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Oklahoma City Visit
My old friend Nathan and his awesome girlfriend Grace break us right out of our routine by taking us to see Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s at a small venue in nearby Norman, keeping us up way past our bedtime. The cure for that comes the next morning at the Red Cup. Red…
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Benighted on Cub Lake
We’re camped by what looks like a tiny lake in Natchez Trace State Park, and we want to get a hike in before the day is over, so we decide to try to find our way around the lake. It’s easy enough at first as we follow roads through the campground and cabin areas. Then…
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Hungry Mother State Park
Today we start heading West, but the sunny weather tempts us to find another hike before leaving Virginia. Hungry Mother State Park supplies a really pleasant loop around a reservoir in the oak and maple forest we’re coming to expect in this part of the country, but there is another small budding tree in the…
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Rocky Knob Loop
The Blue Ridge Parkway is quite close to Randy’s house, so he knows just where to go when we ask for a small hike. We wind up to the ridge for a few tantalizing views, but the first half of the trail wends through the woods, where old cabins have a tendency to disappear and…
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A Morning at Weathertop Farm
We make our way to Ann’s brother Randy’s place in Floyd, Virginia. He’s working part time on a friend’s farm, and we offer to spend a morning “helping” so we get to gawk at all the stuff going on here. Our first job is to head down the hill and feed the hogs. Randy shows…
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Great Falls Park on the Potomac
We’ve continued south on highways flanked with still-colorful oak and maple forests to Rockville, Maryland, where Ann’s friend Jonathan lives with his wife Lisa. It’s mostly a working visit for me, but I can’t resist a hike in this small national park on the Potomac river. We begin along the old “tow canal” that for…
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Lancaster County Tour
Manheim, Pennsylvania is home to several generations of my family on the Kuhn side, but is almost completely foreign to me. Sue Obetz and grandma Eileen Kuhn, our hosts here, give Dad, Sarah, and I a good survey of the county. Our first stop is the old Abe Wallace farm, which grandma Eileen finds the…
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Schenectady Rendezvous
Even though she has a cold, Ann seizes this opportunity to take a train to her old neighborhood in Brooklyn and visit some friends. Meanwhile I spend a few more days in Vermont, then drive to Schenectady to pick her up at the train station there. (A little lesson from people who follow a lot…
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Plainfield Harvest Happenings
Jason gives me a nice peek into the Plainfield community by taking me to a couple of fall events. The first is a harvest party, a pot luck featuring one of Jason’s lambs roasted whole and and fresh apple cider. There’s a cold wind, but everyone has themselves and their children wrapped in layers of…
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Spruce Mountain
Just up the road from our host’s abode is a trail to the Spruce mountain fire lookout in L.R. Jones State Forest. The trail is rocky and wet – this country seems like it would be a giant swamp if the mountains weren’t here to keep the water flowing. The summit is windy, making the…