Monday, June 18, 2007

Weekend Review

For your viewing pleasure, we have a post that is NOT about gardening. (Feels like I've blogged about that a lot lately.)

This weekend we went to New Jersey. Chris' family has a cabin there and his parents were going to be there for the weekend, so we went down to see them there.

On the way we had to stop at a convenience store. I went in to make my purchase and waited. And then waited some more. There was only one employee, and he was busy pumping gas outside. He said he didn't see me go into the store, but we made eye contact. However, since I was in the store alone, it allowed time for me to take a picture of the bong collection. I also got to look at the box of porn DVDs.

Later on Saturday while at the cabin a deer came up to me. Literally. I thought he woudl be scared when he saw me, but instead he came right up to me. No stranger danger at all! In this photo on the left you can see me on the right and the deer next to me. For some reason he kept turning his head away right when I was taking the pictures.

I went inside to tell Chris' mom and she came out and the deer was still there. She tried feeding him some lettuce, but he wasn't interested. Instead he ate a cigarette butt that was on the ground. Mmm... tasty. Blech!

She then pet the deer. Personally I don't believe she should have fed or pet the deer, but I certainly understand the temptation. I wanted to but was partially afraid of it biting me, but I also didn't want it to get too comfortable with humans.

Next up is a photo of Chris and I "hiking". The cabin is very close to the Appalachian Trail, so we wanted to do some Trail Magic. We went to one place and were looking at the map trying to figure out what would be a good spot when a park ranger came by. We asked him for his advice and he told us of a shelter a few miles away. Perfect! The shelter was .2 miles from a road and parking lot.

We hiked up with a few gallons of water and ran into some weekend section hikers. One of them (the dad of the group) had thru-hiked in '03 and it looked like he was out with his son and either daughter or daugther-in-law. It was her first time backpacking.

Sunday morning we went back and noticed that 2 1/2 gallons of water was gone, so we left 2 more gallons as well as a bag of Snickers and Skittles.

Later that afternoon we swung by again and found 3 more hikers. Good thing we stopped by because they hadn't checked out the bear box where we had stashed the goodies. They were very appreciative!

As we were heading back to the car I kidded with Chris that we were now section hikers. After all, we had hiked the same section 3 times now. Probably doesn't count though seeing how it was such a tiny section. :)

We also made a stop at High Point. My dad "collects" high points- that's the highest point of each state. He had been to High Point, NJ before with Andrew. I figured that since we were so close I should get this one as well. After all, I've visited a number of the others with him.

This monument is at the top. There are 292 stairs inside, as you can see below. And let me tell you- a day later my calves are killing me from climbing those steps!


After High Point we headed back to the cabin, packed up the truck, and headed home.

Funny how a 4 hour drive feels so much longer after you've been driving around all morning through state parks, etc.

7 comments:

ChristyR said...

the bong collection takes me back to high school where i had friends whose rooms looked that way, with cigarettes and such! weird! i really can't feel for you on the driving thing, just got done with 24 hours one way! did the soap mixture work with the aphids? I'm not a gardener but curious, love knowing things like that. Oh and we had a fox visit us and Shane wanted to give it food, I said no then he won't know how to get it himself...I feel like you do...just look and leave it be but he got a burger. I'm sure he gets fed alot from people. I don't like messing with nature.

Chris said...

I think the soap worked on the aphids. Or it was a combination of that and me looking at the leaves and picking off any bugs I saw.
However, we did pick some lettuce on Sunday and there was a bug on one of the leaves.
I'll have to take a closer look at my plants this evening and see if there's anything else on them that shouldn't be.

ChristyR said...

i'll be following this bug thing!

Vanessa B. said...

I didn't know what "Trail Magic" was at first and then you mentioned the shelter and I thought it was a "Mile High Club" sort of thing. (; So I got a big ole giggle going when you stopped to ask a ranger! I learned something new today. Sounds like you had fun!

The Hallman Tribe said...

sounds like a great weekend....love the bong collection, and wow the deer story is amazing.....i think i would have been a little curious too. I think is great you were able to get a photo!!!! your hike sounded wonderful!!!!!!

Vanessa B. said...

You go, Chris Breecher! I saw Stacy's blog today. Way to go! And she gave a big shout out for the scrapper's tool belt. Awesome!

sk said...

gotta love a bong collection!