shawnlucas, Author at One Guy Outdoors

September 18, 2017

Labor Day 2017

Prologue

I said in the last post that summer was winding down. We still technically have a couple of weeks left. Well, actually, we have about a week and a half until the official end of summer. However, last week was Labor Day (the unofficial end), and we are all back to school. So, for all intents and purposes, summer is over for 2017.

Journal

Labor Day weekend is usually our time for one last big trip before we have to buckle down for the school year. The last few years have been a trip to Emerald Lake in Vermont. We didn’t go this year, but her parents are planning a trip in October. While Christine understandably doesn’t want to take the chance of Vermont in October (we have experience of snow in Northern Vermont on Columbus Day as Grand Isle used to be our yearly trip that weekend), I had the idea this morning of maybe getting a hotel room and hanging at the campground during the day. I know her dad will make fun of us, but we can make just as much fun of him as he freezes his butt off while we are sitting in front of a cozy fire or lounging in our hot tub bath.

Who knows if we will actually go through with it. Personally, I would love to take the trip because Emerald Isle is one of my favorite places to visit. Even thought it is right off of a highway, the campground, and especially the lake, are secluded in a bowl that gives the most wonderful views of the mountains while keeping the sound of traffic on the highway where it belongs. Our other favorite campground, which we visit every year on Cape Cod, doesn’t have that same isolation. You can still hear the highway and that is somewhat annoying, but it’s the only way that we get to take that trip every year, so we tolerate it.

Last year, especially, was a fun trip to Emerald Isle. More specifically, the trip home was worth it. We stopped at a waterfall fed swimming hole for about two hours. We were going to stop at a few more, but got what we wanted from the one, so we decided to save the others for another trip. Alas, that trip wasn’t this year.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that I keep mentioning the fact that we missed the trip this year and that it is one of my favorites. However, I’m not upset by that. I am intrigued by getting a hotel in a month. We talked about doing that a few years ago for our Grand Isle trip. Then, it ended up being unseasonably warm that year, so we didn’t need the hotel. It really is hit or miss, though, and none of us want to camp in the cold. We will see how things progress for the rest of this month and into October.

So, how did we celebrate the end of summer this year? Well, in keeping with the theme of summer, we went with a laid back weekend with friends and family. We opened the weekend with a cookout with Christine’s parents and her sister’s family. In the past, this would not necessarily have been a quiet and relaxing dinner. But, times change and people change. The most stress, as it often is these days, came only from the news. Hurricanes, earthquakes, politics, etc. At least all of the bad news is made easier to handle by being with people who you love.

Another lesson that has taken far too long to learn. I’ve always been the kind of person who was more comfortable by myself. But, that might not have always been in my best interest. Sitting on the couch, watching our five children play (a bit loud at times, so we yelled at them to go outside because, in my day!), discussing current events with my father in law, and eating food that wasn’t exactly healthy proved therapeutic on that particular day. The only difference this time was that I wasn’t antisocial this time around. Hey, better late than never, right?

I might be a slow study sometimes, but once I learn a lesson, it usually stays learned. So, when Christine suggested that we end the summer with a beach trip, I agreed. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a beach guy. I will usually go when we are down on Cape Cod because I enjoy all of those beaches. However, more often than not, I’ve been skipping the trips at home. While she wanted to take one last trip to Cape Cod, that trip was going to happen the following weekend. It actually didn’t happen either weekend, but the possibility of the trip made the trip to Laurel Lake a decent second option and a way to hold me over until we get back to a Cape Cod beach. At this point, it is probably next spring or summer, but we have taken more than one trip to the beach in the winter, so maybe this will be the year that we do that trip again.

Aside from that, though, the trip to the local beach was with friends. So, I got to see all of the boys playing together in the same way that they played with their cousins the day before. This has led to games of Pokemon, promised games of YuGiOh, a couple of days of tossing a whiffle ball back and forth, and just an overall togetherness that the family hasn’t felt for a few years.

Epilogue

I know that I sound like a scratched record with these posts lately, but I’m just in awe of how things can feel so broken for so long. There have been tragedies for all in the family. We are not completely out of the woods yet in that regard, but things have definitely settled down. Those stress inducing events chip away little by little so you don’t notice the effects of each individual stress. Eventually, it just becomes too much to endure and you end up overwhelmed by it all.

As with most issues, you can’t fix them until you admit that there is a problem. It took so long to even realize that something was wrong that coming to terms with the issue was far down the road. The idea of therapy was considered more than once, but dismissed. Looking back, it might have helped. Seeing how this summer of togetherness has affected us in unexpected (but appreciated) ways, I can’t say that is so.

