Weekend Recap
Here's a little recap of this awesome weekend for future reading enjoyment.
Actually, I will start with Friday, even though my weekend didn't technically start until Saturday afternoon.
Actually, I'm going to start with Thursday night since that was the beer pong tourney lol.
Thursday Night: Pong! It was a good time. Got to know some of my coworkers and my boss a little better (all good beer pong players!). I don't really remember much about that night in particular. I partnered up with Risa for pong and we took on a few other teams; won some games lost some. We didn't do too badly though. Jordan's team was always tough to beat since Jordan is probably the best ponger I know. My boss wasn't too tough. I drank quite a few of those pints. The worst part was I had ridden my bike down to the girls', so I had to ride it back up (as in... up the hill). That was tough. It was a good time though; playing beer pong with your boss... how can I complain?
Friday: Off today, woot. I slept in (headache!) until like 11 or so. Then I got my crap together and made a killer breakfast (orange juice and a poptart!). Threw some stuff in the car and drove down to Rockwood to check out the railroad tracks for some glass. There was a lot of train activity going on (some engine was unloading something) so I drove down the road to Casselman where it was nice and quiet and walked there. I found a few good ones, a couple neat olive 145s and a few others. The Casselman river had some nice looking fishing holes, so I made mental note of those. Afterwards, I drove around on some backroads to see where things went. I ended up at Seven Springs, so I took Fire Tower road (adventure!) back to 31 and went to Kooser, where I swam for a little bit at the beach. After that, I came back and relaxed. I think I had a pizza.
Saturday: Worked in the morning and walked the plots looking for bats. Didn't find none. I think that's about it for this day.
Sunday: Woke up around 830 or so, had breakfast and drove to the All American Paintball Park to play paintball with Prizzi, Soltesz and some others. There ended up being 5 of us playing: Prizzi, Steve, Greg and Soltesz, plus myself. It was a great time; it's been awhile since I've played paintball. I mainly just wanted to shoot Soltesz, and I did shoot him, but he got me a few times too. I have some pretty healthy looking welts, bruises and even a few blood blisters. The worst looking one is on my left arm from when Soltesz shot me out of spite (and at close range) after I eliminated him. It's ok though, because a few rounds before that I shot him in the back when he was on my team lol. It was fun though; after awhile we got to play in the larger arena, which was great. We also invented a new way to play: Revolutionary War mode. And "Bolt Action" mode lol. Almost the same thing; you can only fire one shot at a time an load each one individually. The only differnece is in RW mode you have to stand in a line and you can't take cover from the paintballs the other team shoots. It was intimidating! You could hear them zip past your head. Bolt Action mode allowed you to run around and take cover and all of that, but you could only shoot one shot at a time. The part about this was it seemed like once someone on the other team missed you, you had a tendency to just suicide charge them which led to a few close up shots (which hurt). It was fun though, lots of fun. Afterwards we got Subway (which was also awesome!).
After splitting up with that gang, I drove to SVC to see if I could dig up Mikey somewhere. I walked around and visited the normal hot spots; got to catch up with Fr. Thomas Moore for a good half hour or so at the Gristmill. I thought he might know where Mikey was, so I went up to the little weaving room to see him. I also saw Brecca, which was awesome. Haven't seen that little guy in awhile.
I also visited Anis and talked to him for awhile. We took a walk and caught up. He's a funny guy.
Finally, I went to Vespers at 5 (you can only hide for so long, monk) and found him there. We went to dinner afterwards at the caf and then took a walk and caught up, which was nice. Lotta catchin' up with folks Sunday night lol. We ended up at Mike and Fr. Brian's little garden beside the monastery in one of the fields. They've got a pretty nice little setup there; lots of variety and it's all lookin' pretty good. Mike gave me a cuke and a banana pepper. Afterwards we went up to the grove to check out the Parish Festival. Saw a few folks there, laughed at the Dunk a Monk booth (brilliant!) and then Mike got recruited to draw the numbers for the chinese auction lol. That took awhile, but it was funny to watch all the old ladies crowd around Mike as he picked numbers. We walked back after that and said our farewells/until next times/etcs and I got back here around 10 or so. Great day!
