The rest of the weekend

Well, I’m impressed with the lack of accuracy that I put in the last post. As Suns pointed out, there were at least 2 technical errors (as well as countless grammatical and spelling errors…thank goodness that Microsoft Grammar check works so well!) that I haven’t yet fixed, and probably won’t. It makes more sense to leave the errors there so that it proves just how human I am. I know, I know…this is a big shock to some of you, but I AM human. (laughs)

Ok, so apparently I finished off with Day 1 of the visit, which would now put me at Sunday (yes, dear reader, I realize it’s Thursday in every other part of the world right now, but we’re going to do a sort of Wayne’s World flashback complete with doodle-o sounds…)

Sunday, we woke up and had coffee for breakfast and were trying to figure out what to do with the day. We finally decided on visiting Antietam (Maryland) and Harper’s Ferry (West Virginia). It was a nice day out (probably in the 50’s for the high) and we decided to pack a sack lunch so that we wouldn’t have to search for a place to eat (little did we know that Harper’s Ferry has at least 2 dining places…well, I didn’t know that anyway!). So, because of the time (11:30 or so) we decided that we would go to Harper’s Ferry first, then hit Antietam on the way back.

Harper’s Ferry is really a cool place. You get there by driving. Yeah, that’s amazing, I know. I mean, you could probably fly there, or parachute in, but driving is the best way probably. Once you actually arrive at the place, you get on this bus that actually takes you to Harper’s Ferry proper. It’s about 2.5 miles from the park entrance to the bottom of the hill, which (believe me) is a long way to think about walking if you miss the bus…especially if you’ve just walked up the side of a hill, fallen down and then walked back down the hill, but that’s getting ahead of myself a little.

So, we got to Harper’s Ferry and rode the bus to the bottom of the hill. We looked around a bit at the shop and stuff and generally made our way to these guys who had this crowd surrounding them next to the river. As it turns out, they weren’t in some sort of cult or anything, but were playing music with an authentic (to the era) CD player (they also had a guitar, but by the way one of the guys was holding it, I think he thought it was a weapon or something…he was from West Virginia…you could tell). We then crossed this bridge over the Potomac River (or, I think it was the Potomac anyway) and were once again back in Maryland.

There is this hill (compared to the “hills” in Ruston, this was a mountain) on the other side of the river that has a trail up it that you can hike to some Civil War military sites. Well, we decided that we would hike up the “hill” to these places and have a picnic lunch while at the top of said hill in this rocky area that overlooked Harper’s Ferry. We slushed (I say “slushed” because it wasn’t a normal trail, but one composed of partially melted snow, mud and rocks that, when met by sneakers, made hiking somewhat difficult) up this hill and then were following this small trail down to an overlook place where cannons once stood, when gravity got the best of me and I fell. I didn’t fall far (probably a total of only 3 feet (I’m 6’ tall, and I fell to my knee)), but I landed right on my knee that found, of all things, either a stick or a rock that was buried in the mud there. That hurt a bit. I scraped as much of the mud off my knee with some grass that I could and took a seat on a log that was resting there (it, too, was on a journey before it fell). Once the numbness wore off, we continued on our merry way up the side of the hill.

Once we got to the lookout place on the “top” of the “hill”, we sat down and had a nice lunch of carrots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, animal crackers and some water. It was a great place to sit, eat and laugh at one another. I don’t remember what all happened other than that. The view was spectacular! I mean, here you are, sitting on a “hill top” surrounded by big rocks, trees, and some snow…you look down below you and you see “hills”, 2 rivers, a small town, automobiles, the sky…pretty much everything you wouldn’t see in Kansas (inside joke). “Behold…before you lies the antithesis of all that is Kansas.” It was awesome. There were other strange people there as well. People who were from West Virginia, no doubt…you could tell. Anyway, we threw some snowballs and rocks for a while and then decided that we rested for a bit too long, so we began the trip down the “hill” shortly thereafter. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever hiked up a “hill” before, but uphill is kind of a challenge sometimes, but downhill…the only challenge you face is not falling on your butt – especially when you’re dealing with slushy trails and snow. Well, we got to the bottom of the hill without incident (although I stopped once or twice to put snow on my knee which was a nice shade of red).

