Back when I first realized I could hop a ferry from New London and expand the reach of the Bike and Brew series, I didn't expect to go beyond Long Island. The city has another ferry going to Fishers Island, but there aren't any breweries there (plus the island is apparently hostile to cyclists). I also discounted the idea of hopping the Block Island ferry; although there's a brewpub there, my wife and I found the beers to be watery and underwhelming on our last visit.
We weren't just being picky. Many of the Mohegan Cafe and Brewery's beers have gotten fairly brutal reviews on sites like Untappd and BeerAdvocate. One review on the latter site described a stout as smelling "like a terrible homebrew that isn't ready to drink yet."
But my company took a recreational outing to the island this summer, and the more recent reviews of the brewpub were significantly better. So I decided to give it a shot.
Before this trip, I hadn't gotten a chance to do too much biking. For one thing, time is at a bit more of a premium when you have a newborn daughter. Also, I wasn't able to bring my bike in for a tune-up and tube repair until a few weeks ago, and it had been ridiculously hot and humid out.
About a week before this trip, I hit a nail during a ride and my back tire went flat in about 10 seconds. Amazingly enough, I was able to put a couple of patches on the through-and-through wound to the tube, and it's been holding up ever since.
First stop: a quick ride to the Block Island Express, a high-speed ferry. It long advertised that it could complete the trip in just over an hour, but they've since given the more realistic estimate of an hour and 20 minutes, varying based on sea and weather conditions.
Block Island is located about 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island and encompasses just under 10 square miles. It manages to be popular as both a vacation getaway and as an easy day trip for people living nearby; several ferry lines serve the island, and it has quite a few shops, restaurants, public beaches, and other attractions. Roughly 1,000 people live here year-round, helping to support a historical society, newspaper, school, hospital, and other services.
Most visitors come into Old Harbor, which has the densest cluster of buildings. It's also where visitors are most likely to find bike and moped rentals; both are extremely common on the island, to the point where they control the roads much more than the vehicles do.
It's pretty easy to do a circuit of Block Island by bike, and I started by heading west along the south shore. It was a very windy day, so I was getting buffeted the whole time while enjoying the ocean views. Before too long, I came to my first destination: the Southeast Light.
One of two lighthouses on the island, the Southeast Light is a brick structure with an impressive keeper's house attached to the beacon. It dates back to 1874, and there's an ongoing effort to restore the lighthouse or at least keep it in decent shape. It's not quite in its original location, having been moved back from an eroding cliff in 1993.
Visitors can enjoy a sweeping view of the sea from the lighthouse property. Recently this view has included the five turbines of what is, somewhat surprisingly, the first offshore wind farm in the United States. On the day of my visit, they were mostly obscured by the mist. Reaction to the wind farm seems to have been mostly positive (among other things, the Block Island's power grid is now connected to the mainland and doesn't need to use costly diesel generators for its power), and has also helped inspire talk of further wind operations in my neck of the woods.
Within walking distance from the South Lighthouse are the Mohegan Bluffs, a towering set of clay cliffs. Apparently they got their name from a 1590 Native American battle in which a group of Mohegan raiders were driven off the precipice by the Manisseans. Bicycles easily outnumber cars at this stop, and plenty of people make the trip down the daunting staircase to check out the isolated beach below.
One unexpected feature of the bluffs was a new overlook, looking out to the lighthouse and wind farm. Most people were happily ignoring the barriers set up to keep them away from the drop-offs, including this group of en plein air painters.
For a small island, Block Island has plenty of parks and natural sites to visit. Perhaps the most impressive is Rodman's Hollow, a 230-acre nature preserve with 28 miles of hiking trails. I've visited this site on previous trips and enjoyed walks out to more secluded ocean overlooks, but on this particular expedition I decided to make Rodman's Hollow my turnaround point instead of continuing around the western bulb of the island. The wind was getting quite ferocious, and I felt like having it at my back for awhile.
