‘Snowcake’, Raystown fishing and camping trip, lawn rehab (posted from home)
(this post covers 21-30 September, 2007)
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Sunday, 30 September-
Maypo, Orat and I went shooting today while the ladies did some shopping and hung out. We drove to the recently-rebuilt shooting range in the Michaux State Forest and were pleasantly surprised to find a new handgun range. The old rifle range had a position for handguns but it was very limited—you could shoot at 15 yards and that was it. The new range is terrific for a couple of shooters but I’m not sure I like the design for a mixed group. There are three nice, heavy backstops in a line and a stone lot in front of it. The stone lot is the full width of the three backstops by 25 yards deep. Four-by-four posts mark the 10, 15, 20, and 25-yard distances from the backstop. That worked fine for us but I’m wondering what happens when several shooters want to shoot from different distances. I’m afraid someone will think it’s okay to shoot from ten yards while someone else is shooting at one of the other backstops from 20 or 25 yards. I think I’d rather see a hot zone marked out and signs put up to tell shooters not to shoot while anyone is anywhere in the hot zone.
After shooting Maypo insisted that we stop at the ice cream shop on the way home. Good idea! We then drove over to see Mom at the assisted-living facility. She was happy to see us and reminded us (more than once) to come visit more often.
That evening we had a group supper before Labashi and I headed for home around 1930.
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Saturday, 29 September
Today we went to Chambersburg for a visit with my brothers’ families and to attend a baby shower for our soon-to-arrive grand niece (!!!). We had a pleasant gathering (and excellent sandwiches) at the Main Street Deli’s meeting room and then went home to sit on the front porch and watch the world go by. The heat has broken and it was a perfect day. We spent the evening chatting away, then stayed the night in Mocha Joe in the driveway.
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Friday, 28 September–
Ok, enough work already. We took a day-trip to Baltimore today. I wanted to go to West Marine to pick up some electrical items for the fishing boat and Labashi just wanted to ride along. I was disappointed to find the West Marine at Chase (MD) only minimally stocked. Prices have also gone crazy. I was hoping to find an LED-powered bow light to match a nice all-around light I picked up in Florida but no luck. I think I may have found the ‘right’ electrical distribution panel but I want to keep looking to be sure. I ended up leaving without buying anything. We headed for downtown Baltimore thinking we’d visit an architectural salvage warehouse but the instructions were wrong because of construction in the area and it was getting late in the day to figure it out so we headed toward home and stopped at Chili’s in Timonium for Labashi’s favorite fajitas and a margarita or three.
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Thursday, 27 September-
Labashi had a load of topsoil brought in for the south section and last evening it rained quite hard so today didn’t look like much fun. Thankfully the rain didn’t carry away the topsoil or erode the lawn but we have some mud to deal with and the topsoil is a bit clumped and heavy. I spent a few hours wheel-barrowing loads of topsoil for Labashi to play with. By the end of the day she had it all ready for the evening’s storms. I’m ready for the hot weather to be over.
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Wednesday, 26 September-
Finally. I dug through the morning and then another hour after lunch to finish the south section. Late in the afternoon I buzzed in to Starbucks on the bike to relax and read the Times. But my relaxation was short-lived. On the way home I got caught in a traffic jam and it was miserable to be stuck in traffic on this very-hot day (again in the high Eighties). But at least the digging’s done for awhile.
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Tuesday, 25 September-
This morning I had a periodontist appointment then I spent the hot afternoon (88 degrees at the end of September!) on the web. That evening I started digging again around 1730 and dug until dark.
