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The Wojciks Look at Things

Family Trip to Keeseville, NY

Let's start with the only picture I took on the drive to Ohio:

Teach me how to buggy.

I hope the buggy never tried to take that on-ramp.

My family [myself, my brother and my parents] drove from western Wisconsin to upstate New York to visit my other brother who lives in Keeseville, a small village close to... nothing. When we arrived at our destination we had spent two days in the car, but split them up by visiting family at the halfway point. By the end of the trip it felt a bit like more time was spent in the car than out and the feeling of stepping your feet onto hard, stable and unmoving asphalt in the parking lot of a road-side McDonald's feels incredible after a long driving stretch.

Dinner at an "Italian" "restaurant" [double quotes intentional] in Johnstown, NY.

My brother, Stefan [pictured above], loved the feeling of sitting on car upholstery so much that he decided to spend an additional day driving from Boulder, Colorado to meet us before we set out from Wisconsin. He stopped in Minneapolis, where I live, to spend the night and I took him to the Vegas Lounge, a bar in Northeast known for its seven-days-a-week karaoke. Since he'd never done it before I went ahead and signed up him and his friend to sing "Hero" by Enrique. And yes, he was in too deep and he lost his mind.

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Cleveland:

One of my goals for this trip was to make sure we spent an entire day in Cleveland, where my grandmother, two aunts and three cousins live. Throughout the day two large meals were cooked and ate, beer consumed, neighbors irritated, and I spent an hour and a half riding around on the back of a motorcycle. I'll say two hours, actually, because my face tingled from the wind for another half hour after we got back. Most importantly though, I got some papers on my family history that I had been inquiring my aunt about weeks before.

Aunt, brother, mother.

Grandma Lucy

Aunt Jenny

Dad

Cousin Adam

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The funny thing about driving is that you're moving in relation to everything else around you; in a sense, making progress. But in the car you're sitting still, on your butt, idle. My body had a hard time dealing with those two opposing forces on this trip. I usually don't get motion sickness and the best way to keep it at bay was by being the driver. The feeling of idleness went away and so did my headache.

Stopping for lunch in the park of a pretty little town helps too.

Beaver stop along the Mohawk River. Beavers seemed to pop up several times on this trip.

Then dinner at the Italian restaurant. You can tell the place is Italian because of the Roman figure at the front.

Mom at a pit stop that was one of many poor decisions, and one of many illegal u-turns, on the highway.

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But then we made it to my brother's place in Keeseville. The following are pictures of his backyard, his neighborhood, a day trip to Montreal and a day trip to Lake Placid.

Backyard: Auger Lake

The lake that Mick lives on is relatively unpopulated in comparison to the lakes of Minnesota, where every body of water, down to the size of a pond, contains homes and cabins around the perimeter. Stefan and I took the canoe out a couple of times and came across a ghost town summer camp and a lean-to that was only accessible by hike or by boat.

In general it seemed like most of the homes that did inhabit the area were people's summer homes. However we came across some less-than-desirable structures that were questionable as to who may live there, if anyone. We came upon one of these structures in the middle of the night on a ghost-hunting expedition and you'll see pictures of it in the neighborhood series below.

Neighborhood:

The creepy structure we stumbled upon.

There was a life-size stuffed Pink Panther hanging out on the front porch.

Montreal:

Apparently if you're a Montreal teenager you have to have long hair and wear black stretchy pants.

Dad assisted the local tourists.

We also discovered Dad's doppelganger wondering around.

Poutine

Dad frustrated. Stefan in a long-winded explanation. Mick copping a feel.

The Wojciks looking at things - apparently the same thing.

It took us about 2 hours to find the bus we needed to take.

Lake Placid:

The Olympic stadium and museum in Lake Placid.

The Wojciks looking at things.

At one point in his life Stefan could have been a professional ski jumper.

Flashdance

We did a lot of this on the trip:

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The last part of our trip was the trek back. We spent a day driving back to Ohio and spent an evening hanging out with our aunt, uncle and cousins on their farm in Amish country.