This is Only a Test

It’s almost fall in Florida...or at least I can dream that the temperatures are dropping. In preparation for more backpacking over the winter, I did an overnighter in Ralph E. Simmons Memorial State Forest. I camped here before. I’ve bought some new gear, handmade some stuff, and learned a few things on youtube I wanted to trial.

The first thing I don’t want to use much is “how to camp and hike in hot weather”. With low 90s and high humidity, I sweat a LOT when hiking. I wet a bandanna and put that around my neck. I have a water filter now, so I didn’t need to haul all my drinking water. I kept the top layer off the tent so I was sleeping within the mosquito netting but otherwise open. Most of the night I just slept on the sleeping pad with a sheet. Way too hot for a sleeping bag. I survived.

Most of the other things I trialed are fairly small but I came out with a list of things to fix. Some of it falls under TMI. Did you know you can buy a backpacker’s bidet (no picture!)?

It was actually more hiking than I expected. After rejecting a further campsite, I backtracked to the first campsite so I ended up hiking ~5 miles to get to a campsite only 1.6 miles away. The 2^nd day I took the 5-mile portion of the loop that was closed during the last visit. It was definitely more difficult. It was wet where you had to walk through the water at times (I’m experienced with that). The picture below is from the trail. It was buggy (but I got to use my new head net). And the blazes were quite spread out with a VERY weak trail (high grass) so I lost the trail more than once. It took me much more time to hike this portion since I spent so much time peering around trying to find the trail. An adventure!

Some cool pictures from the trail or from the tent.

Extra Time in Massachusetts

 There was enough free time built into the Road Scholar trip so we could do some trips on our own, have a meal together, and talk around the fire in the evening (when we could stay awake long enough!).

The group walked to downtown Rockport. Motif #1 is supposed to be the most painted building in the United States. It was Labor Day weekend so the area was full of tourists, but cool. BTW, the weather all week was perfect. No rain and 60s to low 70s. Heaven compared to Florida weather.

I did my morning walk thing every morning. The first was to find a geocache near downtown. It was in an area that I had no idea existed. I love when geocaching takes me to unexpected places like this for sunrise.

The 2^nd morning was quite interesting. I was walking before the sun came up and saw something move on the sidewalk in front of me. When I took a picture, the flash came on before the picture when I realized it was a skunk! The actual picture is a blur as I moved quickly away. Otherwise, I found another geocache. The walk took me through town where I could see all the granite fences, buildings, and even curbs.

Granite was another big industry in town with quite a few quarries that are now waterholes. This was one that I saw the next day.

The hike to this quarry took Mark (fellow ONU’er and geocacher) and I under this bridge. It was great fun to stomp, scream, and clap to hear the echos under the bridge. Sure, we’re adults and even senior citizens.

Geocaching in the morning on the next day was a bit frustrating. I searched for quite a while using the flashlight on my phone since it was still dark in the woods. After I gave up and was leaving, I saw it immediately. Anyhow, here’s a granite home that’s now a museum.

For our free time afternoon, I talked most of the group into doing the weird stuff I like. The Paper House was enjoyed by all. The walls and furniture is all made of newspapers. Lots of work here!

We both geocached and hiked at a local state park. The park was on the ocean plus had a granite quarry too.

Why, though, was the most memorable part the granite statue we called “Sasquatch Taking a Dump”. I am SO cultured.

Our group dinner that evening was quite memorable too. The plates of food were both excellent and amazingly large. Most of us boxed up the leftovers and had it for breakfast the next day (I can highly recommend lobster ravioli as breakfast food). One of our ladies ordered a single order of key lime pie. It was so big it fed 6 of us perfectly.

Three of the group joined me the next morning for a hike through Dogtown. Lots of history here plus boulders that had different words carved into them. The humor was that the trails are not well marked and we weren’t quite sure where we were most of the time. At one point we found a rock that said “Be On Time” that we were sure was our tour guide speaking to us. We made it back in time after a 4-mile hike through the woods.

The final hike was a different section of Dogtown. This one had a marsh. Lots of good hiking during the week in perfect weather.

Maritime Trip

This blog is a bit late. I picked up a cold after the trip that caused me to sleep through half a week. I’m still catching up on my things-to-do after the trip and the cold. Anyhow…

This trip has been planned for almost 2 years. A bunch of college friends picked out a Road Scholar trip so we could hold a reunion while being fed and entertained. This trip was maritime themed. It wasn’t something I’d necessarily pick on my own, but was quite interesting. We were in Rockport, Gloucester, Salem, and Essex Massachusetts. This area was big with the fishing industry including building boats. They are still fishing, but it’s a greatly reduced business now.