September 11, 2017

Heath Fair

Prologue

Even though summer is winding down and we are all heading back to school, we still have some adventures planned through at least the autumn and hopefully we can keep the momentum going into winter this year. Quinn and I, for example, took advantage of a nice Saturday last week to attend a local fair. Not the craziest of adventures, but it was fun and worth the trip.

Journal

Quinn joined 4H this year. He is our animal lover. He is the kid who will point out and announce every dog that we pass, ask the owner to pet the dog, and then proudly proclaim to all listening that he just pet the dog. He has mentioned more than one that when he gets older, he’s going to buy a house and buy a million puppies to live with him. He even changed the lyrics to Lady Gaga’s “Million Reasons” song to “Million Puppies”.

It makes sense. He was partially raised by Christine’s cousin, who moved to the small town of Warwick on a huge plot of land to build and maintain a farm. He helped feed and raise pigs and cows while in her care. She also has two dogs and a family of barn/house cats that he loves very much and mentions often. He is an animal lover to his core.

He even loves extinct animals. For a couple of years when he was younger, he told us that he wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. He got a costume for Christmas one year along with an excavating kit, which was basically just a plaster cast with some fossilized poop and a bone or two. But, he put on that costume and “dug” for his treasures. Living, dead, it doesn’t matter. He loves them all.

It should come as no surprise that we used animals to convince him to join 4H. We knew that he would have a great time. However, he is often reserved when it comes to social situations. Usually, we let him have his space. In this case, though, we knew that 4H would be a perfect fit and not only because of the animals. He also enjoys crafts, gardening, reading and watching shows about nature, and being outdoors. But, we needed a hook and the animals provided it.

The reason for this lengthy interlude about 4H is that it relates to our attendance at the fair. His 4H leader suggested that he go to a fair or two over the summer to get an idea of what they involved. We usually attend a larger fair at the end of the summer (coming up this weekend or next, actually), but saw that the 100th anniversary of the Heath Fair was being celebrated this year, so we made plans to attend.

He was psyched about going. His first fair was a couple of years ago and he went with just me and Christine. It was the Franklin County Fair. He had fried dough with strawberry jam topping and loved it so much that he wanted it for his birthday cake the next year. He saw pigs race, giggling as they ran across the track and into the pool. He still talks about getting to pick a pig during the race and that his pig won one of the races. It was a great experience and he has been excited about fairs ever since. Our second time was as a family and it was a trip to the Big E. Even with Big in the title, I don’t think that it emphasizes just how huge this particular fair is. Just for starters, there are 5 separate buildings that house food, drink, and other tourist events from each of the 5 New England states. There are also a ton of carnival rides and games. If you have never been and you want to get an idea of the scope, check out the web page. Last year, there was a tent with the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. It is massive.

I wasn’t sure how he’d react to a smaller fair after having experienced two of the largest in the area, if not the state. He remained enthusiastic, though. He kept talking about seeing the bunnies. Not only did we use animals to lure him in, but those animals were bunnies. Yes, we may just be the most diabolical parents. But, we are effective.

Christine and I were both going to go with him on Saturday, but something interfered with those plans and she had to work on Sunday, so that’s how it ended up being just the two of us. I’ve got to say, the price was right. 8 dollars for me, he was free, and a buck to park. Once in the fair, he did get to see his bunnies, and chickens, and cows. There were also horses, but I don’t think they were show horses.

After wandering through the show animals, we went to the other side of the fairgrounds. There was an amphitheater and I wanted to see what was happening. They were doing oxen pulls. On the way, I noticed that they were also registering cars for a classic car show. I really wanted to see the cars, but he wasn’t interested, so I figured we could come back. He did want to see the oxen pull teams, so we watched that for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Then, he got hungry, so we went in search of food. He said that he wanted sausage, but then only ate one bite of that. He did eat a basket of french fries by himself over two sittings. We wandered into the bunny area again, checked out the arts and crafts, watched a parade that he called the best he’s ever seen, watched a firefighter land what I assume was their new toy (a drone), and finished the day with french fries and more crafts.

I said in my last entry that this summer has been less about exploring places that we haven’t been and more about connecting with ourselves and each other. While this particular fair was one that we hadn’t visited before, so much so that I had to input it into the GPS and still wasn’t exactly sure where I was or where I was going, it was still familiar territory for us due to our past experiences with fairs.

We have a massive trip planned for next summer to Florida and maybe more on the east coast. Perhaps this summer was just a refueling mission to prepare us for that massive undertaking. Granted, Christine has been to Disney enough times to start saying out loud that she’s sick of it and I’ve been twice, so it’s not a completely new trip. However, the boys have only been once and Quinn was very little during our last trip, so he’s never been. It promises to be a fun trip, but it will be one of those vacations that we will have to take another vacation when it is over.

