Not an early start ⏰
I was at Robert Treman State Park by ten o’clock not because I was rushing but I wanted a good spot for my big jacked up truck before the crowds flocked to the swimming hole parking area when it opens at eleven. Plus the days go by so quickly even when I tell myself I am not to be rushed on vacation. How the hell I tell myself can it be the fourth day of vacation and only nine days left until it comes to its logical conclusion on Labor Day.
I cut back on the smoking and drinking 🚬 🍻 last night and just a cup of coffee ☕ yesterday and today and feeling better for it. Fried zucchini with onions was a much lighter meal 🍴 then the rather stinky beer boiled clams of earlier night, especially camping totally splattered with cow manure 💩 from riding through the paddies in that pasture that second day of camp. And now I’m just enjoying the beauty on this warm and sunny day. The blue skies and sun ☀️ filtering through the trees 🌳 are just such a mood booster.
I am hiking the gorge trail 🚶 around Enfield Glen, and will go swimming in the gorge swimming area that is on all the State Tourism Brochures 🏊 but usually is very cold and muddy. Then I’m thinking about checking out John’s Pond at Headwaters of the Buttermilk Creek which apparently not only has kayaking 🛶 but also a swimming beach. 🏖️ Maybe watch the sunset 🌇 from Cayuga Lake or maybe I’ll head back to camp 🏕️ early.
This morning I’ve been so fascinated by colors and ripples and everything else. 🌈 My GPS took me over the backroads from the National Forest to Enfield Glen and I couldn’t help but study the homesteads 🐐 and farms as I drove by. You see a lot of innovations and different things especially around the Ithaca area. A lot of overflowing dumpsters too and not burn barrels like Pennsylvania. 🛢️ I could have done the Pine Creek Gorge but being such a hot day today – and feeling unambitous – Enfield Glen seemed like the better alternative. The Pine Creek Gorge and that area around Ansonia certainly is different and quite a beautiful. It’s fun to see other states with other norms. Later in the week, maybe next weekend. 💭 I still have a lot of vacation left.
As safe as coffee ☕
That’s what the package of caffeine pills said. Indeed, caffeine is a werid drug – it’s widely accepted especially in the form of coffee but it’s also both chemically and habitually addictive and can have a terrible impact on sleep and feeling and performance the next day of you take too much of it.
I popped a few caffeine pills with the grass yesterday hoping for a europhoric experience without being drousey. In many ways it was europhoric when I was riding my mountain bike but it also left me with a terrible night’s sleep and feeling anxious and awful all day despite being a pretty nice day all things considered. I mean I was a bit annoyed that they’ve eliminated the Terrance Garden Adirondack Chairs at the Watkins Glen Pool or that half the showers did not work until I found one that did – and I really wanted to get the cow manure, sweat, beer, cannabis, wood smoke and boiled clams smell off my body. It was stunningly beautiful on Seneca Lake though the two stroke jet ski event on the lake at Clute Park was annoying both on the kayak and seeking serenity in the evening.
I couldn’t help but once again focus on every noise, every creak and grone my truck made on the road even if all are the norm since lifting it and a ton of shit is nearing the end of life on the truck and probably preventative maintance would dictate replacing if I wasn’t planning on trading in Red at the end of winter to build my next rig to take out to Michigan and Northern Wisconsin – and in the out years maybe out west.
Honestly my mind would be in a better place if I cut way back on the caffeine. But strong coffee is always free in the office. And being sleepy and sleeping off my afternoons at camp wasn’t the experience I was looking for on Thursday. But my mind was at times in a terrible place today, even with all the beauty of Seneca Lake and the Catherine Creek Marsh from a placid lake to beautiful hole to a great sunset. It felt good showering and with practice I’m picking up efficient swimming but that water sure was cold in the Watkins Glen Pool.
I was going to go down to Pennsylvania and the Pine Creek Gorge tomorrow and see if I could accidentally step on a rattle snake on the trail and smell some of that hillbilly incense of rednecks burning their garbage but also the beauty. But I’m not mentally ready to do such a drive. I know everything will be okay but I need some more time staying local, close enough to camp and the many services of Ithaca should things go terribly wrong not that I have any such evidence.
Robert Treman seems like a good option as it’s potentially the last warm to hot day of summer vacation, though once we get beyond the front coming through on Sunday and the afternoon thunderstorms I see nothing but sunshine but an early autumn like cool through Labor Day. Maybe Pennsylvania and or Elmira next week. Cooler but sunny weather is better for riding. Rednecks gotta work in Pennsylvania so less stinky too. Left the kayak on the roof of my truck – thinking get an early start but not as early as a Pine Creek Gorge trip would require – get a good spot in the parking lot, maybe hike the full gorge trail then swim in the famous falls there. In the evening paddle around Falls Creek and Cayuga Lake near Stewart Park.
