Wonderful Week

So a week ago Sunday, Erin and I headed to the Indianapolis Airport to pick up her Mom and Step-Dad who were visiting her last week for her birthday. I'll admit that I had been getting nervous about meeting her Mom as the week approached, as her Mom is her favorite person in the world I wanted to make sure I made a good impression. However, though I was nervous I think Erin was even more stressed out, which did make it kind of relieving when we piled into her grandparents car with the dogs Jude and Juno and took off towards Indianapolis with fireworks shooting off in the horizon as we rolled down the interstate.

After picking up her parents and driving back down to Greensburg we had to stop at Walmart for them to get some supplies, which was fun running around Walmart as they grabbed different things they thought they'd need (they used maybe 25% of what they bought during their stay). Once we got to Erin's grandparents and sat around to talk it was 4 am before I went to bed, and even later before Erin and her Mom called it a night.

The next morning was the 4th of July and I was the first one up in the house as I had to head out the door to go to the Museum as we were open during the parade and had a recent MLB draftee Alex Meyer in to sign autographs after the parade (he was the grand marshall). We had a good turnout for the event and then I headed back to Erin's place around noon, just as Andrew was heading to his family dinner. I sat around with Erin and her Mom for awhile as they discussed the closing arguements of the Casey Anthony Trial and then rushed around trying to get ready for Andrew's family dinner.

It was around 2 when we finally got around to heading to see Andrew's family and it was a nice dinner and they are all really nice people. After a few hours of sitting around their talking and eating we went back to Erin's to get some swimming trunks so that we could swim in the pool at the party, which once we returned we did for several hours. I had a lot of fun, and Erin and I debuted our new sport of water dancing in which we dominated the other competiton in the pool that night. After we left the party we grabbed some Pizza King pizza to have for dinner with Erin and her parents and I headed home.

Tuesday I had work all morning and then headed to Erin's house. Andrew was busy doing stuff with his family, all day so it was just Erin and her Mom. They were disappointed by the verdict in the Casey Anthony trial and talked about that for awhile. Erin and I played some Mario Kart on the N64 before going out to eat with her Mom at El Reparo. It was a pretty laid back and nice day.

Wensday was exciting as we had planned to go canoeing... though the trip was a little delayed (we didn't get down to Brookville until after 2pm) because of how long it took everyone to get ready ha ha. We stopped at the Hearthstone resturant in Metamora to have lunch, and then at CVS in Brookville to get some drinks before we pulled into the canoeing place. We were only in the water for about a quarter of the mile before I was blamed for flipping Erin and my canoe and then had my steering privleges taken away, but it was still a great time. We bottomed out a few places and got stuck once, but after that flip we stayed dry! At one point we stopped to just play in the water and throw rocks. Really the canoe trip was great all around.

After we got back from Canoeing we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and then drove to Shelbyville to go see the movie Bad Teacher. The drinks for the movie were the first thing her parents let me buy all along and I'm really thankful they helped pay for our way to do all the fun stuff we did while they were here. The movie was good, and was a nice ending to the day. I had driven seperate to Shelbyville and went home after the movie. Since I had stayed a couple nights with Erin it sort of made it easier to leave when she had to ride home with her parents. It always sucks leaving her after we have been together for a long time, so maybe it was an ulterior motive in me driving seperate. Either way it was a stupendous day.

Thursday I had to work again and it was Erin's Birthday. Work was uneventful for the most part, I had a board meeting that night so I had to hurry and get ready everything for that. Erin's parents showed up to look at the Museum around 4, but I wasn't able to give them a tour as the board meeting was getting ready to start. I wish I had been able to show them around myself, and felt bad that I was sort of ignoring them so hopefully the understood I couldn't because of the meeting.

After the meeting I went straight to Erin's and gave her the birthday present I had bought and card I had made. The Birthday present was a Roku Box so we can watch netflix movies together via streaming on her TV instead of on the computer with its weak speakers. We watch a lot of movies/tv shows together on netflix so I thought it would be something nice that she'd use. I get to say I "made" her card because I glue maccaroni on it.... It is sort of a joke that I told her months ago that all of the best cards had maccaroni glued on them and that I would do that for her... so I had to buy a box of mac and cheese so that I could make her card..... I think she liked it.

