Signs On The Berlin Turnpike

 Not to get too far into the history of this stretch of Retro-Secondary-Highway, but I thought it would be fun to photograph the signs. 

Still light out, a photo of the tell-it-like-it is Gandhi Plaza.

A very well-traveled building, now an Indian restaurant. I believe it was built as a restaurant, went through various "sketchy" iterations, and now its a restaurant again. As far as sketchiness goes, this strip of road was formerly peppered with Strip Joints (and worse), which are now gone.

 Speaking of which, this was "Centerfolds", the last holdout.

Mini Golf is a "thing". These places are actually nicely maintained. I couldn't get a photo of the competition, "Safari Golf'.

On to the Motels. I have never seen so many seemingly useless motels on one strip. This road runs between New Haven and Hartford, neither of which city lacks lodging. If you wonder how all these little places stay in business, the signs may give you a clue. Many offer weekly rates, and others......

Looking creepy in the twilight.

Some of these show a little owner pride, with cutesy themes, and some do not.

Boring Types:

Cuter Types:

The Summit Lifesaver Motel.

In the midst of it all a gun store with An Opinion.

This sign is huge, visible from far away, but not very well lit.

How could I resist the beautiful symmetry of this sign & awning? One of the best neon on the road. 

It must be a Grounded Place.

Here's a fun "twofer" . The Psychic business is right next door, but the signs look good together.

Actually nice.

 

About at crummy and depressing as it gets:

But to wrap it up, a (years-old) picture of the most famous Photo Op on the Turnpike, the Olympia Diner! 

Spiderweed Preserve

 With a name like that, who can resist? I read that this property got its name from  the unkempt condition of its garden.

In Middletown, CT, adjacent to The Bear Hill area by unmarked trail, but accessed from "Dripps Road".

Welcome sign. on a steep slope.

From here, it was a steady climb up an old woods road, which I think was access to a homestead.

Ruins, in rather peculiar condition. Some of it seems to be in surprisingly good condition, yet some of it appears to have been removed-no rubble or debris. What fell down must have been removed for safety.

On a fairly steep slope.

I think I see where the floor was. The doorway in the previous picture must have been to a cellar? (no sign of stairs)

What does that say? "The world....?"

The trail (thankfully) levels off after this area, and a spur trail leads to an overlook with this nice view:

"Sinning Flesh" Preserve

 ....is named after a debatably named brook, sometimes called "Sin And Flesh" Brook.

Its in a suburban location, behind Fort Barton, the ruins of a Revolutionary War "redoubt". The steep climb up was rewarded by a great view of the bay:

The name has sad origins. During King  Phillip's War, an unfortunate traveler was killed in these woods, and found floating in an unnamed brook, which became known as "Sinning Flesh" Brook. That name seems more plausible than what's on the sign, which almost sounds "racy". We were slightly creeped out by the sad history, and burned a sage smudge stick on the way.

Despite the sad history, the preserve is small but interesting. Many small bridges, boardwalks, and stairs.

This is the most Chicken-Of-The-Woods I've ever seen on one tree:

 

Speaking of trees, there were a lot of those type of trees that grow a new vertical trunk after a horizontal branch was cut off. This one was almost shaped like a perfect letter "U":

Uninformative sign.

At the outer part of the preserve, we frequently heard gunfire. A couple passing by said that there was a shooting range nearby.

The brook itself was nice.

Roofing The Porch

This is a pretty mundane topic for a blog post, but I haven't posted for a while, and I need the practice 😉

One of the gutters on my porch roof had an issue, when I went to fix it, I drove a nail into compost, not wood, so I decided to roof the entire porch.

The bottom layer was badly deteriorated 3-tab shingles. 

Rot. They had extended the shingles themselves to reach the gutter, which was attached with stupid metal hangers that nailed into the old layer of shingles.

After ripping it all off, I found that they had skimmed over the old, shrunken, tongue-and-groove boards with 1/4" plywood. I cut the last 3' of plywood off, replacing it with (ridiculously expensive) 3/4". This resulted in a 1/4" step, which when covered with shingles, isn't even noticeable.

This is the flashing between the roof and house. They went under the second course of clapboard and over the old shingles. This was a pain to remove. I had to replace the last run of clapboard (all wood is wildly expensive now) , and I used a simple flashing under it and over the new shingles. I don't see the logic in putting flashing under shingles.

Tarpaper, 12" of aluminum flashing at the edge, drip edge, etc. I glued the first course of shingles to the drip edge with tar. On the left is a strip on plywood cut to the amount of exposure, which I use to align the shingles.

When I had gotten this far, it started to sprinkle rain! Scrambled to cover it with a tarp, By the time I got the tarp in place, it cleared up.

The rest went routinely.

Springtime Varnishing Routine

 After "all that sanding" of the O.I, I decided to also re-varnish the Cape. This involved the usual routines of a full day of cleaning the basement, horsing the boats in and out of the basement, powerwashing, etc.

I used the previous technique of masking the sheerline with the "fancy green tape" and doing the three hull coats first. I used Epiphanes vanish, and "standard" paint thinner. Either I didn't press the tape down firmly enough, or the thinner attacked the tape, because the tape crinkled at the masking line. I'll have to let it harden enough to sand.

Other discoveries: the "standard" paint thinner doesn't smell, but it takes much longer to dry. Also, you can varnish in more humid conditions-it just takes longer to dry.

Upon flipping the boats over, I discovered that not only did the tape "crinkle", it leaked wholesale to the deck! 😞 I think it was the thinner-I am advised not to use "random" thinners, and to try 3M Fine Line tape. Its mainly a do-over at this point.