Mini's gonna stay parked for a bit. It's snowing.

Winter League Ultimate semi-finals. We once again lost to Black in a late game 29-25. I personally played extremely poorly, with multiple drops, throwaways, and missed D's.

I went up to the farm ans walked over to the goat pen where i saw a little baby goat next to Ziyah in the hay. I hurried down to the house and told Kara that Ziyah just had a kid and she said that she'd just checked on her ten minutes earlier so this kid was brand new! I stuck around to watch Kara and Hannah help Ziyah birth 4 kids.

Winter League Ultimate game for 3rd place against Grey, early game. We only had 2 male subs, but we played a lot of switch-up defense and won by 4 or 5 points i think (no one reported the final score).

I had a vet appointment for Seera at 3:30, after which i was going to drive down to Shunk, but the vet called in the morning and asked if i could reschedule, so i left in early afternoon and drove down to the lake. The house wasn't opened up for the summer yet, so i had to tote water up from the lake to flush the toilet with. It was a cold night but i kept the electric blanket on.

Exactly 10 years ago on this day, i left Chicago.

I hung out at the lake for the morning, then drove across US-6 (stopping at a trail head where i took the pic of the stream) to Eric Wernet's house in Euclid, Ohio, just outside Cleveland. Jason Lehrer met us there and we walked over to a local restaurant, Beach Club Bistro, and ate a good meal. I stayed overnight at Eric's place. Eric's dog Peach was being a little grouchy to Seera.

While checking my email at Eric's house i found out that my parents had called the Vermont State Police because i hadn't answered my home phone in two days. Sigh.

Eric left for work and i walked the half-block down to the Lake Erie shore. The water was high and there was hardly any beach so i couldn't walk along it. I was thinking about going to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame but it didn't open until 10:00, so i decided to skirt to the east of Cleveland and drive south. I meandered the back roads down into Kentucky and found a campground (Carter Caves State Resort Park in Olive Hill, KY) where i parked for the night. At the check-in desk, the guy asked me "one nut?" "What?" i said. "Just tonut?" "Oh, yes, just one night."

Decided to do some highway driving down across Kentucky, except for a little bit just west of Lexington, where i drove past some very impressive horse farms. I drove all the way out to the very western tip of Kentucky, dropped into Tennessee, then crossed the Mississippi into Missouri for a bit, then down into Arkansas. I drove to a state park but it only had 7 camper spots and they were all in use, so i went to another state park (Crowley's Ridge State Park in Paragould, AR) about 10 miles away and there was plenty of space.

Seera and i hiked around the park in the morning, then i pushed through Arkansas and into Texas. The only state park in my path was Martin Creek Lake State Park in Tatum, TX, which i got to and made use of the wifi at the ranger station. After i set up the camper i heard what sounded like a train locomotive idling nearby. Turns out it was a huge powerplant on the other side of the lake. After i went to bed, there was a HUGE boom and then the engine sound stopped. No idea what that was. Very soon after that, it started to rain and the rain pelted the top of the camper all night.

I awoke to a small lake outside my camper door and it was still raining. The powerplant looked intact so apparently it hadn't exploded the night before.

I drove through the rain and around several detours due to flooding to arrive at Carlone's house in Humble, TX (suburb of Houston and pronounced "umble") in early afternoon. Due to the flooding (second-highest rain total at the airport ever), both Daniel's school and Caroline's work were both closed so everyone was home.

I hung out at Caroline's house all day. Seera and i went for a walk around her neighborhood when it wasn't raining.

I took Seera for a walk then unhooked the camper, left Seera at the house with their dogs Scout and Snowy, and drove down to the Johnson Space Center. My GPS routed me toward a toll road on which ONLY cars with special Texas highway passes could travel, so i drove along the frontage road until the toll section of the highway ended and i got onto it. After a few more miles though, it was toll-only again and the last exit dumped me out into a dead end at a rail yard. I had to turn around, drive north, then get on another highway toward the center of the city to eventually get down south again.

The space center was cool, but halfway through the tour, it started pouring rain with lightning so they took us all back to the museum. So i saw the control center for the Apollo missions but didn't get to see the Saturn-V rocket. And because of the storm, they closed off the space shuttle so i didn't get to see THAT either. Oh well.

Late in the afternoon i left Houston and drove up to Round Rock, Texas, just outside Austin, to my friend Becca's house, whom i hadn't seen in 16 years! I hung out with her, her 12-year-old dog Diesel, and her very verbal not-quite-3-year-old daughter Ryleigh for the evening, then after Ryleigh went to bed, Becca and i stayed up until almost 2 AM talking.

