Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with rural

How much does Medicare pay for a room - just the room, overnight?

cda — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:11:24 -0800

[USA filter] Even with the new disclosures I can't figure out how much Medicare pays for just a hospital or nursing home room - 24 hours. Just the room charge. I'm helping a person with no insurance negotiate a hospital bill and a short stay in a nursing home bill. How much does Medicare pay for a room - 24 hours - in a nursing home and in a hospital? I understand that rates vary by location. I'm just looking for examples. And my patient was in a rural hospital in a town of about 30,000 in Idaho. If you know how to look up a comparable hospital.

I need helping identifying the era of this photograph.

lbo — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 11:24:40 -0800

I was given some photographs of old relatives that were found in a box in my great-grandfather's house after he passed away. All but one photo is someone I can identify. I have no information on that one photo, which is of an old woman standing on a path in front of a farmhouse. I'd like to at least get an idea of the era so I can begin narrowing down the identify of the woman. Here is a scan of the photograph.

The copy I was given appears to be a printed version of a scan. I don't know anything about the physical condition of the original photograph.

Since it came from my maternal grandmother's parents, I can at least narrow down the potential lines of ancestry to two. The photograph was probably taken in either southern Virginia (specifically the Brunswick County/Lunenburg County area) or in Surry County, North Carolina.

My grandmother believes it was her great-grandmother. So her great-grandmothers' information:

1. Lived 1839 - 1931; She was born in Indiana but was living in North Carolina by 1880;
2. Lived 1854 - 1930; She spent her whole life in the area of Brunswick/Lunenburg/Nottoway counties in Virginia.
3. We're not totally positive here. The best candidate I have is a woman born in either 1863 or 1866. No idea when she may have died, but she lived in Lynchburg/Campbell County, Virginia.
4. We know nothing about the fourth, but she probably lived in the Surry County region.

Anything you may be able to offer her would be great based on the clothes or style of photograph. There isn't much else to go on from the photo, unfortunately.

I've got my grandmother's educated guess, the ancestry I know, and some guesses. Otherwise, I've got nothing.

Rural photography recommendations?

Lorin — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:29:24 -0800

When living in the city I had no problem finding photographers to look to for new ways of seeing that particular environment. Now that I live in a fairly rural area, I'm looking for recommendations of photographers—particularly contemporary ones—who have an interesting take on rural or wilderness photography. I'm specifically not looking for landscape/wildlife photography of the long-lens-ken-rockwell variety, but other than that anything goes. A couple things that come to mind as examples are Lee Friedlander's New Mexico stuff or Stephen Shore's lonely dirt roads (although iconic 50s gas stations are in short supply on the Gulf Islands.)

Find the Mystery Halloween House

jaimystery — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:32:40 -0800

A few years ago (at least 3 years but probably 5 or more), I was driving with my mom and we saw the extremely decorated house in these pictures: Pic #1
Pic #2
Pic #3

We gawked, took the 3 pictures, laughed about it and drove on. The only problem is that neither one of us knew where we were (or if we knew, we don't remember). We didn't even have the pictures until Mom realized she still had stuff on an old phone (which she retrieved this weekend) but every time we go around a curve in a rural-ish area, we wonder about this house but without all the decorations, who could tell?

The builder on the sign in pic #1 is located in Delta, PA and that fits as we were probably nort or south of the Pennsylvania/Maryland border and between Rt 1 and I83. From the looks of the road surface (the ashy gray), it is probably in PA. The house faces east - we had trouble getting good photos on the cell camera because the sun was right above the house.

There's another sign in Pic #1 on the beige fence on the right edge - I think it may be a church sign (Episcopal?) which might be a clue to the location (or narrow it down) but I don't have the chops or software to look at it closely

(that fence is the reason why this is kind a shocking sight - there's a curve right there and the massive amount of decoration slaps you in the face when you are driving south).

TLDR? We want to go back to this house in October and see if they are still decorating because people don't believe this place exists. Can you help?

She thought her period was because she ate strawberries

Brody's chum — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:36:08 -0800

I've been trying to find a book I read as a kid, way back in the mid-to-late-seventies. My memories are sketchy, but this is what I've got: About a girl growing up in a small community, maybe in the mountains, or maybe just very rural. She had an extended family which included two unmarried aunts and a grandfather. It took place over a summer. She thought her first period was the result of eating a large amount of strawberries. It was written in first-person perspective, I think. She was probably around 12. Her family included two unmarried aunts, but also parents, I think, and a grandparent or two. I think they all lived together in one big house, or else near each other.