Monday:
I wanted to check out the Casselman R. for bass fishin' today, so I did that. Once again, I poked around Rockwood for awhile, but couldn't find any good spots so I ended up in Casselman. I walked the same tracks down to a few of the holes I had seen on Friday. I slid down the steep railroad embankment to the river and waded my way across to a little island and then over to the opposite bank, fishing a few holes along the way. Caught a few smallmouth, nothing too big or exciting. After awhile it started to get dark, then it drizzled, then it rained. Ugh. Weather said 30% chance of scattered storms. It rained on and off for about 30 minutes. At one point I was out in the middle of the river and I heard thunder relatively close. I started to head to the bank but then it started to slow down a little bit, so I kept going. I got to the deepest and most promising looking hole and fished for awhile when it REALLY started raining. Enough that I started looking for places to wade across so I could get back on the tracks and head to the car. I couldn't just swim across since I had my camera and other things in my pack, so I wanted to wade across in a place where I could hold it up above my head, but the hole was really deep so it was hard to find a spot. While I was looking, the rain stopped and the sun came out, so I resumed fishing lol. I caught a few nice ones after this too, including a pretty nicely sized smallmouth. I got sick of fishing after awhile though so I found a place to wade across and then I ferried my gear over. I think I found just about the best place to cross and the water was still up to my shoulders. I walked across on a few big rocks that, if I stepped off of, would've put me in over my head and left me with wet/ruined things. Luckily, that didn't happen and I (and my camera) made it across safely. Once across, I set my stuff aside and went from a little swim (might as well, right?) before heading up to the tracks.
Crawling up the railroad embankment to the tracks was a real pain since it was steep and loose and such. As soon as I got up there and took a few steps I heard the horn of an oncoming (still distant) train. Sigh. I slid back down the bank to the water and waded halfway out or so and made it look like I was just fishing (as opposed to walking the tracks). I waved to the engineer (he waved back). Once the train was gone, I painstakingly scrambled my way back up to the tracks and kept walking. It seemed like I walked like 50 feet when I heard this rumble sound. I couldn't tell if it was a car or plane or what. It was coming from behind me (all the trains I've ever seen on those tracks go in the opposite direction and stay on the one set of tracks) so I didn't think it was a train at first. However, it was getting closer VERY quickly. I finally saw it coming through some weeds (it was close and moving very fast) and so I hurriedly slid/ran down the bank to the river. I really was trying to hustle here so I could get out of the way of this train and in doing so, I sorta slid off this one rock (I was in my keens) and skinned my leg up a bit. It coul've been worse though as my ankle/foot got caught in this small hole, but luckily it was just a little scrape. The train ended up being just a single engine and it FLEW past as soon as I got to the bottom of the bank. Whew.
After getting back from that adventure, I got showered up and dressed and we all went out to the Laurel Mountain Inn for wings and beer. They have a deal on Tue. nights: 0.95/wing (big ones) and they have a bunch of different flavors, so we got a bunch of those and some beers and stuff; it was a good time.
Quote of the night:
Jen: (Upon seeing a 20-something star American flag pattern on wrapper) These moist towelettes must be from like the 19th century!
Mike (the boss): They aren't moist towelettes, these were used to spread smallpox through the Indian population (wipes face with one and gags).
(I died laughing from that one)
We closed wing nut off with poker night at the girls' house. I did't have any cash on me so I just watched. The pot was $60 ($50-1st, $10-2nd), which isn't bad. Steve ended up winning.
Following poker night a few of us came back and hung out here at my place since none of us had to work today (Tuesday). I made a batch of fries which went over VERY well with everyone (woot) and we watched tv for a little bit. Eventually I got pretty tired and crashed.