A narrow, hook-like peninsula constitutes most of Block Island's northern end. This partially encompasses the Great Salt Pond, a mix of freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater part has only been around for a century and change, after a channel was cut to connect to the sea. There's plenty out there about the ecology of this pond, but for the most part it just seems to be clogged with small boats.
Another lighthouse stands at the northern tip of Block Island. Anyone wishing to visit this one has to make a long scramble over a rocky beach, and then might be dismayed to discover that the lighthouse is only open for tours for four days of the week. Still, this site offers yet another beautiful vista and is always popular with visitors.
Those heading back to New Shoreham from the North Light have a steep hill to traverse. Some residents at the top of the incline were kind enough to put out an honor system lemonade stand catering to the many thirsty bicyclists passing by.
There's a brief, sharp hill from the northern peninsula back to Old Harbor, and I opted to stop midway up to check out a few public trails. Both had these steep staircases to traverse stone walls, and the trail to the Atwood Overlook led to the top of a short hill which offered a view stretching from the Great Salt Pond to the North Light.
The "Sacred Labyrinth," built out of stones, invites people to walk its winding route and take some time for quiet contemplation. It's on public property, but the landowners have welcomed the public since the labyrinth was established in 2001.
Block Island is packed with trails that cut through woodlands, along cliffs, and over seaside dunes. I really should visit more of them. But on this day, I needed to get back to town and made haste to pedal back to town. Mohegan Cafe and Brewery is located on Water Street, in a busy stretch of restaurants and shops not far from the ferry landing, and this area of town is absolutely packed with visitors.
The Mohegan Cafe and Brewery dates back to 1990, but didn't begin serving as a brewpub until the late 90s when head chef Dave Sniffen brewing up small batches of home-brewed beer to serve at the restaurant. Ownership of the business changed back in 2014, but Sniffen still reportedly helms the brewing operations.
Block Island apparently faces a unique dilemma when it comes to hosting brewers, since there's a limited supply of freshwater available and it's only replenished by rainfall. And since the island is a major tourist destination during the summer, there's a high demand on available water supplies during that time. So Mohegan Cafe and Brewery's operations rely on extract brewing, which allows them to skip the mashing and sparging process and thus save a good deal of water.
I ordered a pint of the cafe's booziest option, the Joe's "How I Got Fired" High Octane Ale. The story goes that Joe enjoyed a few too many of these 9% ABV scotch ales, showed up hung over to his place of employment the next day, and promptly got the boot.
While the reviews on BeerAdvocate are none too charitable ("one of the worst commercial beers I've ever had," one complains), the recipe has apparently been re-tuned in recent years. On Untappd, its approaching the standard 3.5 average that most decent beers seem to enjoy. I found it to be delicious and not overly strong, a welcome change from my last experience with Mohegan Cafe's beers.
The company get-together included lunch, but I couldn't help but get an order of chowder fries. This tasty appetizer involves clam chowder poured over an order of French fries, with a healthy amount of melted cheese on top. It would have been suicide to get this mid-ride, but since I'd finished up for the day I decided to treat myself.
The Mohegan Cafe and Brewery also makes their own ginger beer. I ordered a "Mohegan Mule" as my second drink and also found it to be quite tasty.
And why not, one more. It's a party, and you have to get a Mudslide if you go to Block Island and are of drinking age. It's a tasty (if hideously overpriced) frozen concoction of vodka, Irish cream, and Kahlua all blended together. This has sort of become the official drink of the island, with ongoing debates over which venue has the best one.
After a relaxing beach afternoon, it was back to New London. And so ends another Bike and Brew milestone: the first expedition to Rhode Island, even if a high speed ferry got me across the state line.
Most of my "Whatever Happened To" ideas stem from TV shows I watched growing up, and I was recently thinking that there probably aren't too many left to cover. As I was contemplating what might be a good candidate, a friend happened to post on Facebook how it was the 29th anniversary of the debut of Hey Dude. The show premiered in 1989 and ran for five seasons, a total of 65 episodes.