So, this year was about going to the Cape to find ourselves. It was about visiting fairs to remind ourselves. It was a summer just for us. The last few years have been stressful and chaotic. I’m not going to tempt fate by saying that will change, but if this summer is any indication, we are turning a corner. The boys have played well together, even though Quinn is left behind sometimes by the bigger boys. Christine is rested and seemed to conquered some of her demons. I’ve renewed my commitment to being a better father and husband.

Epilogue

You read about these life changing summers in books and watch them on movies and TV shows all the time so much that they are cliche. Also, I wonder if you can be so self aware as to realize that you are in the middle of one when it is happening. However, if the cliche is based in reality and you really can recognize when the universe is realigning more to your liking, then this has definitely been one of those summers.

And so, it seems, that life most often changes not in huge and immediately recognizable ways. Though, those happen, too. I’ve experienced maybe more than my share of earth shattering events such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. They’ve scarred and healed me accordingly. I know that physical scars don’t every fully heal and the same might be true about emotional ones, too. However, if they do heal, even if not fully, our summer together as a family has done much to accelerate that healing.

August 28, 2017

Camping Cape Cod

Prologue

In one of my previous posts, I went on and on about how great it was to stay in a house and be able to explore Cape Cod. I might have even mentioned some foolishness along the lines of “I’m never camping again.” However, camping is $17 a night and the cape house would normally cost over 1800 a week, so guess who camped on the cape again?

Journal

We have an annual trip that we take as a family ever year. We used to have several, but many of them have fallen by the wayside for one reason or another. Some I miss. I really like Emerald Lake in Vermont. Some I won’t. Grand Isle State Park is a beautiful park, but in October, all I remember is that it is cold. Some never quite materialized. We went to a condo in Jackson, NH one Christmas and received some comp time due to a malfunctioning shower that we used the following summer. The boys loved the trip and want to do it again, but it’s on the expensive side. However, through it all, for the last million(?) years, we have camped at Shawme-Crowell State Forest in Sandwich, MA.

We’ve camped with friends. We’ve camped just the two of us. We’ve camped for one week. We’ve camped for two weeks. Due to working restrictions, Christine and I only camped for two long weekends this year. I know. It’s a damn tragedy. We’ve camped when we were the only ones in the campground. We’ve camped during the 4th of July holiday week and will never do that one again. Heck, we’ve even camped in a damn hurricane. Nothing has kept us from this trip year after year.

It’s gotten to the point where I feel like the place is home. I will often make jokes on Facebook about “those damn tourists” or that we are “going home for a few days”. Christine and I talk more and more regularly about getting a place on the cape after we retire. I’ve said this before and I’ve even made jokes about it on my Facebook and elsewhere that I was going to start a fund raiser to help me retire down there. As the years pass and we vacation at other places less and the cape more, it is looking more and more likely. However, that’s a discussion for another time.

What do we do that is so great that we want to keep coming back and maybe even devote the last 20+ years of our life to living there? Well, this time, nothing. Not a damn thing. Remember last time when I made the argument for doing nothing? Well, it wasn’t quite that level of nothing. But, because Christine and I both worked this summer, these trips were definitely about refreshing and recharging. Even the boys, who usually aren’t impressed by our busy pace, mentioned that we didn’t do much during these weekend trips.

It might be argued that we are just bored or burned out with the things to do down there. This is an understandable assumption and entirely plausible. However, we went into the vacation with the idea that we would do things like go see a Cape Cod league game (which we haven’t in a few years), travel to the National Seashore beach again (which I suggested as a change of pace and because it was really much cooler than our usual beach), and travel to Wood’s Hole (one of my favorite places on earth) for a day.

We only actually did the last and that was on the very last day that we were there and after much procrastination. No, we were neither bored nor burned out on activities. We were just mostly tired from having worked all week and she just wanted to spend time on the beach. Me, I’m not much of a beach guy, but I will often accompany the family because they find ways to make it fun.

There weren’t any seal sightings at the beach like there were at the National Seashore beach. I didn’t strap on the wet suit, flippers, and snorkel to swim a ridiculous distance on the search for…well, I’m not entirely sure but we were supposed to know exactly what it was when we saw it. That refers to an adventure from a couple of years ago with a friend who used to live his entire life that way. Perhaps as I become more accustomed to posting to this page, I will either try to remember back that far or, more likely, just try to recreate it. We didn’t get caught on a disappearing/reappearing island and have to wade through a rapidly increasing high tide to get back to shore. That one was my own idea and we’ve been back to the place a few times. Once was to get on kayaks and get a lecture from my friend mentioned earlier that I should lay low and not piss off any fishermen. In his words, “I know you have no sacred cows, but this isn’t your domain anymore. Just follow me and be respectful because these guys don’t care out here.”