I think she pretty much always wore overalls and was very much a tomboy. I believe the story took place over the summer, so school didn't play a part in it except as a future event.

There was a new boy in her community. He was from a big city, and spoke in a much more refined way than the other kids. I think near the end of the book, he kissed her, and the kiss was a little bit slidey (like, his mouth slid across her lips a little so it half-landed on her mouth and half on her cheek).
In one scene, she goes strawberry picking and eats a bunch of strawberries and then later that afternoon gets her first period and initially thinks it was from the strawberries.

As sort of a 'B' plot in the book, a man is courting both her aunts, who are competing with each other for his attention. There is a scene where the aunt who doesn't get chosen is sitting on the front porch either thinking or talking about her future as a spinster, and the feeling is definitely that she won't get another chance at marriage, due to the smallness of the community and the lack of unmarried men of the right age.

There is another scene in the book where the girl adds epsom salt (which her grandfather uses in his bath, maybe) to some cake batter when no one is looking, because she knows it will give everyone the runs. She does it as some sort of retaliation (maybe against the man who is courting her aunts). I think there is some sort of dance or other community celebration tied into this.

It was pretty much a slice-of-life, growing-up-and-not-liking-the-changes-that-come-along-with-it kind of a story.

I feel certain that this book wasn't published later than 1980. For years I assumed it was Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe by Bette Greene, but when I finally looked it up last year, it didn't sound right at all. It is possible I am conflating a few books here, but I'm pretty sure all this happens in one book. Also, I think the story took place during the mid-20th century.

Everyday Life Everywhere?

kristi — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:19:42 -0800

What are some good sources - blogs or books - for learning what everyday life is like in different parts of the world? I'm curious how everyday life is different in different places - different countries, rural vs. urban vs. suburban. What do people eat for breakfast in Uruguay? What's the commute like in Paris? How often do people go to the beach in Seoul?

I'm most interested in pretty current accounts - ideally, the past 20 years - but anything back to, say, the early 1900s would be fine.

Books and blogs are both welcome (as are magazines or news columns I can read online), but things I can read a bit at a time (a few pages a day) would be ideal.

Thanks!

Are there good crime novels set on farms or based around agriculture?

Peemster — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:18:55 -0800

I was wondering if there are good examples of crime novels set on farms or based around agriculture. Novels like In True Blood, or Gillian Flynn's Dark Places or the new Image Comics series Revival. I'm interested in discovering if there's more crime fiction not set in cities, but more rural and based around farming.

Rural Living Along The Border

Spurious — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 07:13:31 -0800

Two City-Slickers Moving To A Rural US-Mexico Border Town. What Should We Expect? In a year, my SO and myself (both late twenties) will be spending two years in a rural area near to the US-Mexico border (probably Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona). We do not know where exactly we will be yet, but it will be in a town (i.e. not a remote farm), probably a place like Douglas, AZ. My SO will be moving there for a two-year-job-offer-you-cant-refuse, and I will be following her since my work can be done remotely. On paper it works out perfectly.

The only problem is while both my SO and myself have moved around a lot, domestically and internationally, we have always lived in big cities (e.g. Atlanta, Nairobi, London, etc). We have never lived anywhere that one would consider rural. We are well-traveled, but we are definitely city slickers. We are always up for an adventure, but frankly I don't know what kind of adventure we are getting ourselves into.

1. What should we expect? How different will this be from a city?
2. We currently share a Honda Fit, do we need to buy a second car? A truck?
3. How is internet access along border towns? My job doesn't require a super fast internet connection (any DSL is fine) but it does require one.
4. What is the cost of living in these areas?
5. Are there any resources or books I can read before hand to get a sense of what living there will be like?
6. Am I overlooking anything?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Doomed with Rural Internet?

