Vacation Wrap-up

We survived our vacation and trip, and no Geoffreys were lost in the woods. Say hallelujah, say amen. Vacation was really good. The recap is as follows. Pictures are forthcoming. In fact, I have a month's worth of pictures that I simply have got to download from the camera today, Easter for the Church website (photo gallery needs updated) and I've got tons of great shots from geocaches that we've done that I want to upload into the cache site. I've got a lot of work to do.

Tuesday Night:
After almost losing my son (see previous entry) while Geocaching, I was in a pissy mood. I whipped up dinner and then we started a camp fire. I was completely on edge and stressed out by the experience, and it felt good to sit in front of a roaring camp fire poking at it with a big stick while drinking Vodka Tonics.

Wednesday:
Up at 8am. Dogs in the truck, over to the kennel. I came back, folded laundry and got things packed (which is what I should have been doing instead of burning a campfire and getting tipsy the night before) while Doug fought with our computer and tried to get the TopoMap software to run on it.

Mind you, I spent hours the night before working on it (after the camp fire) -- in fact, I stayed up until 3 in the morning trying to get it to work. No dice. Our computer is once again sucking eggs. And Doug wanted to download the maps for Western PA/Eastern OH for our geocaching adventures there. He got all pissy and bent out of shape. I just said -- it is what it is, the shit ain't workin' bring the shit with us and we'll find a PC to load it onto and do it there, quit draggin' ass and let's GO!

We hit the road at noon.

This is a 12 hour trip. I was groaning thinking of how late we'd get in there, especially on my four hours of sleep.

But, even with stopping for dinner, we were there by 11:15, all told the "driving time" was 9.45 hours. Not too shabby. We only had traffic in the Wilkes-Barre to Bloomsburg area where 81 and 80 hook up. Everything else was gravy.

The hotel was really nice, it's about a year and a half old, and there hasn't been a hotel anywhere NEAR this area of the Beaver Valley, so it was cool to have such a place to stay. It was obvious that we were the only "family" staying there. It was mostly single business travelers. And that was cool because they're all quiet and not there while we're all hogging up the pool.

Thursday:
Geoff was up at 7 even though he didn't fall asleep until well after midnight. He wanted to go swimming, I made him wait while I dozed, and he eventually couldn't take it any longer.

Geoff made it a morning ritual the entire time we were there to open the hotel room door and retrieve the USA Today for Doug. He'd bring it over to his dead-to-the-world father and loudly announce, "Dad! Your newspaper is here!" It was kind of cute, except it was usually at 7am.

By 8am, I was with coffee an he was with pool, and we relaxed down there while Doug and Jessie slept. Geoff swam for close to two hours, and I drank as much coffee as I could stomach.

Doug eventually woke up, did the crossword in the paper, and called his parents. He told them we wanted to go geocaching, and I guess my mother in law changed out of what she was wearing (I think she thought we were just going to hang out at the hotel and chat, but not Team Screamapillar! We're on a cache-heavy vacation) and got sneakers and outdoor pants on and they came over to join us.

We attempted four, found three. Three caches were targeted in one area and we found two, but the third one was simply unreachable from where we were. Had we downloaded the topo maps we may have said "What are we, CRAZY?! Screw this!" but we were going with just a screen and a straight line to the cache, and it was hard going.

The area where Doug grew up is hilly. Very hilly. Hilly is an understatement. Dude -- these are some crazy hills. We were in Brady's Run Park where there are about 8 caches hidden. The first one was a piece of cake, we didn't have to climb far, and it was an easy find. The approach to the second one put us about 400 feet below it on a hillside that went pretty much straight up at a 15 degree incline. Dude. That's some steep shit.

Doug thought about going straight up and made it about 80 feet before turning around. Glad he did. We found a proper trail that snaked around the hillside, it was a slow and easy climb, and the much better way. We found the cache easily, and headed off to the third.

Now, I've never thought my inlaws to be sturdy. But boy did they impress me... we kicked their collective butt on this one, and they stuck right with it. No complaints, no "this is stupid!" caterwauls. Just a lot of oohing and aahing on my mother in laws part about the spring flowers that were coming up. And there were plenty of them. When it became obvious that there was no way for us to hit the third cache from above, where we were, and it was starting to rain, we bailed.

We went pretty much straight down, over 600 feet, on no trail, switching backing our way down the incline. It was INSANE! My mother in law and Jessie both wiped out and landed on their butts. Beats falling forward and down. Both took the falls with good nature and got right back up. Geoff took a branch hard to the face and it knocked his glasses off and made him curse nature while shaking his fist. We found the glasses, and he got a slight black eye but survived (good thing the glasses were there or it would have been worse. Going down uses a whole different set of leg muscles, and the fronts of my thighs were burning by the time we got out of there.

At the foot of the hill was a little "sugar shack," where they make maple syrup. My father in law hasn't been there in years, so he bought us a container and showed Geoff the place where they make the syrup... it was cool to hang with Grampa and check things out like that in the ole hometown.

We got back in the vehicle and the rain let up, so we drove over to this cache, and it was a hard but clever hide... we really loved it. Doug said the area used to be a dirt road that ran along the river's edge and people just sat down there drinking or doing whatever nefarious activities they wanted... the town of Rochester cleaned it all up and put in this huge flag history monument, and it's gorgeous. There is a mile long walking trail, and places to sit, and flowers... makes the dreary riverside look like a place of riparian delights.

After all that hiking, we went out to dinner and then back to the pool and hot tub. Doug and his parents relaxed in the hotel room while I swam the kids (and myself) and I soaked my tired legs in the hot tub. We all slept like the dead that night.

Friday:
The plan was to go to Rogers Ohio for the Rogers Sale. It's a huge flea market they hold every Friday, and people come from a bazillion miles to this thing and buy all kinds of whack "treasures" and junk.

