaker
91) Speaker
92) Speaker
93) Speaker
94) Anticipating Grads
95) Glad Grads
(movie) Keith Graduates from CIA (large download, please be patient)

The ceremony was nice, and the guest speaker was the CEO of Bob Evans restaurants. He did a very good job at tying business principles into the food industry, with some humor as well. For his finale, he gave over twenty different expressions that we use in everyday life that pertain to food, such as "takes the cake", "that's the way the cookie crumbles", and "you'll be the big cheese out there someday". After the graduation ceremony, we all filed out of Farquharson Hall and headed over to the activities center for the commencement dinner. Kevin was limping a little, and complained that his leg had fallen asleep...after all, Corinne had been sitting on it for over an hour. My cousin Emily had noticed me taking the pictures and asked if she could take a picture with my camera, and so she shot a good picture of the graduate.

Once we got over to the activities center, we were all seated around a large table and were served by current CIA students. The meal was exquisite, starting with duck pate as the appetizer and ending with the molten chocolate lava cake for dessert. Delicious!

96) Dinnertime - Keith and Tanya take a quick break to smile for the camera
97) Dinnertime - Main course
98) Dinnertime - Group photo
99) Dinnertime - Dessert
100) Dinnertime - Dessert (that looks good enough to eat)

By the time we left the commencement dinner, night had fallen, but it gave me the opportunity to take some spectacular night shots of the CIA campus:

101) CIA at night
102) CIA at night
103) CIA at night
104) CIA at night

After leaving the CIA campus, we went back to the hotel where my parents were staying in, said goodbye to both the Votapka and Finkbinder families, and Kevin, Keith, Tanya and I went to the only movie theater in Poughkeepsie and watched the hockey movie "Miracle". The movie was very good -- if you like hockey, you'll like Miracle. After the movie, we all went to the only bar / club in Poughkeepsie, met up with Zach, and mingled with Keith's friends. Keith was well-liked at the CIA, and everyone was in a festive mood as they talked about the futures that now awaited them as freshly graduated chefs and chefesses. After a few hours of mingling, hanging out, talking, playing Golden Tee, and just relaxing, we called it a night and headed home. It was the end of a long day.

Saturday, February 14, 2004
We slept in a little, and then Keith and I went down to the local Hertz Rent-A-Car to pick up the SUV I had reserved. We got a Mitsubishi Endeavor, a nice silver SUV with lots of room. The name was fitting too, because the trip ahead was going to be quite an endeavor...

We drove back to Keith's house to find that Kevin had been busy making "Calvin-men". "Calvin-men" get their name from the deranged snowmen that Calvin created (from the Calvin & Hobbes comics). Take a look....

105) Deranged snowman (ack, he got me...)
106) Deranged snowman (yes, that's ketchup)

We started loading up the vehicles (this picture has Keith's Toyota Celica in the foreground, Zach's something-or-other in the middle, and the Mitsubishi in the back. Oh yeah, we're in there too). As a little follow-up note, Zach's little something-or-other car actually made it out to Colorado after our trip, which is surprising, since most of the trip to Colorado is uphill. Hopefully he got a good downhill run coming down from New York.

Once we were packed up, I went around and shot some last minute photos of the house Keith and Zach were living (renting) in:

107) Keith's cat, Simba
108) Keith and Simba -- picture purrfect
109) Keith's Room, the loft
110) Upstairs (don't read the poster!)
111) Zach's Room
112) Outside the house
113) Outside the house
114) The front of Keith's house

We left at around noon, and drove west to meet up with my Aunt and Uncle again, who had left the graduation ceremony the night before and had driven back to their timeshare in Hawley, Pennsylvania. The timeshare was called the Country Inn at the Old Mill Stream and my father assured me that they had been given precise directions. Off I drove, with my brother Kevin in the passenger seat and my parents in the middle row of the SUV, and Keith and Tanya following behind us in the Celica.