I don’t know. I’m tired and I just got to stop living my life in fear when most of the time it all works out in the end and I’m always looking for a good and novel adventure.
Odessa to Montour Falls
The big drop along NY 223, heading from Odessa to Montour Falls, showing Seneca Lake in the distance.
And then the fog burns off ☀️
The sun and the blue skies are a mood booster when you wake up smelling beer and clams, sweat and cow manure and mud that is splattered all over. But the sun will try out everything. Not sure if I will get out for a paddle on Seneca Lake though based on the forecast this might be the nicest day with the least amount of wind and choppiness on the lake.
I will have to get cleaned up after the zucchuni pancakes 🥞 and coffee. ☕ I totally abused the caffeine yesterday but it was so cold and gray most of the day I broke out caffeine pills 💊 with the cannabis for a europhoric experience. But it messed up my sleep last night along with getting a flat tire and dropping my cellphone 📲 in that cow 🐄 pasture full of curious Holsteins. And it all fueled my anxiety, which didn’t help as I heard more chunks of sheet metal fall of my truck in a pile of rust as I slammed the door last night as mud and dampness clinged onto the truck all night. Rot is starting to creep into the frame which is more alarming in my mind but I hope to make it through summer vacation and preferably the winter with Red. 🛻 I can probably survive winter without a truck, I don’t have to do winter camping 🏕️.
And of course you know the first thing that popped up social media this morning was the post about the wonders of driving 🚘 a 20 year old Honda Civic around. Just think about the benefits of buying a $10,000 junker rather than financing a $80,000 car at 5 percent interest and investing the difference in the stock market index fund at 8 percent annual return. As if a car was just something you drove to the grocery store and to your suburban office building 🏢 and you’re time at the mechanics shop was free and unlimited. In some ways I wish I could have gone to Michigan this year but it wasn’t going to happen with Big Red 🛻. It might have made it or it might not. I don’t know it’s a coffee and caffeine ☕ induced haze and anxiety. Fortunately I’ve turned off Zillow and I should stay off Facebook but I’m sure somehow the real estate board which find a way to ruin my vacation by reminding me how foolish it is to rent. 🏘️ Renting means you’re paying your landlords mortgage and a ten percent profits! Just think of all that equity in that plastic house with trash pickup and a high speed internet and enormous TV in every room! You need a 96 gallon garbage can and a fake recycling bin, not hogs and a burn barrel. 🛢️ Don’t you want one of those plastic suburban houses you can drive your 20 year old Honda Civic sitting in bumper to bumper traffic to your suburban office building while choking down a McDonald’s grease pit breakfast? 🍔 See what you need is BETTER HELP,🤪 fortunately the podcast I was listening to last night as I couldn’t sleep 💤 didn’t have that advertisement every five minutes.
As the morning progresses it becomes more pleasant and my fears 😱 drift away. I’ll get camp squared away and locked up in a bit and I guess the kayak 🛶 back on the roof of my truck and head down to the Watkins Glen Seneca Lake Canoe Launch. Depending on how choppy it is I’ll paddle up to Hector Falls or maybe just around the lake. The Watkins Glen pool opens at noon 🏊 to 5:45 pm after which I will get my Glen Dairy Bar 🍧 fix for the day. I need milk, maple syrup and cider vinegar. Then watch the sun set over Seneca Lake. 🚲 I’ll bring my bike and tube ⭕ but I doubt I’ll ride or float today in Seneca Lake. The tire still needs to be topped off my bike but I’ll do that later. I’m not sure if I’m feeling like going to Pennsylvania to ride tomorrow though it might be a good day for that. Maybe it’s my auto anxiety. 🧠
My remaining Hoopla borrows from July returned automatically yesterday. 📚 I still have my 10 August borrows to use up before the end of the month. I figure get one book out at a time and read it 📖 until it gets closer to the end of the month and end of vacation. Somehow I’m so strategic with my Hoopla borrows knowing the hard monthly limit when I get so many out from Libby and don’t care. Hoopla has a much better selection and the books work so much better when I’m places without cell service. 📱 Truth is that after vacation I probably won’t be camping for a few more weeks and even then it will just be Rennselaerville State Forest where I have cell service. And how much can I read in a month? 🌲🌳🌲
Well I’m making progress at cleaning up and securing camp. 🔐 Shaved and got out my bathing suit though I need a change of clothes after swimming 🏊. Perfect day for heading out at Seneca Lake – even on the Backbone there is only the slightest breeze and that’s unusual. All next week is going to be much breezer but sunny and cool. And that means I also have all of next week to enjoy hanging out at camp. Every day of vacation doesn’t have to be go go go. It can be relaxed. But today is a good day to paddle so I should get on it.