Doug's sister was expecting a refrigerator delivery, and Jessie offered to hang out there and help her with Elise, our niece (that rhymes you know, my niece Elise. It's fun to say). She hadn't seen her little cousin in quite some time, and she didn't want to go to Rogers Sale. She's been there before and finds it "boring," so we let her off the hook.

The weather was crummy, cold and threatening rain the whole time, and Grampa questioned whether we should even bother. Doug wanted to go find Ammo Boxes for geocache hiding (see, we're ALL about the geocachin' aren't we) and figured it would be worth the trip.

Doug, Grampa, Geoff and I trucked over, and while we found nothing important we did get nice new collars and leashes for the dogs, and Tony Hawk 3 from the game section, and saw everything from Amish cheese salesmen to hugely fat ridge runner ladies with tons of scabbyassed looking tattoos.

It's a great place to people watch.

We then headed up to Great Grandma's house for a visit there. She was disappointed that Jessica wasn't with us, but was happy to see us nonetheless.

On the way back to Auntie's to meet everyone for dinner we stopped to do a geocache. Of course. It was another great hike in a gorgeous western PA hilly area, with views and lots of lush green undergrowth. We ordered pizza at the hotel, and all of us, Auntie Diane and Uncle J, Elise, Grandma and Grampa, chilled at the crib. We brought Elise to the pool and she didn't really swim much, but boy did she enjoy playing with her cousins and hanging out. After they left, the kids kept swimming until I had to pry Geoff's wrinkly ass out of the water as he protested "But the pool is open until 11 and it's only 10:30 and I have more time!!!"

Uh, no. Mom is tired. Time to bail. Pool will be here in the morning. We again slept like the dead that night.

Saturday:
Up early. An old friend of mine from college is a professor at a local college and goes to church with Diane and J. I hadn't seen him since, I think 1988, and while I've chatted with him a few times in the last 4 years (since he ran into Diane and J and discovered our small-worldness) we've never been able to meet up. We planned on doing so at some point during this visit, and I'd neglected to give him a call until this morning. He was still asleep when I called, his wife told me she'd pass on the message.

I took Geoff to the pool and we eventually got our shit together and headed up to Diane's. Dr. MH (that's my college friend's code name here for the journal) called back and confessed he'd stayed up until 3am playing Civilization, and that he was wiped out, and we should try and hook up later that day. We were cool with that, told him we were heading out to do a geocache and where it was, he told us it was a beautiful place. We threw Diane and Elise into the Truckster to hit some caches.

Diane had wanted to try geocaching for some time, so we found some good caches not too far from her house and headed out to them.

While we were at the first one, Diane turns and looks down on the trail behind us and sees a guy sprinting up, and says "Gee, that looks like Dr. MH." And sure enough it was.

After he hung up with me he felt silly about postponing, so he jumped in his vehicle to see if we were there. Sure'nuff, we were. We got to hang out at the falls here at this geocache with him for quite a while, and it was so fun to catch up with him. My son took to him right away, even walking with him up under the falls when Dr. MH offered to show him the place.

We headed off to two more geocaches, this one and this one. Our niece is one tough little trailblazer, I tell you what. She was up and down these hills kind of like how Jackdog or a billy goat would have been. Jessica was given the task of chasing her, and did a really good job even though it wore her out fiercely. We found both caches no problem, and brought Diane and Elise home so they could get ready for something they had going on that night.

We headed out to dinner and Doug ran into one of his mom's cousins sitting in the booth next to us. They had a nice chat, and we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Sunday:
Morning came too soon... could have used more sleep. Took Geoff down for his last swim of the vacation after he delivered his last newspaper of the trip. Packed everything up and my inlaws came over to take us out to breakfast before we left.

We had a wonderful visit, and it's always sad to say goodbye, especially after a relatively stress-free time with the family. It's especially hard and sad to say goodbye in an Eat'n Park parking lot.

We hit the road at about 12:30, later than Doug had wanted, but... it is what it is. Doug wanted for us to stop at Penn's Cave east of State College, PA, south of I-80. After driving the route between here and there on I-80 a billion and a half times, he'd never stopped there or been taken there, and he figured it'd be cool. We took the scenic route 144 through Bellefonte, which is a gorgeous little town and I fell in love with it. I'd always wondered what it was like there...

As for the cave... it was pretty cool. The tour is mostly jokes about the shapes of stalactites and stalagmites, not enough good info on the geological formation of the cave and how it got that way. Geoff asked a few silly questions when given the "does anyone have any questions?" opportunity, such as "Is this cave haunted?" The other people in the boat were mildly amused. Oh that Geoff, he IS the living end.

We got back in the truck and it was raining and raining. We drove past Amish buggies and more farms than I've seen in recent memory, and through the southern portion of a gorgeous state forest on Rte 192. Looks as if it has a million geocaches and some great camping opportunities... perhaps this summer?

Doug drove for stinkin' ever and we stopped for the night near Maybrook NY. We slept and slept.

Monday:
Geoff was up at 7 and was pissed that there was no pool in the hotel.

We had breakfast in a diner that was dineriffic with a waitress who had smoker's voice and a grandma's love and care for serving us. She told us tons of stories and kept the coffee flowing. We made it home at about 3, got the dogs, and I was very glad to sleep in my bed last night.

I didn't get the job I'd interviewed for at the college -- the director called me himself and told me personally. I'm somewhat crestfallen, I really wanted it. But. Everything happens for a reason, and now I'm going to do that resume-polishing thing that the guy from DUA told me to do.

Well-- there's a shit ton of work to do. Gotta get the oil changed, go to the bank, pay some bills. If you've made it this far, your reward is my undying love.