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BizB
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Camping Story
2005-07-25 |
Friday, I left work early to get a head-start on the trip. I went home and packed up the last few things, loaded the truck and hit the road. Thanks to my speeding strategy, I was able to get to the campground before Talix, and way ahead of schedule. I had the tents unloaded and started setting up just about dusk. First, I layed out the huge tarp where the tents would stand. There was really only one "level" spot to set up the tents and even that spot wasn't so level. I had the tents most of the way set up when I got a call from Talix. She wasn't really lost, but couldn't find the road from 381 to the road where the campground is located. I tried to describe the brown, non-reflective signs that indicate where the campground is located, but it was of no use. She wasn't even on the same road upon which I came in. After some frustration, she stopped and asked someone for directions. Lucky for her, the guy she asked worked for the campground and was able to give her really good directions. Since I hadn't heard from her, and the tents were mostly erected, I decided to take a trip out to the entrance road and give her a call to see if there was a way we could figure out a meeting point. As I drove to the front gate of the park, I saw Talix coming into the park, so I turned around and she followed me back to the unloading point. We had parked next to the bathrooms and hiked down about 100 yards, lugging our gear to the site. By that time, it was completely dark. As a matter of fact, it had been dark for some time. I think I had about 10 minutes of dusk while I set up the tarp and the tents before it was necessary to turn on the flashlight. We each did our own thing to get the camp in order - mostly without even discussing whom would do which task. By the time we were done, it was near 11pm and we were sweaty and fairly tired.
Since I had bought some firewood on my way into the park, we had a nice fire for a couple of hours while we made kissy-faces and talked. I had planned on fixing up some hobo-pies with apple filling, but neither of us really felt very hungry, so we skipped that. Bedtime was a little after 1 a.m.
Saturday morning, we both woke up way too early, but we were able to get back to sleep. Or, I was any way. I don't recall if Talix got any extra sleep after she got up at 6 a.m. and re-kindled the fire and tinkled next to the potty tree. I think we got up and rolling at around 8 on Saturday.
Here is a panoramic shot of the campsite.
Breakfast was English muffins with turkey bacon, eggs and cheese. Oh, and coffee! Dark bitter coffee with lots of dark bitterness. It was passable though, and not too bad for our first attempt with the coffee pot we used. Talix blamed it on the mix of Starbucks and Maxwell House with the blame going directly to the Starbucks. I didn't care. I was happy. I don't think we ate any strawberries on Saturday morning and I know we didn't break out the melon until lunch time, so the muffins were "it" for breakfast. And, they were good.
After breakfast, we washed the dishes and went to take care of some personal business. Unfortunately, there was a water-main break and a power outage (yes, both) and the bathrooms were closed. So, we hopped in the truck and tooled into town to find a bathroom. After taking care of our business and a short walk, we decided not to get icecream and to head back to camp.
Lunch on Saturday was ham & cheese hobo sandwiches and green-beans.
During the afternoon, we loaded up the bikes and went back into town where there is a trail that extends at least 71 miles in one direction and God only knows how far in the other direction.
Talix had warned me that it had been ages since she was on a bike and that it might take her a bit to get used to it. She did appear uneasy at first, but was much more comfortable by the time we were done.
It wasn't until we were well into the ride that I remembered that Chris's bike has one pedal that is caterwonked and it makes the ride feel funny. We ended up going about a mile and 1/4 before we turned around. On the way back, we stopped at a little overlook where there was a bench and a clearing in the trees afforded a view of a small rapids on the river.
We didn't sit on the bench. We ventured down the rocks and sat about 50 feet above the water on a nice flat rock where we watched the water and the rafters for a little while.
 
We pushed on. On the way back, Talix was comfortable enough on the bike to look to the sides and take in a bit of the view while she rode. Upon our return to the truck, we loaded the bikes in the back and went for a walk down to the river. There, we waded in the bone-chillingly-cold-water about as far as we could tolerate - read: ankle deep for me/calf deep for Tal.
