I want to go somewhere boring.

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Seriously. I've struck with a real perverse desire to go to a real Boring Postcards kind of city, a place that's not especially impressive in any way. A city where you can pretty much soak up all the real tourist attractions in an afternoon. Perferably a city that's not too big (say, 100,000 - 500,000 or smaller), not too far away from new York City, pretty crime-free, and that's good for wandering (you can get everywhere by walking).

Any ideas?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:06 (twenty-one years ago)

hobart

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

delaware!

― jody (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Port Jefferson. Take the LIRR, you'll have to transfer, IIRC. It shouldn't cost much at all and it's definitely a boring, one shot only day trip sort of town. BUT it has nice water so it's not tooo boring.

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Canberra! Oh wait thats too far.

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

KEARNY!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

nj is kinda chock fulla boring-ass places, you know.

― broooooce!bär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't suppose you mean Hobart, Indiana. (I said not too far away from New York City -- like 500 miles away at best.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i was on autopilot

― the surface noise (electricsound), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Metuchen, NJ. You can get there via NJ Transit.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, come visit Newark, DE.

lots of good walking around

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

or even more boring go south a bit

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

jody and A Nairn OTM, it's the forgotten state! you can see it in an afternoon!

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:13 (twenty-one years ago)

If you do Port Jeff on a Friday, I'll go with you, dude.

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

But I love Port Jefferson! (Though I haven't been there in like ten years...I should probably revisit it in the spring).

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

not just metuchen ... get off at metropark, and soak up the boring mediocrity that it is. you stroll in one direction, yer in ISELIN. stroll in another, and yer in EDISON. the armpit and anus of north jersey.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

PORT JEFFERSON FAP OMGWTF?!?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

oh heck, just do a NJ Transit tour of Middlesex County, Metropark to French St. Or transfer at Metropark to South Amboy.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Delaware is sadly off-limits -- my coworker lived there for a long time and hated it IMMENSELY. She always tells me "Michael, when I die, you have to promise me something. You have to make sure I AM NOT BURIED IN DELAWARE." She would think I was completely psychotic if I spent money there on a quasi-vacation-like thing.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

mr. appelstein wins!

delaware = the home of george thorogood.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Port Jeff too! Why would I offer to go somewhere I hate?! I'm not that bored with Columbia.

dude, Tad, you wanna go to Port jeff?

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

hey, it's where I grew up. The chemicals of Middlesex Co, NJ are in my blood.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

sure ... but not this weekend, unf.

― pobrecitobär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

if you want boring, go out on metro-north to, like, port chester or white plains.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha not this weekend for me either, I don't think.

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I was thinking of something larger than the little suburban towns everybody's suggesting but Jersey's tempting -- I basically imagine so many suburban NJ towns as being industrial park after industrial park punctuated by the occasional toxic waste dump.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Port Chester has a good Salvation Army and Brazilian food. Not completely useless.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I would be totally up for a Port Jeff FAP, though.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

elizabeth?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

You can actually take a "Sopranos Tour" of northern NJ that covers all the hotspots in the show, including most of the introduction. I totally want to go on that.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:23 (twenty-one years ago)

You could go to Elizabeth or Hoboken for a day.

xpost

re: Port Jeff, I have travel and issues like that this month but either last week of March or first of April I could totally blow a Friday in port jeff.

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Red Bank, NJ. You can get there by NJ Transit. (It's a little over an hour from the city.) Might be particularly interesting if you're a Kevin Smith fan. Either that or Rhinebeck, NY, which I've only passed through but seems very cute and completely do-able in an afternoon. (That's about...an hour and a half? from the city by train.)

― Prude (Prude), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Cold Spring, on the Hudson Metro-North line, is pretty boring.

― B61 (calstars), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Dayton, OH is the most boring place I've ever visited. Not close to NYC, though.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

philly's suburbs are also, like, chock fulla boring-ass towns. just a few -- king of prussia, norristown, levittown, yardley, bristol (cruise the bristol pike yeah!), oxford valley, jenkintown.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Canberra.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Surely Ohio and upstate New York have some dull cities to visit.

A couple of hundred miles away is close enough. I'm thinking of making a visit to a boring city as an enticingly ordinary side dish in a real vacation.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i have to go to cranford tomorrow. that's another boring NJ town.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Dayton, Ohio might be perfect (there's the GBV connection) but I highly doubt it's walkable.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Binghamton, NY, carousel capital of the world, hey hey.

― Prude (Prude), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

if you find your city and go, take pictures.

― teeny (teeny), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

yo, do akron -- home of DEVO!

― alexbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

you want REAL boring ... come to my job right now, it's tax season and i have a buttload of 1041s and 706s to review.

― taxessuckbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I already said Canberra Col, wake up ;) Besides he said "not far from NYC"

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

rhinebeck is nice and should be taken over a weekend, hopefully at the nice b&b downtown. Would Norwalk make a nice daytrip? You can laugh at the people in SoNo trying to be SoHo?

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Hartford is not nearly as dreamy as you've been lead to believe.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Come to Amherst, MA
Its only 168.37 Miles away
$7 Salads, Frat Boy bars, Over zealous liberals chasing you down the street till you sign their petition.

― brg30 (brg30), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Hartford is not nearly as dreamy as you've been lead to believe.

dude, hartford = insurance company capital, usa.

in other words, i think we found a winner!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:57 (twenty-one years ago)

ha ha, this internet radio station i'm listening to right now is playing vicious pink's "8:15 to nowhere."

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 02:59 (twenty-one years ago)

There is NOTHING to see in Hartford.

NOTHING.

NOTHING at all.

You'd be better off going to New London if you're going to hit CT. Or New Haven. Or you could get lost in one of our TWO (that's right, TWO) casinos.

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 03:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 12 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

From the Lonely Planet Guide to Nauru:

Nauru
Attractions

You can while away a few minutes by looking at the two Japanese guns and the numerous bunkers and pillboxes left after WWII. You could also walk around the machinery dump, or sit in your hotel room and watch Television New Zealand. The hotel does have a bar, casino, shopping and a restaurant serving Thai, Chinese and Indian food. For conference junkies, there's a conference room that seats 200 people.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

TS: connecticut or new jersey?

xpost: i wonder whether hartford or wilmington, de would win the "downtown totally dead and abandoned after 6 PM weekdays" award?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:18 (twenty-one years ago)

does hartford have a real bad ghetto? if not, then hartford wins (since this is all about boring).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:19 (twenty-one years ago)

As Chris P. (as well as Bryan and Crudders) can attest...where I live brings whole new meaning to nothing to see. Of course, it's outside your limits. As it should be.

― Huck, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Arlington Texas - you can hit Six Flags, catch the Rangers losing and then go get drunk at one of our fine dumps (or drive to Deep Ellum and get drunk with hipsters)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Allentown, PA?
Canton, OH? (football hall of fame, tho)
Wheeling, WV?
(haha) Providence, RI?

Glens Falls, NY is pretty soul-destroying

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:23 (twenty-one years ago)

no way, allentown, pa has dorney park! dorney park ROOLED (when i was a little Eisbär)!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Minneapolis/St. Paul! Two boring cities in one!

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:29 (twenty-one years ago)

but surely, either DULUTH or BEMIDJI would roll over the twin cities in the Ultimate Extreme Boring Smackdown?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:31 (twenty-one years ago)

You think the Mall of America's a big deal? After a while (to steal from Matos) you just go there to buy batteries.

I was in Duluth once and it seemed kind of novel to me. All outdoorsy and shit.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Duluth is high on my list of places to go, higher than the Twin Cities. And Bemidji has Paul Bunyan.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i really dunno whether bemidji (OR duluth, for that matter) really are super-boring. i just like typing the name "bemidji."

it's all flyover land, anyhoo.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:34 (twenty-one years ago)

when i worked for West, they threatened to send me to minneapolis/st paul for training. actually, whatever town in MN where West is headquartered -- that town must be dull as fuck.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey Tad, go purify yrself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

(haha) Providence, RI?

Providence is pretty boring now that all of the good show spaces have been shut down and the punx kicked out. There's lots of pretty architecture, though.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

there's actually some neat stuff in the Twin Cities (cool record stores, First Ave, uh... other stuff), but it does fall under my own personal rule that any town with a 3:1 ratio of "classic rock/oldies" stations to top 40 stations is goin' nowhere fast

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd add the Walker Art Center but they're closed for remodeling until 2016 or something.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

If boredome is what yer really looking for, come to North Troy, VT. I'll introduce you to the locals. Takes about five minutes.

― jim wentworth (wench), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

oh oh wait there is the Mary Tyler Moore statue on Nicollet Mall

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

but it does fall under my own personal rule that any town with a 3:1 ratio of "classic rock/oldies" stations to top 40 stations is goin' nowhere fast

that would be, like, most EVERY american city these days?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Roanoke, VA.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, America is kinda lame right now.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

actually, Wheeling's on the river, which probably disqualifies it

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Glens Falls, NY is pretty soul-destroying

Hahahahaha, that is where my landlords may be moving this year.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i have it on pretty good authority that watervliet, ny is complete shit.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 04:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i would be tempted to add phillipsburg, nj, except that (a) it's across the delaware from easton, pa (home of GEORGE FOREMAN!!); and (b) in a coupla years, i am seriously thinking about moving there (if the real estate is STILL as cheap as it currently is).

