Trees, trees everyhere and not a bark to bite
Maybe that doesn't work so well for a camping trip but it was a fun, fun, fun time. I really enjoy camping and it's been a very long time since I've done it. I apologize now 'cause I know this post won't really do the trip justice so let's just do the highlights. Music was a big thing on this trip and I think the Crouching Tiger soundtrack will now be linked with mountains, trees, and Fall. Probably the way it's supposed to be anyway. On that note, I really enjoyed the movie The Fall. Anyway. Passing up the usual stuff - it was nice to be back at the tire shop for a day, cool to chit chat with everyone, even cooler not to have to WORK there anymore.
I was going to skim over this but I can't. Jake and Luke got HUGE, man. They're like thirty feet taller than they had been. And it seems as if they've actually calmed down a little from their rambunctious years. Don't mistake me, they're still little boys. There was a lot of playing and laughing and excitement. A lot of rushing sentences and a lot of 'watch this, let's do this, play with this, check this out' going on but it was a little.. tamer.. than I remember. And their vocabulary astounds me. They both talk like they've graduated college. Literally, some of these more challenging sentences I've heard come from their mouths. They're using all kinds of smarty pants words and it's like 'are you kidding me right now?' the whole time you talk to them. How can you talk about catching bugs and be using words like 'I am anxious to see what awaits when we return from camping' and such. I mean, come on guys.
So, they were a lot of fun. I got to see them do karate and that was pretty neat. They also did some tricks on their bikes.. and scooters.. and they wanted to get out the ATVs and their go-carts but we deemed that a little not necessary for the late hour. I did have a good chat with Monique again. I really like her, she's a very cool woman and pretty keen and easy to talk to. Paul's family always feels like my family, though, so I suppose that's why. I know it goes both ways.
I know I'm not picking favorites and I really do love them both very equally, find them both just as entertaining, blah blah blah. The same goes with my own brothers. But, still, I just feel a little more kinship with Jake. I don't know what it is, he just grows on me and I think he's adorable. Of course they both are. But Jake is extra adorable and I always wanna give that kid a big hug when I see him. The same goes for Luke but he DEMANDS hugs just about when you see him, haha. He was climbing all over me. With Jake I had to ask and it's funny because he grins and he's like 'of course you can have a hug.' Again. What the hell? But it's cute and I love 'em both to death. Just not, you know, like literally or anything.
So, right, camping. Sorry, zoned out for a second. Lucky you that you don't notice seeing as this is all written down. Haha.
Ahem. Right.
So the camping part was fun. Obviously it was fun. The drive wasn't too bad and the gathering of supplies was the usual humor-full trip. Spending time with Paul in general was a lot of fun. Of course. And it's been way too damn long. We didn't get to fit in EVERYTHING that we usually do but I have no regrets and, truthfully, we didn't need to fit in everything. I even got to hit the community college with him again. It was FREEZING by the way. In the morning, at least, and that brought back some memories. I got to read all of the Jack of Fables that are out so far, too. Wow. Just a neat, humorous story. Those Fables guys, man, they know how to write. Can nostalgia hit for something that just happened? Who knows! Haha.
Anyway, yeah, so we went through a very hilly part of the PA state. In retrospect, seeing as we past the usual meet up place with my mom when I used to live there, we should have called her for at least lunch that weekend. To be completely honest, I didn't even think of it. So it was a little silly when I talked to her after I got back that we never got to meet up for anything.
Driving through the mountains is, of course, beautiful. That shouldn't need to be said, you guys should know this. But it really is. And, truth be told, even knowing it's beautiful you still see things that give you a momentary pause even if you drive through there every day. So it was very refreshing to get to a state that had seasons. Most especially Fall which is probably my favorite one. Halloween, hello, get with it. (A lot of Dresden in these posts tonight, eh? Just finished Small Favor - awesome ride.)
So we had the Crouching Tiger soundtrack with us for the really pretty stuff once we'd gotten off the exit and it was very.. peaceful. Honestly, I felt like I was in an entirely different place and it was nice. No reception which, in a way, was also nice. It just feels good to not worry or think about anything beyond where you are and what you're doing. I was completely relaxed and it just felt good. Really good.