Atrahasis — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:55:34 -0800

I am moving to the Tri-Cities in Washington State next month, to a scenic, quasi-rural part of the area. While the Tri-Cities have fast Internet, my specific address is a bit out of the way, and it looks like Frontier Communications might be my only DSL option out there. They do have a 25 Mb plan, but the reviews are not great. It's less important for fun, but I need fast Internet for my work. Am I screwed? How can I get the best Internet speed and reliability in this scenario?

dsl modem/router choices

Red Loop — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 10:47:45 -0800

I'm looking for advice on a dsl modem/router thingy and rural connectivity... I live rurally and have had somewhat poor internet connectivity for a long time; first through Verizon and now with Frontier (after they bought out Verizon's land lines). I had Westell modem/router combos that they gave me with my service, and while I don't know much, I could at least check the connection log and see the connection would just drop randomly. I now think that's an issue with their crappy infrastructure, but I made many calls to customer service to see if there was anything else going on. Sometime in September they said "we'll send you a new modem" which they did. It's a NetGear 7550 and from the start it would drop the wireless constantly (I can't find if it's related to service drops because there's no connection log I can access). I've called about 10 times and after having me change the channels or fiddle with little settings or resetting the modem finally they said they were going to send another one, but that now I'd have to pay the 6.99 a month modem fee that I hadn't before. For some reason.
So. I'm probably better off just buying something myself, but then there's no tech support for issues with it (not that they've been particularly helpful in the past). I'm wondering if there are any modem/routers that have an interface where someone with limited knowledge can at least troubleshoot problems, or am I better off paying 85 bucks a year for their "help". I worry that the connectivity problems are hard to separate between network issues and my hardware issues and there might be less possibility of isolating them.
I'd rather just have an internet connection that works, but out here in the sticks I'm probably dreaming.

Google Fiber is only a scant 45 miles away. Jerks.

annathea — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 08:44:57 -0800

How do I find a high speed internet provider to install a line in a rural area? I live about 1-2 miles from the "city limits" of a small town in Missouri. There are DSL and Cable internet options in town. On this side of the tracks, we are limited to satellite and wireless 3G hotspot connections. I work from home for a company the next state over, and my spotty connection is deeply affecting my productivity. Before I rent an office in town and run a crappy DSL line to it to accommodate my work, I'd really like to be able to get someone on the phone who can give me a quote for running an actual cable (or even T1) line to our house. Bonus: some kind of fiber line was installed in our front yard six months ago. Can I find the utility that installed it and quiz them on how we can take advantage of it?

I've tried calling AT&T and don't have the patience to spend another hour and a half on the phone with international tech support - direct numbers to the actual departments that can provide information would be deeply appreciated. AT&T/BellSouth and Verizon both provide phone service out here. MediaCom provides cable in town, but not here.

Looking for suggestions for middle-class to upper-middle-class rural areas around the Bay Area.

Anonymous — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:01:29 -0800

I'm looking for suggestions for middle-class to upper-middle-class rural areas around the Bay Area. I may be single again soon and and thinking of possible places to move to. Here's the list of what I'm looking for:

-An area where you're living in the country, but could drive for 20 or 30 minutes and be in a great town or city with a lot going on. Major crime should be far away.

-Solid middle-class (everyone stable and employed, happy, no big drug or crime problems, not many broken down dwellings or yards full of beat up cars) ranging to upper-middle-class or even a bit above. If you're thinking about an area that is outside of this range but meets everything else, please include it.

-The area has a thriving community. Many neighbors and community members know each other.

-Most houses have at least an acre or two of property, but most still have a few neighbors within walking distance.

-The area has a decent number of roads that are mainly only driven on by the people who live there - roads that are kind of off the beaten path, dead ends, or circles. The area is kind of out of the way and not being driven through by tons of strangers.

-Kids and pets run around and play and people aren't worried about them being snatched if they are outside playing in the yard.

I'm open to pretty much anywhere in the Bay Area and a bit south, from Santa Rosa all the way down to Monterey. A bit outside of that range is okay too.

satillite internet speed

ConnieL — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 08:03:11 -0800

How can someone who is a average computer user boost the satellite internet speed in rural area? My friend just moved out to a rural ranch area and now has to rely on Huges Net satellite. He plays Second Life and finds the lag terrible. He has a fast computer. Step by step info would be helpful if you would be so kind ... :) thanks in advance!

How do I survive the city?