I won’t go into detail because, hey, it’s another potential essay at a later point in the page’s history. But, I will say that we didn’t get killed or detained by pirates. We did ogle huge boats in a marina that we paddled through. Well, during our most recent trip to Cape Cod, we didn’t even do that much. Though, we did see a huge shipping ship come through the canal during one of our nightly trips to the bike path. So, not even our beach visits led us down a path that ended with what anyone would consider “a good story”.

I mean, there was the one night that we traveled to a “different” beach for a fire at night with my sister-in-law and her family. The “different” beach was simply another stretch of the usual beach that we go to farther down the shore and on the other side of the canal. It was still fun as we sat there in the dark like a bunch of teenagers, constantly looking over our shoulder and joking that at any minute the cops or firefighters would show up to break up our little “party”. The funniest part was wondering what they’d say when they discovered that the “party” was me and my kids trying to throw rocks into the ocean from as far away as possible while one of my young nieces ate sand and the other fell asleep in her father’s arms. Oh, those raucous summer nights.

But, hey, not all adventures are about the adventure. Sometimes you just need a weekend or two to unwind. You are reminded what and who is important in life. Sitting in a campground or on a beach, riding a bike on a path along the canal, eating an ice cream (or in my case, drinking a milkshake) around a campfire either on the beach or at the campground, or hanging out with the fisherman on the jetty can all serve to flush out the bad and allow some good to flow back in to your brain, soul, humors, mojo, or whatever it is you believe that drives life and keeps you tethered to an increasingly bizarre reality.

Epilogue

Now that I’m thinking about it, this summer has been full of those types of adventures. We have spent a considerable amount of time at home instead of traveling. When we traveled, it has mostly been to either familiar or safe destinations. Maybe it is because we both worked this summer. Maybe it is because we have a big trip down the east coast and ending in Florida planned for next year. Maybe it is just because every so often you have to reboot the system. Whatever the reason, it has still been a great summer and I’m ready to head back to school for the fall semester.

August 15, 2017

Couch to 5K

Prologue

If you told me at the beginning of the year that I would be running 35 minutes a day, I’d have told you to have your head examined. Biking daily? Sure, I’ve been there. Swimming daily? Yep, I’ve done that, too. That reminds me. I really should get back to biking and swimming.

Journal

Aiden is our “do everything” kid. He signs up for any extracurricular activity that the school and community provides. Even if he doesn’t sign up for an activity, he still brings home the paper and tries to convince us that it’s something that interests him. And so it was that he ended up signed up for “Boys on the Right Track”.

Perhaps I should explain. Their school started an after school program called “Girls on the Run”. It focuses on team building and self confidence in the context of training for a 5K race. The boys in the school wondered why only the girls were allowed to have such a program. Believe it or not, but there was some push back to even giving the boys their own program.

I don’t remember exactly what the argument was. It was along the lines of “girls never get anything for themselves” or something like that. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t persuasive enough. The principal of the school put together the resources to start the program for the boys. After seeing the results, perhaps the naysayers were on to something. The boys didn’t perform nearly as well as the girls. There were constant reports of misbehavior and rudeness. The boys just didn’t enjoy the team building part of it. They just wanted to compete and run. But, the leaders stayed with it and the boys turned it around eventually.

How does all this lead to me running on an almost daily basis? Well, Aiden needed a running buddy and Christine, in her infinite wisdom and kindness, chose me to be his buddy. Now, that’s probably not fair and misguided. It was the “Boys on the Right Track” program, after all. So, it make sense that I would end up being his running buddy. I should probably mention at this point that I have never run for recreation in my life.

In fact, I could probably count the number of times that I had run as an adult on two hands. Luckily, the times I did run weren’t, as the old joke goes, to save my own life. It’s simply something that wasn’t done. It’s not that I was adverse to exercise. I rode my bike often and started a daily swimming regiment at the local YMCA this past December. I had just somehow convinced myself that running was a ridiculous endeavor and there’s no reason to run unless you are in one of those life threatening situations from the aforementioned joke.

There are even times that I took an almost superior view of those who ran. Who the hell do they think they’re impressing? I try not to get into that whole judging others for the things that they like, but for some reason this whole running deal just rubbed me the wrong way. Especially marathoners, I really hated those guys. Running 26 miles? For what? And why do you put bumper stickers on your car advertising it? Just because some Greek guy supposedly did it thousands of years ago? When I heard that they had to tape their nipples to prevent chafing and bleeding, that convinced me that there was no good reason to run a marathon.