For her choice of dinner we went to a Japanese Steakhouse for dinner, it was an intersting experience. As I said in my "Thoughts" blog the prices surprised me a bit, but the food was great. I wished the chef knew a little more English so that we could have interacted with him a bit more. Erin got shrimp tales dumped on her plate which was funny because she despises fish off all kinds. I actually ended up eating the shrimp for everyone in our group since I was the only one who would eat it. The dinner was a fun experience that I'd like to try again and a different Japanese Steakhouse sometime.


On our way to dinner

After dinner Erin had wanted to go putt-putt golfing but when we showed up to GreaTimes, the putt-putt place, they were closed. So we wandered over to the bowling alley that was next door and played a couple games of bowling. We can safely say that no one in the group is going to become a professional bowler anytime soon... I won the first game and Andrew won the second game, but I think everyone had a good time. After we left bowling we got some drinks, which involved some illegal u-turns and a tacobell that was out of Mountain Dew (Erin's nectar of life) before we headed home.

Friday afternoon Erin's parents picked me up on their way to have dinner with Andrew's mom and then take them to the Airport. We ate lunch at O'Charley's and the food was ok... and then we were off to the races to get them to the airport in time. We droppd them off with only a little over an hour to get through security but they weren't worried. (We later heard that Erin's mom had to get the full body scan and the pat down!). It was sad seeing them go even though I had only just met them 5 days prior. Erin even took saying good-by to them really well, I was bracing myself for an hour long ride home with her being very sad and me trying to cheer her up. (Erin when you read this I meant that in a positive way)

Her parents want us to come visit them in Flordia sometime, which I hope we can do maybe sometime this winter to stop in and see them. I had a Wonderful week getting to meet her family and enjoying all the time we spent together.

Decade: 2007

2007


Song: Paralyzer – Finger 11 this was a cool catchy song, really I don’t know how you can not like it. I’m humming it in my head now. I also thought about putting Harvey Danger’s flag pole sitter as this one, because it was on my playlist when I’d go for walks as this was the year I started losing weight by going on 3 mile walks every day.



Video Game: Guitar Hero II – I honestly wasn’t playing a lot of video games this year, I was still addicted to Hobowars, but console wise things where pretty much dead until next year when I got my Wii. However my roommate at Guitar Hero II and we would play that from time to time, as well as Bruce having is Guitar Hero II release party at the end of 2006, so that carried on some momentum into this year.



News Story: Writers Guild Strike – If you watched TV shows you noticed this, all of the writers went on a strike due to debates on revenue sharing of online sales as well as a few other things and this lead to lots of reruns being played and new reality TV shows (no writers needed) popping up. Many point to this event as the thing that “killed” their favorite series, as many shows such as the hit Heroes never bounced back after the strike.

Personal Event: Family Vacation Arkansas – This summer our family was all home and we figured this might be our last chance for a full family vacation (see 2005 and 2010) so we packed up the car and went on what was probably our most random and one of the most memorable trips we ever took together. The main destination was Carter of Diamonds National Park in Akansas, which is an actual diamond mine where anyone can come and mine and keep whatever they find. Now several business men throughout the years had tried to turn a profit on this land (including Henry Ford) but there just weren’t enough quantity to be mined so it ended up in government hands, and is now a park for everyone. We mined two days, however we found nothing…

But the diamond mine wasn’t our only stops, I picked James K. Polk’s house as my choice on the trip, Casey picked Graceland, and Mom picked Historic Washington, Arkansas as well as the Gateway Arc in St. Louis and Grant’s farm. So we had a lot of fun stops along the way! I video taped the vacation and I have to say this was my favorite vacation of all time. Also before I wrap this up I feel compelled to mention Lambert’s Café home of the Thrown Roll (awesome food) and

Decade 2004

2004:


Song : Hotel California – Eagles- So totally not a song of this year for most people, but for me… totally. In the spring of 2004 I bought a Eagles Greatest hits CD, and this song ended up being the official driving song for me and my friends. Every time I hear this song I think of driving down 421 with Steve, Bruce and Farrell after school singing along holding out hands out of the windows of the car, good times.



Video Game: Hobowars – I thought about Warcraft 3 as I became totally addicted to it my Freshman year of school when I got high speed internet and could play online, Then there was Halo 2… the best title for the Xbox but I’m going with Hobowars.com a game I started playing this year and would be addicted to for the next 4-5 years. I spend so much time on that game and met some interesting people through that game.



News Story: Presidential Election – Bush edges out Kerry again, in a very ugly and close campaign. I remember this campaign being a lot more vicious than any of the others I have witnessed with a ton of anti-Bush hate going against a rally around the country and the Iraq war as the big matchup.  