The “Perfect Storm” ship Andrea Gail sailed from Gloucester. That crew’s names are on a nearby memorial along the 5,368 fishermen from the area who have died at sea since 1716. In some years there were hundreds of fishermen lost.

During the week we sailed on 5 different boats. The first was a schooner with full sails. Cindy (one of the ONU ladies) and I lifted the main sail. It was heavier than I expected and we needed help by the end! The 2^nd picture is by Angie.

Boat 2 was a whale watching boat. It took quite awhile to get to the whales, but we were much closer than I expected. The boat also rocked more than I expected when we stopped. Several people were sick, but luckily I didn’t have a problem. We saw a few whales breaching along our boat as we followed them around.

Road Scholar took us to Salem for another boat sailing the harbor.

We got to stop for lunch across from the Bewitched statue. A random tourist got this shot for me.

Our next boat took us down Essex River and through a marsh.

Lunch was fried clams at the restaurant that originated fried clams in 1916. The afternoon was a visit to a ship building museum. I’ve included this picture of Lignum Vitae. It’s considered one of the heaviest and hardest woods around, resistant to rot and insects, and even self-lubricated making it ideal for bearings and other maritime uses but very expensive. It was heavy!

The 5^th and last boat was a lobster boat. They only pulled a few example lobster traps. This one had crabs instead of lobsters. But still a fun trip.

Big Trip and Lots of Excitement

This trip involved a solar eclipse, an earthquake, computers down, flood, and a train wreck. We traveled by train, car, and plane and did lots of visiting. All in all, very exciting!

John and I started our trip taking a sleeper train to Philadelphia. The last time I traveled on a train, the meals were reheated and I ate alone. This time (post-pandemic), there was a chef and we were seated with others. We enjoyed our meal with our ‘neighbor’ on the train. We had a fascinating talk about Chinese customs, green card procedures, and working as a junior professor in Florida. Breakfast was with a nice lady from Michigan.

When we got to the lounge while waiting for our next train, everyone was talking about the earthquake. So, we were in Philadelphia during the New Jersey earthquake but we think it hit while we were on the train as it entered the city. With all the rocking of the train, we didn’t feel it. BTW, the Amtrak station is gorgeous.

From there we took a train to Pittsburgh. The trips is through Amish country, Allegheny Mountains, and around the “World Famous Horseshoe Curve”. People travel for miles to sit and watch trains there. The cool part is supposed to be that you can see the end of your own train as you take the curve but our train was fairly short so we could only see a few cars.

In Pittsburgh, we stayed a night in a hotel then walked to Enterprise car rental. They told us our car was ready but their whole company’s computer system was down so we couldn’t get the car since they couldn’t process our credit card! After some time at a nearby coffee shop and after we sweated working out alternative car rentals, they called us back and we were able to get our car.

The next few days were with John’s son, Johnny. We met his girlfriend Kathy and enjoyed catching up. John is very handy and did that guy-bonding thing by helping Johnny repair a couple of doors.

One evening was spent with my friends from my first job out of college. It was great to see each other in person after doing zooms for a couple years. We did a traveling dinner in two different houses. In the first, we saw all kinds of amazing furniture that Tom made. In the second, Michael was a BIG train fan and had a basement full of trains and tracks.

The big event was traveling to my brother’s house for the eclipse. Bob and Pam are great hosts! The sky was clear for the eclipse despite the early forecast of clouds. John took some great pictures. It was truly amazing!!

Then we drove to West Virginia to visit with John’s family. First, we stopped at Friendship Hill National Historic Site. That makes 157 national parks/sites/etc. for us.

We just love Sue and Frank!

The highlight here was a lunch that Sue planned with John’s aunt. Aunt Barb was only told the four of us were having lunch. However, when we got to the restaurant more relatives were there for a total of 10 people. She was shocked!

One evening and night was spent with John’s friend Bill and Barb. We enjoyed talking around the fire and the special breakfast.

Then we returned to Pittsburgh for 2 nights at the hotel. Interesting fact...the hotel used to be a Federal Reserve bank. They still have the vaults which now go to conference rooms.

The time gave us a chance to walk around downtown seeing the architecture. This building was built in 1884. 

It’s spring in Pennsylvania (it’s summer in Florida).

With recent rains, the fountain at Point State Park was flooded. The river was said to be at the highest level in two decades.

Had to go to the museum there too.

The excitement wasn’t over. We took the train from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia okay but then found out our train back home was canceled. There had been a train wreck in Georgia on the line so all trains were canceled that day. Amtrak would have put us up in a hotel with food vouchers for the night but they weren’t sure if the tracks would be open the next day. Instead we got the price refunded. While it was stressful to get an uber to the airport and find a flight, we ended up getting home earlier than we would have.

What a trip!