Pittsburgh Family, Friends and Irish Rover Returns, August 13-23, 2018

Thanks to our trip planning, the 13th was another short driving day.  We arrived at Hart's Content Campground near Beaver Falls, PA well before dinner and settled in for a relaxing evening.

Our campsite at Hart's Content

The next day we did some chores, as even on vacation not everything can be put off.  Following the chores we jumped onto our bikes and I showed Karen the wonderful biking to be had riding around North Park Lake in Pittsburgh.  Our bike ride was 7 miles around the park environs.

We wrapped up the day, playing pickleball on the very nice courts built recently in North Park.

Jesse naps through breakfast

The next morning my son, Paul and his kids, 3 year old Avery and newborn Jesse, joined us for breakfast at a nearby restaurant.

Avery grins for the camera

As we were having a good time and the kids were wonderfully behaved, we stuck around after the breakfast crowd departed so the waitresses could dote over the kids.

After running some errands in Zelienople, Karen and I took a walk about town as Murph played tour guide in the town he called home for 30 years.

Thursday the 16th began wonderfully as Paul brought Avery Mae to the campground so she could enjoy the playground.  As it turns out, all four of us had a blast at the playground, especially as Avery "drove" the car, truck and train.

Dinner that evening was at Luciano's with Murph's great friends since moving to western Pennsylvania over 40 years ago, Carol and Bob.  Not surprisingly, we all had a wonderful evening together.

Friday was filled with Murph's final efforts to conclude his pleasant duty to build and mail the photo book about his recent "Delt Gathering" in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  With all the books on their way to his brother Delts, Murph and Karen joined Wabash alumnus, Larry, and his wife, Linda for a terrific evening of fun, recollection and stories.  It was a few years since Larry and Murph last met and that was in Annapolis.  It was great to be back together and Karen got to learn more about the special bond that exists between Wabash "brothers."

Sandbar Bash, photo by Sean

The big deal on Saturday was the annual "Sandbar Raft-Up" on Lake Arthur.  It is the yearly event co-hosted by the Lake Arthur Sailing Club (based at Davis Hollow) and the Moraine Sailing Club (based at Watts Bay).  Sean and Bill are both very active in their respective clubs as Sean sails his MacGregor 26, Hakuna Matata, and Bill runs the Community Sailing Fleet of the MSC, including Sunfish, Optis, Hobies and Flying Scots.  Karen joined Bill and crew for a fun sail aboard Capt Jim Clark's Catalina 25, Magi's Mate.  Keith and I drove to a spot in the park only a couple hundred yards away from the sandbar where all the boats were anchoring for the afternoon's festivities.  Keith and I swam the 200 yards and climbed aboard Magi's Mate to enjoy a meal and drinks after playing volleyball in the shallow water by the boats.  The sun and sky were golden and blue, maybe highlighting my time at Pitt?  :-)

Avery with her frequent babysitter, Haley

Karen and I spent Sunday at church with Paul, Kelsey, Avery and Jesse, followed by a wonderful Sunday dinner with all six of us plus Kelsey's sister, Haley and friend, Brittany.

Our return trip began Monday morning as we struck camp and drove to Brady's Bend for a brief look at the Allegheny River Overlook above the famous river bend.  Then the real work of the trip commenced as we retrieved Irish Rover from storage, inspected and prepared her for the 1,000+ mile trip south to Florida and set off southbound.  We were in "delivery mode," which to us means that we drive until we're too tired to proceed, have dinner and sleep, then do it again every day until we arrive at our destination.  This trip our stops were in Weston, WV, Columbia, SC and Jacksonville, FL.  Although we could have wrapped up the last couple hours to Titusville that last night, we decided to stay in Jacksonville as we had nowhere to store Irish Rover in Titusville until the next day.  We're storing her instead of launching because hurricane season doesn't end until November.  We'd rather keep her safely stored than launch her only to haul her out for every hurricane that heads our way.  Come November we plan to begin spending LOTS of time sailing Irish Rover.  Anytime you find yourself in Central Florida, let me know and we'll do our best to go sailing together!  (A comment posted below will work, if you've lost my phone or email.)

Walks, Hikes and AT Hikers, August 10-13, 2018

Our view of the Potomac from our campsite

Our campsite was along the Potomac River downstream from Harper's Ferry, WV.  We could see the river through the trees behind our site.   We were concerned that the local trails would have much more traffic on the weekend with lots of bikers, hikers and walkers, so a walk into the town of Brunswick, MD was our plan for the 10th.  As the campground is right on the edge of town, it was a simple matter to walk the short section of the C&O Towpath, then cross the railroad tracks into the small downtown area.

