Second Tree Blog

Our trip to COSI yesterday included lots of time with Boppa (aka Grandpa Larry). I managed enough pictures of grandkids with Boppa to warrant a separate posting.

Here, Larry poses with Alana before hoisting her onto one of the machines.

Larry was great sport about heading into the centripital force machine that Carson wanted to go on. I refused to go since this type of thing would give me a headache for about 4 hours as my inner ear tried to stop spinning. It is the type of machine that spins about 20 people inside and then has the floor drop down while everyone “sticks” to the wall. Since Carson was SO excited to go and he had never gone before, Larry opted to join him. Unfortunately, the “stick” did not work so well for Larry who slid a bit when the floor dropped and ended up taking a bit of a fall at the end. Carson was not fazed, but we were fortunately heading for home, where Alana napped the entire ride home. Pictures below is the machine with Larry and Carson on the steps waiting in line.

Alana’s first day of camp was July 9th. Camp is at her preschool, where she is scheduled to start this fall. Camp is one day a week for 3 weeks. Alana was SOOOOOOOOO excited about going to camp that she couldn’t tell the teachers her name when we got there. She could only giggle. By the time I left, she was telling the teachers all about her favorite colors (pink and purple) and how she likes to paint. She has had a great time on her first two days and will have one more day next week. This is a picture of Alana on her first day of camp outside our house just before she got in the car to head out for the morning.

The science museum (COSI) is having a week long exhibit called Big Machines where you can climb on and even operate some construction equipment. With the arrival of Boppa and J yesterday, it seemed like a good idea to take Alana and Carson to the museum. Benton stayed back to go on a bike ride with Jane (aka J) while Larry and I headed to the museum.

The trip to COSI was great. Both Carson and Alana really enjoyed climbing and driving. After all the big machines, we headed inside for lunch and saw a few more exhibits before heading home. Here are a few pictures from our outing.

Alana drives the excavator.

Carson attempt to move every button he can find on this machine.

Carson hangs onto a strap while the crane operator lifts him into the air using a remote controlled device.

I climbed onto the backhoe to help Carson and Alana figure out how to swivel the seat from the front to the back.

This is a 5-month long series of blog posts that are the entries in my journals written on most evenings as I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1993. The journal entry appears first — indented — and then any additional commentary from my 15-years-removed perspective follows.

7/17/93 - Sat.

14.5 mmiles today to the David Lesser Memorial Shelter. A southbound thru-hiker named Rob Roy showed up shortly after we did, and Roadrunner rolled in about 7:00.

A quick note: Roadrunner is a CPA from Albuqurque (sp?), NM — early to mid-50s.

14.5 was probably a bit long for Julie, but she toughed it out and we were still here by 5:00 PM. Her knees are fine, but her ankles and feet are bothering her a bit. It’s only 8 miles to Harper’s Ferry tomorrow, though, and we’re not supposed to arrive before 3:00 PM, so we can really take it easy.

Again, I am going to cut this entry short in the interest of getting the most out of the time I have with Julie.

This is a 5-month long series of blog posts that are the entries in my journals written on most evenings as I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1993. The journal entry appears first — indented — and then any additional commentary from my 15-years-removed perspective follows.

7/16/93 - Fri.

10.3 miles today with Julie (!!!) to the Sawmill Spring/Moore Shelter.

I made it to the phone at Ashby Gap by 5:30 yesterday afternoon — I was average easily over 3 miles an hour for the last 10 miles and probably didn’t “see” much of the trail. I did find the first of the raspberries, though, yesterday, and they are good. For some reason, the birds and bugs don’t seem to get to them, and it’s quite easy to stand in one place and eat handful after handful of the darn things. I cam close to giving myself a stomachache yesterday morning, and julie fought a losing battle today to keep from munching herself to oblivion as well.

We didn’t get started until almost nine o’clock this morning, which was a bit later than I would have liked, but we took it relatively easy and still made it to the shelter by 4:00 PM, so it worked out fine. I was amazed at how fresh I was still feeling at the endo fthe day — I guess I’m so used to pushing longer and harder that today was really almost a rest day.

