Saturday, May 12, 2007
Laura: "??! Why does my Blogger profile say I'm 251 years old?"
Posted at 9:47:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Dean: "...Maybe it's true."
Okay, here's my Report!
Posted at 3:03:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I walked to the Cromwell side of the bridge again today [Wednesday], to take photos to go with the ones from yesterday of the East Berlin end. It's much easier to see from the Cromwell side, because there's more of a clearing so you can stand at a distance and get a proper picture. The bridge is also extra-extra overgrown from this side. It's so mysterious and claimed-by-nature looking. From both ends, there are trees actually growing right up through the bridge, and I think at least one of the trees on the Cromwell end is actually growing ON the bridge! It must've taken root in the rotting timbers of the bridge's surface. It's also really cool how you have to get very close to even see the bridge, it's so hidden and lost, but really it's quite near to some industrial buildings down the end of Sebethe Drive.
Here's a map of what made me walk down to the end of Sebethe Drive in the first place--except this map clearly shows the river, which my original map didn't. The original map just shows Sebethe Drive dead-ending very close to East Berlin, but you can't tell if it's possible to get to it from East Berlin. You can't, of course, without a bridge. (I put an orange circle around the spot.) [I really like looking at this little square of map. There's something very likeable about it. I just noticed the little pink P and F and L circles... those are the post office, firehouse, and silly little East Berlin library. And I really like the shapes of the roads, and their names. Also, I had no idea part of Middletown was two inches away from East Berlin like that. Middletown must be big.] This is the same map that I keep a photocopy of on my bike, in case I get lost. And I used my bike map to find Mattabassett Drive and to figure out where to cut through to line up with the bridge.
Anyway (this is supposed to be a Report, but it's incredibly anti-linear), yesterday I walked down to just past Mattabasset Drive and just before the new/current bridge where Berlin Street crosses the Sebethe. Actually I walked down to that bridge to check it out, but then walked back. That bridge (a very boring bridge that just blends in with the road) said 1981 on it. So my theory is that maybe they closed down the old bridge/road and left it to turn wild when they built the new bridge, and everything's just grown up around it since then.
In the land between Mattabasset Drive and the new bridge, there are some ruined old buildings and a welding business. There were a few people outside in the yard at the welding place, but they ignored me, so I cut through the derelict lot and walked past zillions of old abandonded campers, many of them with roofs caved in. Past the RV graveyard, green and overgrown, and other random scattered industrial junk, beyond a thin woods, I saw buildings (on the other side of the river) and, amidst its veil of green, the chain-link gate of the concrete pipe's bridge thing. There it was.
From the pipe's "bridge" (I don't know what to call it), I could see the real bridge, and, after taking photos from where I was, then climbing carefully down the bank to the water's edge and photographing the real bridge from beneath the pipe's bridge, I made my way over to it. It was much easier to get close to the bridges and really look at them from this side of the river, although harder to stand back and take photos to show their shapes, because things were so overgrown (and this is early spring--I imagine they'd be lost entirely in summer). Tiny new poison ivy leaves were growing everywhere, so I was careful to avoid them, as well as the pricker-vines. The ground near the river was soft, and almost, but not quite, muddy, as if it had been recently underwater. The river is probably much lower now than it was a few weeks ago. On the bank was a tree bearing the unmistakable gnaw-marks of a beaver who hadn't quite finished the job of felling it. The river itself was slow and calm and very peaceful. It felt relaxing and good just to be near it.
When I made it over to the end of the real bridge, I found it entirely blocked off with several huge concrete squares, clearly placed there when the bridge was closed to prevent anyone from ever driving across it or using it again. I wanted to go out on the bridge, but, as many of the boards were missing and/or rotted, and I was all alone in the woods where no one would ever find me if I fell through, I contented myself with taking pictures.
To get back, I walked straight from the real bridge rather than the pipe's bridge, which lead me through a slightly different trail of abandoned stuff. Instead of campers, I passed a broken-down snowplow truck with its rusted engine exposed, piles of metal building materials, an old Montville Seafood fishtruck, and the huge rust-streaked trailer from an old transport truck. I emerged at a wide gate that might have been installed to block off the former road. Here's a movie of my entire exploration, both days. (I reordered the photos a bit, so it looks like I approached on the East Berlin side from the way I actually left, but the narrative worked better that way.)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Watched "Aftermath" tonight. Out of all of Blake's 7, this is the episode I remember best. Not sure why (it's not my favorite episode, although I do like it a lot), except that it's a very visual kind of memory. "Aftermath" has a lot of strong, pure, and different (from other episodes) images, I think.