Tuesday:
Woke up around 9 or so and watched Lakeview Terrace before heading out to Linn Run to do a little bit o' fishing and swimming and such. I was going to go biking as well, but I didn't feel like putting the bike rack on or going through that trouble, so I didn't. I left here around 1 or so and got there soon thereafter. I parked at Adam Falls and walked upstream fishing along the way. Caught a few but didn't do as well as I'd hoped or expected. Saw lots of crayfish though, they seemed like they were just about everywhere. I talked to a couple drunk dudes who pulled up in a pickup about fishing the creek and the brookies and stuff like that. They were pretty cool (drunk) lol. Eventually I got sick of walking upstream and not catching much so I turned around and went back to the lot and in the other direction. Adam Falls -> downstream is usually pretty busy with kids and such due to the nearby slides, but I got to fish in a few little holes and I did pull out one nice 6-7 inch brookie. Then these stupid kids who were walking to the waterslides downstream decided to just walk the entire way in the creek, utterly ruining any of my chances of catching anything. I was going to yell at them but I was getting sick of fishing anyways. I went down to the slides with the notion of swimming a bit, but there were too many people down there so I turned around and went back to the car.
I drove up the mountain a little bit to a couple deep holes that I know about where I knew no one would be swimming. I stopped in the first one and cooled off there before heading up to the spring to fill up my camelbak and a jug of water for work this week (woot!). I drove up and stopped at a few more spots to fish before heading all the way up to the summit. Was going to stop at the beam rocks, but I'll be there next weekend most likely, so I kept going to 30. Drove t hrough Laughlintown (speedgoat is being renovated!) and then got back on weavermill/381 and came home. Another good day.
This week? Most likely work till Friday evening, assuming I can switch days with Brad and get Saturday off. If so, then I'll be backpacking/camping the LHT with the Prizz's and others for the first half of a FOUR day weekend. If not, then... I'm not sure yet.
Will update later!
Actually, I will start with Friday, even though my weekend didn't technically start until Saturday afternoon.
Actually, I'm going to start with Thursday night since that was the beer pong tourney lol.
Thursday Night: Pong! It was a good time. Got to know some of my coworkers and my boss a little better (all good beer pong players!). I don't really remember much about that night in particular. I partnered up with Risa for pong and we took on a few other teams; won some games lost some. We didn't do too badly though. Jordan's team was always tough to beat since Jordan is probably the best ponger I know. My boss wasn't too tough. I drank quite a few of those pints. The worst part was I had ridden my bike down to the girls', so I had to ride it back up (as in... up the hill). That was tough. It was a good time though; playing beer pong with your boss... how can I complain?
Friday: Off today, woot. I slept in (headache!) until like 11 or so. Then I got my crap together and made a killer breakfast (orange juice and a poptart!). Threw some stuff in the car and drove down to Rockwood to check out the railroad tracks for some glass. There was a lot of train activity going on (some engine was unloading something) so I drove down the road to Casselman where it was nice and quiet and walked there. I found a few good ones, a couple neat olive 145s and a few others. The Casselman river had some nice looking fishing holes, so I made mental note of those. Afterwards, I drove around on some backroads to see where things went. I ended up at Seven Springs, so I took Fire Tower road (adventure!) back to 31 and went to Kooser, where I swam for a little bit at the beach. After that, I came back and relaxed. I think I had a pizza.
Saturday: Worked in the morning and walked the plots looking for bats. Didn't find none. I think that's about it for this day.