Bibliogeek — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:18:19 -0800

Moving to a big, foreign city from a very small American town- what skills or situations should a country lady be aware of? In other words, how do I not die and/or not go crazy from the people? So. Many. People. I grew up miles outside of the nearest town....which had 800 people in it. I'm going to be moving in a few months to a very large (for me) city in a foreign country. Basically, moving from small town America to Cologne, Germany. I won't speak the language (I'm working on it, but it is slow going) and I will know one person. I will not have a car, but Cologne has great public transportation, I hear (another thing I will have to learn how to do).

I am finding the city aspect almost as frightening as the not-speaking-the-language part and thus am asking:

-What sort of skills should an urban dweller posses? Are there certain personality traits that I should develop?

-How do you deal with the sheer amount of people always around you? Does this bother you?

-As a lady type, how do you decide when/where it is safe to wander around alone/at night? It seems like in movies/TV big city females are wandering all over the place at all hours of the night. This would make me very nervous (oddly though,it would not really make me nervous out in the country.).

-Have you made this transition before? What was hardest for you to adjust to? What did you do in order to ease that adjustment? How long until you felt comfortable there? If you could tell your younger self one piece of advice about your move, what would it be?

- Germany Specific: As a person who was on some SSRI's in the past for anxiety/depression and who takes comfort in knowing that I could jump right back on them if it ever got that bad again- is there a general German attitude about these medications? Am I likely to run into any static from doctors if I want to resume that course of treatment?

I am trying to look at this whole thing like a big adventure and a fantastic opportunity to live abroad- but I'd like to go into it as prepared as possible. I wish I could be a little more focused with this question, but I really don't know how to prepare or what I will be getting into. Thus the kind of vague nature of my question, but I suppose it all could be boiled down into what does it take to survive and thrive in a city?

Barbed wire just isn't enough.

ThisKindNepenthe — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:22:12 -0800

What is the cheapest way to build a lot of wall or fence to keep predators at bay? I live on a large bit of land out in the country. I have pets -- too many to live indoors -- and the smallest keep disappearing. There are two distinct packs of coyotes in the area that "invade" my place. We've seen them in the early mornings.

I have a barbed wire fence around most of my land, as it used to be a pasture. What can I add to it -- or build anew -- that is affordable, and will keep the coyotes off my land? I have about a mile of borders to protect.

Tips for living alone in a rural cabin for ~6 months?

Lutoslawski — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:30:22 -0800

I'm moving into a cabin (not too rustic, but pretty rural) in the woods for at least six months to live on my own. I'm looking for general living tips as well as advice on what to do if/when I get lonely. I'm moving into a cabin on a lake in a rural part of the midwest to spend the winter making some art.

The cabin is not super rustic, i.e. it has running water, heat and a kitchen. But it is pretty far from civilization, and once the midwest winter hits, it won't be really easy to make it to things like grocery stores.

1) Food: I'm planning on stocking up on dried foods, canned foods and as much frozen vegetables/meat as I can fit in the freezer. I'm not a picky eater, but I do like to eat healthily. What sorts of things should I stock up on? What can I do to keep my diet varied and my food tasty? Other than the obvious sorts of things (dried grains, beans, canned things), what am I not thinking of that I might really want or would be really good when I can't make it to a store for several weeks? Any other food suggestions?

2) Life: I'm not really worried about this too much - I like being on my own and I have a lot of projects I'll be working on, and I'll have my cat, but I won't have much contact with the outside world - very limited internet (as in I'd have to make it to a coffee shop a couple hours away to check my email, etc.), limited phone, no television. What can I do if I start feeling like I'm going the way of The Shining or something? I'll have a good book collection and a radio to keep my company, but beyond that? What am I not considering that may help or hurt me in this regard?

3) Any other anecdotes, thoughts or suggestions on living alone in the middle of nowhere through a harsh winter?

Thanks all!

Escaping NYC for a Few Months

Dr. Fetish — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:49:22 -0800

My girlfriend and I are considering moving for a fairly short period (probably 3-6 months) from our expensive NYC apartment to an inexpensive, secluded house somewhere in the Northeast (upstate NY, Vermont, etc.) We would like advice on where/how to do this. The short story: we've been running a company that is probably going south. We have essentially no savings, but should be able to scrape together around $15K by selling some things, etc.

We currently have a lease through the end of the year in NYC for $4300/month (which is, FWIW, below current market value). Although we would prefer not to break the lease, it may be necessary. We will try to find someone to assign the lease to if our landlords agree to let us.