Julie was going fine until the last hill of the day, and it really kind of finished her off. But, a Reese’s Cup, some water, and a few minutes lying down in the shelter really rejuvenated her. Tomorrow will probably be more of a test — whether she’s sore in the morning and whether her body will agree to a second day of hiking.

My whole outlook on the A.T. seems to change when Julie is along. Whereas when I am alone, I really enjoy the physical challenge of the hike, I seem to relax more when Julie is here and enjoy both the outdoors and her company. I would walk five miles a day from Georgia to Maine and back, and do so with pleasure, if I were doing it with Julie. She really is the thing I miss the most while on the trail.

We made a really good dinner tonight of a chicken and dumpling type dish that Dad had sent and of my fruit recipe. The only fresh fruit we used were blueberries. We used 4 Jolly Ranchers, some honey, a mixture of home-dried fruits in addition to the “fruit bits,” and a little less water. It was good! If Dad sends many more of his recipes, I’m going to stop missing home cooking!

Well, I have a very special person to spend quality time with, so, until tomorrow…

I have a bit of a blank spot in my memory of the logistics here. I actually have a very clear memory of the spot where we met up in Ashby Gap, but I didn’t record much as to the exact logistics. I think Julie probably picked me up and we went back to Gommie and Dee’s to spend the night, then maybe got dropped off by Gommie the next morning? I know I took some time off while in that area, but that wasn’t until after Julie and I hiked, so maybe more on that in a future entry.

Carson’s baseball season is now over. I missed the last game because it conflicted with one of Benton’s games. As an exercise in fairly collosal lack of forethought, Carson’s head coach and I both signed up for responsibilities on two teams — his two sons are the same ages as Benton and Carson, so it really seemed like a good idea at the time. He’s an assistant coach, while I’m the scorekeeper (and “extra hand” at practices I can make it to), for Benton’s team. And he was the head coach, while I was the assistant (and one of two pitchers) for Carson’s team (he continues to claim that I was co-head coach, but I deny it). This made for more game/practice conflicts than we expected, but we managed.

Overall, Carson enjoyed the experience. Here he is…just having run through first base.

After the final game, the team headed out for ice cream and trophies.

Coach Dave handing out the trophies:

And, the team picture. NEXT season…the kids are getting names on the backs of their shirts (lesson learned for Dave and me). Just as the season was wrapping up, I got to where I could reliably name all of the kids on sight.

 L to R (and not listing Coach Dave): Carson, Jacob, Ryan, Nicholas, Evan, Conner, Joseph, Collin, Max, Derek, Craigen, and Alex.

And, finally, Carson and Evan (Coach Dave’s son) showed what team bonding is all about. I bet if A-Rod and Derek Jeter did this sort of thing occasionally there wouldn’t be so many rumors of animosity.

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This is a 5-month long series of blog posts that are the entries in my journals written on most evenings as I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1993. The journal entry appears first — indented — and then any additional commentary from my 15-years-removed perspective follows.

7/14/93 - Wed.

23.5 miles today to Tom Floyd Wayside Shelter. It’s 9:00 PM, and I’m about as close to being positive that I will be alone this evening. Cloud & Scout almost definitely stopped for the evening at the shelter where I ate lunch today. They never showed up last night, so they would have had to do something over 23 1/2 miles to get here, which just isn’t likely.

I’ve had Julie on the brain all day today. She’s not supposed to be at Ashby Gap until 6:00 PM tomorrow evening, and I have a feeling I will be there before that. I suspect she might, too.

I saw a little bear cub this morning. When it saw me, it took off down the hill so fast that it tripped and flipped head over heels a couple of times before it could right itself. It looked like Winnie the Pooh doing a Tigger imitation!

I saw multiple deer today, including a couple of moderately sized bucks. This afternoon, I came across a doe that was standing in the middle of the trail facing me. i decided to just keep walking at her until she bolted, but finally had to stop when I was about five fee away because she was making no move to flee. I stood there and talked to her for a while, explaining that I had no food to give her and would she kindly step aside to let me pass. After bout 30 seconds of this nonsense, something finally spooked her and she took off.

I got caught in a brief but hard rainstorm today, so my boots are drenched and will probably remain that way all through tomorrow, which is not a pleasant thought.

