Stator, The GSR travelling mascot.

[Allie]

Here are a couple pics of Stator hangin' at the office. I dasn't take any pics of him in a patient area because it would be bad to get any patients on film.

Knock knock!
Who's there?
HIPAA!
HIPAA who?
I can't tell you that!



Anyway he made himself at home in my mess.





What's brewin', bruin? Stator says he doesn't know this guy that hangs around my cubie's yard, but he sure looks mean. And John isn't that brave (or stupid), he just has a good zoom lens.





Under my desk is a lot like a bear cave, but with relaxing tunes playing all day long. Stator feels right at home.





Stowed away in the 'tune truck', ready to do some rockin' with the seniors.





Stator horsing around pretending to be Ray Walston.




Helping himself to some munchies from the fridge.




On the day I intended to take him down to the old building I forgot my phone at home so that was a wash, which was kind of the main point of bringing him to work. Maybe this week...

Stay tuned for pics from our outing this last Sunday, we had a great ride and saw some cool things. We've also been enjoying some banana blueberry bran muffins. Yum!

 

[steve murdoch]

Love the one of him nosing around in the fridge.
No doubt it has been shown before but i am just noticing the S patch on his back. Very nice.
Thanks for the pics.

 

[Allie]

Here are a few pics of our ride this past Sunday. It was just me and The Bear this time, as the co-pilot could not make this ride. We missed him!

The main objective for this ride was to visit the High Point Monument, so northward we went! Along the way we stopped at the Sussex Airport on Rt 23 for a pic by the cool airplane statue thingy by the entrance.




There are a couple more pics in an album I made a couple years ago of the place. It's a busy little airport, there's usually para sailing and whatnots going on, and I believe they still have the Sussex Air Show here though I'm not sure since the joint has changed hands recently.
http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/album.php?albumid=1037&attachmentid=28006

What we did next was actually to blow right by High Point, through Port Jervis NY, through The Hawk's Nest, and followed the Delaware River up a ways on Rt 97 until the Roebling Bridge. Just over the bridge is the house of Zane Grey, which is now a museum and historical site. The riding, by the way, was fan bloody tastic, the sky was clear as a bell, not too hot, not too humid, not to busy.

The museum was closed when we got there, which was okay with me cause I've seen it before, but Stator was a little disappointed.




A sign said we could learn a lil' about Col. Potter's favorite author by tuning our radio to AM 530, so that's just what we did. Stator was absorbed listening while I was fiddling with the bags and taking pictures.



Thanks to the recording on the radio broadcast we now know cool things about ol' Zane like he practiced dentistry in NY City before moving to the country to write books, and that he was a pioneer in the field of angling, and was the first person to ever catch a 1,000 lb. fish with a rod and reel.

Here's a shot of the Roebling Bridge from Grey's place.



It's apparently the country's oldest suspension bridge or some jazz like that, and in fact used to be an aqueduct at one time.

http://www.upperdelawarescenicbyway.org/history/museums/roebling/roeblingbridge.php

The view of the river is nice too, and I bet it's fantastic from that house across the way.




We had a nice rest and listened to the broadcast a couple of times, then headed back south towards home. We got stuck behind some knucklehead going 35 the whole way (in a 55), in fact about a mile long line of vehicles was stuck with us. Eventually we made The Hawk's Nest, a favorite scenic overlook for motorists of all types. It's also a favorite hangout for motorcyclists, some of whom like to buzz it at questionable speeds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDAYC2RJkPU

It's tough to get the gist of the place in a single pic though, here's Stator and me taking a vitamin water break.



Continues....

 

[Allie]

After a spirited romp up the mountain back into NJ we visited High Point State Park, a huge spread with lakes, picnic areas, hiking trails, camping areas, and the monument.



The base is roughly 1800 ft above sea level and it's the highest place in NJ. Bear this in mind when I say 'mountain'... these are old and worn down, mountains, not like those sassy upstarts out in Colorado. Although they're high enough to make your ears pop, you'll see no 'snow caps', and I'd just about bet my last muffin tin you don't need to use 'high altitude baking directions'.



It's a long way up!



On the way back out we stopped at the site of the old Kuser Mansion, which was horribly mis-handled by the state, when it was a museum much of it's contents were squandered and or misappropriated by greedy state officials, building neglected, eventually torn down. I'd seen the building before it was torn down, it was decrepit and neglected but magnificent nonetheless. Here's all that's left, a little monument and grass.




Here is how it once looked. bear in mind this place is in the middle of absolute nowhere, the story is Kuser's wife refused to stay there cause it was too creepy, so they barely used it before they donated it to the state.




Here's the view of the monument from the mansion site. Kuser also had the monument built.




