Stories from a Cruise

John and I took a short cruise on a Norwegian ship from our local Jacksonville port to the Bahamas. Some stories:

Our first stop was at Freeport at Grand Cayman Island. The last cruise also stopped here when we took an excellent excursion. This time we just walked 1.5 miles to a lighthouse then back. We thought we’d be the only ones silly enough to do this walk, but there was an older gentleman using a cane that did the same walk. So no complaining about the distance!

The second stop was supposed to be at their private island. We had an excursion booked for us to zipline, which is on my bucket list. Unfortunately, the water was too rough and the island was skipped. I will get that ziplining done sometime!

The third stop was Nassau. We walked about 3 miles around the town seeing a museum, old buildings, and a distillery. The difficult part is that sidewalks seems pretty optional in this old section of town. We had to walk along fairly busy traffic in some places but still a pretty town.

I thought that the most exciting part of the trip was at the Nassau port. We went out on our balcony to watch the ship get ready to leave port. Somehow, I locked the door behind me as I stepped out. So, the two of us were stuck on the balcony with no way to get back into our room and our room marked as “Do Not Disturb”! After shouting for help for awhile, someone on the level above us heard. They tried using their phone to call to help us, but couldn’t get anyone to answer. Finally, someone on our level and about 5 rooms from us stepped out to their balcony. They were able to get the steward to come to our room to unlock the door. It may have been only 10-15 minutes, but it was exciting!!!

More relaxing pictures.

The Cursed Trail

In honor of Halloween, I present the ‘Cursed Trail’. The full trail I had selected is around 90 miles taking 6 days.

- I first hiked 45 miles of the trail in February while experiencing cold nights, high water on the trail, and hiking in the smoke near a controlled burn. 

- The 2^nd time was about 60 miles in December. In this case I stopped after hearing that the last section was closed due to fallen trees from 2 hurricanes.

- The 3^rd time was only 35 miles in March. That time the river level was 66’ which flooded many crossings making it unsafe for me to try, especially hiking alone. 

This time I still didn’t make the full distance. I made my personal best for this trail of 70 miles over 5 days though. The first section was fine. While the last section of the trail is officially open and much work has been done to clear or mark much of the trail, there were LOTS of down trees still on the trail. As one hiker on the map app commented, it’s a full body workout. I had to crawl under, climb over, and/or walk around lots of trees all while wearing a backpack. I had to use the map app to find my way back to the trail quite a few times.

The problem was that finding the trail again wasn’t very obvious. Much of the trail consisted of a thin trail but mostly high grass and weeds. By going in October, plants haven’t died back yet. There is a plant called Devil's beggarticks. While pretty when flowering, the seed is barbed so they catch on animals who disperse them. My clothes were completely covered with these barbs. One evening I spent an hour removing the large portion of the seed from my clothes but the smaller barbs stayed in making the clothes scratchy the next day.

I finally reached the point where I realized that while the view of the river was gorgeous, the extra work and stress of going around down trees made the hike “not fun”. All the bushwhacking meant I was only covering half the distance I expected. I called John so he could pick me up a day early. Turns out I also had a problem with my cell phone that prevented me from charging it. I would have run out of power that last day. Oh, and I found out I had 3 small holes in my tent. Ants or sand fleas must have come in the last night to bite me. I had lots of bug bites the last day.

On the good side...The river level was much lower this time. Instead of the 66’ when the trail was flooded, it was only 50’. This first picture was where the board bridge were flooded in March. This time (2^nd picture), there was absolutely no water under the crossing.

For cool animals, I saw a coyote step out on the trail ahead of me. He walked ahead of me then turned to notice me for the first time and quickly ran off. I also saw a cottonmouth (water moccasin) on a creek near where I was filtering water. No issue there either.

Some pretty pictures too. THIS is why I like hiking!

Reunions

My college friends got together this week in Columbus Ohio. I flew up then Leslie and Mark picked me up at the airport. They drove to Alum Creek State Park so we could hike and talk while we waited until we could check into the hotel.

They reserved a suite which became our “party room”. We spent every evening reminiscing, sharing pictures, telling stories, and laughing. Oh, and pretend flirting with the pizza delivery man until we found out he was still in high school!

We did a tour of American Whistle Corp. They are the only company in the U.S. who make metal whistles. As engineers we internally critiqued the tour guide’s talk (no, they didn’t extrude metal but were actually stamping, forming and shearing). Otherwise, it was a great tour even with the kids loudly using their free whistles at the end of the tour.

Our original plan was to go to the Columbus Zoo but it rained heavily so we toured the Ohio Statehouse. The end of the tour was quite memorable as we walked back to our cars that was a half a block away through heavy rain and ankle deep puddles. The time before supper was spent hanging up wet clothes and using the hair dryer as needed.

The next day started with a tour of Anthony-Thomas Candy. They have a ‘sweet’ set up with a closed in balcony all around the plant so tours can watch the operation. No pictures are allowed in the plant but it was quite interesting. There might have been excessive candy and chocolate purchasing at the end.