Personal Event: I have a lot of choices for this one, went to Toronto with the music department, went to the state finals as the captain of the Social Studies academic team, graduated high school, started school at Purdue… but I’m going with my Spring break trip. I went to Brown county with Steve and Farrell for 3 days. We rented a family cabin at the park and had a great time with and plenty of inside jokes were born. The “Bitch Game” hit its hayday, a smoke alarm got set off, it snowed, a song was written, and there was a linen fight… great times!

Howie in the Mountains 2010

For Context as to whats going on in these photos please read the previous two blogs about our trip to the Great Smokey mountains! This is just a collection of photos featuring Howie from that week!

Ramsey Cassades

Well after the big hike Dad and I took over Mount LeConte two days before, I was feeling good and Casey also wanted to go for a hike. So We got Mom and Dad (who was still resting up from the previous trek) to Drop us off at the start of the Ramsey Cassades trail. We did this little over 8 mile walk to the water falls and back. It was a nice walk, we saw some virgin timber and what I think is the best waterfall in the Smokey Mountain National Park. I'll let the pictures tell most of the story on this one.

At the Start


Virgin Forest









Danger their be falling water!





The Falls!











Resting at the Falls





"Dustin, if you fall I can't save you"







A Bridge over the Water


The Trail



Waiting on Mom and Dad to pick us up.





ButterFly




Looking for our Ride to Arrive

The Hike... Or that time I walked over a Mountain

The Hike... or that time I walked over a Mountain




Beginning
When I was little our family vacations more often than not were to Gatlinburg, TN and

the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. If you read enough stories about the people who used to live in the mountains down there you'll hear about how they used to carry goods, belongings, and livestock over the mountains and into town in a one day trip which wasn't considered that big of a deal. This had always interested my Dad who in the last couple of years decided he wanted to hike over the mountains one day himself.

Well with me not currently employed and back home, and him admitting he was getting older this seemed to be the perfect summer to make it happen. So my Dad planned a route, and I did some practice walking around here. A couple weeks later we were in Gatlinburg getting ready for our mountain hiking challenge.

Mom and Howie at the Hotel




We woke up the morning of the hike at 5:30 and saw the weather report... 80% chance of rain, but we decided if we waited for the perfect weather then, we might not ever get it done. So we loaded up our backpacks and got in the jeep with Casey and Mom and headed for Smokemont Campgrounds in North Carolina.





Smokemont loop - 1.4 miles



On the way over to Smokemont I tried to get a little extra sleep on what was an uneventful ride. We got to the Smokemont Loop trailhead, grabbed our backpacks and said farewell to Mom and Casey. The plan was for them to pick us up at the Sugarlands visitor center right outside of Gatlinburg in 12-13 hours or so. We snapped a few photos and were on our way.



The Smokemont loop is a horse trail and actually loops back around to the point where we started, as an easy day hike for people at the campground. It's a gravel trail and the only bad part about this section of the trail was the bugs, there were flies but you get that on horse trails. Also it started to rain, but hey that’s nothing against the trail, so we pulled out our rain ponchos and continued on.




Checking the map





Bradley Fork - 2.6 miles



Finding this trail was a little strange, because honestly we didn't see where the loop continued so we had to pull out our map for a moment to make sure we were going the right way. As missing this first turn and continuing the loop would have messed up our time and forced us to abort the mission. However, we were in the right spot, and didn't want to loop around so we took a moment to eat something real quick as breakfast and head down the trail, still in the rain.

Our Gear





This trail was again an easy trail to walk, though it was a slight uphill incline still, as well as being a horse trail so we still had the bugs to deal with as well as the rain. Near the end of the trail their was a cool bridge, we guessed it was a small gauge railroad bridge, from one of the logging companies who operated in the area pre-National Park

Bradley Fork Bridge




Dry Sluice Gap Trail - 4.2 miles



This is where the real uphill battle was. This trail is listed as a horse trail, but it hasn't been walked by very many horses if any recently. It is very narrow and often times the trail was sunk into the ground by as much as a foot, making it like walking in a rut. With all the rain that was still coming, this is where our feet quickly got wet. This trail used to be a common path that settlers took way back when, however since you have to travel at least 4 miles to get to it now days, it doesn't get a lot of use.