The post office was our initial destination to resolve our chores for the day, then we just wandered about to see what we might see.  An interesting coffee shop called "Beans in the Belfry" caught our eye as the shop is located in a former church, but we didn't enter.  There's a local brewery situated in a former firehouse called "Smoketown Brewing Station."  We did step inside to look around, but it wasn't yet noon so we continued on our walk.

Other places of note include "Brunswick Heritage Museum," where we window-shopped their interesting displays and "Past and Present Antiques," which presented some unique items.

Our campsite, Brunswick Family Campground

Eventually our hunger complained more loudly and we settled in at the "Potomac Street Grill."  (Sorry there's no link to the PSG site.  McAfee warned that malicious bugs have usurped their normal website.)  It is a nice, simple, small town eatery with a short bar and good if limited selection of draught beer.  Thankfully, they had a couple brews from Smoketown Brewing Station on tap, so we could enjoy the local craft.  It proved to be enjoyable, refreshing and tasty.

Karen displays her scoop of chocolate ice cream

We decided to forego desert at PSG in order to leave room for a taste at the "Towpath Creamery," a couple blocks away along our trek back to the campground.  This little shop was quaint, clean and offered a nice couple tables for us to sit, relax and enjoy a couple scoops of ice cream.

Karen presents the photo of
Rocket and Rockette (Roger and Gail)

In an effort to avoid the weekend crowds, we didn't leave the campground until mid afternoon.  Our mission for the day was to visit the "Appalachian Trail Conservancy Headquarters and Visitor Center."

Rocket and Rockette (Roger and Gail)

Our AT Through-hiking friends, Rocket and Rockette (Roger and Gail), had mentioned that they stopped here and had their picture taken and that the photo was recorded in an album by the ATC for posterity.  We hiked up the street in Harper's Ferry, easily found the ATC and the folks there did the brief research to locate Roger and Gail's photograph.  An impressive three dimensional scale map in the ATC Visitor Center was our backdrop for the photo of Karen with our friends' picture.

Sunday proved to be our biggest day of hiking for our entire summer trip.  We drove into Harper's Ferry, then began our trek from downtown, across the Potomac on the AT, up the long traverse climbing over 1200 vertical feet to a former Civil War Cannon Battery.  We trudged along the mountain ridge south and then downhill over 600 vertical feet only to struggle back uphill another 350 vertical feet to bring us out to the Maryland Heights Overlook of Harper's Ferry.

View of the Shenandoah (left),  Harper's Ferry (center), and Potomac

The view made all the hiking truly worthwhile.  We were sweaty, tired and complaining of sore muscles, but we still enjoyed the view as we rested and looked forward to the shorter return trip back downhill into town.

The Maryland Heights Overlook and
Civil War Battery are behind Murph

Once back in town, Karen took this photo to show where we'd just been hiking.  The mountain behind Murph is the one we just climbed, the Civil War Battery is near the peak of the mountain and the Maryland Heights Overlook is at the top of the rock cliffs above Murph's left shoulder.

The next day we left the area for Pittsburgh.

Harper's Ferry Biking, August 8-9, 2018

It was a short drive to our next stop, Brunswick Family Campground.  The attraction here was that the campground was nestled between the Potomac River and the abandoned C&O Canal and, more importantly, the C&O Canal Towpath, which is now part of a great bicycle trail connecting Pittsburgh and Washington, DC.  Although Karen and I are not likely to traverse the entire trail, this section was attractive as it gave us walking and cycling access to some nice spots including Harper's Ferry and Brunswick, MD.  All without having to move the RV!

Our first day we rode our bikes to Harper's Ferry and back.  Due to a lot of rain and storms over the past weeks, the C&O Towpath had a lot of mud and puddles.  It's about six and a half miles each way to Harper's Ferry, so we felt this would be a good day of exercise.  And it was!  Although the trail is quite flat following the river bank, we still had to contend with a number of other bikers which meant we often had to stick to our own side of the trail taking us directly through several quite muddy puddles.

Confluence of Shenandoah River (from right)
as it joins the Potomac River at Harper's Ferry

Karen climbs the stone steps that
eventually lead to Jefferson Rock

There is a lot of history in Harper's Ferry, especially around the period just before, during and after the US Civil War, to be learned from the National Park Service, local displays and buildings. 



We walked a couple miles around town and up to Jefferson Rock, above town.   We also walked through the renovated train station (which I had ridden past on many Amtrak trains, but never ventured off the trains) and enjoyed a pleasant lunch at a nice restaurant appropriately called "Almost Heaven," as we were now in West (by God) Virginia.  We discussed climbing the hillside trail across the Potomac from Harper's Ferry, but decided it might be too much exercise since we still had to ride our bikes back to the campground.  It was a wise decision!