A little history on the Kuser debacle:http://pmrd.blogspot.com/2009/09/high-points-lost-museum.html

*EDIT*
I found that last pic that I took on this trip, my camera started a new folder without me realizing it. So this is Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Beemerville NJ, and here is Stator paying respects to his Great Great Granduncle Goliath, the largest bear in captivity when he was alive. Don't tell Stator but the erstwhile ursine is actually stuffed, and towering in the lobby these days. The zoo was, naturally, closed by the time we got there.



Other attractions at Space Farms include an antique car museum, including some motorcycles I believe, and exhibits of American Indian artifacts exhumed from the local environs.

*END EDIT*

We're not out of cool places to see, not by a long shot, and I'd be more than happy to ride Stator around all fall but I'm ready to pass him on as soon as someone steps up, I believe Cowboy up was interested not long ago. I will get a pic of Stator -and- me eating muffins before he moves on, don't worry

 

[dorkburger]

Cool, you made it High Point! 227 steps to the top if i recall properly. And one can see NJ, NY, and PA from there.
As a side note, I do service work in a mansion in Bernardsville, and on the third floor is remnants of an old Butlers call system that would ring a bell and indicate what part of the building to go to, and Colonel Kuser was written on one of the indicators. I did a bit of light internet research, but didnt turn up much. I think the mansion dates back to the late 1800 - 1900 range, and partially burned in the 1920s. The exposed steel beams in the attic have"Carnegie Steel" cast into them.

 

[Allie]

Cool, you made it High Point! 227 steps to the top if i recall properly. And one can see NJ, NY, and PA from there.
As a side note, I do service work in a mansion in Bernardsville, and on the third floor is remnants of an old Butlers call system that would ring a bell and indicate what part of the building to go to, and Colonel Kuser was written on one of the indicators. I did a bit of light internet research, but didnt turn up much. I think the mansion dates back to the late 1800 - 1900 range, and partially burned in the 1920s. The exposed steel beams in the attic have"Carnegie Steel" cast into them.

I think he had a couple more pads around, would this be the 'Kuser Farm Mansion' by any chance? Sounds like the same Kuser, who was indeed a col., and the High Point monument is in fact a war memorial.

 

[dorkburger]

Thats what I kept coming up with also, but thats not the one ive worked at. The one ive worked at is up on a wooded hill outside of Bernardsville and privately owned.

 

[Allie]

Stator went to work with me again today, and this time we got to visit the old building that our hospital used to occupy. There were scads of other buildings, many of which are now gone, but this was the main building, and the oldest building. This building was the whole hospital when it opened in 1876. It's so big you really can't get it all into one photo (unless you're in the air), at 673,706 total square feet it allegedly had the largest continuous foundation in the US until the Pentagon was built.









As you can see there's all kinds of fencing going up, this is because they plan to knock the whole thing down very soon. It's gonna cost the state millions, likely they will let asbestos into the environment when they do it, and I bet it will be noisy as hell too.


Back at the office Stator claimed to see The Buddha, whom he says is a bear.




He also found someone with his own interests to hang out with.




'Selfies' are a beotch, can't aim the dam thing!




Back home we got a shot with the snowy snouted snootch, who is even more camera shy than I am, he absolutely would NOT look at the camera.





I need to get Stator's log book in order now, and get him ready to ship out. Looks like oHIo is the next stop, Cowboyup says he's on deck. We'll still probably go out tomorrow for a couple more pics though. It's been great having the little guy, he says moving on will be good though because the muffins are ruining his bearish figure.

 

[dorkburger]

What a grand old building. It always makes me sad to see them demolished. Where is that?

 

[dorkburger]

Never mind....seems that its in Morristown.

 

[Allie]

Morris Plains, which neighbors Motown. The campus is known as Greystone Park, and back in the day it was itself a self contained community with a rail station, stores, residences, fire station, police station, even a working farm.

 

[gs58]

Great reports Allie. How about a photo of Stators log book entries before you pass him on?

 

[Allie]

State of the Stator: an update.

State of the Stator: an update.

Stator has been languishing of late. I've been scuttling about and September has flown by. I took him on a dog sitting gig at my aunt and uncle's house last week, and it's such a beautiful and unusual place I intended to take some pics, but it just never happened. I had also planned to do his log book, and THAT never happened. I stayed home from work sick today, and finally did his log book. Sorry, no fancy narratives in flowery prose, just brief bullet points about where and when we were. Bah Humbug. I plan to haul him and his travelling arrangements to work with me tomorrow. If I can find time to print out a few pics I will paste them in his log book, and hopefully have time to send him on his way to oHIo after work, where he will be received by Cowboyup. That's assuming I feel well enough to go to work. If not it will be easy enough to run him into town during the day. If I miss those windows he will leave Monday at lunch time, at the latest. We had some great times, now it's time to catch some fall foliage in the bucktooth state. Eye eye, Captain.