Sunday: Woke up around 830 or so, had breakfast and drove to the All American Paintball Park to play paintball with Prizzi, Soltesz and some others. There ended up being 5 of us playing: Prizzi, Steve, Greg and Soltesz, plus myself. It was a great time; it's been awhile since I've played paintball. I mainly just wanted to shoot Soltesz, and I did shoot him, but he got me a few times too. I have some pretty healthy looking welts, bruises and even a few blood blisters. The worst looking one is on my left arm from when Soltesz shot me out of spite (and at close range) after I eliminated him. It's ok though, because a few rounds before that I shot him in the back when he was on my team lol. It was fun though; after awhile we got to play in the larger arena, which was great. We also invented a new way to play: Revolutionary War mode. And "Bolt Action" mode lol. Almost the same thing; you can only fire one shot at a time an load each one individually. The only differnece is in RW mode you have to stand in a line and you can't take cover from the paintballs the other team shoots. It was intimidating! You could hear them zip past your head. Bolt Action mode allowed you to run around and take cover and all of that, but you could only shoot one shot at a time. The part about this was it seemed like once someone on the other team missed you, you had a tendency to just suicide charge them which led to a few close up shots (which hurt). It was fun though, lots of fun. Afterwards we got Subway (which was also awesome!).
After splitting up with that gang, I drove to SVC to see if I could dig up Mikey somewhere. I walked around and visited the normal hot spots; got to catch up with Fr. Thomas Moore for a good half hour or so at the Gristmill. I thought he might know where Mikey was, so I went up to the little weaving room to see him. I also saw Brecca, which was awesome. Haven't seen that little guy in awhile.
I also visited Anis and talked to him for awhile. We took a walk and caught up. He's a funny guy.
Finally, I went to Vespers at 5 (you can only hide for so long, monk) and found him there. We went to dinner afterwards at the caf and then took a walk and caught up, which was nice. Lotta catchin' up with folks Sunday night lol. We ended up at Mike and Fr. Brian's little garden beside the monastery in one of the fields. They've got a pretty nice little setup there; lots of variety and it's all lookin' pretty good. Mike gave me a cuke and a banana pepper. Afterwards we went up to the grove to check out the Parish Festival. Saw a few folks there, laughed at the Dunk a Monk booth (brilliant!) and then Mike got recruited to draw the numbers for the chinese auction lol. That took awhile, but it was funny to watch all the old ladies crowd around Mike as he picked numbers. We walked back after that and said our farewells/until next times/etcs and I got back here around 10 or so. Great day!
Monday:
I wanted to check out the Casselman R. for bass fishin' today, so I did that. Once again, I poked around Rockwood for awhile, but couldn't find any good spots so I ended up in Casselman. I walked the same tracks down to a few of the holes I had seen on Friday. I slid down the steep railroad embankment to the river and waded my way across to a little island and then over to the opposite bank, fishing a few holes along the way. Caught a few smallmouth, nothing too big or exciting. After awhile it started to get dark, then it drizzled, then it rained. Ugh. Weather said 30% chance of scattered storms. It rained on and off for about 30 minutes. At one point I was out in the middle of the river and I heard thunder relatively close. I started to head to the bank but then it started to slow down a little bit, so I kept going. I got to the deepest and most promising looking hole and fished for awhile when it REALLY started raining. Enough that I started looking for places to wade across so I could get back on the tracks and head to the car. I couldn't just swim across since I had my camera and other things in my pack, so I wanted to wade across in a place where I could hold it up above my head, but the hole was really deep so it was hard to find a spot. While I was looking, the rain stopped and the sun came out, so I resumed fishing lol. I caught a few nice ones after this too, including a pretty nicely sized smallmouth. I got sick of fishing after awhile though so I found a place to wade across and then I ferried my gear over. I think I found just about the best place to cross and the water was still up to my shoulders. I walked across on a few big rocks that, if I stepped off of, would've put me in over my head and left me with wet/ruined things. Luckily, that didn't happen and I (and my camera) made it across safely. Once across, I set my stuff aside and went from a little swim (might as well, right?) before heading up to the tracks.
