Brian Wilken took Thomas, Daniel, Benjamin (his son), and i on a little excursion around the top of the lake in the Gator (a glorified offroad golf-cart).

350 Miles

Hooked up the Scamp and drove to Bristol, VT

20 Miles

Meanwhile, back in Shunk, Caroline, Thomas, and Daniel head back to NM.

97 Miles

Played 2 games and won them both, ending up as the C-pool champions! Took some pictures, then had dinner with Brian Cleary and some of the team in Montpelier (only US state capital without a McDonald's) and stayed overnight at Brian's off-the-power-grid house near St. Johnsbury.

109 Miles

Drove up to Willoughby lake and hiked to an overlook, then wound back down to Cornelia & John's house in Chelsea, VT. (The flower was in front of Brian's house.)

424 Miles

Hung out at Cornelia's in the morning (her daughter Amadea was lounging on the kitchen floor), then drove from Chelsea, VT to Shunk, PA. Took the Ft. Ticonderoga Ferry from VT to NY.

Pulled the top board of the four boards across the spilldam of Baumunk's Lake. The weather report called for up to 5 inches of rain, but we hardly got anything.

Charlie and Evan and i went down to Williamsport today, dropped off my 'puter, had a great lunch at a chain restaurant called Ruby Tuesday's, then went to see The Bourne Supremecy. Pretty cool, but the cinematography verged on really annoying. They kept using that faux hand-held style where the camera keeps wobbling around. I think in 20 years film and TV historians will look back at this era and wonder "What the hell were they thinking?!??"

Charlie and Evan head back to NM.

My mom built a bonfire to get rid of some brush and burn up some old bridge boards that i'd pulled out when i replaced the deck on one of my bridges.

My parents left for the summer, leaving just me and my dogs. That afternoon my aunt Lucy and i drove the Gator up Cherry Hill road and picked blackberries. I picked about a bucket-and-a-half, then drove down to Canton for some canning supplies. I'd never made jam or jelly before, but it all worked out and i ended up with lots of jars of blackberry jelly!

I was out kayaking and the dogs were following me along the shore as they usually do. Teco chased a duck out of some reeds, then popped out and thought he spotted the duck about 50 feet out on the lake. I've never seen him do this before, but he actually started swimming out towards it! When he got there and realized that it was just a stick sticking out of the water, he turned around and swam back.

I spent a good part of the day walking around the mill and Shunk, taking pictures. I stopped and talked for a while with Ed Fisher, who owns Fox Motors, the only other business in Shunk. He used to be a champion motorcycle racer in the 50s and 60s and repairs new and old bikes.

Bolstered by my success with the blackberry jelly, i walked up along the lake and picked a bucketful of blueberries, bringing them home to make a batch of blueberry jam and a batch of blueberry jelly.

Also got a couple CDs from Amazon: Big Daddy Kane - "The Very Best Of", and Snake River Conspiracy - "Sonic Jihad". Kane is interesting as a rap pioneer, but i totally got into Snake River Conspiracy, listening to it constantly.

Lucy gave me a ride down to Canton where i picked up my truck from having the deer-hit damage repaired. I had forgotten to bring my checkbook so the guy at the shop let me drive over to the bank to get cash. I also gave him a jar of blackberry jelly. After that i drove down to Williamsport to pick up my still non-functioning computer (motherboard fried). From there i drove up US-220 to Sonestown and took some pictures of the Sonestown covered bridge. Then i drove to Forksville and took pictures of their covered bridge, and from there completed the "bridges of Sullivan County" tour by driving down to Hillsgrove and taking pictures of their covered bridge. I drove back to Shunk on the dirt roads along the Hoagland Branch.

Cara and Jason and their dog Sage arrive from Cleveland for a brief visit.

Cara and Jason and i hiked along the lake, visited Shunk, looked in on the pallet mill, then hiked down to Buttermilk Falls. Cara became engrossed with kayaking, but then she stayed at the house and studied while Jason and i took a LONG hike with Teco and Seera up to a bog on our property. It took a while to find it, and then took almost longer to find our way back out. I kept looking at our surroundings, looking for something recognizable. The funny thing was that the first thing i saw that told me where we were was my truck, parked on the grade.

I got Jennifer Clarke's CD "Time Flies" in the mail today. Jen Clark (then known as Jennifer Miller) was in my class at C.A. Nice album that reminds me a little of a bluesier Nanci Griffith.

Cara, Jason, and Sage hit the road back to Cleveland and i was back to solitude.

I drove out Cherry Hill Rd. and picked the tail end of the ripe blackberries, then picked some blueberries from the top end of the lake, then made another batch of blackberry jelly and a batch of "black & blue"; blackberry/blueberry jelly.