Although we don't currently own a car, we would like to live for a period of time in a secluded, preferably beautiful spot to take a break, gather our wits, and figure out what to do next. We're looking at places in the Catskills/Finger Lakes/Green Mountains/Hudson Valley. We love winter conditions, so that's not a problem.

We will require some type of reliable high-speed internet connection.

We would consider buying a cheap car or may be able to borrow one if necessary.

Specific questions:
1) Where would you recommend looking for a place like this? (Probably sub-$1K/month.) Proximity to NYC would be nice (within a few hours, at least), as we'll likely be looking there for work in the not-too-distant future, but we're willing to entertain options.
2) What resources are there besides craigslist and HotPads for finding this sort of spot? We've had some luck finding potential places on those sites, but aren't sure where else to look.

Non-specific questions:
Do you have any advice in this situation? If you've been in a similar spot, anecdotes are more than welcome.

Help, help, I'm being repressed! Well, maybe.

terrapin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:15:39 -0800

Over the last week I have been unable to connect to any websites on the senate.gov domain. I don't recall trying to connect to senate.gov addresses in the past, so I am not sure when this issue began. Last week I tried to follow links posted on my senator's Facebook page to his Senate website (http://sanders.senate.gov), and have been unable to do so. On any of my machines (ipad, iphone, macbook air, imac, macbook pro). When I take the portable machines to my local co-op and use their wifi I can connect.

With the help of a few more tech-savvy MeFites I have used Terminal to ping the domain and find the IP and still can't connect directly that way. I have tried running a trace and usually it gives up after about 60 hops. I have used "curl -v http://www.senate.gov" and "curl -l http://www.senate.gov" and get "curl: (56) Failure when receiving data from the peer"

I *can* connect to house.gov addresses and I see no evidence that there are other websites to which I can't connect.

I am using Wildblue.net for my ISP because I have no other options in rural Vermont. I asked other friends using Wildblue in my area to try and connect to senate.gov and one neighbour COULD connect and one neighbour could NOT connect.

Wildblue tech support says they are not blocking any websites from me and that as long as I have connectivity there is nothing they can do. They say it is either my computer's settings or senate.gov's server settings. Based on my ability to connect using the portable machines when I take them outside the home I am inclined to think it is either senate.gov having some extreme security settings or Wildblue does in fact have a problem.

Please help me.

The care and feeding of boyfriends (in rural Japan)

sunset in snow country — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 19:36:02 -0800

My boyfriend is coming to visit me in Japan. Yay! Help me help him not die of isolation, culture shock and boredom. So, I've been living in Japan for a year and on a recent trip back to the States I managed to hook up with an old friend who I've had feelings for for a long time. Yay! Now we're in a long-distance relationship, and he's planning to visit me in the fall for 4-6 weeks. We'll spend one week in Tokyo when he first arrives (probably the last week of October), and then it's back to my place, where I'll be returning to work. I live in a very rural area and I'll be taking the car to go to work, so he'll be on his own during the day.

He's not terribly concerned about this; he works only a part-time job now, and he says that his days at home consist of job hunting, cooking/eating, exercise, and maybe some TV or video games, so he doesn't see how this will be any different. I'm a little more worried, however--6 weeks is longer than some exchange programs, and I think he'll miss his friends and family, will feel isolated out in the countryside, will maybe even start to resent me for being busy with work all day while he sits around bored. I moved to Los Angeles to be with my last boyfriend (who had a budding career while I was unsuccessfully job hunting) and basically went batshit crazy, and of course I went through the adjustment process when I moved to Japan myself, so I know that of which I speak. I love him a lot and I don't want this to put undue strain on our relationship. Plus I want him to enjoy his time in Japan!

Anyway, I have two questions: Is this a completely stupid idea and should I be changing the parameters of the trip? If not, what can I do to help keep him from feeling isolated?

I'm thinking along the lines of things I can have available for him in the apartment, ways I can help, activities to suggest as well as how to suggest them (I know having something to work on is great for stuff like this but I can't, nor do I want to, say "hey honey, since you're just sitting around all day you should maybe like get a hobby or something").