Some of that changed when I learned that one of my best friends from high school trained and ran marathons. It’s that old political trick of not caring about something until you know someone who is involved with that thing. I still didn’t want to run, but I wasn’t actively opposed to the activity anymore. In fact, he talked about coming into Boston for the race and I started to see running as a social activity.

I still had no desire to run, but I could understand why people ran. It wasn’t until “Boys on the Right Track” had a practice 5K that “strongly encouraged” buddies to accompany their runners. Still not interested in running, I decided to take the route of ignore it and hope it goes away. It did not. I literally tried to run a 5K from the couch. Literally. That is not an exaggeration. I stood up from my couch, without stretching, and “ran” 5K. In actuality, I ran about 5 to 10 minutes and then spent the rest of the time walking/limping, attempting to catch my breath, and wondering why my lower back hurt. Sure, other things hurt, but they made sense. Feet, ankles, knees, legs. I thought that maybe the pain had gained sentience and was working its way through my body to paralyze or even kill me.

Shuffling like a zombie, I was the last one to cross the finish line. I took so long that they gave up on even having a finish line and nearly everyone was in their post race high(?) and drinking water, taking pictures and selfies, and having a grand old time. Thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated, I came home and took to Facebook to publicize my humiliation further. The community of runners came to assist me. One of my Facebook friends advised me to keep with the program and go back to the previous run if I was having trouble. Another encouraged me to keep it up, too. I explained to them that the “couch to 5K” was literal and that I would download the program and give it a try.

The “Boys on the Right Track” 5K at Greenfield Community College was about halfway through the program. I was still in the walk/run cycle of the program, but I did finish the race. I didn’t come in last. I actually felt pretty good about myself and what I had been able to accomplish in only a month. I could have quit the program after the 5K because, as old me would say, “What the hell are you trying to prove?” But, as new me said when inquired if I was enjoyed running, “I started the program and feel like I need to see it through to the end.”

Now, 3 months later, I have worked my way through the 8 week program and just two weeks ago I ran every single day. Vacation, work, and an especially rainy summer have disrupted that routine, but I did run on Monday of this week, yesterday, and plan to run again today. I still wouldn’t say that I enjoy running, but I have found a podcast to listen to that makes it more bearable.

Epilogue

I started the year hating running. I got to a point where I tolerated running for the sake of my kid. I continued to run out of some misguided notion to “finish what I started”. I now run because I guess it’s a thing that I do. Next week I can start swimming in the morning. I need a new stem/pedal for my bike and then who knows? Maybe I will become one of those annoying triathlon guys that I used to hate so much.

August 11, 2017

The Cape House

Prologue

Christine’s principal asked a few weeks ago if we wanted use of her Cape House, free of charge, for a weekend. Yes, I know that’s a strange sentence. My life story sometimes seems to be a random string of strange sentences. Nevertheless, while the “why” or “how” might be interesting, the actually cool parts of this story come from the “what”. You already know the “who” and I just told you the “where”.

Journal

More specifically, the “where” is a four bedroom, 2 bath house on Samoset Road in Eastham, Massachusetts. It is situated between two ponds, at the end of the road is First Encounter Beach, and half a block in the other direction is the bike trail. I say all of this not to brag that we got all of this for nothing (okay, maybe a little), but I was actually astounded when she told us how much they rented the place per week. Normally, I scoff and grumble about dumb rich peopel who pay those prices. An example can be found only blocks from where we stayed. A B&B charged $2900 for a room.

This house has all of the amenities and convenience mentioned plus some other things that maybe I shouldn’t mention because I’m not positive if they’re friend/family benefits or not for only a little bit more than half of what the B&B charged. I mean, Christine told me the rate and I shrugged and replied, “That’s actually not that bad. 4 bedrooms, so you can get the whole family together to split it 3 or 4 ways and it’s less than an hotel room for the week.

The main points are; (a) there are still good people in the world, (b) deals abound if you just keep your eyes open and (c) I don’t want to camp any more. Because camping is so inexpensive, relatively speaking, that’s how I’ve been traveling since I was a kid. Even now, as I write this, I’m camping on the Cape in our usual spot. It’s costing us a fraction of a fraction of what splitting the house 3 ways would cost and we’d be able to spend a month down here before approaching the cost of the house. There will be more about camping over the next couple of weeks, though, so I will get back to the subject.

She and her husband stayed with us the first night. He has MS and needed some assistance figuring out the TV/DVD remotes. So, I played my usual role of “somewhat tech savvy surrogate son” and got him plugged in to Jack Reacher. I then went to the bedroom to hide from further social interaction. Christine found me and got me to come down and socialize only because I understood that it was conventionally polite. Also, unexpectedly, I got into the movie and enjoyed it. As an aside, the social hour inspired me several times to make observations or proclamations about how much MS must suck. I also wondered aloud a couple of times how tough it was to crack the disease since “they have the telethon every year and they can’t even really identify triggers. HIV and even cancer have been figured out to an extent, but MS keeps on destroying lives and bodies.” Apologies for the abrupt change in subject and tone. It’s obviously still occupying head space and maybe if I put it out there, I can open up lines of communication.