It started off as a normal trip. They always do. We were laughing, talking, having a good time, until I started whistling. Apparently, whistling a simple tune set off years of pent-up sibling rivalry in my brother Kevin, at which point we had a full-out altercation culminating with him threatening to jump out of a vehicle traveling at over seventy miles an hour. My parents decided that enough was enough after about an hour of continuous quarreling between the two of us, and my father took the passenger seat. That turned out to be for the best, since he was the one who had the directions. Of course, actually following the directions correctly was a different matter entirely. We happened to take the first wrong turn which sent us over a bumpy, twisting mountain road which dead-ended at a giant satellite array. I would have posted the pictures of that, but the FBI confiscated my film. Just kidding. I was driving, so no pictures. We turned around and backtracked to where we made the wrong turn, and continued through the mountains. My father mentioned that we should be looking for a sign that said "The Castle". We kept our eyes peeled as we drove around twisting narrow road, through the center of town, and up a hill that seemed so steep that I thought I was driving up a paved ski slope. It was at the top of this hill in someone's driveway that we turned around, convinced we were lost again. We backtracked again, and this time, cresting a hill, saw a huge sign that said "The Castle". It was right in front of a huge building that, believe it or not, looked exactly like an old castle. We were kicking ourselves for having missed it completely. Finally, we found the Country Inn at the Old Mill Stream and were more than happy to finally park our cars. I was sincerely hoping to myself that the rest of the trip home would be better. After all, this short leg of the journey had only been a short four hours. We had twenty hours of driving ahead of us down to Florida.

115) The frozen waterfall behind the Country Inn
116) The Old Mill Stream
117) The Old Mill
118) The Country Inn
119) The Country Inn Interior

We cheerfully met my Aunt and Uncle in a beautiful timeshare suite, and my mother and aunt cooked up a delicious lasagna dinner. We then decided that we could get some snow tubing in! After a bit of a drive (we got lost again) we finally found the snow tubing area. For those of you who don't know, snow tubing is where you climb into a giant rubber inner-tube and get pushed down a giant slope of snow. It's great fun! We were even snow-tubing in tandem with our cousins Corinne and Emily, who we also dragged back uphill when they got tired of walking back up. Fun AND a workout! I was having too much fun to take many pictures, but here are a couple:

120) Patty and Ray (Aunt Patty and Uncle Ray to us)
121) Tubing!
122) Ken and cousin Emily ready....
123) ...and they're off!

With the snow tubing bringing a long Valentines Day to a close, we headed to bed.

Sunday, February 15, 2004
We left early in the morning, saying our goodbyes to our cousins and our Aunt and Uncle, and thanked them for a wonderful time. We also said goodbye to Keith and Tanya, who were heading back to New York, while we continued on the long journey back to Florida. It was a rather uneventful journey (thank goodness) as we headed down through rural Pennsylvania, passing farm houses, old coal mines, derelict factories, and beautiful Appalachian countryside. At one point, we passed a sign that said, "Drive like your mother was in the car." We turned and looked at our mother. We were, quite literally, driving like our mother was in the car...because she was. We had a good laugh about that sign.

We made a detour after reaching Virginia, and visited a friend of my parents, Suzanne Rutger. We had a little difficulty finding her quaint A-Frame home (go figure, we were on a roll with directions at this point), but we found it nonetheless. She treated us to an excellent four-course meal, and afterwards I felt like one of her 30 pound cats; stuffed and lazy. The meals on this trip were something to write about, and so I am. She has quite a wildlife preserve in her backyard, and she was quite proud to talk about all the different varieties of birds that were flitting to and fro between her many plants. After a very relaxing visit with Suzanne, we decided to get back on the road. Kevin took the wheel.

As we drove South through Virginia, we began reflecting on how good a trip it had been. The graduation ceremony had gone well, the food at each of our visits had been spectacular, and our mother commented on how clear the weather had been over the entire weekend. As she commented on the weather, we looked outside. Large gray clouds began blotting out the setting sun. Kevin joked, "Great mom, now you've jinxed us!" As the daylight faded, Kevin flipped on the lights and we drove down the highway in a hazy twilight.

"It could be worse," mom said. "It could be raining." A spatter of light rain hit the windshield.

"Mom." Kevin said. "Please stop doing that."

"Well, at least it's not snowing."

"Mom!"