Once we got back to Harper’s Ferry, we realized that it was 4:45 and the last bus to the top of the hill (remember, it’s 2.5 miles…uphill…both ways…) would maybe be leaving shortly. So, what did we do? Did we rush across the bridge back into town so that we could hop on the bus so that we wouldn’t have to hike out? No…that would not be what we did. We ended up stopping at the Cannonball Diner (or something like that) and got ice cream. Yes…here it is, February, it’s 50ish outside, and we’re ordering ice cream (from someone who was definitely from West Virginia…you could tell). We then got over to the bus stop (where we were asked “Where did you get that ice cream?”…I’m not kidding) in time for a bus to pick us up. Apparently, “The last bus from Harper’s Ferry leaves at 5:45” in West Virginia means the same thing that it does in Maryland…go figure. We got back to the car around 5 and decided that it was too late to visit Antietam…so we went back home.

Groovy had to go to work on Monday, so I was at the apartment with Sasha (“kitty cat”). She and I hung out for a while and talked about all sorts of stuff. It’s amazing how much of a conversationalist she really is. Really. Anyway, I drove groovy’s car around town a bit and didn’t get lost but once (I took a right instead of going straight…sheesh…stupid New Design road!). Frederick is one of the most messed up towns that I’ve been to. It isn’t that hard to find things, but it’s still not designed very well. Anyway, I went to Boarders and to the “Mall” there (“Mall” because, while it is a mall technically, it’s pretty cheesy). Groovy came home for lunch and we talked, then she had to go back to work. Sasha and I took a nap, which was much needed.

Tuesday, groovy also had to go to work, so Sasha and I did a little cleaning (dishes, clean the floors etc) and then we took another nap. When groovy got home, she said that we were going to go tubing in Pennsylvania. Some of the people that she works with were going to join us there. So, we got all dressed up (“It’s going to be COLD up there!!” hahah!). I wore some insulated wind pants, a jacket that was supposed to have a liner, but I took it out and gave it to groovy, some waterproof boots, and a t-shirt. We met the people at the place where groovy works. I was introduced to Mr. Greek, The Princess and The Joker. They were the ones that were actually in the office (pseudo-names used to protect the innocent). Once we got outside, we met one other guy (can’t think of a good name for him, sorry) and then we were on the road. The Princess was talking to another one of their work people (I’ll call her “Number 2”…she was bring her son who I’ll refer to as “Mr. Excitement”). We all arrived at the place about the same time (6:30pm) and purchased a 2 hour ticket to go tubing.

Now, if you’ve never been tubing, let me describe it to you: Imagine yourself on the side of a 400-500 yard slope (around 45 degree incline) that is situated on the side of a “hill”. There is snow everywhere (thankfully!) and a lift that consists of a motor driven cable that is attached to this handle on the inner tub that pulls you (sitting) up the side of the hill to the top. Once you’re at the top, you look down the slope and realize that the only way down is…well…down the slope. The first time you go down, you’re holding on for dear life…praying that you don’t end up on America’s Funniest Home Videos, or worse, the local news. Once you reach the bottom of the “hill” you pick yourself up, dust off the snow that splashed up on you, and you get back in line to do it all over again. It’s FUN!

The first time, I wasn’t too sure because I went down the hill on my butt (in the tube…thankfully). Speed? Yeah…it was kinda fast, but there was no real feeling of a rush. The second time I went down, I went down face first (again in the tube…hehe) and that was SO much better. I mean, the snow is flying past your face at something less than 10,000 miles an hour (ok, much MUCH less, but it’s still cool). At one point, groovy and I went down the hill together (we tied the tubes together), and that was even faster (the whole mass vs. gravity thing, no doubt…physics is your friend). This went on for the better part of 2 hours when we decided to go inside and chat with the others who had gone inside earlier.

We sat down and chatted for a while with the crew (what else do you call a group of people you just met?) and I was introduced to another member of the group who I’ll call “Ert”. She had apparently gotten there later and I, being so entranced by the snow and the fun, hadn’t noticed…sorry! Holy crap…I’m almost at the end of page 4 in this word document…quick wrap-up…

The Princess rode back with groovy and I and we let her off at their building and then went home where we “thawed out” (my right nostril and my left ear lobe were cool…(laughs)).
It was, without a doubt, one of the best weekends of my entire life.