Some of the valleys on this trail were supposed to have virgin forest (areas never logged) and we did see a few really large trees. But our eyes were mostly on the trail in what was an uphill battle. We would look up at the top of the hillside we were walking along getting closer and closer to the top only then to turn a bend and find ourselves walking up an even higher up section of the ridge. It seemed to last forever, this climbing only to find we had still higher to go. 3 miles into this trail there was a signpost where we stopped to get a breather (we had done this multiple times on the trail as well) and take some pictures. The last mile or so wasn't as steep as the previous climb and was where we got our first good views of the other mountains as we were talking the ridge of the Richland Mountain Range. It also stopped raining towards the end of this section of trail which was very nice.

Top of the Dry Sluce Trail

Near Charles Bunion - Observation Point


Dad at Dry Sluce - you can see we had gotten a little wet


The Trail was narrow... this was a good section


Appalachian Trail - 1.7 miles



At the end of the Dry Sluice Gap trail we met up with the famous Appalachian Trail for a little while on our way to the IceWater Springs Shelter. This trail we could tell was more well used than the Dry Sluice Gap, but it was still pretty rugged. Our time on the Appalachian Trail was fairly easy as we were starting to leave the Richland Mountain Range moving more Westward towards our Destination Mount LeConte. The trail was very pretty and this was the first place we saw anyone else on out hike (we ended up seeing 22 people total).

Dad and Me on the Appalchian Trail




One interesting thing was that we noticed trees every so often along this trail were marked with white paint spots, though we never found out what they meant, we are guessing they serve as some sort of mileage marker for hikers along the trail.


Sign Post

Near the end of our section on this trail is the IceWater Spring, which just starts as this pipe sticking out of the side of the mountain. We refilled our empty water bottles for the first time here; testing out the filter pump my Dad had bought and took a few pictures. This is also where I unfortunately broke the view screen of my video camera. (Yes we have a little bit of video footage of the trip )



We stopped in at the IceWater Springs Shelter, which is a nice building up there that sleeps twelve people (you can sign up to stay there for free). We read the log book (which was cool and had been signed by people who spent the night in the shelter), took a few quick pictures and ate our lunch here. It was already 1:30 p.m. and we knew we were behind schedule, but figured we might be able to make up the time on the way down. We met a couple from Colorado and had a quick talk with them while we ate.

Refilling our Water for the first time at Ice Water Spring




Ice Water Springs Shelter House







Boulevard Trail - 5.4 miles



We had a small piece of trail to walk from the shelter before we hit this trailhead, but we quickly found our way there and began this section after a few quick pictures. This would be our last major uphill battle serving as our final ascent to Mount LeConte. This hike started as a series of up and downs as we were walking the ridge of a mountain range. It is really cool to be looking out to your left and right and seeing that both sides drop off so steeply.



Looking Straight Down


However, when you are in the mountains and have already walked as much as we had 5.4 miles seems like an eternity when there are no other sign post to tell you how far you had gone . Everytime we got to the top of a little ridge we would think, I wonder if this is Mount LeConte... only to see another taller peak just around a bend or on the other side of a valley. Then your heart would sink a bit, but you'd suck it up and continue on. This section of trail is where my Dad started to doubt his ability to finish our trek, but he kept pressing on.

Wet Trails.... kind of hard to see in the picture, but the whole trail has running water on it.


The coolest part of this trail was where this rock-slide had happened, and the path was perilous enough that they installed a cable handrail into the side of the mountain. We took a picture of this.



Rock Slide Area


Looking down the Rock Slide


Near the top of this trail there was another sign post saying .7 miles to the shelter and we took another short break, having passed the last difficult climb of the trek Dad was seriously debating if he had the juice to make it the rest of the way and announced that we might be spending the night at the Mount LeConte Shelter or Lodge based on what time it was when we got there.

Almost at the Top!




On Ward to Mount LeConte


Along the last part of the path was this strange looking pile of rocks, sort of resembling what a stone chimney would look like only you can tell it was never a chimney this is the high point of Mount LeConte. Mount LeConte is the 3rd highest point in the Great Smokey National Park and people had placed those stones there in an attempt to make it the parks highest point. (The top of the Mountain is only 50 feet shy of the highest point Clingmans Dome) However, they still have a ways to go to reach their goal.

