Hangin' in Pickett State Park. Looks pretty good.

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John's Journal

Day Fifteen

Mileage- nary a one

(Author's technology note- sorry I have not been able to provide you with the daily update whilst here. The cell phone signal is not strong enough and the dude in the park office is a little shy about me using the phone line there. I may buy an acoustic coupler so that I can use a pay phone anywhere. There's actually a Radio Shack in Jamestown.)

OK, let's have a contest. See if you can pick the time when my friends showed up. They drove from Indy to this here Pickett State Park. It took them about 6.5 hours. No, later. They pulled in about 2:30am. I was quietly napping beside the wonderful fire I had built. We unloaded enough food for about 2 months and chatted until around 4am. So, needless to say, we slept in.

I actually used my coffee grinder, though! Finally. It was good, too. Nothing like organic beans (does Real Foods have a site?) [Ed.: maybe, but I couldn't find it]. We got going too late for the entire 10 mile Hidden Passage trail, so we just hiked in a ways and turned around and came out. The trail started out rather simply, but soon we turned a corner and heard the Crystal Falls below. A short trip down to the falls showed the 60 foot or so (I am bad with distances, so it may be more) high falls was a perfect photo opportunity.

The trees all along the way were like I said before, I would glance at them and see many, many different kinds all grouped together. We had a great view along the way of the trees along a ridge across the gorge. I especially liked seeing those light brown trees marking the top. We saw some great holly trees all over and several R.B.T.'s (Really Big Trees) leaned over resting on a few smaller ones. We stopped for a snack atop a rock overlooking a valley below. Very nice.

We could see the storm coming off in the distance. The overcast morning skies did actually open up to clear blue for a while, then began clouding back up indicating that we might want to be in the van when the rain hit. It didn't really hit until we got back to the house. We were all out on the porch (where I still am now getting a little wet) when the wind started picking up and the rain slowly started coming down. Brad and I stretched out on the lounge chairs to check out the approaching storm. The trees just off the deck started swaying back and forth with the wind gusting strongly between them.

Eventually, everyone else moved in and I stayed out to write this. There is something special about being able to record some of these feelings while actually being in the midst of them still. No thinking back, just being in them right now. Kinda like what Robert Pirsig says in the book I just started reading, Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. His story, although I am still early into the book, seems to parallel mine in some ways. More on that as I get further along in the book and trip.

We ate dinner at a family place quite nearby, Bacara's, recommended by the Ranger. It is in an old school, I believe, and had some little alcoves or rooms with tables as well as some more open spaces. The food was good, but not fabulous, nut the service was fun. My Southern friends (Wendy and Julie) will have to correct my spelling, but we were asked several times by the waitress if "y'all'n's were OK?" It took a few times for us to realize what she was saying. You gotta love the different dialects of this country.

With the rain continuing throughout the evening and considering the chill in the air, a fire was a must. I took to the task for about an hour it seemed. I kept saying that a good fire takes time to build, and eventually we were greeted by a blazing fire. As if by clockwork, Jan, Brad and I started down memory lane.

We really had some fun, fun times hanging out in Indy together. Jan and I lived together for around 3 years when we were 24-27 or so and Brad was with us throughout most of those as well. You can imagine that we had plenty of lost or hazy memories to try to dig up. It soon bored the women (not because they were women, just because guys are idiots and do this stuff) and they went to sleep. We carried on, but finally succumbed to old age and gave it up.

No, I am not going to tell some of those stories, my family is reading this. No, that's not it, they are funnier to us, honest. (Kinda like this is interesting reading to me, but not to others).

Anyway, tomorrow it shall be sunny, warm, clear, dry, I will win the lottery, marry the girl of my dreams, (get the picture?). It's going to rain again, or still, all day tomorrow, so I had better rest up.

See ya.