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... Shenandoah River

“Almost heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River”   John Denver: Take Me Home, Country Roads Shenandoah National Park is relatively close to NYC. It was May and we already knew that we were moving to Boston at the beginning of June. We only had a couple of weeks to visit this park by car since the distance from Boston would be too ... distant. Sure, there was a lot to pack and do but the mountains simply couldn’t wait. We hit the road early in the morning on May 22nd. The visit of West Virginia was not optional. We made a stop at Harpers Ferry.  We had dinner at a restaurant along the river and of course we made a quick stop at the Appalachian Trail Visitor Center (unfortunately it was closed due to COVID). Harpers Ferry was a beautiful quintessential small town with historical landmarks. At the end of the day we built our tent in Low-Water Bridge Campground . The Shenandoah river was flowing right next to our tent but we were so tired that we did not end up going
Recent posts

Clean Your 3 Way Solenoid Valve

If you own Gaggia Classic Pro espresso machine and the water flows very slowly from the group head, then you might have to clean the 3 way solenoid valve. That's exatly what happened to us recently. The whole cleaning process is well documented here:   I could just stop here, since the video is sufficient to do the cleaning. However, the video does not show a real world situation since their Gaggia model is already clean. Here is what happened in out kitchen. I used these tools and products: The whole repair took me about 1:15 hour.  I opened the case: I located the 3 way solenoid valve and opened it: I used the CLR cleaning product for descaling. I descaled only few parts from the valve to minimze contact with the other parts of the espresso machine. I also used disposable gloves and old plastic bottle for cleaning.  At the end I used old tootbrush for removing residual particles. Before and after the cleaning process: I rinsed all cleaned parts several times and then let them dry

6 States in 2 Days

“Ako na nový rok, tak po celý rok,” is an old Slovak saying that is translated to: How you meet the new year is how you will spend it. After our 2021 New Year’s modest celebrations with friends, Mia and I did not know what to do for the next few days. We woke up on New Year’s Day, January 1st, and started thinking. NYC was cold and we wished to see the sun and experience warm air. Let’s visit Virginia Beach! In fact we wanted to go as south as possible within 2 days. Since the pandemic did not allow free movement across states, we decided to sleep in our car. We packed sleeping bags, few clothes and left the apartment around 6 PM. The weather was cold and rainy. And it was dark. Driving was not that great. We listened to music, Slovak language lessons and entertained ourselves by talking about this crazy trip. We spent our first night in a Walmart Supercenter parking lot in Pocomoke City, Maryland. Surprisingly, sleeping in the car was not that bad at all. We used our warm sleeping bag

Thanksgiving in Auburn, upstate NY

Mia and I had hoped to spend our Thanksgiving with our families and friends, but this is 2020. First we were thinking about traveling South (e.g. Virginia), but the driving would be just too long for us. Then we thought about going North and we both agreed that the Finger Lakes region beckoned to be discovered by us. For this trip, Mia suggested bringing our road bikes and I just could not say no. We found a very affordable Airbnb in Auburn, upstate NY. Driving there was not that long (~4.5 hours) but because we were not in a hurry, we came to town in the evening - Thanksgiving evening. We naively thought that we could get dinner in town, so after we checked in our Airbnb, we drove downtown. Surprise, surprise - everything was closed. Luckily, Mia packed frozen gluten-free pizza, avocados, apples and other food so our Thanksgiving was saved! Our apartment had a stove, oven and microwave oven and we could prepare meals for the evening and for our whole stay in Auburn. Next day we chose

Our special weekend in Cape Cod

The destination of our camping trip location was long unknown, but then we decided to go to Massachusetts, a state that impressed us quite a lot last time while traveling to Maine. It is still warm in late September in the Northeast and, we wanted to be close to a sea. We picked Cape Cod. After late night celebrations of Mia’s birthday on Thursday and not that long sleep due to a very early online workshop organized by Mia, we started packing. This time we decided to pack food only for traveling to Cape Cod. The rest we will buy in stores or we will dine in local restaurants. Mia prepared delicious gluten free bagels (from Aldi), carrots and tea for the road. We took our Jeep on the I-95 and after two hours of driving or so we made a break in Rocky Neck State Park in Connecticut. It was a unexpectedly very nice and serene place. We hit the highway I-95 until Providence in Rhode Island and then switched to I-195. We arrived to Bay View Campground around sunset and built our tent right a