This show was a bit of an outlier for Nickelodeon, marking only its second live-action series (a format which would prove successful for other shows, including Clarissa Explains It All). It followed the misadventures of the staff at the Bar None Dude Ranch near Tucson, Arizona. Fittingly enough, the show was also filmed near Tucson, and the ruins of the set can still be visited today.
I remember being somewhat underwhelmed by Hey Dude, maybe because it was geared toward more of an older audience. The comments on the YouTube video for the theme song suggest that this is a pretty common occurrence. The humor was fairly tame ("Ha ha, that guy got pushed into a trough!"), its characters and plot lines weren't too memorable, and the theme song was probably the best thing about it.
But it was still entertaining enough for a kid to while away a half-hour on a lazy summer day. And a surprisingly thorough recap site often has good things to say about the actors and episodes.
Mr. Ernst was always a bit of a bumbling fool, so I was a bit surprised to read his origin story on Wikipedia. Apparently he was a high-powered New York City accountant who decided to change gears in middle age and buy a dude ranch in the West, supposedly to have a more relaxing profession. He was a divorcee whose son came to live on the ranch at the beginning of the series. Despite being a bit out of his element in running the ranch, he still cared about his workers and did his best to support them.
David Brisbin, now 66, has continued to act since Hey Dude. He's had small roles in a number of popular TV shows, including Seinfeld, Home Improvement, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files, as well as a recurring role as Dr. Alexander Babcock on ER. Brisbin has also scored credits on movies such as Forrest Gump and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and acted extensively in theatrical productions.
Hailing from a wealthy family in Michigan, Bradley was a riding instructor at the Bar None Ranch. The show moved away from the "snobby rich girl" persona by portraying her as competent and hardworking, even a little tomboyish (her nickname being short for Bradley), although she sometimes let a bit of haughtiness slip through. Brad was often at odds with Ted, though there was also a bit of romantic tension between the two.
Hey Dude was Kelly Brown's only acting credit, although she worked in modeling before the show. She went on to marry her childhood sweetheart and have four kids. Brown now lives in Montauk, New York, and owns the clothing boutique store Kelly B.
A senior staffer at the ranch, Ted was usually hatching some scheme or another which usually wound up getting him and his fellow ranchers in trouble. He had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Brad which, if I remember correctly, leaned pretty heavy toward the "hate" end of the spectrum; still, Ted was a good-hearted fellow who earned a kiss from his rival after a surprisingly good date with her. Ted took a brief hiatus from the show when his character was required to attend summer school, but later returned to the ranch.
David Lascher, now 46, had a successful career as a young actor in the 90s, including as the romantic interest of the title characters of both Blossom and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. He's been less active as an actor since then, having only a handful of credits in the 21st century, but also tried his hand at other roles by writing, directing, and producing the 2014 film Sister. He's active on Instagram and Twitter, where he describes himself as an actor/writer/director, but at this point he seems to be simply enjoying time with his family.
Mr. Ernst's nephew, Jake Decker was introduced in the third season as a sarcastic surfer slacker who enjoyed playing the drums. He was portrayed as being fairly smart despite his spaced out persona, and aspired to be a writer.
Aside from Hey Dude, Jonathan Galkin's only acting role was on another Nickelodeon show, Way Cool. After attending New York University, Galkin entered the business of music production. Now 46, he co-founded the label DFA Records in 2001 (originally entitled Death From Above before the 9/11 attacks quickly resulted in an abbreviated name) and continues to work there today. While the label represents a number of artists, LCD Soundsystem is arguably their biggest client.
Introduced at the end of the third season, Kyle was the handsome if somewhat dimwitted son of Lucy's ex-boyfriend. He proved useful around the ranch and also wound up finding himself attracted to Brad, setting up a bit of a romantic rivalry with Ted once he returned. The good folks over at TV Tropes posit that Kyle was brought in for this reason after there wasn't too much chemistry between Brad and Jake.
Geoffrey Coy was another cast member who opted out of acting after the show concluded. He attended business school at Baylor University and began a career in the medical and biopharmaceutical industry. According to his LinkedIn page, he has been working at the pharmaceutical company BTG International for the past five years and is the company's vice president of sales and marketing.