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Monday, 24 September-
Today I got back to digging. We completed the west side of the lawn and now we’re doing the south side. Weather has gotten hotter so the digging today wasn’t much fun. I started around 0830 and stopped around 1330. I was frustrated toward the end when I hit clay and it would take four or six jumps on the shovel to get the shovel in. But—we’re getting there.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 23 September-
After breakfast we again fished for an hour or two and then went exploring. This time we headed south (up the lake). We’ve not been above the bridge at Entriken before and today went up to the south end of the lake past Weaver’s Falls and on to the docks at Heritage Cove Resort. We would have liked to go on as far as possible but we were running low on time so turned around there. We stopped for a quick lunch at Weaver’s Falls before continuing back to Nancy’s. We packed up and headed for the van at Aitch launch ramp. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ramp open and by 1500 we were on the way. This time we drove south along the lake, taking SR26 to US30 and hitting the turnpike at Breezewood. This turned out to be a very easy drive and a bit quicker than our trip up. We made it back to Chambersburg by 1730 and then Maypo and I had supper at the new Moe’s Southwest Grill there before I headed home. Moe’s is a step up from a Baja Fresh but does the serving-line thing like a Subway. The food—at least the chichen quesadilla and the guacamole — was pretty tasty but I’m not fond of the wait-in-line serving method.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 22 September-
We arose a little late for fishing and were on the water by 0830. We spent an hour or so fishing the cove above Nancy’s campground then took the boat into the James Creek area to explore all the little bays. That’s a spectacular area and would make a good kayaking area for newbies given the many areas to explore, all of them are in the no-wake zone. In late morning we started down the lake and had lunch at the picnic area at Seven Points. We saw a lot of traffic but our boat did very well jumping the boat wakes and we were able to buzz right along despite our relatively meager 20-horse motor. We stopped at Susquehannock Campground to see if there are ANY flat campsites in that silly place. I had stopped at this campground on my kayaking trip a couple of weeks ago and found nothing even remotely like a flat spot for my tent but I had wanted to stay near the water so didn’t check out the sites further back. Good thing I kept going: today we found only two spots flat enough for sleeping and I had seen campers in that area last time so I don’t believe they were available. Even if they had been available it would have been a hassle to make multiple trips up and down the steep hill to carry gear between the kayak and campsite and I’d have had to leave the kayak unattended overnight.
We then explored the beautiful ‘rabbit ears’ area near Snyder Run launch ramp and fished for another hour before starting back to Nancy’s. The ‘rabbit ears’ are two long coves which look like rabbit ears from the nearby Hahn Overlook. They are very pretty with their extra-clear water and small, private areas for a boat or two to stop for the kids or dogs to swim or for us fishermen to enjoy.
Around 1500 we started back and decided we’d go up Trough Creek to the park for a walk. We walked to the state park campground and there saw two older guys with kayaks on their car roof preparing supper. We asked a question or two about their kayaks and that led to a long and interesting conversation about their kayaking experiences on the Delaware River and in Alaska. Our long conversation earned us a late start for our return to the campground and it soon became apparent we should have navigation lights on the fishing boat. I had intended to bring my little clip-on kayaking nav lights but had forgotten them. We had to be extra-careful as we left Trough Creek cove to cross main navigation channel and at the last minute had to divert away from the channel because of a fast-approaching boat but then made it to the campground with no problem. We soon had a fire going and then had a pleasant night around the campfire before a nice, quiet sleeping night.
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Friday, 21 September-
After I posted my blog update last night we watched the movie ‘Snowcake’. Now that was an interesting movie. I picked it up at our local video store after seeing the photo (on the DVD case) of a hitchhiker holding a sign for Wawa. We had lunch in Wawa (Ontario) on our recently-completed trip so I was interested to see if we would recognize it. (The word ‘Wawa’ came from the Ojibwe word ‘wewe’, meaning ‘wild goose’. This town of about 4000 people lies above Lake Superior on a scenic stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway, halfway between Sudbury and Thunder Bay. Its main industries are forestry, mining, tourism, and government services.)