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 05:00 (twenty-one years ago)

hey nate you didn't go to the walker closing party did you?

anyway i submit DES MOINES.

― g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I am afraid not. I was probably busy trying to convince someone that they shouldn't spend money they don't have or else they will get mad overdraft fees, yo.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 06:25 (twenty-one years ago)

1 word: Poughkeepsie.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 06:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Bexhill on Sea

HREF="http://www.knowhere.co.uk/3372.html">some les than exciting things to do there

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Erm...

some less than exciting things to do there

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 08:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Huck, I promise you, Regina is more interesting than Hartford. Hartford does have the Mark Twain house and a ho-hum art museum, and it is one of the ugliest cities I've ever seen. Every building sticks out like a sore thumb. And I don't know if its "insurance capital of the world" claim is still true -- Hartford has hit hard, hard times. (I lived in a suburb of Hartford for a while as a kid and still have family there.)

Then again I am planning my next vacations to Humboldt, Iowa, and Humboldt, Saskatchewan, so what do I know of boring? Oh, right, a lot.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

nate i didn't go either, it was $30 to get in but free after midnight (which i think they kept quiet about). i hear it was bedlam, every floor packed, no art on the walls. i'm kinda sorry i missed it. a couple friends of mine stuck it out til 5 for the free breakfast and it was like a box of donuts from rainbow.

also, SEWARD, NEBRASKA.

― g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 10:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Bemidji doesn't have Paul Bunyan Land now, it closed while I was home.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 11:55 (twenty-one years ago)

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

― Chris 'The Big Ragu' V (Chris V), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

"St Louis (the city proper, anyway, fuck the suburbs) is perfect for this actually, since U-City, South Grand are both walking distance from downtown."

Actually, U-City is quite a walk - about 8 or 9 miles - from downtown. I mean, it's walkable, but that's a long walk.

"Unfortunately downtown is a bomb-out shell of a city so there isn't really much to see walking around there. But there are tons of thrift shops and half-way houses."

True about downtown STL - I work here, and other than a few blocks of office buildings, it's pretty seedy. Yesterday, for instance, I discovered St. Louis Centre, a creepy near-dead mall connected to the Famous-Barr store. However, I maintain that whatever STL is, it's not as "boring" as some of the places mentioned above. I think it's underrated (and thought so even before I moved here).

"Plus you can go to East St. Louis and buy crack and gamble on riverboat casinos (and maybe even get shot.)"

I haven't had the courage to explore East St. Louis yet. Let alone Sauget, which consists of factories, strip bars and Pop's (club specializing in cover bands and neo-punk). www.builtstlouis.net has an excellent guide to East STL, though. It's pretty scary.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

As long as we're expanding our scope:

MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA.

Home of the Corn Palace, some houses, and nothing else for hundreds of miles.

― mike a, Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I've been to mitchell.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

but have you ever been to you?

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:16 (twenty-one years ago)

reread the title of this thread and imagine me imagining I shouldn't be insulted.

:'''''''''(

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:17 (twenty-one years ago)

no offense was intended RJ, I feel bad now

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

aw, soz, cabbage. I was just kidding around!!!

xxx

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

It's looking like Hartford, though I think I'll want to also go to Mystic, a place I haven't been in over twenty years and is decidedly NOT boring.

There is "A Taste of Hartford" festival in June. My guess is that it's probably exactly like every street festival ever in NYC (sweet corn, hot dogs and tube socks). I probably should aim for that, but I'll have to see how certain health issues play out before I'll feel comfortable eating ridiculously greasy food.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 2 March 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

eight months pass...

update please? did you go to hartford?

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 02:15 (twenty years ago)

tube socks?

― g--ff (gcannon), Tuesday, 30 November 2004 02:50 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

No, I never went to Hartford, though I passed through it on my way to the Berkshires last year. Couldn't tell much about it from the train.

Yes, tube socks. All the NYC street fairs I've been to always have lots of cheap junk for sale, tube socks being especially ubiquitous.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:14 (twenty years ago)

I did spend a night Manchester, New Hampshire as part of the Berkshires trip, though -- that came fairly close to my wishes.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh wow, yeah. Manchester is boring as fuck.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:30 (twenty years ago)

I actually vaguely know the guy who publishes their artsy weekly - The Hippo. It's rough going being an artsy weekly in a city like that.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:31 (twenty years ago)

i love that my hometown was mentioned on this thread!

― joseph (joseph), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:55 (twenty years ago)

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