The only adult staffer seen at the Bar None Ranch other than Mr. Ernst, Lucy was portrayed as being much more knowledgeable about ranching and vastly more competent. She was something of a background character, though; in the episode guide, she's the main focus of only one plot (in which she's thinking about getting married).
According to Debrah Kalman's IMDB page, she now goes by the name Debi and has branched out from acting a fair amount. In addition to opening a few restaurants with her husband, she became a teacher at age 53 and continued this career for eight years. Now living in Florida, she has started acting and modeling again. She most recently starred in the film At the End of the Day and will appear in the upcoming picture #Snapped.
Melody was the ranch's lifeguard and had a notably sunny personality. A few episode subplots even revolved around whether she'd be able to keep up this friendliness in the face of certain annoyances, or if people were taking advantage of her kindness. Despite this character trait, Melody and Brad often had a more contentious relationship and sparred over various issues.
Perhaps the most well-known of all the Hey Dude alumni, Christine Taylor is still acting. She might be best known as the wife of Ben Stiller, having appeared with him in comedies such as Zoolander and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, although the couple separated in 2017 after 17 years of marriage. Taylor's other roles include Marcia Brady in the Brady Bunch movies and Sally Sitwell in Arrested Development. Now 47, she'll be appearing in the upcoming film Friendsgiving.
Danny generally acted as the voice of reason in the series, frequently trying to warn Ted, Mr. Ernst, and others away from unsound ideas. He was also portrayed as a talented artist, and a few episodes involved his Hopi Indian heritage.
Joe Torres stayed off the grid after Hey Dude (his only acting credit), which may have helped fuel rumors that he drank himself into an early grave. He failed to show at a reunion in 2014, where series writer Alan Goodman acknowledged that his whereabouts are pretty much unknown despite some casual efforts by the cast to stay in touch with each other. Other rumors suggest that he became a pool shark in the Tuscon area or a used car salesman in New Jersey. A Facebook page purportedly run by Torres seems to back up the former theory, although its origin seems pretty dubious.
The title screen for Buddy is all you really need to know how much of a fish out of water he is. After all, he's at a dude ranch with some colorful 90s duds, a skateboard, and a Mets cap. Buddy generally eschews the ranch activities in favor of things like comic books and magic tricks, and wasn't too happy to be at the Bar None. However, some episodes showed him finding aspects of ranch life to enjoy, becoming attached to a horse in one storyline and falling for Melody in another.
I kind of love that Josh Tygiel's LinkedIn page matter-of-factly includes his time on Hey Dude ("Actor - Nickelodeon"). The show proved to be his only acting credit, although he included drama in his college studies. After completing his education, Tygiel started working as an investigator and writer/editor of due diligence and business history reports for hedge funds and private equity industries. He's been in this line of work for close to 20 years, and lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and children.
It's been awhile since I posted an entry in this blog, and I wanted to do something relatively short and sweet. Somehow the idea of a villain ranking for the Netflix sci-fi series Stranger Things popped into my mind, and here we are.
Stranger Things has done a great job of developing its characters, and quite a few of them are portrayed as having a mix of good and bad qualities. Dustin's a lovable goofball, but he's not above covering up for an otherworldly pet who turns out to be more hostile than he expects. And who doesn't love Season 2 Steve, now that he's matured from the complete douchebag he was at the start of the series?
So these are the characters that seem to have more bad than good in them. Let's see how they rank (spoilers ahead):
Yes, the rampaging monster from the first season is barely on the list, even though it probably killed Nancy's best friend and sparked all those #JusticeForBarb posts. Because when it comes down to it, the Demogorgon is just some creature from an alternate dimension who wound up doing what it always does, just in our world. There was recently a giant uproar in my city because a coyote wandered out of the woods and snacked on a few small dogs; no one really blamed the coyote for doing this, everyone was just advised to not let their highly edible toy dogs run free. I kind of see the Demogorgon as having a similar nature.