Some more details: My apartment is pretty spacious, and I don't have roommates. He'll have his laptop, Nintendo DS, camera, and my bike. The following things, in order of distance, are bikable from my place: some convenience stores, a pharmacy, various small shrines and temples, an onsen, a park, a supermarket (6km), train stations (6.5km). From the train stations he can get to some nearby towns for day trips. I also have a pretty good network of expat friends--most of them work the same hours as I do, so they can't keep him company during the day, but at least he'll get to talk to and hang out with people who aren't me.

Your suggestions are appreciated :) Help me make this a fun experience for him!

tell me where to live!

ouchitburns — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 13:46:40 -0800

Where is northern BC should I spend a month? Here is the deal - I am a medical student and want to spend a month doing rural family practice.

I have a couple of choices in both city and date.

I can either go to these places from Nov 21-Dec18 or Apr 2 - Apr 29.

My city choices are Valemount, Mackenzie, Dawson Creek or Fort Dt John.

Any suggestions?

I am leaning towards valemount in April but am worried that april would be a terrible month full of slush!

thanks.

What jobs could I get in a rural/remote setting?

Anonymous — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 08:16:33 -0800

Leaving the big bad city *for good*: with my set of professional skills, what jobs could I undertake from home, if I were to move to a very rural setting? [anon because don't want my current boss to stumble on this question]

For the past few years, I have been thinking about leaving the city and settle somewhere rural, back in France. This will not happen for a few years, but I am starting to think about the kind of jobs which will be available to me in a rural village or very small town once I move.

Me: last 20s. My skills/profile: Have 3 years experience working for a politics website, and 4 years working as an editor for a section of a national daily newspaper. I am fully bilingual, French/English. I am good at editing, writing and translating (and understanding social media, working on CMS, SEO, the works). Keeping my job would sadly not be a possibility.

My partner works as a media analyst.

Apart from this, we'd be open at trying our hands at almost anything, I would guess, from starting a business to run a BnB to telecommute to most jobs involving online work.

One caveat: we're not loaded *at all* (so buying a hotel is out of the question!), and we're working hard to save for a deposit (which is why the move won't happen for a few years).

Coppicing in America

Chrischris — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:13:58 -0800

Where, in America (or Southern Canada), can I attend workshops to learn about British hurdle-making, traditional fence-making, and other coppice crafts? Preferably, in the Midwest, but anywhere East of the Rockies would be considered.

Rural living close to the big city?

ohsnapdragon — Sat, 07 May 2011 10:05:41 -0800

Is it possible to live in a green/rural area while commuting to downtown Portland? We'd want to buy a house on at least an acre, maybe two, with lots of trees and privacy, for under 300k. I'd like the commute to be less than 35 minutes driving, or less than an hour on public transport. Would this be doable? If so, which areas would we be looking in?

We don't care about the neighborhood itself in terms of culture, walkability, etc as long as it is reasonably safe. In fact we'd prefer not to be in a "neighborhood" per se.

*This is all theoretical and in the future, but we're just assessing our options.

Why are the farmers tilling so early?

Chrischris — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:31:26 -0800

Why, in the middle of winter (now, in Central MI), would a farmer plow under only a strip of land in the middle of his (previously harvested but un-tilled) field? I live in rural mid-Michigan. On my drive home, I've noticed multiple otherwise snow-covered fields that feature a fairly wide section (usually in the middle of the field) of recently (as in, within the last week) tilled soil. Most of these fields appear to have had corn planted in them last year. I can't think of any plausible explanation for tilling only the middle strip of a field so early in the season (the ground is still frozen). Any farmers or Ag folks who can enlighten me?

Last Second President's Day Long Weekend Trip - NYC area

Great Swell — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:10:33 -0800

Last minute long weekend holiday getaway, Doable? Advice needed on taking a belated Valentines long weekend with my sweetie. We're in NYC and would prefer to drive. (Or take a train if the place is really acessable). A very nice hotel in the country would be great, we don't need a bunch of outside entertainment - beautiful scenery a plus. We're looking to leave late Thursday or early Friday and return early/mid-Monday. A hundred miles driving time would be ideal, we don't want to waste hours in the car or the train, but this is flexible. A resort or semi-contained hotel (ski lodge? We don't ski...) or a fancy B&B is I think what we're looking for, A getaway that doesn't require a jet trip, and provides maximum relaxation time. LGBT friendly a must. Iconoclastic regional weirdness welcome. Where should we look under short notice.