Because, in spite of much evidence to the contrary, I still believe in the good in people. I still keep 2 Generations Gaming in spite of the fact that i have no real idea nor plan for promoting it beyond the small following it because I like games and I want to spread that enjoyment as much as possible. If that leads to discussion and/or meeting new people. That’s also the reason for this page and honestly, why I ever write anything. I’d like to make money from it, but I’m more or less just in it for the community.

The next morning, as I often do, I woke up before everyone else. I sat on the deck, took a picture of the pond across the street, and spent about a half an hour doing absolutely nothing. I’m often astounded how people will come up with ways to describe their “nothing” time to make it sound like something. Thinking, meditating, relaxing, enjoying nature/silence/a cup of coffee. Each of those activities reduces action by a few degrees, but they all still imply that you are doing “something”. Why are people so reluctant to admit that they are nothing “nothing”? Well, I was doing nothing. There’s a virtue in doing nothing. As I say to Aiden all the time, you need to learn how to be bored.

Speaking of Aiden, as he often does, woke up second. I can’t remember if it was his idea or mine, but we ended up on our bikes. I first led ups up to the trail that is only a few feet from the end of the driveway. He asked about going to the beach that our host has mentioned that was “at the end of the road”. Consulting the map, I confirmed that, in fact, it was, so we set out on our adventure. A 10 minute bike ride led us to First Encounter Beach, where supposedly the pilgrims actually landed and met the Wamponoag. It isn’t much to speak of. Our first impression was that thee sand flies are brutal.

However, that only extends to the “main” stretch of beach near the parking lot. If you go either left or right, they are non-existent. Traditionally, for kids, the beach is great. During low tide, there is a huge sand bar that reaches out at least a half a mile. Numerous tide pools litter the landscape, offering countless opportunities for exploration. I also ran (more on that in the next post) the beach twice and the west gooey sand made for great padding. We visited the beach twice and once we got out of range of the bugs, both visits were awesome.

We also found a loophole that allowed us to visit the National Seashore Beach free of charge. It’s a trip that we’ve wanted to take for years, but haven’t been able. One reason is the cost. It’s 20 bucks to park. That’s not bad if you’re an all day beach family, but that’s simply insane for the 2-3 hours that we usually spend at the beach. The other reason ties into a comment that I made during the camping trip. “once people get on to the Cape, they just sort of settle where they are. The traffic is so ridiculous that they don’t want to go anywhere. Maybe that’s an over-generalization and not true for everyone, but it has held for us. Other than one (or two) extremely rare trips to P’town, a rainy day travel to the brewery, chip factory, and mall in Hyannis, and a couple of others, we stay very close to our home base, usually Sandwich.

This time, we were in farther and discovered that the National Seashore was right down the road in the other direction. Score! But, still, the $20 to park. Sure, we could have just shut up and paid it. During our little caper, we considered it. But, good stories usually involve some level of dishonesty and intrigue. Also, damn the man!

(Side note: In this case, “the man” is actually the National Park Service, an organization that I 100% support and has been one of the prime resisting voices in this slow fall of dominoes that appears to be leading to a facist takeover of the country. Damn, I feel bad. Time to write a check.)

What makes me feel worse is the beach was actually amazing. Bear in mind, I’m not much of a beach person. In fact, I’ve gotten to the point in my life where I actively dislike the beach and will skip it 1 out of every 3 times they visit. But, this beach was fantastic. First, the ride into the beach carried us through the forest where we saw a turkey and over a bay bridge. Second, the waves at the beach were huge. Third, we followed a pod of seals down the beach. In fact, I had so much fun that I asked Christine if her family might consider the drive to come back to the beach. Her answer was non-committal, but I want to return.

Epilogue

We finished the trip with another family paddle on the small pond, a seafood dinner, and a fire complete with giant marshmallow s’mores. It was a trip to a place that we know and love, but in a different area. That made all the difference. We explored and found new adventures in new places. I don’t want to sound greedy, but I want to come back and explore some more. Heck, I’ll even pay for the privilege.

July 11, 2017

Disc Golf at Tully Lake

Prologue

I know that I said that I was going to post about HCC’s disc golf course next. That isn’t happening for several reasons. First, my discs were in my wife’s car and I kept forgetting to retrieve them. Second, it rained most of the end of last week. Third, it was the end of summer semester and I had grades to do. So, that adventure will have to wait. I will most likely do the HCC course next week. The reason that I’m not going to do it this week is that I have to space the adventures so that it doesn’t become repetitive and today I’m talking disc golf in Tully!