We set up camp with a little humor, already realizing we forgot the hammer for the stakes in the tent. We utilized a broken piece of a thick stick (this helpful tool met it's end in the fire on the final night as all things burnable did including one of my shirts and nearly my loufa thing - more in a minute.) Further, we got all the gear out and then we started our way to get some firewood. Our first attempt (oh, also, someone was in our camping spot due to some booking error so we had to go to the place and we ended up getting a place that, in my opinion, was even nicer 'cause when I saw the camp site we did have I was a little not excited since it was cramped - this one was out on the hilly plains and nicer especially on the last night with just about no one there.) Anyway, we did a search for a little while and basically just came up with kindling and a few of the bigger logs. But we had no saw so burning was going to be problematic to say the least. We went in search of firewood and found a place to purchase from. Basically a guy that had an extra garage outside his house really built into two garages and a shop for campers and the like. It was a unique experience, buying from him, but there were no shops in the vicinity and he was a pretty cool and friendly fellow. It was still weird going to his house to get him then walking to his shop. Anyway. We got two bundles of firewood and made it to the campsite.
Ham and cheese for lunch in the mountain/moon pie makers. Mmmm, baby! But it got a bit burned so we went for round two with better success. A great many things were burned in this manner, some not so bad and some of them unedible. No matter, really, since we had no shortage of supplies. Real butter would have been preferred to cooking spray but it worked out okay. The meals were delightful and every bit as good as any campfire tasty treat should be. We had hot dogs, brats (a new one on the camp fire and goofy to cook), s'mores, moon pie things, ham and cheese as mentioned, cereal, eggs and a skillet and such (which turned out not to be so fantastic.)
God kept the weather pretty nice. Maybe He figured it'd be nice not to kill me with such a drastic, icy change. It was still chilly, don't get me wrong, at night though. In the day time it was t-shirt weather. I don't do shorts in the wilderness, just not smart to the ankles and calves usually. And hairs get burned by campfires sometimes so we play that safe, too. Anyway.
Nature walks were had aplenty and thankfully my new-ish shoes weren't ruined with rain. Again. God, You're the man... Man. Give thanks where it's due. So that was realllly nice. There were a lot of really cool scenes, the best of them caught on film. While a few of the pictures didn't come out so hot, a little thing with sunlight not cutting through the trees properly, for the most part all our pictures came out nice and nevermind that we forgot the digital camera. Happens. No big.
One of the cooler things about the trip, though, was the stars. And thank the moon for being out, man. WOW. This guy was so big with a telescope. I guess I didn't mention that. Paul has a really cool telescope that we were using. The moon was realllly big and it was super cool. Nice and full. I swear I could see the American flag on that thing. Maybe several of them, I don't know. Lots of places it could have been. But it was really cool to look through the thing. New Years should be fun for this.
The saying, pretty much, for this weekend was basically 'umm.. this is probably not a good idea but let's do it anyway, who's gunna stop us?' And, truthfully, no one did. This was the first camping experience we'd ever been out on our own and it was kind of cool to fend for ourselves in that regard. We spent the second morning gathering more firewood (kindling, really, since we burnt all the rest the night before.) We got a lot. I mean like enough that we barely burned a third of it and not too many of the firewood we'd bought by the next day.
So, anyway, we enjoyed a great many s'mores and snacks and food and just indulged. It was awesome. And we got to fool around with the fire (which we pretty much have been doing anyway.) We took a lot of long, fun nature-related walks and saw some cool sites. This is the kind of personal thing that doesn't come off in type too well. You can't describe the beauty and amazing..ness.. of nature without just being in it. We did find a hefty walking stick on the second day at some point which was cool. And on the first day, I believe, we had to secure some big freakin' stones for the grill. That's fun, lugging huge stones on a long hike. Haha. But it all worked out well enough.
All in all, we had a really cool trip. At least I did. We watched Heroes when we got back, which was not fun in and of itself but it was nice to relieve some of that TV show hype together even if the episode kinda sucked. I think after this was actually the Karate bit and then another dinner. FYI, Monique knows how to cook. I mean she ROCKS at it. And, yeah, my dad has a lot of cool dishes he can make and my mom knows her way around the kitchen on one or two things and my grandpa can make a few dishes but Monique uses something that not a great many of these people employ - cookbooks. She's got a great many of them and she knows how to make the recipes good, better, or just flat out toes-curling orgasmic. I suppose it's a science or something. So, I forgot what she made - hahahahaha, I know - but it was really freakin' good.
You thought I forgot about the fire, didn't you? Hell no. Save the best for last.
This baby was epic.
