Camping and Trains

Well, I have 15 minutes of free time. 15 minutes of time I haven't had in months and might not have again for a couple of months, so what better way to spend it than to update the old bloggeroo. ;)

Last time I had the camera out was the last weekend of May. Christine, Jamie and myself loaded up the camping gear and headed out to New Germany State Park in western MD. The idea was to meet Natalie, Michael, and Ian, who were coming up to take an excursion on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. They stayed in a nearby hotel while we roughed it.

We got to camp, set everything up and took off on the bikes to ride some of the cross-country ski trails. They were pretty flat, wide, and mellow, if not a little muddy, perfect for trailering Jamie.

After our ride, we headed back to the campsite and started cooking. We had invited everyone to the campsite to eat and I cooked up a lemon ginger trout and curried vegetable feast over the fire followed by marshmallows, of course. The boys had a great time. Their big game is to have a screaming contest. I'm not sure who won. but it was very exciting for all. Jamie also learned how to climb in and out of the camp chairs and onto the top of the picnic table, a feat he has oft repeated on the kitchen table now at home. Hmmmmm. Can't take your eye off that one for a minute!



The next morning, the park rangers stopped by the campsite bright and early to report that Pittsburgh had issued severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings for our area. Just about then, the wind started picking up and the sky went black. We quickly finished up our breakfast and secured everything that wasn't nailed down before it commenced to storming (which didn't take long). We thought we might drown if we stayed in the tent so we jumped in the truck and drove to Cumberland to meet Natalie and Michael and check out the trains.

Obligatory "son standing in front of a caboose while standing on a baggage cart" picture:



Here comes the engine!


Another view:


We hung out in Cumberland, found some lunch, and tried to wait out the rain as best we could then headed back to camp. We were trying to decide whether or not to just pack it up and leave or stick it out. We decided to put Jamie down for his nap (and use the opportunity to take a little nap ourselves) and make the call after he woke up.

By the time we all woke up it was bright and sunny. It was really just a clever ruse to get us to stay. We went for a hike and then put dinner on. By the time dinner was done, it started raining again so we had to eat in the tent. Jamie proceeded to throw his dinner all over the place. Thank god no bears came by to visit. Then it stopped raining again. So we got out of the tent and played in mud puddles.

Boy did we play in mud puddles!


I've heard of cookies and milk, but cookies and mud???? Yuck.


Then to get rid of the mud we went and played in the trout pond, which I think was about 33°F. I thought I saw penguins. It hurt my toes to wade in it. Of course that didn't stop Jamie from diving in head first.

Splash:


Then we went back to camp and made s'mores. Then it rained again so we went to bed. The next morning, it was bright and sunny again so we went for another hike. This time we hopped in the truck and drove to Big Savage Mountain. Turns out this trail was somewhat unmaintained. It wasn't particularly rugged or anything, just overgrown. The kind of trail that when you walk you can't see where you are putting your feet. Did I mention that it had rained for 2 days straight and that the sun was now out in full force. Perfect weather for reptiles, of which we saw plenty. We lost count of all the garter snakes we saw and we knew that if we were seeing that many garter snakes, how many rattlesnakes and copperheads were we not seeing? If you've never seen a rattlesnake or copperhead in the wild, there is a good reason why, they are perfectly camouflaged. You just don't see them unless they are moving. We were getting pretty stressed out over it as you can well imagine. Some where along the trail we flushed a bear who was sitting about 10 feet of the side of the trail in a blackberry bramble. Fortunately it took off and we never really got a good look at it. Finally we made it to a fire road that led to a firetower and overlook. Just as Christine was stepping out onto the road I looked down and saw a copperhead slithering off the trail right in front of me. She had just stepped right over it and never saw it. Yowzers!@%*&#$*(&@(~~~!!! We hiked the fire road to the tower, and enjoyed the view and then followed it back out to the main road, avoiding the trail for the return trip.

We made it back to camp, cooked up lunch, then yes, once again it rained while we broke down camp and got ready to head home.

That was our trip in a nutshell. Hope y'all enjoyed hearin' the telling of it.

Camping and the Kinetic Sculpture Race 2008

This past weekend was the Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore. Robena, Phil, and Twyla came up for the weekend. Rather than try to cram everyone into our tiny house we decided that we would reserve campsites at nearby Patapsco Valley St. Park.

Yeti sighting:


Hanging out at the playground:


Jamie was about the happiest we have ever seen him. He loved playing in the leaves (and unfortunately the road). We brought a playpen with us so he could be near the fire but not too close. He loved it. He went to bed with no fuss each night and when he woke up and looked out of the tent and realized he was still camping he had the biggest smile you could imagine. We will be camping as much as possible this summer, I believe!

Saturday morning we hopped in the truck and took a quick drive over to Baltimore for the Race. Christine and I decided the best way to see the race was to actually ride the race course with all the sculptures so we loaded Jamie in the trailer and took off. The course is about 15 miles long winding from Federal Hill, past the inner Harbor, and Fells Point, over to the Camden waterfront, then up to Patterson Park and back with several stops along the way. It's probably not a ride you would do on a normal day, but with roads closed and traffic somewhat controlled, it's a pretty nice way to explore downtown Baltimore.

Traffic Jam KSR 2008.


Robena and Family drove and met us at various rendezvous points along the way.

Twyla was vying for the Miss Congeniality award:


Jamie posing as a Kinetinaut:


You see strange things at Kinetic Sculpture Races:


Overall the Race wasn't as smoothly run as past races we've attended. We ended up waiting over an hour for our police escort for the final leg of the race. Then we quickly out ran the escort and ended up having to wait through all the lights which was really unfortunate. The last leg is almost entirely downhill and you can really get rolling and is normally a lot of fun. What normally would have taken 15 - 20 minutes to ride took almost an hour.

