The Catskills (a.k.a. NO FLACK)

Well. I'm sitting in a McDonalds in some town on the eastern side of the Adirondacks (just an hour or so away from Vermont). Amazingingly enough by the time I find free Wi-fi its at a location where their server is down. So i am sittting here drinking a fruit smoothie (only thing i can stomach on their menu at the moment) and downloading my pics...writing up an adventure that I may or may not ever get to post...

So, here I go - The Catskills

Where to begin. I love them. They are beautiful and the people are amazingly nice. And after the first day when i drove around endlessly on the same roads looking for a way out (to find a town - to get a map) and believing I had trapped myself in a biodome...asking random hikers along the road if I was trapped in some sort of bubble (only half of them looked at me like i was crazy)--I finally got a good map and figured it out.

I will summarize my adventure - my campsite, while a good one along the river - was packed in tight with a strange family that seemed to know everyone at the campsite. They blared rockin oldies most of the time and there was a man (who i named Al) who kept yelling at people. But then there was the big guy (who I named Big Ole Billy) who cracked the worst joke to me the first morning - he said "they say its supposed to be a 3-dog night," I assume in reference to my 1 dog and lack of 2 others... I laughed and spoke to big billy for a bit.

I mostly drove around in the catskills. I drove and drove and drove and drove and found cute town after cute town. I met an awesome lady named Jill who owns her own pottery business out of a barn near her home on some mountain in a tiny town in the middle of the Catskills that I somehow managed to find in spite of the fact that they don't really believe in signs here... Jill invited me to a benefit event for the movement against the mining for Frack - some kinda gas that they leach out of shale. Sounds ridiculous. Mark Ruffalo and Debra Winger were going to be there. I thought Jill was awesome and really wanted to get a chance to see debra winger in person, but ended up not going because I was so exhausted that next day from all the driving i went back to camp and crashed. good thing - cause turns out Big Ole Billy was worried about me when i didn't get back to camp until dark - so it was really nice to know that big ole billy was looking out for me. Big Ole Billy said he was gonna send the rangers after me. Not sure where they would have gone to look, but again, it was super nice to know he was looking out for me (I know my momma would be happy to hear that, too).

I found a super cute town where I bought an old book on yellowstone and ate some yummy mussels & calamari and drank a irish hard cider (with Oreo chillin beside me on the patio) and enjoyed myself. all of this is out of order. I'm trying to remember the details after a few days.... Oh, I also met a super nice mennonite family that lives on a commune in the Platte Clove of the Catskills. They talked to me for a long time and I'm fairly sure they would have invited me back for Sunday dinner, had I not been starving on the trail and in desperate need of a snickers. They actually even offered me food on the trail when I told them i was heading back to get some. This place is so full of nice poeple! Oh, and I was searching for the bottom of a super nice waterfall and met some mountain bikers who directed me down the side of a mountain where Oreo and I went rockclimbing. Did i mention my dog is a bad-ass? all that quarry climbing back at ijams has paid off! So much to tell, so many fun adventures...

Some Pics:

Knoxville to Harrisburg, PA

I'm already at the end of my 2nd day and I can't believe it! Last night I camped at Beaver Brook Campground in Mount Rogers Recreation Area. It was a nice campground - but somehow I managed to be the only tent camper. I was a little nervous for my first solo camping trip to be in an area where I was all alone - just me and the woods! It was getting late and i wanted to get my tent up before dark - and within a few minutes there was this little old man walking toward my car. Being wary on my first trip alone I pretened to be busy on the other side of the car- but it was clear he was coming to my site. I was looking for my pepper spray and sizing up the perp when i realized - oh yea, he's the campground host! I felt a little paranoid after that.. he was super sweet - he lived there with his little wife. I told him I was alone and he said "nobody will bother you -- and if they do -- you come get me. I was thinking....whats this 90 lbs 80 year old man gonna do?

But it seemed pretty safe here and so I set up camp and made my first camp dinner - beanie weenies! I fed Oreo, popped open a cold cider and settle down in my camp chair (I mean Debbi's camp chair---Debs you might find this chair familiar...). he said I could let Oreo run around, too, so long as I kept her under control. sweet deal. thank you cute little old man : ) you made the first night of my adventure even more special with your kindness -- and finding out you weren't going to try to kill me...

I didn't sleep much but I felt good in the morning and after making some coffee, eating breakfast, and drying out the gear a little - I hit the road! I realized I had made a gross error and overestimated my drive time to PA. what i thought was going to be over 8 hours was really only 5. So...I checked the map and realized Hwy 11 (Lee Highway - same one in Knoxville) goes all the way up to Harrisburg! So I took this route 90% of the way! It was so cool! I saw SO MANY cool old houses and farmsteads, civil war sites, parks, awesome little towns, a boy getting a whippin', an Ugg boot that had been tossed into the middle of the road, a big giant bald man with one leg drinking coffee on the porch of a cool coffee shop, my first Amish wagon, and NO WALMARTS!! Definitely a better tour of Virginia and PA then Interstate 81! And i still got to Carlsile by 6pm. My hotel has no wi-fi : ( And its really not the greatest hotel in the world, but for $45 and pets stay for free?? Its perfect! There is a field behind the hotel I could let oreo free to run wild.

I drove around Harrisburg for an hour looking for a Thai restaurant. I got lost in downtown Harrisburg - incidently this is not a very dog friendly town...no dog friendly restaurants. So when i decided to turn around, i found that I had already passed a thai restaurant...so i picked up some pad thai to go and headed back to the Motel 6.

Been in the mountains...