And when I mean epic. I mean it.
E-P-I-C.
This was the fire to end all fires (though that doesn't work 'cause fire pretty much would have to burn everything to end it, and even then who knows?) This is the kind of fire that you get fire abilities for making. We burned everything. And we had a lot to burn. The entire fire ring was ablaze and about an hour in we had a bed of coals all orange and heat wavy and still more stuff to burn. By the end, the coals were probably two or three inches thick and still very warm in the morning at least toward the bottom. Still, standing, at the highest point of the fiery evening we had flames up to my knees at least. Nothing could withstand this monstrous beast and while Paul may scoff and laugh I tell you now this fire cowed princes and had Kings kneeling to pay respect. Sorta. I mean, it was nice. Lots of backing up the chairs 'cause this thing was just getting HOT. We burned our walking sticks. Well, my walking stick since Paul didn't really use one. It was the last thing to go into the fire and I sat alone to watch it burn in silence, sort of reliving a few past memories and coming to terms with everything.
I've said this before, but I'm really at home in all elements. A shower or a pool or just by water and I can get calm and zen-like by it. Put a fire around and the same happens, just an inner peace. Sitting with nature, watching mountains, whatever, there's a peace there. Leave me in a light breeze, gentle gale kind of thing and it's a similar scenario - watching the clouds roll by, all that jazz. But, still, fire is probably one of my favorites if I were to pick.
Now. On the to t-shirt burning. Basically, we had no towels. Not basically. We just flat out had no towels. Forgot 'em. Whoops. So it was basically our own t-shirts we had to use. I had a Wal Mart pack from back when I worked at the tire shop, shirts I slept in now. Since I had several I basically said to Paul while we were trying to dry it (to no real success) 'you ever seen a t-shirt burn?' and he said 'no.' Not sure who in their right mind can say yes, really, but that's a fun story for another time I suppose. I debated for a moment and decided this was something I'd regret not doing so I threw that puppy into the flames. Well, really it was mostly coals by this point but those babies were hot. A t-shirt burns much like anything else but it was still very neat to see. Little pockety holes formed in it and it became very flimsy.. as happens when molecules get all burned off and stuff. So that was sweet. A similar situation occurred with the loufa since that didn't dry so easy, either, but I decided I'd need that later and ended up saving it from those hungry flames. Maybe that's why I got no fire powers.
Maybe.
It was a sweet, sweet time and of course I'm really happy that I got the chance to go. Wouldn't mind a second go, haha. Hopefully camping can commence in the future.
I was going to skim over this but I can't. Jake and Luke got HUGE, man. They're like thirty feet taller than they had been. And it seems as if they've actually calmed down a little from their rambunctious years. Don't mistake me, they're still little boys. There was a lot of playing and laughing and excitement. A lot of rushing sentences and a lot of 'watch this, let's do this, play with this, check this out' going on but it was a little.. tamer.. than I remember. And their vocabulary astounds me. They both talk like they've graduated college. Literally, some of these more challenging sentences I've heard come from their mouths. They're using all kinds of smarty pants words and it's like 'are you kidding me right now?' the whole time you talk to them. How can you talk about catching bugs and be using words like 'I am anxious to see what awaits when we return from camping' and such. I mean, come on guys.
So, they were a lot of fun. I got to see them do karate and that was pretty neat. They also did some tricks on their bikes.. and scooters.. and they wanted to get out the ATVs and their go-carts but we deemed that a little not necessary for the late hour. I did have a good chat with Monique again. I really like her, she's a very cool woman and pretty keen and easy to talk to. Paul's family always feels like my family, though, so I suppose that's why. I know it goes both ways.
I know I'm not picking favorites and I really do love them both very equally, find them both just as entertaining, blah blah blah. The same goes with my own brothers. But, still, I just feel a little more kinship with Jake. I don't know what it is, he just grows on me and I think he's adorable. Of course they both are. But Jake is extra adorable and I always wanna give that kid a big hug when I see him. The same goes for Luke but he DEMANDS hugs just about when you see him, haha. He was climbing all over me. With Jake I had to ask and it's funny because he grins and he's like 'of course you can have a hug.' Again. What the hell? But it's cute and I love 'em both to death. Just not, you know, like literally or anything.
So, right, camping. Sorry, zoned out for a second. Lucky you that you don't notice seeing as this is all written down. Haha.
Ahem. Right.