We finally made it back to the campsite around 6 pm. We left around 9:30 am so it was a long day. We cooked a big ol' pot of chili and put Jamie and Twyla to bed. The rest of us hung out eating our fill of S'mores by the campfire.

More pictures of the race from pedalpushersonline.com (Look for Jamie sightings in the last link, he was hamming it up for the photographer)
http://pedalpushersonline.com/galleries/ksr_opener_web/
http://pedalpushersonline.com/galleries/ksr_water_web/
http://pedalpushersonline.com/galleries/ksr_finale_web/

Camping + Racing

We finally got around to camping Father's Day weekend (and I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures two weeks later). We drove across Maryland to Deep Creek Lake and set up camp at Swallow Falls State Park. Swallow Falls is a small park with a few water falls nearby. We've been there once before in the dead of winter. It looks quite different without a foot of snow covering everything.

We got there Friday evening and set up camp. Then we headed to the Wisp Ski resort to practice for the mountain bike race I was going to race in the next day. The Racer's Edge had set up a real nice dual slalom course. I got in a few practice runs while Christine pushed Jamie up the mountain in his stroller then we headed back to camp, made dinner, and attempted to go to bed.

It seemed traffic on interstate 70 and Jamie had other plans. We heard rumors that traffic had jammed up on I-70. This meant that people who had planned on coming to the mountains were delayed greatly. (We left really early and missed all the traffic). People were coming in to the camp site all night long and unfortunately tents do not provide much shelter from noise or car headlights. It was also significantly colder than we had anticipated (upper 40's). Jamie did not approve and had fits of screaming at various intervals all through out the night. It was pretty miserable, for him, for us, and for the entire campground!

As is usually the case he was in perfectly good spirits again by morning. Here he is cuddling up to Dad the day before Father's Day:



Saturday it was back to the race course. I didn't do so well in my race but I still had a blast. It's funny. I felt like I had a great qualifying run as was really pumped but then when they posted the times, I was 12th out of 14, just behind the fat kid and the guy who wrecked. I was pretty bummed. I guess I should just be happy at least I felt like I had a good run. During my race run, I beat the guy out of the gate and through the first 2 turns and then he passed me. I was doing pretty good keeping up but then I came into the 4 pack too hot and with my wrong foot forward and that was the end of that. I think he came across the line 4 or 5 lengths ahead of me. Then it was time for beers.

I didn't get to ride to much else. I concentrated on practicing for the dual. I did ride the Saturday DH course once. It seemed really easy to ride, but maybe not really easy to ride fast. The high speed grassy section at the bottom was just plain fun. I thought the jump line at the top was really slow. I heard that the Sunday course was much more technical. I probably should have gotten over to check it out but I just ran out of time and energy. It took a lot of work to push the bike up the dual course over and over.

Here's a random shot of me coming over the finish line hip during my race run:



Sunday was Father's day. Jamie's present to me was to only wake up once in the night with little or no screaming! Yea! Rest, what more could a Dad ask for? We had a nice leisurely morning in camp, got everything packed up and then went out for pizza. After lunch, we went back to the park and took a hike. We tried out the backpack again after having put it away for a month or two. In an earlier post, I reported that Jamie was too small for the pack and didn't like it. Now he loves it. He laughs and giggles when I put him in and pick him up! He likes being up high and playing with the back of my head and pulling at my ears.



Well that's all from the big camping trip. Can't wait to do it again!

One more shot from our little attention monger:



More Race Pictures

Tent time.

So a couple of weeks ago I was telling Christine that I really needed to get up at the crack of dawn and go hunt yard sales for a big family tent and a 2 burner camp stove. You may remember that we posted some pictures of Jamie in my backpacking tent. Well, that's much too small for all of us to camp out it comfortably. And my backpacking stove, well, it's good for boiling a pot of water but not much else. No sooner had I said it, I checked the classifieds and there I saw "Large tent $70, camp stove $20. Call XXX-XXXX". So I called and went right out and picked it up. I ended up getting both for $80.

When I got home I set it up in the yard. Well, as advertised it is a LARGE tent! Not quite yurt sized but probably the next best thing. We ended up leaving it in the yard for about a week. The weather was still cool and it was a great place to hang out.

Outside in the yard:



Inside the tent, room for lawn chairs, plenty of toys and plenty of sleeping pads:



Jamie at Play:


Jamie at Work:


False perspective makes Jamie's head look huge:


Why do I put up with you people?


Okay, I guess you are pretty funny after all!

Jamie's first camping trip (sort of)

Well the weather this weekend was outstanding. Which can mean only one thing! Camping season is upon us. We decided that we should set up the tent in the front yard and hang out outside this weekend, partly as a test to see what Jamie thought of the whole thing. He didn't seem to mind one bit. I napped out there with Jamie while Christine did laundry and Christine played with him while I did yard work. I think we spent the majority of the day Saturday with some of us in the tent just hanging out. We can't wait to do it again. (Maybe for real next time?)





Sunday we went for a nice long hike at Gunpowder Falls State Park. We didn't realize that it was going to be so hot. Temperatures were in the 80's. We tried out a new baby carrier backpack. Turns out Jamie was still a little small for it. He fell asleep and ended up rubbing his little nose raw on the front of the pack. Needless to say he was not a happy camper when he got back to the truck at day's end. He did really like hanging out by the river though. I think he really liked the noise of the rapids and the sparkle off the water.



One more: I'm not sure at this point who is winning the baldness competition.