Dart is kind of a similar case. You could even argue that he's not as bad as the Demogorgon. After all, he's fairly harmless when he's a tadpole, and Dustin managed to tame him enough that he opts not to harm him and the others later in the film. You may even feel a little sorry for him when he dies.
On the other hand, I'm a cat person and Dart rather brutally kills Mews, Dustin's cat. Not cool, Dart.
James is your typical middle school jerk who likes to pick on others, which in Stranger Things includes Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas. He basically serves as the backup and reinforcement for Troy's nastier brand of bullying, but shows at least some moral compass when he protests Troy's demand that Mike jump off a cliff. He's perfectly fine with Troy threatening to carve Dustin's teeth out of his head, though. Reign in those boundaries a little more, James.
I originally had Billy, Max's jerkwad stepbrother, set much higher on the list. His character acts like someone turned his persona to "Asshole" and then broke the dial off. He's cocky, domineering, and abusive. There are times when he's disturbingly violent, such as when he nearly runs down Mike and friends with his car and when he gleefully beats Steve unconscious.
I'm cutting him a bit of slack, though, since one scene suggests that some of his personality stems from his father's mistreatment. There's also the possibility that nearly getting castrated by a nail-studded baseball bat will humble him a bit in the third season.
We only see Troy's mother once, when she makes a ruckus at the Hawkins Police Department about how they need to find the girl who broke her son's arm. Troy probably changed the story from "This girl attacked me with her mind when I tried to murder a kid" to some blubbering lie that bullies like to tell when their victims fight back, but her demeanor suggests that she's been taken in by the misconception that her jerk son is a perfect angel for way too long. Stop your enabling, Mom.
On the one hand, he's an evil mad scientist whose crimes have included abducting and experimenting on a child, unleashing hellish creatures from an alternate dimension on an unsuspecting small town, and generally being a pretty unscrupulous and shady guy.
On the other hand, he managed to give Eleven telekinetic powers and she seems perfectly happy with those. Wouldn't you want telekinetic powers?
Why is Troy ranked higher than the mad doctor and a couple of literal monsters? Because screw bullies, that's why. He starts off as the kind of jerk who throws a few insults and taunts around, which is shitty but something bullies tend to grow out of once they get a little more mature.
But when you ruthlessly mock a classmate after he's been declared dead, threaten in all seriousness to remove someone's teeth with a knife, and demand that one of your bullying victims take a suicidal leap into a quarry, you're firmly in sociopath territory. Troy doesn't show up in Season 2, probably because his parents finally found his collection of tortured squirrels and sent him off to get electroshock therapy.
Benny, the owner of a Hawkins diner, is an instantly likable character. He's angered when he sees Eleven sneaking some food out of his kitchen, but immediately grows kinder when he realizes that she's apparently escaped from a bad situation.
So it's pretty shocking and saddening when Benny's attempt to get Eleven help ends up getting him murdered by Connie Frazier, who poses as a social services worker and before abruptly shooting him. She later manages to manipulate the boys' biology teacher in her hunt for Eleven, and you're left worrying that the teacher won't make it out alive, either. Frazier is cold, manipulative, and dangerous, so it's pretty satisfying when Eleven telekinetically takes her out.
I've given the other creatures from the Upside Down a bit of a pass, since they kind of come off as dumb animals. The Mind Flayer is something else entirely, acting as a sort of hive mind who can control the other creatures and infect people to use for its own purposes, which would seem to entail taking over our world. Yeah, the giant smoke spider is pretty bad. But it's still outdone by...
We see Stacey in one scene, at the very end of the second season, in which she rudely turns down Dustin's request to dance. Everyone loves Dustin, so I don't have much patience for someone whose actions (combined with some similarly hostile girls, admittedly) leave him fighting back tears on the bleachers. Especially when that person is so very full of herself.
Stacey, you're worse than the bullies, evil government agents, and monsters from another realm we meet in the show. Think about that while you're on the long, steady downward slope from your peak in middle school.
