Archives for November 2012

The hills span for miles with old oak woods, thick and unexplored.  The country road into Stroudsburg is heavy with locals as the school day ends, the work day ends, and people are making that last stop to the grocery store before the holiday. The GPS flags my next step–turn left in point one miles. We do, and the terrain transforms into a dark, foresty incline. We go on for what seems like eternity.  Every turn in the road presents an opportunity for disaster with very narrow pavement, hairpin curves and frequent over-confidant motorists. 

Deer to the left.  Deer to the right.  Another up ahead.  Three over there.  We can’t go more than 20 or so miles an hour, deer are stepping out of the dusk everywhere.  This area must be a hunting paradise.  My heart is racing with excitement and wonder as we continue to meander up the mountainside.

Suddenly there stands the cabin in the woods. 

Stately oak trees, naked with their leaves littered across the Glacial rock forest floor surround the cabin and fill the hillside. Pristine solitude, crisp blanket of fresh air, and a warm rustic dwelling to curl up into. 

Three deer run across the driveway, less than 20 yards from my bumper.  I’m frozen in anticipation with autopilot hunt mode kicking in.  Then David bursts out the door to greet me, and the deer slip into the shadows of the hills.  Lynn is right behind. I hear a faint gobble….there are turkey here too? 

OMG.  This is heaven.

The next morning we take the dogs for a walk, just past sunrise “around the neighborhood”.  Oh, look, there trotted off four deer, white butts standing proud.  There are many cabins in the woods, all tucked away and barely visible from the road, or from each other.  The community is designed that way.  Oh, look at those two deer standing next to the deck of that house.  This is a gated community, regularly patrolled. The speed limits are inforced so take care.  And look, over there, a doe and two yearlings in the driveway of that house.  There are horse stables, tennis courts, pool, a ski hill with tow rope and chalet, and oh, of course there is absolutely no hunting allowed.  Look at that buck standing on the edge of the pavement, looking at us.

OMG.  Shoot me now.

We arrive back to the cabin in the woods, drop the dogs, and head to the neighbors for Thanksgiving meal.  I brought pumpkin pie and Minnesota wine.  Lynn and David brought pumpkin custard.  Oh, by the way, it’s made with tofu, as they are vegetarians, and currently practicing a very restricted diet.  Oh.  This will be an interesting meal. As we make our way up to the neighbors driveway there stand two deer at the bottom of their stairway to the door.

Surrounded by deer I can’t hunt, heading to a Thanksgiving dinner of rabbit food and tofu.

OMG.

OMG.

Inside, to my relief and surprise, I quickly discover Lynn and David are the minority of our group.  Our hosts are retired, famous gourmet chefs and they are, indeed, meat eaters. Robert was the Chef on the Concord on Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s honeymoon flight.  Back in the day, he served John Lennon his famous Peanut Butter and Sardine Omelets in his West Village Manhattan Restaurant, David’s Potbelly.  And now there is the most amazing Turkey Day spread I’ve ever seen waiting to be enjoyed. During our meal, Robert mentioned he could get me on a 300 acre private spread to hunt some deer.

Ya know, I’m ok with a little Tofu once in a while.  That custard wasn’t half bad. 

Stuffed to the gills, that night I dreamed of chasing Bucks and Does in the Poconos Mountains.  Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Sunday Night November 18th—

Drive 11:30 pm – 8:30 am

Monday am

Stop and sleep 2 hours

Drive 10:30 am– 6:30 pm to Greensburg PA

Arrive to Dottie’s around 6:30/7:00 pm Monday night, crash there.

Tuesday—

Visit with Dottie, leave by NOONish

Drive 12:30 – 5:30 pm to Harleysville PA

Arrive to Jims about 6ish on Tuesday night, crash there.

 Wednesday—

Visit with Jim, leave by 2:00ish

Drive 2:00 – 5:00 to Bushkill PA

Arrive to Lynn’s cabin around 5ish Wednesday afternoon

Thanksgiving weekend with Lynn and David at the cabin, spending time with them and their warm, welcoming neighbors and their family!  Decompression time in the mountains!  Celebration of life, good friendship and our 5 dogs all getting along!

The original idea was to leave for my big adventure in early November.  It’s tough to think about leaving Minnesota when the weather is so perfect and mild for bowhunting and pheasant hunting.  So we got out as often as we could in early season and did get a few birds in the freezer, but I was offered no shots at deer.  I also squeezed in a yard sale, fall chores, and time to get my business plan and website set up to launch.  I started packing for the big trip in early October.

Then on October 12^th the phone rang…

“Hi, we need to discuss your trip.  Gramma is not doing well, and I may need to drive out to Minnesota if things get worse. Wondering if I can stay at your place with my two dogs?”

