I am counting down the hours to starting the trail. We’ve done all the trailer work we’re going to do for now. Tomorrow we head towards Georgia, Tuesday we will stay at Amicacola Falls State Park. Wednesday I start walking North. About 2,200 miles of north.
The past few weeks have been something of a blur. I’ve missed posting on obvious no-brainer days like Pi day (3.14), St. Paddies Day (3.17) and the arrival of Spring (3.20 @ 5.58 PM EDT). So, I guess missing three major events calls for justification.
We did a trip to St. Louis for Ava’s first birthday party and the surprise blessed nuptials of her parents, Stefan and Kasey. Great party in a fun town. I could learn to like St. Louis.
Lise and a one year old Ava.
Some orchids at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.
Lindsay came East for a visit. She spent a couple days up in Philly with Molly and Mitchell, the whole gang came down here for a couple days, then we took her back to Philly. While she was here the Surfing Crab opened for the season, kicking off the good eating season. We did a dozen blue crabs, some fried oysters, and washed everything down with a couple pitchers of Yuengling. That my friends, is good living. Only an order of scrapple could have made it better. There’s something about eviscerating your food at the table that brings out a certain level of paganism. A word of advice to the innocent – don’t get between Molly and a crab. You’ve been warned.
These guys were in the water not too long before becoming a right tasty dinner.
About to pounce.
How often is a mallet part of the tableware?
We did a one day trip up and back to Lynn’s in Pennsylvania so I could return a borrowed air compressor. The trip up in the pouring rain was uneventful to the point of boring. The trip back was a bit more interesting. Buzzing down the PA turnpike in the rain, Lise was in the passing lane getting ready to pass a semi. The car ahead of us, just past the semi, suddenly slammed headfirst into the left guardrail, bounced off, slide through the right-hand lane just in front of the semi, and spun onto the right shoulder. Interesting thoughts go through your mind when you face mortality. Like – damn, who’s going to feed the lizard if we join the choir invisible here.
Don’t know why that car crashed, or what happened to the occupants. At highway speeds we were a good half to a full mile past the incident before reality hit us. It went against all my training to keep driving, but we couldn’t back up a mile on the turnpike to see if they needed help. For a consolation prize, we beat the inevitable backup and traffic delay behind us.
We’ve put in a lot of hours fixing up the trailer. But as the major things have gotten done, we’ve found time to get out and enjoy the area. Partaking of the reasons that we like this area. Like having easy access to just walk by the ocean. And great birding. Spring migrants are trickling in, the winter birds are starting to drift north, and you can feel the seasonal change. Throw in some great eating and drinking, a maritime culture going back to the 1630s, and you have the whole package. Going coastal.
Trees on the dunes.
Early emerging snakes.
Going coastal at the Rose and Crown.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 