At the very end of the day today I left Shenandoah National Park. Unlike when I left the Smokies, today I had a real sense that was “returning” to the A.T. The Shenandoah’s have been so commercialized and “car-camper” oriented that the park is just like a big zoo. Even the wild animals there are not as wild as they should be. Also, with all the stores and restaurants near the trail (not to mention Skyline Drive), it was hard to think of myself really being out in the woods. Sure, it was nice to be able to have an ice cream bar every day, but, then again, how much better would ice cream at Gommie’s have tasted if I hadn’t eaten any since Waynesboro? Much, I think.

I made my fruit stew again tonight, but improved on it somewhat. I had a little over a cup of blackberries & blueberries, I had some dried “fruit bits” (store-bought), I had home-dried strawberries, and I used two fruit punch Jolly Rancher hard candies for sweeteners instead of Kool-Aid. I had a larger quantity than I had last time, and I think it tasted better. Watch out Julia Child — Gilligan is in the kitchen.

And that is my day in a nutshell. Tomorrow I see Julie, and there is nothing else I can think of that could get me out of my sleeping bag faster tomorrow morning.

…will a watched cookie ever bake?

Alana and I made chocolate chip cookies last week, and she insisted on pulling a chair up to the oven and watching them bake. She must have told me a half-dozen times, “I’ve never done this before!”

I kept trying to tell her that I had never done that before either.

This is a 5-month long series of blog posts that are the entries in my journals written on most evenings as I hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1993. The journal entry appears first — indented — and then any additional commentary from my 15-years-removed perspective follows.

7/13/93 - Tue.

18.5 miles today to Pass Mountain Shelter. I got here shortly after 4:00 PM, and so far Roadrunner is the only other hiker who has shown up (it’s 8:00 PM now).

Which brings me to last night. Cloud and Scout arrived at about 9:30, and we managed to circle around each other in such a way that we all hit the taproom but missed each other in doing so. They were at my campsite when I got back from the taproom and from talking to Julie, but I had wound up drinking my one beer alone. The live entertainment was a guy who played guitar and banjo — some Scottish folk songs and some more “traditional” American stuff (”You Are My Sunshine,” “Oh, Susanna,” e.g.). I didn’t stay very long, but felt I got my $2.00 worth of satisfaction from the beer and the music.

I had some thoughts about Joe Van Dyck’s possible hostel in Burke’s Garden that I’m going to jot down now as a first pass at organization for a letter to “The Skipper” himself (Joe).

I think he’d be best off touting the place as a classier-type hostel — nicer but more expensive. The reason for this is that Levi Long’s is only a day’s hike farther and, dump that it is, it’s free. The low budget hikers will go there regardless.

Services that really should be offered: laundry, showers, Coleman fuel by the pint, maildrop capability, some degree of hiker resupply.

Other things that might attract hikers, too: home cooking; use of steam shower (possible extra charge), use of bicycles to tour Burke’s Garden.

Also, touting the B&B (or the hostel) as a place to take a day off with family or friends might be good (like Fontana Village).

For that bit about being “classier,” Elmer’s in Hot Springs would be a good model.

Also, it would be good for him to buy a copy of The Thru-Hiker’s Handbook so he can get a feel for what kind of blurb he can expect in that.

Finally, he probably ought to keep it simple at first — offer services that he knows won’t be too much of a burden on him — and then add on in future years as per hiker suggestions.

I have now decided to do the 24-mile days starting tomorrow and then have Julie hike with me for three days instead of two. It seemed silly for her to drive all the way out here and then just sit around for a day before I get to see her. Once again, I will be hiking with my mind in the future rather than in the present, but when Julie is in one and not the other, I can do nothing else.

Three households of Bob/Pam grandkids convened at the farm for several days the week leading up to the Fourth of July. Shortly after the first group arrived…the power went out. Four hours later, Bob got the generator running. 15 minutes later, the power came back on. We’re just happy that Bob didn’t wind up with any second degree burns from fiddling with the generator (THIS time!).

From left to right and oldest to youngest: Tyler, Brianna, Meg, Benton, Marissa, Carson, Alana.