Okay - if there is anyone out there looking for a post - I have finally crawled out of the woods and found some free wi-fi. And, while searching for days and finding not even a McDonalds that works-I have found an adorable coffee shop/bookstore in the middle of Vermont that I love so much I may not leave! While I've not been able to post - I've written about my trip thus far and have decided to just dump all my posts on here at once! Who knows when I will get Wi-Fi again. Its raining outside and its a great day to sip some chai tea and chill. Here is where I have been so far....

Its Finally Here!!!

After much anticipation, the day is finally here - where I shall go to the mountains and forget about all the crappiness going on here :) I have packed up half my stuff in the car and have to actually go into work and be there for 8 hours or so and pretend, I mean, REALLY..work! After work I am picking up O, throwing the food in the cooler, grabbing some ice and heading to Virginia! First stop - Mount Rogers Recreation Area! Camping on some creek somewhere not far off the interstate. Just 2 days from now i will be in the Catskills!! Cheers!

I'll try to make these entries a little more entertaining from here on out. Its 5:30 am and I've had no coffee, can't sleep, and thinking about maybe cleaning my extremely dirtyhouse before going into the office. Or giving Oreo a bath....now thats not a bad idea....

Oreo is clean now... and the house. Would upload pictures but my dinosaur computer seems to not be recogizing the card reader. See you in a few days!

Packing and Waiting

I have 3 days left - and I have pretty much packed everything. Now all I have to do is sit around and wait.... wait for it... oh yeah, and pretend to work. I think I have everything planned out. I bought about a million dollars worth of crap for the trip and have a case full of candy, chocolate and marshmallows (your basic needs, of course). All I need now is to buy some final stuff at the grocery store and shove it all into my car!!! So. Here I am. Waiting...

My New England Adventure

So its been about 400 years since I last posted anything on my blog. But since I'm going to be going on a long (for me) road trip and I bought a teeny tiny computer to bring along with me - I thought I could use this forum to post some pics and let family and friends know I'm still alive (going by myself).

Me and Oreo (my dog) are going to take a 2 week (17 days) vacation up north and see as much as we can see across atleast 5 states (we are going to stay in 5 states but drive through more). The trip doesn't start for 11 more days - but I'm getting so excited I can barely stand it. I've worked up an itinerary and have already started to pack (dork). Here is the plan:

Day 1 Leave after work and drive up to VA near Wythesville.
Day 2 Wythesville to Harrisburg, PA (stay in a hotel)
Day 3 PA to the Catskills!! Camp for 2 nights!!
Day 5 Catskills to Adirondacks (camp) - hike and paddle with O
Day 7 Adirondacks to Vermont (camp) - Green Mountains
Day 8 Vermont to New Hampshire (camp 2 nights) in White Mountains
Day 10 NH to Acadia NP for 3 nights of camping (biking, hiking, boating)
Day 12 Acadia to Portland Maine (hotel 2 nights)
Day 14 Portland to Hagerstown, MD (hotel)
Day 15 MD to Blue Ridge Parkway (camp 2 nights along parkway)

Whoo hoo! I'm so excited!! More to come!!

the girl with too many animals...

So I inherited some sort of a soft spot for four-legged friends and can't seem to stop myself from picking up animals off the side of the road (or those that accidently walk through my yard and look hungry and in need of loving). As such - I have never needed to go to the shelter to find a pet - they just find me. It has been a blessing (had lots of great pets) and perhaps a curse all at the same time. First Muffin (the awesome cat), Grain (the one we stole from a neighbor), Pooh (the ghetto kitty), and then Oreo (the mangy nasty rat turned fluffy enlarged papillon). All great friends. Pooh and Oreo are still with me and are the loves of my life. All has been in balance in the world of happy rockgirl animals.....

Then.....Halloween 08 comes along and then enters Big. Big was a pit-bull mix who appeared to be either playing real-life frogger or maybe just attempting suicide in the street on my way to work the morning of Halloween. I see him at the 4-way and feel bad that this dog has somehow gotten loose and seems to be lost. Then, for whatever reason -- perhaps fate -- he starts chasing down my car. It was as though he saw some sort of hidden sticker on the back of my car (the one that says "SUCKER FOR ANIMALS-FOLLOW ME." That is how Oreo hitched a ride, as well.

So I can't let a suicidal frogger dog just end up road kill after having made eye contact and the poor thing entering my sub-conscience. Stupid mind. I pick the poor fellow up and bring him home to my basement where I diligently make flyers and spread them around in hopes of his owners come rescue him and love him forever. I knew it wouldn't happen. The poor thing had a choker collar on and was very malnurished.

A month later I gave up and started posting ads for him on websites and at work - trying to find someone with a big heart to take this poor pup and love and care for him. My roommate, conveniently, is in vet school and got him fixed, chipped, up-to-date on all shots, etc. We brought him into the house and he became our foster friend. For the lack of creativity - we named him after his enormous and very muscular head -- Big. Short for Big head. If you have to ask at this point why I would name a dog big -- you obviously missed the previous pet names that should pretty much sum up the fact that I completely lack creativity when thinking up names. If I ever have children - I might name them Baby Slime or Super Melon. I think thats the reason why perhaps I should not have them.

Anywho-where am i going with this jabber? Big was a joy to house train. It was 3 months into this when we realized it was time to attempt a crate. It was too much for my stomach to come home to the site of this:

But all of this I have decided was a chance for me to learn patience. Tolerance. I've been reading about it for a long time and this presented an opportunity to practice. Meditation and deep breathing can get you to a point - but at some point you have to try it on in the real world.

And what better way then by having your house destroyed?

But all this aside. Our patience prevailed. We didn't give up on the little bugger. We continued to work with him.

So Big has been with us now for 5 months. He is potty trained, crate trained, and the sweetest, most lovable dog in the world. He gives hugs, cuddles in bed with you, and now when I come home I see this:

Its a sweet site.