Posted at 9:42:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I still didn't finish my Sebethe Report, because I am a slack. Actually, it's because I was really eXhausted last night. Anyway, it's half done and I'll post it soon. I just got back from a bike ride! It was really fun. Zooming down a hill, coasting, the wind flying through my hair, I thought, "There's nothing more glorious than this!" I was out for about half an hour, because I got back as "This Wheel's On Fire" was starting. I'm a wimp so that's all I could handle for today. I pedaled to the post office to mail some cards, then up Berlin Street and Pasco Hill Road and North Road, turning around at Evergreen Road. (It's all on the map I'm planning to use to illustrate my Sebethe Report, so if you're curious you can cheat and look at it now.) This whole area is very hilly, so it was a big back-and-forth of murderous hills (where I pedaled veeeeeery slowly) and super-fun flying back downs (where I didn't pedal at all). I passed the good old Sebethe River, of course, and said hi. I like my bike!!
Posted at 3:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Posted at 1:04:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
What the heck. I just noticed this. Why is it the Mattabesset River, but Mattabassett Street?? Is this another question for the local preservation organization/historical society, Jan? :-)
(The answer is probably: "Bad spellers." I like Sebethe better than Matta--, anyway.)
The headshot is from yesterday, because I am one day behind. But that's better than a thousand miles behind. I'll post my Sebethe Bridge Report tomorrow.
I am totally obsessed with my new RSSDR collection. I keep listening endlessly to nothing else. And every time I listen, the songs seem to fit together more and more (I mean, I keep noticing all these connections that I didn't consciously pick up on when I put it together). And I love "Huck's Tune" more each time I play it. At first I thought it was kind of boring and blah, but you just have to listen to it in the right context. Like near a river.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
I walked down and found the bridges from the other end!!! It was really cool. Took a million pictures. Details to come!
Posted at 3:41:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Monday, May 07, 2007
If you look on a satellite map, Sebethe Drive looks like it once went through into East Berlin over that bridge, instead of dead-ending. Remnants of a dirt-ish looking road still show. I wonder when it was abandoned? I want to approach it from the other side, near Mattabassett Street.
Posted at 10:58:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I went on a short walk near NEAC this afternoon (the weather was insanely perfect), to see what happens if you walk down to the dead end of Sebethe Drive in Cromwell. On my map, it looks like it ends at the East Berlin border, very close to Berlin Street and Grove Street, but I couldn't tell how close, or if it would be possible to cut through somewhere and get to NEAC from East Berlin without having to go on Rt. 372.
Posted at 8:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Well, I found out that if you walk down to the end of Sebethe Drive you come to a river. And there's a big old iron (?) bridge, deep rusty brown and completely overgrown with fallen-down trees and pricker vines. Next to the bridge is another bridge-ish thing, with a giant concrete pipe running underneath it. It's impassable, too; there's a chain-link gate on it, which is locked shut. It's pretty cool and very tease-y. There's no way to cross the river without a bridge; it's too wide and the ravine is very very overgrown. I could see what looked like a road on the other side, just beyond the woods, but I couldn't tell if it was right on the other side, or through someone's yard. I don't really think it would be possible to cut through, in any case. I mean, yeah, it might be possible, but it would be pretty dangerous (especially alone), and definitely not bike-able.
None of my computerized maps even show the river, but it's in my street atlas. It's the Sebethe River, aka Mattabesset River. And when I did a search for it online, two of the top-ranked hits were to Anti-Linear Brain. (!!) Ha. That's so weird. I didn't at all remember ever writing about it previously.
I like the Sebethe River. It's mysterious. I massively want to know what those old bridges were used for, and when, and why they are deserted and in ruin now. Also, what their names are. I tried searching online but could find nothing. [Edit: I think it's a truss bridge. And it had big wooden slats as the crossing-surface, but some of them were missing. I wonder if it has anything to do with the old Berlin Iron Bridge Company??]
I forgot I said I'd post photos from yesterday. I have way too many different super-detailed views of Middletown, so I just choose one.
Posted at 1:30:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
1) The Silver Ranch Airport in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. I snapped this as we were walking back from Kimball's, because of the clouds above the silver hanger, and I can't believe the intensity of the colors. The rest were taken while flying.
2) Totally spectacular dramatic clouds (with the sun shining behind).
3) More gorgeous texturey clouds. I like how soft they look, almost like fur.
4) The Connecticut River snaking along through Rocky Hill and Glastonbury.
5) Middletown. If you look about a quarter of the way along the horizon off in the distance, you can just vaguely make out the skyline of Hartford.
6) One more set of dramatic clouds, with a big spear of sun.
[Edit: Dean says I should include my aerial photo of the Gingers' timeshare in Westbrook. I was able to identify it from the air when I spotted the big watertower! This is the beach we walked along on Monday.]
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Dean and I happened to be driving by the new Stew Leonard's (in the former Caldor building on the Ber Turnpike) this afternoon and I said something like, "I wonder when Stew's is going to open??" (the banner announcing their opening in "Spring 2007" has been up for months), followed by, "It IS open!!" We immediately decided to check it out, knowing full well it would be crazy. It was crazy. The entire (very huge) parking lot was packed (with a goofy uniformed dude directing traffic), and the store itself was exactly like a carnival midway. We pushed our way through, exchanging looks of incredulity at each new spectacle, and escaped intact because we weren't trying to actually buy anything. Weird place. Apparently it just opened yesterday. Neither of us really gets it.
Posted at 11:38:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