Journal

My wife mentioned that she wanted to go paddleboarding yesterday. Well, she actually said two days ago that she wanted to go tomorrow. Two days ago tomorrow is yesterday. Got it? Okay, well, confusing timeline aside, I asked her where she wanted to take the board. She answered as I expected by saying that she wanted to go to one of the beach lakes.

You can probably guess that my casual inquiry was actually self serving. I’m not much of a beach guy. I’ve become more acclimated to the beach lifestyle since I took up swimming. I also figured out what most people already know. If you’re captive to the sun, surf, and sand, you might as well bring a book to keep you company. However, I’m still not on the level of my wife or our youngest when it comes to beach buminess. They are the beach bumiest of our whole family.

Therefore, I followed my casual inquiry with an equally casual mention of Tully Lake as a possibility for the trip. Seeing as how I missed my chance to write about HCC’s disc golf course on the page, I could instead do the Tully course as my introductory disc golf journal. It’s a course with which I’m more familiar, so that I didn’t have to concentrate as much on the course. Instead, I could concentrate on how I was going to construct these entries into the journal.

Admittedly, my reasons were selfish, but they weren’t exclusively for my benefit. Tully also has good fishing, a playground for Quinn, and sometimes swimming. It’s not technically a beach lake on this side, but people do get wet and there are islands, one of which has a rope swing. We couldn’t go out to the islands because we didn’t bring the canoe, but they are there. So, it was the best of all worlds.

This is probably where you expect me to talk about my big but. After all, we all know that everyone has a big but. Well, I can confidently say that there is no big but in this story. I got to disc golf all but 2 of the tees. After taking a break after the first 9 because Aiden was hot, tired, hungry, and thirsty, we got stuck behind a group of four chuckers. Eventually, they got ahead of us, but then they must have been stuck behind a group, too, because we caught up to them again. I suggested we just skip to two holes ahead to finish out the round. Aiden was more than happy to oblige and that finished our day on the course.

Christine got some time on the paddle board. So did Liam and Quinn. Quinn got his play time at the park and it sounded like he was having fun. I pulled a chair over by the water and just sat and watched the lake for the last 15-20 minutes of our trip. I didn’t want to leave, but everyone else was ready to go eat dinner. This visit didn’t result in any new friends like the last one. I didn’t have any epiphany while watching the water or playing disc golf. Overall, it was just an average trip to the lake that was enjoyed by all. Hey, they can’t all be life changing. Then again, who’s to say that it wasn’t.

Epilogue

At the beginning of the round, I started taking pictures from each tee. Similar to the video that I shot during my hike up Tully Mountain, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to use them. I did get the idea today to do a video walk through of the courses (right now just HCC and Tully) to post to a YouTube page. This blog is still very much in its infancy and things are being worked out.

If I’m smart about it, I will start to check out some of the other web pages, YouTube channels, and blogs that are dedicated to outdoor activities. That way I can start to get an idea of what kind of voice the pages generally have. I mean, I’m probably not going to change my voice completely. That’s just not the type of writer I am. I will try to incorporate what I see and learn into the page, obviously, but my voice is my own.

We just learned that we are taking a surprise trip to Cape Cod this weekend. A friend and colleague of Christine has a house down there and it is available. So, even though we’ve been there numerous times over the years, we might be in a different part of the Cape this time, so that opens up the possibility of adventure!

May 16, 2017July 5, 2017

Hello world! A Hike Up Tully Mountain

Prologue

I envisioned the page starting with at 20 years, 20 hikes book that I got for Christmas one year. The local trustees put it out (10 years ago now! I wonder if they’ve updated it for 30 hikes) and many of the hikes I’ve done before. I was going to do a 20 hikes, 20 years, 20 days series, but as it often does, life got in the way. I did get around to doing one of the hikes and it went exactly as I’d hoped it might. I wandered a bit trying to find the place (even though I’ve been there about a half a dozen times before) and discovered another mini adventure. I ran into another hiker randomly and discovered that he was the husband of someone I used to work with at one of my previous jobs. We ended up going up together since he pointed me to the trailhead as I didn’t bring a map. Consequently, I also got turned around coming down the mountain and took the long way around getting back to my van. All in all, it was a good trip and a great start to the page.

Journal

So, today’s the day. I’m heading out to Tully Mountain to hike it for the inaugural hike of “One Guy Outdoors”. It’s a local hike that I’ve done a few times before. I’m pretty sure it’s the hike that we did with Liam’s cub scout pack a few years ago. I know that the elementary schools sometimes take a trip to hike the mountain. So, it’s not exactly an intimidating hike. Still, it’s the perfect start for a slightly out of shape middle aged guy who definitely isn’t experiencing a crisis.