‘Snow Cake’ did not disappoint. Both Sigourney Weaver and Alan Parkman were terrific. The plot seemed a bit of a stretch but the feel of northern Ontario seemed right on (at least to us tourists!). We loved seeing the establishing shots of the area and picking out little things like this: The storyline begins in Timmins and travels to Wawa. There are two ways to make that trip—more-or-less straight west for 200 miles across Route 101 or up to the Trans-Canada 11 and down through Hornepayne for 365 miles. The problem with 101 is there are very few services and it feels very remote. But the trip via the Trans-Canada is a LOT longer and you still have some long stretches of remote-feeling road. The movie takes the long way. We know that from the establishment shots which show, for example, the very distinctive flying saucer at Moonbeam (http://www.embargo.ca/highway11/JamesBay/JB-13-Moonbeam.htm) which lies along the Trans-Canada. I just loved seeing that and knowing what the heck it is. There’s no explanation for it in the movie—you just see the characters driving by a flying saucer. Same at Wawa. Wawa is famous for its gigantic Canada goose statue (in fact, two of them). The protagonist is shown at the goose statue but there’s no explanation what it is or why it’s there. (http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Ontario/Wawa_goose.htm).
Today, I packed up the van and boat and headed out for the weekend. Maypo took a half-day off from work so we met late in the morning at his house. By 1500 we were at the Hahn Overlook, taking in the spectacular view of the south end of the lake on this beautiful summer’s day. Today is the first day of Fall but it feels a lot more like summer.
We then drove on to Seven Points and checked out the visitor’s center I had missed on my kayaking trip up here earlier this month. By 1700 we were at the Aitch ramp launching the boat. After motoring out to Nancy’s Boat-In Campground we set up the tent, had a quick supper and started looking for firewood as the sun set. Pickings were slim for firewood at the campground so we motored across the cove to a likely-looking spot and that paid off. There was plenty of dead wood lying about within easy reach and by dark we had a nice fire going.
About 2200 we found we had a problem. There were only a few other campers in the campground but one group decided it was party-night. We went over and asked them to turn down the radio and they did for awhile but by 0200 they had it cranked up to full volume and they were all well-lubricated. Finally, they shut it off at 0300.
======== end of 30 September post =====
(this post covers 21-30 September, 2007)
----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 30 September-
Maypo, Orat and I went shooting today while the ladies did some shopping and hung out. We drove to the recently-rebuilt shooting range in the Michaux State Forest and were pleasantly surprised to find a new handgun range. The old rifle range had a position for handguns but it was very limited—you could shoot at 15 yards and that was it. The new range is terrific for a couple of shooters but I’m not sure I like the design for a mixed group. There are three nice, heavy backstops in a line and a stone lot in front of it. The stone lot is the full width of the three backstops by 25 yards deep. Four-by-four posts mark the 10, 15, 20, and 25-yard distances from the backstop. That worked fine for us but I’m wondering what happens when several shooters want to shoot from different distances. I’m afraid someone will think it’s okay to shoot from ten yards while someone else is shooting at one of the other backstops from 20 or 25 yards. I think I’d rather see a hot zone marked out and signs put up to tell shooters not to shoot while anyone is anywhere in the hot zone.
After shooting Maypo insisted that we stop at the ice cream shop on the way home. Good idea! We then drove over to see Mom at the assisted-living facility. She was happy to see us and reminded us (more than once) to come visit more often.
That evening we had a group supper before Labashi and I headed for home around 1930.
----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 29 September
Today we went to Chambersburg for a visit with my brothers’ families and to attend a baby shower for our soon-to-arrive grand niece (!!!). We had a pleasant gathering (and excellent sandwiches) at the Main Street Deli’s meeting room and then went home to sit on the front porch and watch the world go by. The heat has broken and it was a perfect day. We spent the evening chatting away, then stayed the night in Mocha Joe in the driveway.
