Retrospection

Now that I'm back in the US, I've been going through some of my old journals and e-mails. I thought it would be good reminiscing, both for me and maybe some of you, to post some of it online. Not all the time of course. I'll try not to let myself get too carried away.

Anyway, here is Spring break 2000, when Brett, Bear, Prodigy and I went camping in the Smokey mountains in Tennessee. This may be only of interest to the 4 of us, but I hope you 3 have as much fun reminiscing about this trip as I did.

3/18/00
As we were leaving to go on Spring Break, Rob Patton was getting his crew ready to go too.
We left early in the morning to get a start on the day, but then went to Casey’s for a leisurely breakfast (Brett picked up on the inconsistency of this at the restaurant). I ordered Tacos, and made a comment about how it could be a long trip to Tennessee for everyone else in the car, and Bear in a tired voice replied "Damn you Chewie Damn you" (This would become a running joke on the Spring Break trip. Brett compared Bear to Pavlov’s Dogs, just conditioned to swear automatically).
We drove straight to Tennessee with occasional stops for food and gas. We joked a lot about Rob’s Spring Break and what a disaster we thought it would be. (I jokingly said of Cakes that we had sent a sheep off with the wolves).
Brett and I slept a bit on the trip down while Bear and Prodigy drove (Brett had not gotten any sleep at all the night before). Finding no hotels we liked, we drove straight to the campground.
When It stopped raining, and I commented on the nice weather, Bear yelled at me out for saying something and jinxing us. This also would become a running joke for the rest of the week. I would make an optimistic comment about the weather and Bear would swear at me for provoking bad weather.

3/19/00
Hit the trail. Realized we had forgotten to get a permit-but decided to keep going anyway. Brett and I realized that most of our good stories from the last camping trip came from either the girls or our adventures trying to cross the stream. With neither of those being a factor on this trail, we wondered if we would have any interesting stories from this trip. We saw 2 other people at the beginning of the hike (which was a contrast to last time, when we saw no one for the 1st two days). A father-son team passed us by as we were resting about a half mile into the trial.
We stopped for the day pretty early in the afternoon. This gave us plenty of time to clown around. I ended up getting bored, but Brett said last time what he hated was never having time to relax at the campsite-so this was good. There was a small trickle of a stream by the site and we climbed up and down to see where it began and ended. Brett compared the foliage around the stream to a rain forest.
Brett climbed to the top of a tree (pretty damn high up there). I started climbing up to join him, but lost my nerve pretty early on and came back down. We built a fire, and it got so windy at night sparks were being blown everywhere and I was worried the whole forest would burn down. It was an eerie feeling being out in the wind. It constantly sounded like someone was coming. Brett and I put out the fire, but the wind flared it up again once we were in the tent and Brett went back outside to put the fire out again. Brett woke me up in the night, having been scared by howling sounds, and I sleepily told him that there had never been a reported case of a wolf attacking a human in North America. The next morning when we were both awake he mocked me for giving such a textbook type answer.

3/20/00
I was selfish in the morning by not helping Brett take down the tent at first (I was busy with my own stuff and felt bad later). We stopped for lunch, and encountered 3 other hikers (one guy and two girls). They ate lunch not too far from us and gave us lots of weird looks (we were laughing a lot). We hiked up hill all day after lunch and were tired out. (Except for Brett, which was ironic since he had trouble keeping up with us before lunch.) Brett and I would Hike, then wait for Bear and Luke to wearily join us. We were passed by those 3 other hikers on a break. When we finally arrived at the campsite, many other people were there-we made some small talk. (One guy was from North Western University). We were somewhat worried b/c we didn’t have a permit. Brett (assisted by the rest of us us), attempted to make a fire, but with no luck. Brett and I hiked around at night a little and enjoyed the eery feeling of the woods at night before going to bed.

3/21/00
We left the campsite. Bear and Prodigy left first (Bear was impatient), but Brett and I soon caught up with them. We ditched our packs and did a day hike to the Appalachian trail. We met Horse’s Trot, an Appalachian trailer. Brett gave me a mock guilt trip about not carrying the lunch sack so I insisted on carrying it all the rest of way back even though Brett kept telling me I didn’t have to. When we arrived at our campsite, there was a beautiful river by it. Bear went skinny dipping, which was funny enough in itself, but a couple walked by at this time and the girl had to wait to cross the bridge while Bear put on his clothes. While we all yelled at bear to hurry up and clothe himself.
Later, a group of guys wanted to cross from the other side. Bear jokingly told them that they had to wait until he was done bathing, but they misunderstood and thought he was serious and kept asking Brett if his friend was done bathing yet so they could cross. "I don’t know why they didn’t cross first and then the Bear Bathed" Brett said later. Everyone commented that we now we had at least one story to tell.
Another couple camped on the same site. Brett and I stayed up late (well, relatively late) telling ghost stories.

3/22/00
Bear and Prodigy again left before us (again, Bear was impatient to get going). We hiked to the visitor center. Everyone was staring at us because we obviously looked like hikers. Brett was somewhat uncomfortable but Bear loved it and we laughed at the way he blatantly put himself on display. Brett had a hurt heel, and was having trouble going on the trail. We hiked on a very touristy (but beautiful) trail, and many of the other day hikers were amazed by all our gear. Prodigy especially was very pleased with all the comments. Many people said, "You guys look official", to which he always replied, "Yeah, Four days official".
We arrived at Abrams falls. Ignoring signs, Brett and I (and later Bear) climbed to top of waterfall. We took off our shirts, and tons of people from down below were staring at us and some even taking pictures.
After the waterfall, we hiked to the campsite. There was some disagreement over what to do after the trip was over. Brett wanted to explore some city with what was left of Spring Break, Prodigy and Bear wanted to get home. (Prodigy had Youth group thing at his Greek Orthodox church).
Brett left for a while, and arrived back soaked to his shoulders after falling in the lake. It was dark by this time, but he changed his clothes in the cold and attempted to dry them out. I helped him as I could.

3/23/00
Woke up and hiked the rest of the way back to the car. Although there was still some debate about what to do, sentiments to go home won out.
We drive the long trip back:
Highlights: Stopped at a Taco Bell in a hick area that had a sign on Juke Box (Free bird skips-please don’t play-no refunds).
Brett and I laughed in the back seat at Bear and Prodigy singing along to songs.
Brett and I got in a tickling match in back seat after I said "Brett ya Bastard". I gave in, saying Uncle. . Brett also told me he had really developed a respect for the Bear over this Spring Break. Brett and I talked politics. He seems more clearly a libertarian/Republican than ever (not leaning towards Socialism as I had earlier hoped).
We arrived at Calvin. Although things were still shut down for Spring Break, Brett and I were able to break into our apartment at Delta 1. We had originally planned to go back to my parent’s house, but were both so tired we just went to sleep. (It was a $100 to be caught in the apartments during Spring Break, but we were too tired to care.)

Useless Wikipedia Fact
Ajimu-machi is a small valley town known for it’s red wine and suppon—a type of native turtle that is carefully prepared and eaten. The town is located northwest of Beppu and southeast of Nakatsu in a valley that harbors hot summers and cold winters comparatively to the surrounding areas. Ajimu is currently home to two, non-Japanese JET English teachers, Justin Shaddix and Chris Powell. Well, given the participatory nature of Wikipedia, I figured it was just a matter of time before I saw someone I knew written into an entry. Either of you boys want to take credit for this one?

Link of the Day
Catching Rumsfeld Red-Handed ... An Interview with Ray McGovern