Mount LeConte Shelter




From here on it'd be all downhill, we stopped and took a few pictures of the Mount LeConte Shelter and upon checking the time (my cell phone) found it was only 5 p.m. Dad said he thought he could make it so we decided to go for it. This was the last point we could have stayed really. I really wanted to make it over in one day so I was all for this choice, but in hindsight... staying wouldn't have been that bad.



In fact in addition to the shelter they have a little lodge up there with several small cabins for people to camp in. You have to have reservations and pay for these cabins but you get a meal and it would probably be fun to stay in one someday.



Bull Head Trail - .5 miles



After passing the lodge, we took a part of this trail to Rainbow Falls Trail. This trail would have also taken us close to where we ended up, but at this point we were getting tired and had the hope that if we reached an area of the park called Roaring Forks we could get phone signal and have my Mom come pick us up, where this wouldn't have been possible on the Bull Head Trail. The only other real thing to say about this section of trail was that it was very wet and you could tell it had water on it almost all the time. In fact probably 1/3 of the trails we walked were simply where the water ran... so our feet were wet pretty much the entire way.



Rainbow Falls - 6.0 miles



You could call this section... the decent... as we were headed down down down. We filled up our water bottles again on this trail as there was a lot of water running across at different points leading to Rainbow falls. This section of trail was also pretty rocky and took a beating on our feet and knees.

Rainbow Falls Trail





Honestly we were very tired at this point and trying to beat the sun from setting. I remember thinking that this trail was a lot longer than six miles (you do that a lot in the mountains). 3.4 miles into the hike we finally got to Rainbow falls, but being tired we just took a few pictures, and knew we must press on as the sun was setting fast. We also didn't want to rest for fear of how bad our bodies would feel if we didn't keep them moving.

Falls


The last 2.6 miles of this trail were the best time we made all day, clearing it in a little under an hour. (When planning the trip we figured we'd average 2 miles an hour, but yeah... you can't simulate mountains in central Indiana) Pretty much is was a blur, power walking when we got a clear path and not stopping to look around at all. However we did make it to the bottom just as the sun was setting and found ourselves at a small parking lot with a bathroom hoping to refill our water and call for a pick up.



However, their was no sink in the bathroom and no signal for my phone... We were needless to say very disappointed, though we had always planned on walking one last section of trail, this was only our early extraction point, so we sucked it up and got our bodies moving again. (Actually in the video at this point, I have footage of us sitting down worn out, and I note that the camera is shaking, because I'm so tired that my whole body is shaking and I can't make it stop)

We are pretty worn out...





Old Sugarlands Trail - 3.9 miles



This was once again a horse trail and for the first part that we walked very wide and nice. (it was still nice later, just more narrow and not gravel covered). You could tell this trail was very well used which makes since because the Sugarlands is the main visitors center and has two horse stables near it. Had we taken Bull Head Trail we would have come out half a mile down this trail from where we started.



We walked the first mile and a half I'd guess on this trail with only the moonlight guiding us, before it started to get a little rocky and we had to pull out our flashlight. This made for very slow walking, but we were already tired and not moving that fast to begin with. being tired we stopped and looked at all the sign post to make sure we were going the right way, since it would have been horrible to mess this up as late as it was.

We only had one real debate on which way we needed to go, and we never did get turned around. But I'd advise anyone wanting to hike not to be doing it by flashlight at 10 pm in the Smokey Mountains after you'd already cleared 20 miles that day.



We did have to make one stop to refill our water bottles as we were both really thirsty and found a small water source along the trail. Finally we made it to the end of the trail which dumps out near the visitors center. I checked my cell phone and found still no signal so we had only one choice... follow the road into Gatlinburg.

(no pictures since we were walking by flashlight)

Gatlinburg road - 1.0 miles





Ok actually we had two choices.. There is a trail that goes from the visitors center to Gatlinburg, we walked it once a few years ago, but with only a flashlight and not exactly sure where it started... we decided to take the easier way and just follow the road. Honestly we walked past the visitors center on our way back and didn't even know it (it was closed so all the lights were off), so there is no way we would have found that trail easily. To make matters worse it started raining again. Most of our conversation on this part of the walk was just us mumbling about stuff.. but we were too tired to really pay attention to each other.



We finally got cell phone reception about .25 miles before we got into town... at the point where we could see our hotel.





End 26.7 miles total



We found our way to our hotel room door at a little after 11 pm that night, Mom had figured we were settled in under our emergency blankets somewhere on the mountain side. We sat down on the balcony and ate some leftovers... Very tired, very sore, but very glad we had accomplished our goal.