When the day of the hike came, I was quite distracted that morning. I needed to head to Wal-Mart to get a water bottle and some bug spray. I also wanted to record an introduction in case I ever get around to putting together YouTube videos for each of the hikes. I waited until everyone left the house, as it was still during the time in the summer when I was off, but they were all in school. See, that was part of the plan, too. Eventually, the page might evolve into one involving the family, similar to how the main 2 Generations Gaming page evolved from 2 Guys Gaming. However, I wanted to do a test run before even thinking about any of that.

I thought I knew where I was going, but I clearly did not. I overshot all of the trail heads by about a half a mile. As is often the case, however, true adventure can often begin with the words, “I should have taken that right turn at Albequerque.” Instead of hiking up the mountain, I found myself at a wildlife sanctuary. I decided I’d make the best of it and hike through the sanctuary. I heard water at the trailhead, which often makes for beautiful pictures and video.

Spoiler alert: I never made it to the water. I did come across a turtle during my hike and many, many ticks. Overall, the trip to the sanctuary was a failure, but not an overall disappointment. I’d like to go back with more of a plan because it was a beautiful place to visit and showed great potential for the type of adventure that I’m looking to share on this page.

After my unintentional detour, I put the mountain into Google Maps. Since there are multiple trails that wind up and down the mountain, the trails are not always well marked, and there isn’t an exact address for the peak, Google Maps had some trouble directing me where to go. As a result, after overshooting the mountain, I drove past several trails two or three times before I decided to just pull over somewhere that looked promising. It looked like a trailhead, there was another car parked there (a Subaru, so you just know it is going to be a school teacher looking for something to do outside), and what did I have to lose at this point?

I got out of the car and tried to look as “out of town” as I possibly could so that I wouldn’t look like the local dork who got lost. I was that local dork, of course, but there’s no reason this Subaru driving dude needs to know that. “Is this the entrance to Tully?” I casually ask while still doing my best “out of town” impression. “One of them.” He responds. “There’s at least one other if you want to go around to the other side.” I nod. I’m pretty sure he isn’t buying the “out of town” vibe from me, but I appreciate him playing along.

After that, I head up the mountain as quickly as possible. Not only am I embarrassed at having gotten lost on the way to a local mountain, but now I tried to cover it up by pretending to be from some place else. I need to get as far away from this guy as possible to save some face in case I ever become famous outdoors blogger and he decides to blow up my spot. Ha! I’ll show him! I’ll do it myself.

In addition to my terrible navigation skills to find the trail leading to the mountain, I missed a turn in the trail as I was climbing the mountain. Subaru Dude came to my rescue again. Pointing at the missed turn, he helpfully said, “I think this is where the trail continues.” Attempting to save face (and it was the truth), I replied, “I thought there might be something there, but I couldn’t be positive.” Then, sheepishly when I saw the yellow trail blaze, “Oh, there’s the mark.”

My ego sufficiently bruised, I figured I’d just hike up the rest of the trail with Subaru Dude. We got to talking. I discovered that he was married to one of the guidance counselors that I worked with in a previous job. We also discussed some of our other favorites in the area, many of which we shared and I will be sure to visit during my travels for future installments of the page. I’ve already been reminded of one of them during the previous week driving my oldest to a neighboring town for his most recent performance.

Subaru Dude and I parted ways at the peak. He went off to see where the trail led. I took some video from the peak, both of myself and of the scenery, before I started down the way I came. In keeping with the theme of the day, I missed a turn and ended up exiting into a parking area about a mile away from where I parked the van. I saw Subaru Dude and he seemed to think that it was my intention to exit where I did in order to travel to a local eatery for lunch. Having gotten some of my pride back in finding the parking area for my net trip, I let that delusion live.

Epilogue

I only wish that I’d been able to get more of the hikes from the book done. Oh well, the boys and my wife are out of school. I’m still teaching, but it is only for 3 or 4 hours in the morning. So there will be plenty of time to do those hikes in the coming months. I am also being reminded of much of the other outdoor entertainment located in the area. Due to my random encounter with Subaru Dude and the promise of the page to meet new people and find new places being fulfilled, I have been inspired in a big way to keep working on this page.

Stay on the lookout for my first actual round on the HCC disc golf course. I know! I’ve been attending and working there cumulatively for almost a decade. I’ve walked the course a couple of times, but I’ve never played it. I’m pretty excited to play it, but I’m also excited to give my report after. While it won’t be as much fun as this trip since I most likely won’t get lost, stinking at disc golf could offer some entertainment.