Crawling up the railroad embankment to the tracks was a real pain since it was steep and loose and such. As soon as I got up there and took a few steps I heard the horn of an oncoming (still distant) train. Sigh. I slid back down the bank to the water and waded halfway out or so and made it look like I was just fishing (as opposed to walking the tracks). I waved to the engineer (he waved back). Once the train was gone, I painstakingly scrambled my way back up to the tracks and kept walking. It seemed like I walked like 50 feet when I heard this rumble sound. I couldn't tell if it was a car or plane or what. It was coming from behind me (all the trains I've ever seen on those tracks go in the opposite direction and stay on the one set of tracks) so I didn't think it was a train at first. However, it was getting closer VERY quickly. I finally saw it coming through some weeds (it was close and moving very fast) and so I hurriedly slid/ran down the bank to the river. I really was trying to hustle here so I could get out of the way of this train and in doing so, I sorta slid off this one rock (I was in my keens) and skinned my leg up a bit. It coul've been worse though as my ankle/foot got caught in this small hole, but luckily it was just a little scrape. The train ended up being just a single engine and it FLEW past as soon as I got to the bottom of the bank. Whew.
After getting back from that adventure, I got showered up and dressed and we all went out to the Laurel Mountain Inn for wings and beer. They have a deal on Tue. nights: 0.95/wing (big ones) and they have a bunch of different flavors, so we got a bunch of those and some beers and stuff; it was a good time.
Quote of the night:
Jen: (Upon seeing a 20-something star American flag pattern on wrapper) These moist towelettes must be from like the 19th century!
Mike (the boss): They aren't moist towelettes, these were used to spread smallpox through the Indian population (wipes face with one and gags).
(I died laughing from that one)
We closed wing nut off with poker night at the girls' house. I did't have any cash on me so I just watched. The pot was $60 ($50-1st, $10-2nd), which isn't bad. Steve ended up winning.
Following poker night a few of us came back and hung out here at my place since none of us had to work today (Tuesday). I made a batch of fries which went over VERY well with everyone (woot) and we watched tv for a little bit. Eventually I got pretty tired and crashed.
Tuesday:
Woke up around 9 or so and watched Lakeview Terrace before heading out to Linn Run to do a little bit o' fishing and swimming and such. I was going to go biking as well, but I didn't feel like putting the bike rack on or going through that trouble, so I didn't. I left here around 1 or so and got there soon thereafter. I parked at Adam Falls and walked upstream fishing along the way. Caught a few but didn't do as well as I'd hoped or expected. Saw lots of crayfish though, they seemed like they were just about everywhere. I talked to a couple drunk dudes who pulled up in a pickup about fishing the creek and the brookies and stuff like that. They were pretty cool (drunk) lol. Eventually I got sick of walking upstream and not catching much so I turned around and went back to the lot and in the other direction. Adam Falls -> downstream is usually pretty busy with kids and such due to the nearby slides, but I got to fish in a few little holes and I did pull out one nice 6-7 inch brookie. Then these stupid kids who were walking to the waterslides downstream decided to just walk the entire way in the creek, utterly ruining any of my chances of catching anything. I was going to yell at them but I was getting sick of fishing anyways. I went down to the slides with the notion of swimming a bit, but there were too many people down there so I turned around and went back to the car.
I drove up the mountain a little bit to a couple deep holes that I know about where I knew no one would be swimming. I stopped in the first one and cooled off there before heading up to the spring to fill up my camelbak and a jug of water for work this week (woot!). I drove up and stopped at a few more spots to fish before heading all the way up to the summit. Was going to stop at the beam rocks, but I'll be there next weekend most likely, so I kept going to 30. Drove t hrough Laughlintown (speedgoat is being renovated!) and then got back on weavermill/381 and came home. Another good day.
This week? Most likely work till Friday evening, assuming I can switch days with Brad and get Saturday off. If so, then I'll be backpacking/camping the LHT with the Prizz's and others for the first half of a FOUR day weekend. If not, then... I'm not sure yet.
Will update later!