An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

This weekend our wonderful friends Gail and Chris invited us to spend the weekend at their camper at Tall Pines, near Rehoboth Beach, DE. The camper experience was interesting in itself; the last time I had stayed in any sort of RV was probably almost thirty years ago when CJ's family had one. It's kind of like a cruise ship cabin in that you've got this cute, efficient but definitely tight living quarters. It's also kind of like camping in that once you step outside your "cabin" you're at a camp site, complete with fire pit, screen room, etc. It was a perfect fall weekend - no bugs, but still warm enough to comfortably hang out outside. Great Minds Think Alike Gail's life and mine have been intertwining for about a million years and the two couples have known each other for quite some time. As you can see from the composite photo of our cars at left, we obviously share some common thought processes. Overall, it was a great weekend not just ...

On Sunday of Labor Day weekend Tall Tom and I decided to recreate a trip which had recently been written up on the CPA site by Lisa A. & Tom B. We launched out of Galesville in search of the little accesses to parks Lisa and Tom B. had cataloged. Our track As I have mentioned in the past, Tom is a bigger guy than I am - let's just say that if the Chesapeake Paddler's Association ever put on a play based on Harry Potter, it's clear who between the two of us would be cast as Hagrid and who as Dobby - and he initially set a fast pace, but we soon settled into a good rhythm. We headed northeast into the West River out of Galesville, rounded the corner and headed due east across the north side of Shady Side. When we reached Curtis Point (the northeast corner of the Shady Side peninsula) we turned due south. At this point we were out of the river and into the Chesapeake Bay. There was a little bit more of a breeze in the bay (welcome on a hot summer day) but cond...