Today's Ride

[Ripitz]

was just on my regular ride but in some cases going the wrong direction on the course and they weren't happy about it

You were zigging while they were zagging.

 

[Harvey]

He/she's always in the same spot

How do you tell male from female?

 

[raisingarizona]

View attachment 25770
He/she's always in the same spot

How do you tell male from female?

No one will ever know. Stick with "them" please and thank you.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

This weekend, I headed to southern NJ to visit my friend Bryan (from several Solitude TRs), who comes east to spend a couple months each summer at his SO's house in Port Republic, ten miles as the crow flies north of Atlantic City. Only 90 minutes from me but a completely different kettle of fish from northern NJ with its flat landscape, conservative political bent, and RV parks, along with beautiful inlets, rivers, and marinas everywhere. If I'd been dropped in blindfolded, I might've guessed that I'm in rural Florida.

It's home to New Jersey's Pinelands, aka the Pine Barrens (explanation for the two terms is here), known for its cranberry bogs, sand pits, and pitch pine trees. Pine Barrens is also the name of a beloved Sopranos episode whose infamous forest scenes were filmed in NY's Harriman State Park after my hometown South Mountain Reservation turned them down for a shooting permit. Per Wikipedia: this is a fairly rare instance where the show did not depict an environment similar to the one suggested, as neither Harriman State Park nor South Mountain Reservation are ecologically or visually similar to the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

Anyway, we went on a fun two-hour offroad ride in nearby Batsto State Park amongst the fragrant pines mixed with oak trees. The soil is mostly sand, which only caused challenges in a few spots.

Some parts were very flat:

The second half of the ride had some nice undulations. Interesting to note on the trail signs that e-bikes are verboten.

Forests fires happen here from time to time, like in this section:

A nice ride that worked us more than we'd expected given its mostly flat topography.

 

[Low Angle Life]

Nice post @jamesdeluxe, especially like your anecdote about the Pine Barrens Sopranos episode. I've got a strange ability for figuring out local towns and landscapes in film and television and when I watched that episode immediately knew that it was filmed in Harriman State Park. I remember being a little frustrated with the rocky hilly landscape in that episode and what a poor representation it was for the actual Pine Barrens. Regardless quite a bit get filmed up that way and it was cool to be able to identify another local spot on TV.

Also relating the the forest fires, NJ actually has a fairly competent prescribed burn program on state lands. If weather conditions are favorable they will be treating 25,000 acres with burns starting this October. Drive down the Parkway during the spring and you might notice a bunch of fire smoke as you get into the pines. I've been on some of the sand roads in Prospertown Lake WMA following a burn and it was pretty surreal. Lots of fire still on the ground when your deep into the pines makes for a pretty apocalyptic and unique experience.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I've got a strange ability for figuring out local towns and landscapes in film and television and when I watched that episode immediately knew that it was filmed in Harriman State Park.

My wife and I are rewatching Breaking Bad for the first time since it aired and I love recognizing the locations that they shot in Albuquerque and throughout the region based on my time there from 1990 to 1993. Everything was on-location in New Mexico instead of the typical move of shooting exteriors in Southern California.

It's fascinating that the Sopranos were denied a South Mountain Reservation location permit due to the then-county executive being upset with how Italian-Americans were portrayed in the series (NY Times link).

''I have no intention of granting a permit for our taxpayer-owned facilities for a profit-making enterprise which depicts an ethnic group in stereotypical fashion,'' Mr. Treffinger said today. ''While everyone in America has a First Amendment right to put forth any work, no matter how obnoxious some people may find it, that does not entail the automatic right to use public property to perpetuate harmful stereotypes.''​

Not sure why he was so offended given that he has a German name but I guess that he was acting on behalf of his constituents.

 

[raisingarizona]

My wife and I are rewatching Breaking Bad for the first time since it aired and I love recognizing the locations that they shot in Albuquerque and throughout the region based on my time there from 1990 to 1993. Everything was on-location in New Mexico instead of the typical move of shooting exteriors in Southern California.

It's fascinating that the Sopranos were denied a South Mountain Reservation location permit due to the then-county executive being upset with how Italian-Americans were portrayed in the series (NY Times link).

''I have no intention of granting a permit for our taxpayer-owned facilities for a profit-making enterprise which depicts an ethnic group in stereotypical fashion,'' Mr. Treffinger said today. ''While everyone in America has a First Amendment right to put forth any work, no matter how obnoxious some people may find it, that does not entail the automatic right to use public property to perpetuate harmful stereotypes.''​

Not sure why he was so offended given that he has a German name but I guess that he was acting on behalf of his constituents.

Well that’s super silly. It was a tv show about Italian, New Jersey mobsters, of course that’s a stereotype but not of an entire ethnicity.

 

[Ripitz]

I've got a strange ability for figuring out local towns and landscapes in film and television

When I was a kid I always thought the landscape in those Dukes of Hazard chase scenes seemed way off.