----------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 28 September–
Ok, enough work already. We took a day-trip to Baltimore today. I wanted to go to West Marine to pick up some electrical items for the fishing boat and Labashi just wanted to ride along. I was disappointed to find the West Marine at Chase (MD) only minimally stocked. Prices have also gone crazy. I was hoping to find an LED-powered bow light to match a nice all-around light I picked up in Florida but no luck. I think I may have found the ‘right’ electrical distribution panel but I want to keep looking to be sure. I ended up leaving without buying anything. We headed for downtown Baltimore thinking we’d visit an architectural salvage warehouse but the instructions were wrong because of construction in the area and it was getting late in the day to figure it out so we headed toward home and stopped at Chili’s in Timonium for Labashi’s favorite fajitas and a margarita or three.
----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 27 September-
Labashi had a load of topsoil brought in for the south section and last evening it rained quite hard so today didn’t look like much fun. Thankfully the rain didn’t carry away the topsoil or erode the lawn but we have some mud to deal with and the topsoil is a bit clumped and heavy. I spent a few hours wheel-barrowing loads of topsoil for Labashi to play with. By the end of the day she had it all ready for the evening’s storms. I’m ready for the hot weather to be over.
----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 26 September-
Finally. I dug through the morning and then another hour after lunch to finish the south section. Late in the afternoon I buzzed in to Starbucks on the bike to relax and read the Times. But my relaxation was short-lived. On the way home I got caught in a traffic jam and it was miserable to be stuck in traffic on this very-hot day (again in the high Eighties). But at least the digging’s done for awhile.
----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, 25 September-
This morning I had a periodontist appointment then I spent the hot afternoon (88 degrees at the end of September!) on the web. That evening I started digging again around 1730 and dug until dark.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 24 September-
Today I got back to digging. We completed the west side of the lawn and now we’re doing the south side. Weather has gotten hotter so the digging today wasn’t much fun. I started around 0830 and stopped around 1330. I was frustrated toward the end when I hit clay and it would take four or six jumps on the shovel to get the shovel in. But—we’re getting there.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 23 September-
After breakfast we again fished for an hour or two and then went exploring. This time we headed south (up the lake). We’ve not been above the bridge at Entriken before and today went up to the south end of the lake past Weaver’s Falls and on to the docks at Heritage Cove Resort. We would have liked to go on as far as possible but we were running low on time so turned around there. We stopped for a quick lunch at Weaver’s Falls before continuing back to Nancy’s. We packed up and headed for the van at Aitch launch ramp. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ramp open and by 1500 we were on the way. This time we drove south along the lake, taking SR26 to US30 and hitting the turnpike at Breezewood. This turned out to be a very easy drive and a bit quicker than our trip up. We made it back to Chambersburg by 1730 and then Maypo and I had supper at the new Moe’s Southwest Grill there before I headed home. Moe’s is a step up from a Baja Fresh but does the serving-line thing like a Subway. The food—at least the chichen quesadilla and the guacamole — was pretty tasty but I’m not fond of the wait-in-line serving method.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, 22 September-
We arose a little late for fishing and were on the water by 0830. We spent an hour or so fishing the cove above Nancy’s campground then took the boat into the James Creek area to explore all the little bays. That’s a spectacular area and would make a good kayaking area for newbies given the many areas to explore, all of them are in the no-wake zone. In late morning we started down the lake and had lunch at the picnic area at Seven Points. We saw a lot of traffic but our boat did very well jumping the boat wakes and we were able to buzz right along despite our relatively meager 20-horse motor. We stopped at Susquehannock Campground to see if there are ANY flat campsites in that silly place. I had stopped at this campground on my kayaking trip a couple of weeks ago and found nothing even remotely like a flat spot for my tent but I had wanted to stay near the water so didn’t check out the sites further back. Good thing I kept going: today we found only two spots flat enough for sleeping and I had seen campers in that area last time so I don’t believe they were available. Even if they had been available it would have been a hassle to make multiple trips up and down the steep hill to carry gear between the kayak and campsite and I’d have had to leave the kayak unattended overnight.