The afternoon was a visit to the Columbus Botanical Gardens. For me, I enjoyed the demonstration on glass making the best. You then find gorgeous glass sculptures among the gardens. We finished the day at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus Restaurant.

The next day most of our group left but Doreen and Bill drove in to stay the night. We haven’t got together since July 2018. We spent a day basically just talking though with a visit to the local mall just to walk around.

Great week!

Washington DC

I’ve visited Washington DC a few times before but each time was just for a couple of days. In that time I can see some of the monuments then only run into a couple of Smithsonian Museums to see a few of things. So, I’ve had spending more time in the museums in Washington DC on my bucket list. I just spent a week, which still isn’t enough time but enough to see ~18 museums and a bunch of monuments and weird places. This blog could be very long but I’ll just keep it to some highlights.

The Allegheny Trail prepared me for the walking. But there was also a lot of people, noise, and traffic. At least September is a great time to visit. The spring is way too busy with 8^th graders visiting and older people coming to see the cherry blossoms. Summer is busy and too hot while winter is too cold. September and October is just right.

I saw groups of National Guard carrying weapons while walking through the streets and the Mall area. None seemed to do anything but walk around. I didn’t see them interacting with anyone during my week.

I talked to quite a few different people while waiting in line or in the museums. One was a guy from Netherlands that had just finished a 5-month backpacking trip on the Pacific Crest Trail. A lady and I had quite a discussion in front of Rembrandt’s painting “The Circumcision”. She both knew Jewish customs and had been a midwife so she had some interesting background. However, neither of us could figure out why Rembrandt would paint such a subject.

Lots of great architecture. I think my favorite was the reading room at the Library of Congress.

Favorite place to hang out and relax was the Enid A. Haupt Garden near the Smithsonian Castle.

Most relaxing spot inside a museum was the “Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room” at the National Museum of Asian Art. 

Lots of places were closed for renovation including that Castle, sections of the museums that were being changed to new exhibits, and the carousel on the Mall.

An amusing point for me was near bathrooms. At Planet Word, the bathrooms were full of phrases while the Natural History museum had a small exhibit about scat.

Me hanging out with the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum.

Best view without needing tickets (like at the Washington Monument) was at the Old Post Office Tower. Turns out there was a fire at a local electric utility plant while I was there.

One of my weird things were 2 towers used for ventilation of the capitol. I’m not sure if they are still in use, but they are cool looking!

Scariest piece of art. “Mother and Child Enthroned with Angels”, Veronese, dated 1321.

Favorite display at the American History Museum was these signs from the MASH TV show.

I can check this trip off the bucket list now!

Allegheny Trail

I thought I was ready for a more challenging trail after backpacking on the Florida Trail but this one was tough.

I considered a section of the Appalachian Trail (AT) but that trail can be too popular. I like being alone to hike. On the AT you will probably see thru-hikers, section-hikers, and day hikers while hiking and at shelters. The section of the Allegheny Trail I hiked was extremely uncrowded. I saw absolutely no hikers during my 7 days on the trail.

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The AT can have trash and have deep ruts or be widened from the traffic. The Allegheny Trail are pristine (too pristine, as it happens). There were multiple sections with weeds or small bushes covering the trail. I just had to push through the plants hoping I was going in the right direction. This picture is the actual trail.

The trail doesn’t have the maintenance support of the AT so that many fallen trees have not been cleared. Many times I had to crawl over, under, or around dead trees to continue the trail.

The last section of the trail seemed to also be used as a horse trail. This was the most difficult section for me. Very rough and lots of deep mud to try to avoid in some way.

Besides the trail condition, I was surprised by the difficulty of the climbs. I thought I had trained by walking several times a week for 2 miles on the treadmill at a 10 degree incline with a 20 pound backpack. However, the real trail can be 45 degrees at times. My total was ~100 miles distance and 19,000+ feet ascent (around the same for Kilimanjaro). They say the only way to train for a hike is to actually do the hike. I believe it.

Another surprising difficulty with the trail was the lack of cell phone service. The first section only had cell phone service on some hill tops. The last half had no service anywhere. Turns out there is a 13,000 square mile area without service so that the Green Bank Radio Telescopes can work. I had to be creative to get messages to my husband. I found one guy (who turned out the have been a former AT thru-hiker), who sent a text for me when he drove outside the zone. In one town, I was able to send an email. Essentially I was only sending a message every other day to let John know I was OK.

OK, all the good things. The views of the mountains was amazing and inspiring.

The weather was a bit hot during the day (80’s) but otherwise wonderful. The views along the trail under the trees was restful.

I loved all the mushrooms and flowers.

The most exciting part was seeing a bear. I saw the bear stretched out on a branch. He heard me and stood up. I called “Hey, bear.”, so I wouldn’t surprise him. He quickly slid down the tree and ran away. Very cool!

And, at the end of the week, I really felt I had accomplished something. It was an amazing challenge.