I'm Back

Okay, readers, bear with me for half of one more self-indulgent, whining post and then I'll tell you about my latest camping adventure. Starting Monday, I'll be back to my normal rants about things that offend me in everyday life. Okay?

It turns out camping is not a great idea when you want to get your mind off something. If there's a weighty issue you need to devote lots of time and thought to, hunkering down next to a campfire in the middle of nowhere all night long is a great plan. If though, you want to avoid thinking about something, it's not so great. See while hunkering down next to said campfire, there's not much else to do but think. Well, one could do a shadow puppet performance, but that just seemed a little bizarre even for me, so I stewed.

In my last post I said I wasn't going to air the whole sordid mess here, but a recent event [Sorry, B, if you're still reading 3rdB; I know I said I wouldn't read your blog, but I don't feel bound by that vow any longer.] has made this story too good not to share. So here's the bare bones version of the all-time worst way to start Spring Break.

I've been romantically unattached for quite a while and I'm okay with that. A few weeks ago, though, a dear friend had a "setup" for me. It was an excuse to visit them, so I agreed. Wonder of wonders, I liked the setup -- and, most surprisingly, she seemed to like me. She wasn't local, but this led to a 3 week flurry of emails, phone calls, etc. which culminated in the Lucinda Williams concert in Oxford. I was a little nervous about that because sometimes it's easier to make a good impression from a distance. It turned out, though, that our Saturday (the day after the concert) was GREAT! I expect great scorn for "saying" this, but it was like a date you'd see in a cheesy Hollywood flick: something Julia Roberts would have been in 10 years ago. Seriously, it was a good, good day and it ended with such promise for the future.

Then Sunday night she called to say she was getting back together with her ex-boyfriend! Now she's engaged to be married to the ex-boyfriend!! All this in less than a week!!! How's that for a classic St. Caffeine story?

Okay, done with that. I really wasn't going to whine about the whole thing, but the engagement just made it too good a story not to share.

The camping trip was okay. I found a new (to me) shortcut to the Bee Branch area -- some great waterfalls and the Big Tree. Because of the shortcut I actually made it all the way to Bee Branch before setting up camp and I even had time to prepare the campsite properly and cook dinner before darkness fell. Plus, I got to try out my new water filtering system that was a birthday present from Caffeine Mom AND that night's campfire was perfect. This won't impress most of you, I'm sure, but I was able to find just the right mixture of small and medium sticks so as to keep a nice steady fire all night. I didn't run through my wood too quickly, nor did I have a bunch of big sticks that never really caught fire. I'm a huge fan of campfires, so that was a big deal to me.

Of course it was COLD that night. It wasn't nearly as cold as my Christmas camping trip, but it was still a lot chillier than it would have been at home in bed. On the plus side, I never felt threatened by wild hogs this time. No, the only wildlife adventure was the hoot owls started up a battle of the bands with some other bird about midnight. I could handle that.

Next morning I got up around 5:00, made breakfast, and headed out for the falls and the Big Tree. I don't have my camera with me today, but the falls were fantastic. The Big Tree, however, was a bit of a bust. See, there's this great big Champion Tulip Poplar in Bee Branch canyon. Someone has determined it's the biggest in the state, so it's a "must see" for visitors to the area. The only problem: there are A LOT of big trees in Bee Branch canyon. I kept looking, but I soon realized unless there was some sort of flashing neon sign identifying the Big Tree, I was not going to be able to identify it. I found a tree that might have been it, but I can't say for sure. Who knows, everyone who goes to Bee Branch may have a different tree he thinks is THE tree. Still, the waterfalls were nice.

Once I did the Bee Branch thing, I headed back toward the trailhead. The wildflowers are starting to bloom along Thompson Creek. I guess it's still a little early, but I saw 4 different flowers in numbers large enough to notice. There was a white flower, a purple flower, some kind of blue flower with red stems that grew in clumps, and a spiky little blood-colored thing. Sorry, I'm no wildflower expert, though I did make a solid A on my high school wildflower collection. That, though, was due to my friend Bruce who had a degree in wildlife biology and enjoyed photographing wildflowers. A good guy to know at the time. Again, sorry no pix. I'll post some next week.

Anyway, I made it to the general area where I was going to camp the second night by mid-afternoon. My plan was to set up camp and then spend the rest of the afternoon reading [though NONE of my readers gave me any depressing reading suggestions] and enjoying the solitude. The weather, though, was not cooperative. It wasn't too cold, but it was cloudy and windy and that made it just a tad chilly for sitting around the campsite. Since there wasn't really any other nearby area I wanted to explore, I decided just to hoof it all the way out and come back home. So my grand Spring Break camping trip turned out to be only one night. Oh well, hopefully the water filter did its job and I won't be fighting off a giardia infestation this time. See, I'm an optimist!

Okay, by Monday I'll have graded my tests, taught some classes, and be full of general outrage. Plus, I'll try to post some pix from the camping trip.