So the camping part was fun. Obviously it was fun. The drive wasn't too bad and the gathering of supplies was the usual humor-full trip. Spending time with Paul in general was a lot of fun. Of course. And it's been way too damn long. We didn't get to fit in EVERYTHING that we usually do but I have no regrets and, truthfully, we didn't need to fit in everything. I even got to hit the community college with him again. It was FREEZING by the way. In the morning, at least, and that brought back some memories. I got to read all of the Jack of Fables that are out so far, too. Wow. Just a neat, humorous story. Those Fables guys, man, they know how to write. Can nostalgia hit for something that just happened? Who knows! Haha.
Anyway, yeah, so we went through a very hilly part of the PA state. In retrospect, seeing as we past the usual meet up place with my mom when I used to live there, we should have called her for at least lunch that weekend. To be completely honest, I didn't even think of it. So it was a little silly when I talked to her after I got back that we never got to meet up for anything.
Driving through the mountains is, of course, beautiful. That shouldn't need to be said, you guys should know this. But it really is. And, truth be told, even knowing it's beautiful you still see things that give you a momentary pause even if you drive through there every day. So it was very refreshing to get to a state that had seasons. Most especially Fall which is probably my favorite one. Halloween, hello, get with it. (A lot of Dresden in these posts tonight, eh? Just finished Small Favor - awesome ride.)
So we had the Crouching Tiger soundtrack with us for the really pretty stuff once we'd gotten off the exit and it was very.. peaceful. Honestly, I felt like I was in an entirely different place and it was nice. No reception which, in a way, was also nice. It just feels good to not worry or think about anything beyond where you are and what you're doing. I was completely relaxed and it just felt good. Really good.
We set up camp with a little humor, already realizing we forgot the hammer for the stakes in the tent. We utilized a broken piece of a thick stick (this helpful tool met it's end in the fire on the final night as all things burnable did including one of my shirts and nearly my loufa thing - more in a minute.) Further, we got all the gear out and then we started our way to get some firewood. Our first attempt (oh, also, someone was in our camping spot due to some booking error so we had to go to the place and we ended up getting a place that, in my opinion, was even nicer 'cause when I saw the camp site we did have I was a little not excited since it was cramped - this one was out on the hilly plains and nicer especially on the last night with just about no one there.) Anyway, we did a search for a little while and basically just came up with kindling and a few of the bigger logs. But we had no saw so burning was going to be problematic to say the least. We went in search of firewood and found a place to purchase from. Basically a guy that had an extra garage outside his house really built into two garages and a shop for campers and the like. It was a unique experience, buying from him, but there were no shops in the vicinity and he was a pretty cool and friendly fellow. It was still weird going to his house to get him then walking to his shop. Anyway. We got two bundles of firewood and made it to the campsite.
Ham and cheese for lunch in the mountain/moon pie makers. Mmmm, baby! But it got a bit burned so we went for round two with better success. A great many things were burned in this manner, some not so bad and some of them unedible. No matter, really, since we had no shortage of supplies. Real butter would have been preferred to cooking spray but it worked out okay. The meals were delightful and every bit as good as any campfire tasty treat should be. We had hot dogs, brats (a new one on the camp fire and goofy to cook), s'mores, moon pie things, ham and cheese as mentioned, cereal, eggs and a skillet and such (which turned out not to be so fantastic.)
God kept the weather pretty nice. Maybe He figured it'd be nice not to kill me with such a drastic, icy change. It was still chilly, don't get me wrong, at night though. In the day time it was t-shirt weather. I don't do shorts in the wilderness, just not smart to the ankles and calves usually. And hairs get burned by campfires sometimes so we play that safe, too. Anyway.
Nature walks were had aplenty and thankfully my new-ish shoes weren't ruined with rain. Again. God, You're the man... Man. Give thanks where it's due. So that was realllly nice. There were a lot of really cool scenes, the best of them caught on film. While a few of the pictures didn't come out so hot, a little thing with sunlight not cutting through the trees properly, for the most part all our pictures came out nice and nevermind that we forgot the digital camera. Happens. No big.
One of the cooler things about the trip, though, was the stars. And thank the moon for being out, man. WOW. This guy was so big with a telescope. I guess I didn't mention that. Paul has a really cool telescope that we were using. The moon was realllly big and it was super cool. Nice and full. I swear I could see the American flag on that thing. Maybe several of them, I don't know. Lots of places it could have been. But it was really cool to look through the thing. New Years should be fun for this.