Got up kinda late and thought that Becca and Ryleigh had left already, but they were just getting up too. We had breakfast then went our separate ways; Becca to work, Ryleigh to her grandparent's house, me north.

I skirted west of Dallas and drove up to Great Plains State Park in Mountain Park, OK. Seera and i took a little hike around and i took pictures of the slightly flooded lake. After the walk i found 4 or 5 ticks on me, which i picked off before they dug in.

After i had dinner and chatted with the park ranger who came by to collect the camping fee, a stellar sunset and accompanying moonrise occured.

That morning i awoke to an equally stunning sunrise, then drove up through Oklahoma, across (vertically) Kansas, and into the southeast corner of Nebraska. I intended to stay at a state park in Kansas but after driving down some dirt roads to the place, i found that it had no services at all, just some spots to pitch a tent. Plus, there'd been a lot of field-burning to the west, so there was a smoky haze in the air. I pushed on to the Indian Caves State Park in Brownville, NE, which was pretty nice, except that the "Camp Host" happened to be in the spot next to mine and gave me a grouchy earful about having Seera on a leash after she'd wandered over to their RV while i was setting up my camper. I apologized, but he didn't get any nicer. I took a dribbly luke-warm shower there.

It was inspiring to drive past and among the many many wind turbines across the fields of Oklahoma and Kansas.

I drove a few miles to the far end of the park to see the Indian Caves. One overhanging rock formation with, i suppose, some ancient carvings on the walls. I didn't notice because of all of the modern stupid grafitti carved into the walls everywhere. Sigh. But Seera got to drink out of the Missouri river.

Across Iowa and Into Illinois, stopping at a tiny roadside chapel rest stop. Seera got to drink out of the Mississippi, too. I contacted Edna and Greg and was planning on heading up the Chicago suburbs to visit, but i got a message back saying that they weren't going to be around, so i continued on my latitude and stayed south of the metropolis. VERY few state parks with camping in central Illinois, but i found one. When i got there though, i found out (by asking at a store, since the ranger station was nowhere to be found) that the camping wouldn't open until May 1. I was directed to Sand Ridge State Park in Topeka, IL, which wasn't on the map and had camping, but no water or electric hookups and only pit toilets. It was supposed to be $8 a night, but i could find nowhere to pay nor any park rangers, so i camped there without paying.

Woke up early and pushed through Illinois and Indiana. Once into Ohio, the closest state park on my route was still a couple hours away, so i kept going but found that Findley State Park in Wellington, OH, had a disc golf course! I set up the camper then played 18 holes and shot a +6 (7 bogeys, 1 birdie), but i hit chains on three more birdie putts that didn't go in the basket. The course was: poorly laid out; poorly designed; inadequately signed; muddy (but it's spring, so that's to be expected). I think 17 of the 18 holes were dead straight through a channel of trees. And most of them, if not straight, had a slight right bend, which is not friendly to right-handed throwers.

Right off the bat this morning, i was hungering for a fruit pie. There are a bunch of companies that make fruit pies and many of them don't have any soy in them (which makes them a nice convenience-store snack that i can eat). Unfortunately, both Hostess and Little Debbie make their fruit pies with soy. I stopped at least ten times today and every stupid store had either Hostess or Little Debbie. Rrrgh! At one store i thought i'd lucked out because they had some home-made Amish fruit pies, but even they had soy in them.

Compare the route i took today (click on driving image above) with this route that i took 10 years earlier.

Woke up around 4:00, but fell asleep again and got up at about 7:30. I was feeling tired and maybe a cold was coming on, so i bagged the back routes and hit the highways home. Arrived at the lake at about 2:30. Beautiful warm day, but, while it was spring down south, there's barely any leaves on the trees up here.

I smacked a lot of bugs on this trip.

Brrr.

Walked up to the Barndt property, where Bob was cleaning out the garage. Big swath of pipeline clearcut across the land. After lunch i hiked around the field at the railroad grade Y and thought about how i could put in a disc golf course there. That evening i packed up the truck and took some pictures of the stars.

Drove home, stopping at the Wegman's in Binghamton for a lunch sandwich (which i ate a few hours later) and the Best Buy in Albany to by a new TV. Went to the post office to get my accumulated mail when i came home and talked to Emily, the postmaster, about the state police visit at my house.

Went up to the farm to get my first CSA pickup of veggies (it was actually the second week but i'd missed the first one) and played with Bella's three kids, who were like little puppies, trying to climb all over me. It was pretty cool.

Drove down to Providence.