When we returned to camp, we discussed making dinner, but again, neither of us were hungry. So, the steak for the kabobs that were planned for Saturday night came home with me. The veggies didn't escape so easy. Saturday night we had a nice fire and I think we went to bed a bit earlier than we had on Friday night. I really have no clue, though. Sunday, we had scrambled eggs with mushrooms, yellow peppers and orange peppers; coffee and toast. The coffee was much better on Sunday. We learned. After cleaning up, from breakfast... Wow, I don't remember what we did between breakfast and breaking camp. I do know that it took some time to break camp as we did it at a nice easy pace. Again, we both kind of took care whatever without much discussion about who was doing what. We just knew what needed to be done, and we did it. Oh, I do remember one thing between breakfast and breaking camp... Tal read to me from her Quantum Physics book and we discussed the various parts of the book trying to wrap our puny little brains around the concepts presented. That was fun! We had some visitors too!
 
After we had everything loaded into the truck, we went to Tal's car and transferred her stuff into her car. Then, she followed me back into town where we would eat lunch. We had my Mediterranean salad and 2 forks which we carried down to a nice ledge overlooking the rapids/falls and ate between glances into each other's eyes. We parted at around 4:15 on Sunday. She went south on 381. I went north.
My plan was to take 381 to 76 and then head west. I was low on gas when I left Ohiopyle and I refused to pay the $2.87 at the one station in that little town. I had my eyes open along the way for a gas station. There were NONE! I made a wrong turn at 31 and ended up going about 4 miles out of my way before I turned around. I stopped and asked for directions to the nearest gas station hoping that the local would say there was one just off of 381 somewhere nearby. No such luck. The closest station was at 31 and 76 where I was to get on the turnpike. Talix called me just as I was reaching panic mode regarding the fuel situation. She stopped on the side of the road where she was - refusing to go any further away from me until she knew that I was okay. I headed back to 31 and made the turn to head to the turnpike. The turnpike was 4 miles away.
I made it! That is to say, I made it to the valley before the last hill between my turn around point and the gas station. There, at the bottom of this hill with just over a mile to go, the Hemi sucked the last drop of life giving blood and it sputtered to a halt. Now, mind you, at this point I still didn't know how far away the station was as I had not yet passed the sign that says, turnpike 1 mile. I went into a small bakery and asked the girls inside how far the nearest gas station is. The indicated that it was just over that next hill... about a mile or so. Ha! I can walk a mile! I can even run a mile! Why, I remember, when I was in the Air Force, I ran a mile in less than FIVE minutes! This would be a breeze!
I told this to Tal and told her I would call her back when I had an update. I was going to jog it. I knew that with my luck, the gas station was going to be closed, or not have a gas can I could borrow/buy. And, as if to prove me right, the response to, "Do you have a gas can I can borrow?" was, "No." Quickly, I responded with the next best thing... "buy?" But of course they had one I could buy! So, I bought the $3.00 gas can for $10.79 and I put $3.50 worth of gas into it. But, not before calling Tal and giving her the update that all is well. We stayed on the phone for the entire walk back to the truck. Only one person stopped and they didn't even stay long enough for me to catch up. They drove off when I was about 20 feet behind the truck. I have no idea if they were going to offer a ride, or not.
I put the gas in truck, drove to the gas station, filled up, bought a soda and some Mentos and went home. The end.
P.S. Talix I love you so much, words do not come close. Thanks for an AWESOME weekend.
P.P.S. I know I left a bunch of stuff off of this story... things like feeding you strawberries, you reading the fire-starter newspapers to me etc. Feel free to fill in the gaps.
P.P.P.S. I saw this strawberry banana moth in the bathroom and thought he was cool.
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Talix18 Mon Aug 01 07:08:05 AM 
sopops Sun Jul 31 08:00:36 AM 
Betty Boop Sat Jul 30 08:46:06 AM 
BizB Wed Jul 27 08:26:21 AM