The saying, pretty much, for this weekend was basically 'umm.. this is probably not a good idea but let's do it anyway, who's gunna stop us?' And, truthfully, no one did. This was the first camping experience we'd ever been out on our own and it was kind of cool to fend for ourselves in that regard. We spent the second morning gathering more firewood (kindling, really, since we burnt all the rest the night before.) We got a lot. I mean like enough that we barely burned a third of it and not too many of the firewood we'd bought by the next day.
So, anyway, we enjoyed a great many s'mores and snacks and food and just indulged. It was awesome. And we got to fool around with the fire (which we pretty much have been doing anyway.) We took a lot of long, fun nature-related walks and saw some cool sites. This is the kind of personal thing that doesn't come off in type too well. You can't describe the beauty and amazing..ness.. of nature without just being in it. We did find a hefty walking stick on the second day at some point which was cool. And on the first day, I believe, we had to secure some big freakin' stones for the grill. That's fun, lugging huge stones on a long hike. Haha. But it all worked out well enough.
All in all, we had a really cool trip. At least I did. We watched Heroes when we got back, which was not fun in and of itself but it was nice to relieve some of that TV show hype together even if the episode kinda sucked. I think after this was actually the Karate bit and then another dinner. FYI, Monique knows how to cook. I mean she ROCKS at it. And, yeah, my dad has a lot of cool dishes he can make and my mom knows her way around the kitchen on one or two things and my grandpa can make a few dishes but Monique uses something that not a great many of these people employ - cookbooks. She's got a great many of them and she knows how to make the recipes good, better, or just flat out toes-curling orgasmic. I suppose it's a science or something. So, I forgot what she made - hahahahaha, I know - but it was really freakin' good.
You thought I forgot about the fire, didn't you? Hell no. Save the best for last.
This baby was epic.
And when I mean epic. I mean it.
E-P-I-C.
This was the fire to end all fires (though that doesn't work 'cause fire pretty much would have to burn everything to end it, and even then who knows?) This is the kind of fire that you get fire abilities for making. We burned everything. And we had a lot to burn. The entire fire ring was ablaze and about an hour in we had a bed of coals all orange and heat wavy and still more stuff to burn. By the end, the coals were probably two or three inches thick and still very warm in the morning at least toward the bottom. Still, standing, at the highest point of the fiery evening we had flames up to my knees at least. Nothing could withstand this monstrous beast and while Paul may scoff and laugh I tell you now this fire cowed princes and had Kings kneeling to pay respect. Sorta. I mean, it was nice. Lots of backing up the chairs 'cause this thing was just getting HOT. We burned our walking sticks. Well, my walking stick since Paul didn't really use one. It was the last thing to go into the fire and I sat alone to watch it burn in silence, sort of reliving a few past memories and coming to terms with everything.
I've said this before, but I'm really at home in all elements. A shower or a pool or just by water and I can get calm and zen-like by it. Put a fire around and the same happens, just an inner peace. Sitting with nature, watching mountains, whatever, there's a peace there. Leave me in a light breeze, gentle gale kind of thing and it's a similar scenario - watching the clouds roll by, all that jazz. But, still, fire is probably one of my favorites if I were to pick.
Now. On the to t-shirt burning. Basically, we had no towels. Not basically. We just flat out had no towels. Forgot 'em. Whoops. So it was basically our own t-shirts we had to use. I had a Wal Mart pack from back when I worked at the tire shop, shirts I slept in now. Since I had several I basically said to Paul while we were trying to dry it (to no real success) 'you ever seen a t-shirt burn?' and he said 'no.' Not sure who in their right mind can say yes, really, but that's a fun story for another time I suppose. I debated for a moment and decided this was something I'd regret not doing so I threw that puppy into the flames. Well, really it was mostly coals by this point but those babies were hot. A t-shirt burns much like anything else but it was still very neat to see. Little pockety holes formed in it and it became very flimsy.. as happens when molecules get all burned off and stuff. So that was sweet. A similar situation occurred with the loufa since that didn't dry so easy, either, but I decided I'd need that later and ended up saving it from those hungry flames. Maybe that's why I got no fire powers.
Maybe.
It was a sweet, sweet time and of course I'm really happy that I got the chance to go. Wouldn't mind a second go, haha. Hopefully camping can commence in the future.