The Mitsubishi Endeavor had a temperature gauge on the front dash, and we watched as the temperature dropped. 40 degrees. 38. 36. Kevin and I were sitting in the front seat and noticed it first. The raindrops had stopped hitting the windshield. But in the light from the headlights, we could see swirling dark gray shapes. Kevin and I peered over the dash, trying to get a better look. "What is it?" Kevin asked.

"I think it's snow," I said.

My parents both said with firm resolution that there was no way it could be snow. The temperature gauge was still reading 34. It dropped another degree as we watched it. I rolled down my window enough to get my hand outside. Sure enough, I felt cold stinging drops of water hit my hand. We still couldn't figure out why Kevin didn't need to use his wipers, or why nothing was hitting the windshield. All you could see was the gray swirling shapes in the light of the headlights. My parents were unconvinced. "Maybe it's ash, or road dust," they suggested. The temperature gauge dropped to 31.

And then the snow began falling harder. It began collecting on the windshield wipers, and then as the windshield got colder, it began collecting on the windshield as well. We were pretty sure, at this point, that it was snowing. Even my parents agreed.

"At least the road isn't icy," my mom said.

"Mom!" Kevin cried, "I'm having enough trouble driving as it is! Please keep the comments to yourself! You've been on a roll so far, I don't want to hear about ice, or tornadoes, or hailstorms, hurricanes, or blizzards! I just want to get home in one piece!"

At this point we passed over a bridge that was, in fact, icy on the downhill portion. We passed two cars on the side of the road with their headlights facing oncoming traffic. They must not have been driving like their mother was in the car.

But Kevin was driving like his mother was in the car, and we made it through the snow and ice in one piece, and we pulled into a gas station about an hour down the road and cleared off the ice chunks that had embedded themselves in the grill and under the windshield wipers. We had plenty of time to clear off the ice, too, as we had miraculously pulled into "The Gas Station with the Slowest Pumps in North America". We actually had to stop pumping gas at one pump and drive over to a different pump because we realized at the first pump we would have been pumping gas in the freezing damp weather for well over half an hour to fill up a 25 gallon tank. After finally getting gas into the car, we all jumped back into the warm SUV and continued the journey on toward Charleston, South Carolina, where Kevin lives.

At some point during the journey south, my parents decided that they would cash in on some unused points in their timeshare plan, and instead of staying at Kevin's apartment, we could just stay at the timeshare. And so, at two o'clock in the morning, we pulled up to the Lodge Alley Inn and sleepily checked in. After some confusion about where the room actually was (communication at two o'clock is not very good, and besides, we were on a roll with the directions on this trip, too) we finally found it. The rooms are numbered around a courtyard with a fountain in the middle, and we were just on the wrong side of the courtyard. But we did find it, finally, and had just enough time to change into pajamas and pull out the couch bed before we fell fast asleep.

Sunday, February 15, 2004
In the morning, I was able to take a few pictures of the Lodge Alley Inn:

121) Dining Room (and self portrait)
122) Kevin and mom (Kevin looking rather peeved at me...I was probably whistling)
123) Kitchen
124) Upstairs
125) Upstairs and downstairs
126) Across the courtyard
127) Our room at the Inn

We left in the morning and went to breakfast at the local Waffle House. I got the distinct feeling that Kevin was perturbed about something. Through some of his comments, I realized that he was actually still brooding over the whistling incident and subsequent fight that we had on the first leg of the journey. But we got through breakfast with only mild exchanges of obscenities, and then we dropped him off at his apartment. My parents said their goodbyes, he parted with "Moron" to me, and I replied with "Idiot", and we drove off. Don't worry, that's about as heated a rivalry as we have now, now that we're more mature and stuff. Seriously, we were over the whole thing in about a week; only brothers can do that. In fact, I even included a sound byte here of my apology.

My parents and I drove back to Orlando and returned the SUV that night, and picked up their car from the Orlando train station. I returned the SUV to the Hertz center, and then my parents and I enjoyed a nice dinner at Giovanni's (a REALLY good Italian restaurant in Orlando) and they left to drive back home. It was a family trip worthy of a National Lampoon movie. Till next time (Katy!)....