Rain on Friday cancelled the fireworks at Hubbard Park. The launch tubes will remain at Castle Craig until Friday, 8 July, which is the rain date.
Visit #1021, Saturday 2 July 16, 8:00-10:40AM, mileage unknown.
Temps in the 70's, sunny and dry.
Visit #1022, Sunday 3 July 16, 3:30-4:30PM, 3.0 miles.
Temps in the low 80's, sunny and wonderfully dry.
Visit #1023, Monday, 4 July 16, 9:30-10:15AM, less than 0.25 miles.
Temps in the 70's, sunny and dry.
The first explosion of my holiday was, through a logistical brainfart and supremely bad luck, I forgot to pack the spare battery for my camera and wouldn't you know it; the internal battery died. Without photos the blog posts would be more painfully boring than they already are-I made up for my outgassing with those 2 holiday return trips to Hubbard Park, those times armed with a working camera.
Saturday I wanted to hike a lesser used trail in search of the Dunkin' Donuts cup I'd spied while on a mountain bike ride a couple weeks ago. I didn't expect to find it due to the span of time, and I didn't.
I started early Saturday to avoid the heat and the traffic and walked the road north around Merimere Reservoir, picking up trash. Crossing the north end I picked up the trail and hiked up to Castle Craig. Hiking down, I noticed some new graffiti on the rocks and decided I had to return during the weekend to cover it if only to have a reason to get photos for the blog. I made my way down past the Halfway House and to the road back to the park.
Walking the road, much to my surprise, I was approached from behind by Assistant Parks Director (and devoted fan of this blog ;-) ) Chris Bourdon. He supplied me with much useful information to pass on to you, dear reader.
The potholes on the road to Castle Craig I marked last week, are scheduled to be filled by the Meriden Highway Department. Chris said my marking the potholes would be helpful to the crew.
The other useful information is, the reason the fireworks are being launched from Castle Craig instead of the usual spot at the Halfway House is due to requirements by the Meriden Fire Marshall. The Halfway House was desirable because it was closer and lower to Hubbard Park proper, making for a more dramatic presentation.
I took Saturday's trash home with me just so I could photograph it.
On Sunday, I made sure I had a working camera AND spare battery. I hiked directly to the rock wall below Castle Craig to cover over the graffiti I spied on Saturday, as well as photograph the launch tubes.
Alas, I wasn't done brainfarting for the weekend; I forgot to take an "after" photo after I covered this up.
But I didn't forget this one.
After.
At the south end of Merimere Reservoir, I spotted this scene.
I guess English wasn't their strong subject in high school.
On the way back to the park from this trip, I spied even more new graffiti, this time at the I-691 underpass at the Soap Box Derby Track.
I found this on the pavement at the Soap Box Derby Track. Since I had my brown spray paint with me, I decided to cover it up. I didn't like the result.
Note the initials, "JK" above, on the right and if you squint hard enough and take enough drugs you can see those other letters spell "Bomb". They've appeared before in Hubbard Park, so it seems we have a frequent visitor to Hubbard Park with an addiction to spray paint and afflicted with their own form of brainfarting.
I previously covered over graffiti on these two underpasses in March of 2012, as you can see from the existing gray paint.
"JK" previously sprouted in April 2015 near the retention ponds, and in October 2015 they appeared again along with "Bomb" at the spillway at the north end of Merimere Reservoir.
I got to work with a paint roller and no compassion.
That brown paint I was dissatisfied with-armed with my roller and some gray paint on Monday, I could do a better job of covering it.
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