My good friend Lynn’s Gramma is an amazing 100 years old. Lynn and I were planning to spend a couple weeks together, do Thanksgiving and tour the upper East Coast, then I would continue on my journey south for the next 30 days or so with many stops and people set up to see.

“Um…..ok…..” I hesitated sadly.   “I’ll stay at your place in New Jersey, while you are at my place in Minnesota?  Perhaps we can rendezvous at a rest stop for hugs mid route?”

Yikes.  What else can a person really say?  Stuff happens.  Gramma could very well live another 100 years, easy.  She’s just that way.  Now things would be up in the air with limited updates on Gramma.  We were half packed and in limbo. Off came the cargo rack and camping gear. Everything was on hold.

But wait, there’s more….

It’s especially hard to picture visiting friends in New Jersey when they are evacuating New Jersey due to a hurricane.

It started out around October 15^th with predictions and hyped up talk on the local news.  Talk of timelines and where Hurricane Sandy was, and when and where she was going to hit.  Denial is a powerful thing.  Lynn insisted they were fine and not going to be hit by the worst of it, and with Gramma hanging in there I should stick to the idea of coming out.  I tried to maintain faith and began packing again, but the news reports were increasingly dismal. When the hurricane did hit on October 29, it wasn’t fine, and for over a week I was unable to even know if Lynn and her family were ok.  Just 45 minutes from the shore, they were in the eye of the storm.  They had lost power, lost trees, lost transportation, were unable to communicate, and things looked very grim.  The graphic news reports were shocking.  The majority of places we’d planned to go together didn’t even exist anymore. They will need months to re-cooperate from the devastation.

I had serious doubts, and wondered more than once if I should even be thinking about doing the trip at all.  How about I reverse the trip and stop east on the way back in late December? Or go to Texas and New Mexico instead?  Is some higher power trying to tell me something here?  Everyone else I know was urging me to postpone until sometime in 2013.  We were half packed and in limbo. Again, I pulled the cargo rack off the truck, put the tent and tarps and gear back in the garage.

Then I got an email.  They are ok.  Lynn insisted I keep to the plan, that by the time I get to New Jersey I’ll be able to get on the roads, get gas, get to their place, and they will have power back, the trees out of the streets, and they will no longer be using generators.

Besides, her neighbors son is really hoping I’ll help him with his archery.

So the trip was back on.  Out came the gear.  On Wednesday November 14^th the packing resumed.  Of course that was along with managing a couple days of running errands, bird hunting, cleaning birds, evening of Swing Dance, meeting with the electrician about finishing the master bathroom while I’m away and having company for the weekend that included us girls doing a grueling 3 hour hike in Hudson followed by a Wine Tasting tour of Alexis Bailly Winery that put us on our butts for the remainder of that day.

After helping organize my travel supplies, my weekend company pulled out of the driveway at about 2:00 pm on Sunday the 18^th.  The adventure countdown began shortly after, with me packing the truck one more time, strapping up the back, last minute fussing around the house, then taking a much needed nap.

It all started last winter when I felt compelled to visit the people I care most about who live far away from me.  I was feeling very stuck.  Then it evolved into feeling like I was missing out.  Then, it became a full blown need to take charge and TAKE OFF…..

Then on Sunday, November 18^th at 11 pm we pulled out of the driveway with my truck packed for an extended adventure, and my three dogs wagging tails, riding shotgun–no looking back.

The adventure has begun!

A week has past.  So far, we headed southeast through the night, and within three days visited friends from one end of Pennsylvania to the other. And now here I am, over 900 miles away from home in the Pocono Mountains wrapping up Thanksgiving with my very dear childhood friend and her family.

The immediate plan is to get in some quality time with my extended family, hiking and exploring the area, eventually landing in New Jersey where they actually reside, and possibly taking part in some holiday festivities East Coast style.

There are no real timelines.  The plan continues by heading straight south along the shoreline, camping, hiking and exploring, finally arriving to Florida to visit several friends there, and hopefully hook up with a pig hunt, turkey hunt and maybe even a deer hunt in the Sunshine state.

Eventually we will turn back north, but taking the most scenic route back as we camp our way back home.  Our ETA is yet to be determined.

What’s not to love about that?

I’m just a single woman with 3 dogs, who loves the outdoors, spent most of my adult life working in it, and also crossed into other areas of business that deeply broadened my knowledge and expertise beyond the hunt-fish-camp business arena.

Needless to say I’ve been into a routine for a number of years that has provided me a decent living, an opportunity to travel beautiful south west Minnesota, and work with an amazing collection of people whom I cherish beyond being customers and colleagues. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.  I face the challenges put forth to me each day with a can-do attitude, and give my best to everyone and in everything I do.  The downside is a little disparity between what I want to accomplish, and what I actually can. Work comes first and everything else has to fall in place after.  It’s the routine I’ve come to accept.  Until now.  Did I hear someone say it’s time for an adventure?