 

[Allie]

Final Garden State Update

Final Garden State Update

As of yesterday Stator is on his way to oHIo. I'm hopeful that he arrives at Cowboyup's doorstep by the end of the week, I plan to run his tracking number tonight to see how he's doing. I wish I'd gotten a few more pictures while he was waiting to leave, but he sat neglected while we've been dealing with some more serious issues. I REALLY wanted to pose him with the giant M&Ms at the entrance to the Mars factory, but alas it wasn't in the cards even though it's so local to me. Enough regrets, he'll be in time to catch some leaves in Ohio, and who knows from there. I bet he meets a lot of people there too. I miss him already, and my son definitely enjoyed having him along on our travels.

Bon voyage mon ami!

 

[Allie]

Honest to God For Sure Last Garden Stator Update

Honest to God For Sure Last Garden Stator Update

I'm such a slacker, I finally ran that tracking number this morning and it reports that Stator was delivered yesterday morning at 10:07 am.

 

[cowboyup3371]

He's Here

He's Here

I apologize for not logging in yesterday to update this thread once Stator got here but I've been working a lot of overtime this week to create a new phone script for our after hours nurse triage call center.

Stator indeed arrived early yesterday morning but the wife chose to let him sleep until I got home. After logging in remotely from home and completing some of the work, I let him out of his box where he quickly showed off his goodie bag:



He then demanded a tour of the house and likes how comfortable Paul's chair felt:



After some time saying hi to Paul, he then found his way into Cheyenne's room and mistakenly thought she was giving him a new tie:



Of course she told him it was actually her Taekwondo Senior Yellow belt earned during our promotion test two weeks ago (she just got her belt yesterday, I'll pick up mine next week if I can make it to practice).

I offered to take him with me to see Charmayne's band practice and he agreed. He wanted to watch her specifically but the band director spent more time working with the brass section during the third movement so the flute section was fairly far off. So, he asked where her flute case was and went to sit on it while watching everyone.



He spent the day relaxing with the wife at home today and then went to see my eldest step-son. They seemed to get along fairly well and hopefully they'll get to see each other again next week.



I hope to take Stator out for a ride in the morning before Charmayne's band competition tomorrow night (he asked to join for that too) since the weather will be decent this weekend.

 

[Redman]

..... he quickly showed off his goodie bag:
.
He then demanded a tour of the house
.
....he then found his way into Cheyenne's room
.
.. So, he asked where her flute case was and went to sit on it while watching everyone..
.
...(he asked to join for that too) .. .

Demanding little fellow, eh.

THanks for pictures. Hopefully you can get out for some rides, yet.

.

 

[cowboyup3371]

Demanding little fellow, eh.

THanks for pictures. Hopefully you can get out for some rides, yet.

.

Ha ha, yes just slightly

I was able to get out for a little bit yesterday as I had to ensure I returned early enough to pick up Cheyenne from her PSAT test. However, the ride shortened even further as the weatherman lied about the weather forecast. First, we drove over to the garage after dropping Cheyenne off at her middle school. I didn't give him any time to look around it and threw him in on top of my cowboy boots I needed to get fixed



After stopping to deal with a couple of errands, I rode by Steve's house where Stator ask me to stop so he could watch some workers in the back yard:



We then took off on a ride I had to shorten thanks to rain that came in. The fall colors are out in force



The cows off in the distance were carefully watching us perhaps worried Stator might attack them?



Waiting for Cheyenne to come out can be so boring



The weather's forecast for the remainder of the night caused me to tell Stator he wouldn't go to Charmayne's competition last night. So she gave him a flute lesson instead



So after I left he helped cook spaghetti and meatballs; he's a pretty good cook as our newest picky eater, Paul, actually ate all of his dinner



Then off to bed although he didn't stay there all night



He was very happy that Charmayne's band took first place in their division, best visual effects, best general effects, best auxiliary, and the Grand Champion for the show. He didn't say much to her though as we didn't get home until 1am and she passed out quickly for a 16 year old

 

[cowboyup3371]

Today was a nicer day outside, better suited for riding but we spent it at the garage working on the bike. When we got there, he ran off to check out my friend's modified SV1000 race bike



Stared at the "caf?" project my friend is working on



Then looked in the Jeep wondering why there was such a large hole where the engine should have been



He finally made it over to Charmayne's bike and took a quick look before going to sit off to the side while we cleaned up our workbench, finished putting the carbs together, and began working on installing the wheel bearings. We were going to ask for his help when we installed the tire but I didn't care for how one bearing was sitting so we didn't get to do that.



I'll take Stator to work tomorrow then we'll see what happens after that.

 

[Allie]

Stator is doing great out there I see. He's quite a musical fellow, I'm glad he's in a musical family. Nice foliage pics, and your kids are so cute it's killing me to death.