You can feel your summer fading fast
Maybe it was the rendition of that Steely Dan song that gave me pause hearing that next weekend is the cruise in at Mine Kill State Park. Maybe it was the discussions I had with Gemani AI about my thoughts about burning barrels and freedom to burn your own trash, the time I spent out on vacation or in dirty ol Pennsylvania, but I wanted to get away this weekend.
Completely rational? Not really, though today is a sunny but cool day. Things aren’t great for swimming, indeed the pool is open by now, but I’m in no rush necessarily to get to Mine Kill or even go swimming – I am thinking more along hiking, bird watching, photography, fishing before an afternoon swim when the sun is highest. ☀️ I did get sunscreen at Wally World yesterday, but I forgot my favorite – more of those big, apparently non-recyclable but who care I burn mine – jumbo bottles of salsa. Picante sauce to be exact. But it makes the cornmeal pancakes and even just eggs so delicious, not to mention on fried zucchini. And when I’m done, it goes into that white garbage bag and burns down to nothing. 🔥
There is no real plan for today, except I decided to limit it to between here and Mine Kill. 🏕️ Going to take the SuperDuty straight down there from Duck Pond, spned the balance of the day there swimming, hiking, maybe fishing, then come back to camp. Night 21 – literally three weeks of my summer – spent camping in the SuperDuty. 🧘♂️ Maybe not as many as some years with Big Red but I didn’t get my cap and the rig mostly together until the closing days of June. And now summer is almost done.
It was closer to 6:45 PM after I stopped to pee and reconnect my phone to Android Auto – and also get gas ⛽ in Rotterdam. I could have saved gas by staying home, but I figured that this weekend would likely be my last chance to get to the Mine Kill Swimming Pool 🏊♂️ indeed any swimming pool before the summer done. Maybe though next weekend, I’ll leave on Thursday for one last weekend at House Pond and Potholers. 🟤 Still chatting with people about selling Big Red, I get a few emails a week but nothing goes beyond a few questions. It’s a tough sell with the rotted frame. I thought about staying home in case somebody calls about the truck, but truth be told, nothing was going to happen and it would have been a wasted summer weekend.
Had a bit of a smoke with breakfast – first some eggs and zucchuni, then some apples, maple syrup, stevia, cinnamon and oatmeal as a dessert. 🍳 Laid in the hammock for a while, then went for a quick walk searching for some black berries. Had a group of campers set up shop late at night last night – after midnight at the other campsite on Duck Pond – but they’re packing up now. I think I’ve been seen them before but I’ve been coming up here for many years now. 🦆 I don’t know, I just needed to get away, and this is some pretty remote country for being only in Schoharie County. I actually had forgotten how rough parts of the road are back to Duck Pond though with care and low speed the SuperDuty did good. Watched out for pallet nails at the campsite, while I was part of the problem, finding a pallet on the way to work yesterday, and bring it up here.
It was kind of a stormy night last, almost cold and windy for a while with a constant threat of rain as I drove out here, but the rain passed south and around me, but for a while it sure seemed like a severe storm was immenent. ⛈️ Got set up and the inverter kept faulting out. The bolt I’m using for as a bus bar loosened up causing a voltage drop as the load increased but after tightening it this morning, things are a better. It looks the other campers from last night that arrived after midnight were from Ohio, which explains their late arrival. 💡 I probably would have perked up the fire more beyond the pallet pieces and the burnables had the lights been working. Indeed by the time I went to bed around 9:30 – 10 PM, things were quite a clear and beautiful night. Watched YouTube for a while before going to sleep. 😴
I often tell myself that I should do more 🙄 but I’m just tired after a busy and crazy week at work. 👨🏼💼 I rode my bike to work three days last week 🚲 and the happy hour 🍻 was fun but things were just so busy. I just needed more time in the woods, the hills after summer vacation. 🩴 One more day at the pool before summer is done. Maybe the burn barrels of Pennsylvania are far away but I still love the wild country. 🐐
