This is the account of my camping adventure. I guess Blogger was down for a while yesterday, because I couldn’t post. Oh well, here we go…

Thursday - I blew out of work at 1:30 pm and headed to the mall. I got my nails done, and while the guy thought I was nuts to do my nails BEFORE camping, he made them extra strong to last throughout the adventure. I then headed over to DrJims and got an adjustment. I got to chatting with his wife HighOctane and we ended up going shopping at BJ’s and WalMart for last minute supplies. We shop well together. She’s no Tempest, but she’ll do in a pinch. I dropped her back off and headed to Toads to collect Blixx, who’d been putzing with the camping gear for the better part of the day.

I no sooner get there, than the phone rings. It’s Tadpole and he’s been in a car accident on his way up to meet us. So we drive out to Sturbridge to pick him up. The front end of his Honda is totally pushed in. I’m just happy that he’s ok. It seems that as he was driving he was also looking for his apple pie. D’Oh! The accident was totally his fault and he’s totally screwed. Rather than go home he decided that it’s a perfect time for a vacation! Back at Toad’s house, we grab some pizza and beer and smoke and just hang out for a while. I helped Tadpole call the insurance people to put in the preliminary reports and all that jazz.

Friday - Morning we were up early and over at Toad’s by 8:30, after a mandatory stop for a large French Vanilla ice coffee light and sweet. We load up the gear and off we go. High Octane and I were in my car and the boys went in Toads van. It was about a 4 hour drive and it kept raining off and on during the drive. We took the scenic route and the mountains were just beautiful! I mean, really spectacular vistas. Imp Face fascinates me and I look forward to a hike to the top. We’d hoped to get sites close to the trail up the mountain, but had to settle for some farther back. Setting up the sites took no time at all, compared to other camping adventures we’ve had. Blixx and I had a site all to ourselves, because we used the other two tents to block off the view of ‘Party Central’ from the access road. Chairs were up around the fire in no time, and Blixx cooked us an outstanding swordfish stirfry for dinner. It’s his camping specialty and it’s out of this world. We cooked S’Mores and took a walk to check out the stars in a nearby field. It was a beautiful night. Sitting around the fire we heard a rustling in the leaves – a little light showed us it was a buny family on an outing. The babies were the cutest little things you’ve ever seen – there had to be at least 6 of them hopping around. Blixx and I retired relatively early (1AMish) and had a wonderful night for ourselves (Wink wink nudge nudge do you get what I’m talking about here people?).

Saturday - Up early (8 AM, and I was the last one up again) to a breakfast of bacon, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches. If you can find Assiago (sp?) cheese bagels pick some up because they are Heaven. We geared up and headed up the mountain. It was a beautiful hike, following a fabulous river most of the way. We stopped at Big Rock Two Rivers for a snack. We were overlooking Mt. Madison, Mt. Washington and a good portion of the presidential range. We had such a good view in fact that we were able to see the horrible rainstorm heading in our direction. It had rained off & on during the hike up, but it really started to come down when we decided to press on. We got to a point where we could either summit or turn back to camp, so I returned back with High Octane & DrJim. The poor guy was so Hell bent to get back to camp – at one point I thought he was going to fall over from exhaustion. Blixx, Toad & Tadpole continued upward on the mountain, but didn’t summit due to weather conditions. Everyone they saw on the trail was coming down and wet and miserable, so they decided to turn back.

We three got back to camp and had a rest for a while, then headed to Pinkham Notch trail station to grab a hot shower. There I met a couple who were spending a couple weeks just hiking the Appalachian trail. More power to them, this is not my preferred way to travel. We made a beer run too, then made it back to camp just as the boys were getting the fire good and stoked. Have I mentioned that I’m sick of camping in the rain?

HighOctane made pasta with a delicious veggie sauce. It took a while to heat up on the camp stove, but it was worth it. She cooked WAY too much food; even Blixx couldn’t clean his plate! I know – hard to believe, but true. We were so fat that we didn’t even toast marshmallows. HighOctane gave each of us a shoulder massage that was awesome! She does this thing that separates your shoulders ever so slightly that was just the ticket after carrying that heavy pack all day. So we’re sitting around the fire smoking cigars and drinking, when we hear this really strange noise. It took a while, but Blixx was finally able to figure out that it was a baby bunny. DrJim hadn’t zipped his tent all the way and it had gotten in to investigate. So there we were all crowded around the entrance to the tent yelling “here bunny” to no avail. Blixx finally saved the day be going in and chasing it out. Again I point out the obvious – baby bunnies are cute.

We were all in pretty bad shape and headed off to our tents before midnight. It was disappointing that we weren’t up all night partying, but just a symptom of our increasing age. We were star gazing for a good long time, but even looking up hurt my neck so all I wanted was to lay down and relax. Blixx was out like a light, but I stayed awake a little while just listening to the wind in the trees and the little critters all around. Very wacky noises rustling in the night.

Sunday - The drive home was a comedy of errors. We first stopped at the Bad Moose café, where Toad has a thing for the bartender. The boys had been in there before and when Blixx reached onto the bar for some Scorpion Sauce the bartender flipped. Apparently, it’s a SHOOTER, not a sauce for a chicken sandwich! The other bartender had let him have as much as he wanted…. so he did a shot and ended up sleeping it off in the van on the way home. We ate ourselves silly again and had a few beers. HighOctane drove my car home and doesn’t follow directions well. We should have taken route 3, but instead got on route 93. UG! We stopped for coffee, got our directions together and headed out. All I wanted to do was vegg out in the car but the woman talks a blue streak. I know entirely too much about her marriage, past relationships and personal hygiene. Yikes!

Once home, Blixx and I just crashed out on the couch for a while then up to bed early, after some much deserved showers. Yesterday at work sucked, so I won’t bore you there. Today at work sucks too, but worse since I seem to be suffering from the same snot related disease as Nightskye. I was up most of the night last night and I’m totally loopy today. I’m thinking it’s early to bed for this girl, after I make a mixer of head drugs to numb me out. Nyquil, here I come!

Into the future…