We then explored the beautiful ‘rabbit ears’ area near Snyder Run launch ramp and fished for another hour before starting back to Nancy’s. The ‘rabbit ears’ are two long coves which look like rabbit ears from the nearby Hahn Overlook. They are very pretty with their extra-clear water and small, private areas for a boat or two to stop for the kids or dogs to swim or for us fishermen to enjoy.
Around 1500 we started back and decided we’d go up Trough Creek to the park for a walk. We walked to the state park campground and there saw two older guys with kayaks on their car roof preparing supper. We asked a question or two about their kayaks and that led to a long and interesting conversation about their kayaking experiences on the Delaware River and in Alaska. Our long conversation earned us a late start for our return to the campground and it soon became apparent we should have navigation lights on the fishing boat. I had intended to bring my little clip-on kayaking nav lights but had forgotten them. We had to be extra-careful as we left Trough Creek cove to cross main navigation channel and at the last minute had to divert away from the channel because of a fast-approaching boat but then made it to the campground with no problem. We soon had a fire going and then had a pleasant night around the campfire before a nice, quiet sleeping night.
----------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 21 September-
After I posted my blog update last night we watched the movie ‘Snowcake’. Now that was an interesting movie. I picked it up at our local video store after seeing the photo (on the DVD case) of a hitchhiker holding a sign for Wawa. We had lunch in Wawa (Ontario) on our recently-completed trip so I was interested to see if we would recognize it. (The word ‘Wawa’ came from the Ojibwe word ‘wewe’, meaning ‘wild goose’. This town of about 4000 people lies above Lake Superior on a scenic stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway, halfway between Sudbury and Thunder Bay. Its main industries are forestry, mining, tourism, and government services.)
‘Snow Cake’ did not disappoint. Both Sigourney Weaver and Alan Parkman were terrific. The plot seemed a bit of a stretch but the feel of northern Ontario seemed right on (at least to us tourists!). We loved seeing the establishing shots of the area and picking out little things like this: The storyline begins in Timmins and travels to Wawa. There are two ways to make that trip—more-or-less straight west for 200 miles across Route 101 or up to the Trans-Canada 11 and down through Hornepayne for 365 miles. The problem with 101 is there are very few services and it feels very remote. But the trip via the Trans-Canada is a LOT longer and you still have some long stretches of remote-feeling road. The movie takes the long way. We know that from the establishment shots which show, for example, the very distinctive flying saucer at Moonbeam (http://www.embargo.ca/highway11/JamesBay/JB-13-Moonbeam.htm) which lies along the Trans-Canada. I just loved seeing that and knowing what the heck it is. There’s no explanation for it in the movie—you just see the characters driving by a flying saucer. Same at Wawa. Wawa is famous for its gigantic Canada goose statue (in fact, two of them). The protagonist is shown at the goose statue but there’s no explanation what it is or why it’s there. (http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Ontario/Wawa_goose.htm).
Today, I packed up the van and boat and headed out for the weekend. Maypo took a half-day off from work so we met late in the morning at his house. By 1500 we were at the Hahn Overlook, taking in the spectacular view of the south end of the lake on this beautiful summer’s day. Today is the first day of Fall but it feels a lot more like summer.
We then drove on to Seven Points and checked out the visitor’s center I had missed on my kayaking trip up here earlier this month. By 1700 we were at the Aitch ramp launching the boat. After motoring out to Nancy’s Boat-In Campground we set up the tent, had a quick supper and started looking for firewood as the sun set. Pickings were slim for firewood at the campground so we motored across the cove to a likely-looking spot and that paid off. There was plenty of dead wood lying about within easy reach and by dark we had a nice fire going.
About 2200 we found we had a problem. There were only a few other campers in the campground but one group decided it was party-night. We went over and asked them to turn down the radio and they did for awhile but by 0200 they had it cranked up to full volume and they were all well-lubricated. Finally, they shut it off at 0300.
======== end of 30 September post =====
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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