The AT crosses from Harper's Ferry over the Potomac via that bridge

The signs and blazes of the Appalachian Trail were frequent and prominent, so we found ourselves thinking often of our friends, Rocket and Rockette (Roger & Gail), who hiked through here on their trek of the Appalachian Trail last year completing all 2,181 miles. The more we learn about the AT, the more impressed we are with their achievement.

Karen's bike where the AT departs the C&O heading north.
The wooden post displays the white blazes of the AT.

Karen's mud-spattered back at the end of our ride

When we finally made it back to our campsite, but as the photos attest, our backs were speckled with mud spatters from the puddled C&O Towpath trail.

Annapolis Visit July 27 to August 8, 2018

We drove north from North Carolina through Virginia to our next campsite, just outside Annapolis, MD at the Capitol KOA.  As campgrounds go, this one has many nice facilities, especially for kids, including a pool, nature trail, jumping "pillow", playground, jungle gym, basketball, ping pong, and even a large chess board the two players stand on and walk their pieces to their selected squares.
Karen and I mostly relaxed and visited some of our fun spots in Annapolis.  Saturday, Karen enjoyed her soft-shell crab sandwich at the Boatyard Grill in Eastport and I enjoyed my draught Smithwick's Irish Ale at Galway Bay Irish Pub.





A bike ride Sunday found us on the relatively new WB&A Trail in Odenton, MD. 

It was fun as the day was a beautiful, if hot, and the exercise was helpful, as we never get as much of a workout when we miss Charlotte's Aerobics Class at TGO.  The bike ride covered 13 miles, with elevation changes totalling 730 vertical feet.  As you know, Maryland isn't that hilly, but there was a significant hill as we descended a steep pitch to a point just above the Patuxent River, then turned around and climbed that hill back up to the ridge trail.

Alex enjoying his rented pedal kart at the KOA

Monday and Tuesday Karen and I hosted Karen's grandson, Alex who enjoyed the pool, chess, ping pong, the jumping pillow and especially the pedal karts.

USNA Band playing jazz on Tuesday evening

Karen and I found a favorite spot to "set a spell" after returning Alex to his mom.  Our spot is City Dock, downtown Annapolis on the Spa Creek waterfront enjoying the Naval Academy Bands who play every Tuesday for several weeks through the midsummer evenings.

Tina and Karen sailing aboard Kelly IV, July 2015

Tina is a great friend of Karen's and the two of them make it a point to lunch together whenever Karen visits Annapolis.  This year was no exception and the two ladies had a blast recounting stories of recent escapades.

That evening for dinner we met at Galway Bay Pub with friends, Noel and Kathy, who Murph met while sailing the Chesapeake on Troy's sailboat, Persistent, about 15 years ago.  Since then we've enjoyed each other's boats, drinks, culinary delights, paintings (Kathy's), and company!

Our campsite at the KOA was OK as there weren't any bad neighbors.  In fact, most weekdays we had No Neighbors!  :-)

Shirley, Narjes, Harry, waiter, Murph, Karen at Mike's Crabhouse

Our time in Annapolis is always rich with time enjoying friendships and the trend continued as we savored another evening with great friends.  Thursday we relished the hours and company with Harry, Narjes and Nar's Mom, Shirley.  The crabs were delicious and the conversation boisterous and fun.

Harry, Murph, Bobby ducking the rain on Friday, photo by Harry

What began as a one-day outing transitioned into a weekend event.  Bobby, Harry and I made plans to enjoy a baseball game on Friday with the Washington Nationals hosting the Cincinnati Reds. 

Bobby, Harry celebrating a completed baseball game, Saturday

After just a few innings the game was postponed due to rain, so we reconvened on Saturday for the make-up game and had a blast both days.

Don and Donna on their deck at home

Sunday was spent enjoying more friends, Don and Donna who have hosted Murph and other Pittsburgh sailors for fifteen years.  Karen had heard good things about the crabcakes at G&M Restaurant in Linthicum Heights so we suggested meeting Don and Donna there.  It turns out this is Donna's favorite local restaurant so we all had a terrific time together enjoying the marvelous company as well as the superb food.

As Alex seemed to enjoy his time camping with Karen and Murph, we collected him for another couple days to enjoy the facilities at the KOA.  Since he had enjoyed the pedalling so much the week before, Karen decided to present Alex with a brand new bicycle!  Although Alex had almost no experience keeping his balance riding a bicycle, he proved to be a quick study and was riding entirely on his own within half an hour!

Karen meets Billy Bob Thornton

We had plans to enjoy another session of the Naval Academy Band at City Dock on our last Tuesday evening, but the weather cancelled the event.  As we were walking through town deciding how to spend our last night in Annapolis, we noticed a poster promoting a performance by Billy Bob Thornton's rock and roll band.  And the event was NOW!  We stepped into the box office, found seats and enjoyed a wonderful show.  Karen impressed Billy Bob so much, he came into the audience to shake her hand!