A kind of scary suspension bridge in Red River Gorge- yeah I walked across it, that's right!

You know what I like about Kentucky? Dudes without their shirts on. Sure not all of them look that good, but a lot of them do and I'm okay with seeing an ugly shirtless guy every once and a while anyways. During my drive from Louisville to Red River Gorge I think I saw more guys without shirts on than I saw clothed. All right all right. Another thing of note about Kentucky is that pretty much the entire state smells like fresh-cut grass, which is pretty dreamy.
All the folks in Louisville highly recommended Red River Gorge (just outside of Lexington) to me as a great hiking spot, which is where I've set up camp for the night. The hiking was pretty good except for the fact that I walked through a spider web about every five feet, but I guess that's nature for ya! A non-nature related nuisance here are the "rowdy boys" (that's according to the nice lady at the visitor center) who are camping about 100 feet from me, who are doing cannonballs into the river on a constant basis. I probably would join them if I was still a teenager, but now I would feel like a creepy old lady if I approached them.
There are many nice back country camping spots right along Red River, and while you do have to pay for a back country permit here it only costs three bucks for one night or five bucks for three nights. So grab four friends and you can come camp here for three days for a dollar. I was 2 cents short when I bought my permit, and the rangers let it slide! They even gave me a penny back, I think they felt bad for me.
xo
m.

9:23 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

West Virginia... go ahead and tread on it!

Greetings from the durrrrrty south! I'm writing from Louisville, KY, which can only be described as a super cute town. The people are so friendly here it makes me kind of nervous. I keep on waiting for them to give me a bible or ask for money or something but really, they're just being nice! A man on the street today did say "God be with you" but that was as close as anyone got to proselytizing. One of the highlights of my stay here so far was brunch at Lynn's Paradise Cafe, a local favorite with really fantastic decor. Their biscuits were out of this world, probably made with a massive amount of lard or something but I was willing to overlook that fact. I was not particularly enthused when I discovered that I was brunching on election day and no one can serve booze before 6pm on that particular day but I got over it. But really, who cares if people vote drunk? At least they're voting!
On my way here I drove through West Virginia and stopped for a hike in the New River Gorge, pictured above. Dang those hill folks and their steep, steep trails, my thighs are killing me! Afterwards I drove past this shopping center that called itself "The Best of West Virginia" so I had to stop by. I bought a "West Virginia: don't tread on me!" t-shirt there, which also came in baby sizes just in case you have a rebellious infant.
xo
m.

9:22 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

pretty but sunburny...


Okay so this will be the quickest blog post in the world because: 1) I've got to get to the state of KY at a reasonable hour and 2) this trip was sort of a sidetrack from my planned route. Intrigued yet?!? Yeah me neither. So this week I was on a trip to Grand Cayman Island in the British West Indies. My parents are recently retired and they're traveling everywhere fun in the world (you see, it's genetic!) and they decided to toss one of my sisters and I a proverbial bone and take us with them on one of their trips. This was my first time ever in the Caribbean, it was nice but frankly too touristy for my taste. I was happy to hit the beach (me + beach = LOVE 4EVA) but there were no waves there and the water was so hot it felt like a giant salty bath. On the upside, I went wakeboarding for the first time which was a blast! It's like snowboarding and surfing in one, me likey!!! Also it's clearly a good workout, because the next day every muscle in my body seized up and refused to function to its usual ass-kicking capacity. Good thing I get to practice a lot this summer with the boys on White Lake, because they wakeboard all the time. Secretly, that's why I wanted to do it while I was in Cayman, so that I could impress them with my mad crazy wakeboarding skills when I visit them next time. And then pretend that I had never done it before, and I was just naturally good at it!
xo
m.

9:22 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

this chicken stole my t-shirt.

Wine, a vegetable garden, and chocolate covered pretzels, who could ask for more? This weekend I stayed with the lovely people of Wycombe Vineyards in Bucks County, PA. If you like good wine (lord knows I do but I'm not picky) made by good people check out their link on the left. I tasted everything they had in their wineshop this weekend and it was all très fantastique. The vineyard is located close to New Hope, PA which is a cute little town where Andy Warhol and other artsy fartsy types used to hang out in the 60's when they were tired of New York. It is now a nice place to walk around where there are no shortages of Indian and Tibetan dress stores, art galleries, and ice cream shops. Highlights of my trip there included:
- the rock star gallery, where you can look at Jerry Garcia's artwork which is surprisingly not crappy! They have other musicians' artwork too.
- A decently-priced vintage clothing store where I bought really awesome purple high heels! The name eludes me right now, it involves the number 13, it's a small town you'll find it.
- The chicken pictured above, which I saw in someone's backyard while we were walking along the canal.
There's also a bridge in New Hope that connects it to Lambertville, NJ, so you can walk right across the state line. I didn't cross it since I'm going to New Jersey in a couple of days anyways but I sure did look at it!
I also helped my gracious hosts plant a vegetable garden this weekend, which was a learning process for me. Who knew planting vegetables was so pleasant and enjoyable? Hopefully something grows there, the zucchini plants looked particularly hearty to me.
After planting my hosts shared with me chocolate covered pretzels that they made, which I'm sure they regretted because I think I ate every single one of them. They grated fresh cinnamon over them fer crissake! What's a girl to do?
Last item of news: did you know that if you take a couple of original-flavored mentos and drop them into a 2 liter bottle of Coke it will create a coke explosion?!? Neither did I until this weekend! I have no idea why it works, but it's really cool and you should try it! Definitely do it outside though, and get ready for an ant invasion afterwards.
xo
m.

9:20 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

I'll talk about the goat later.


So here I am... camping. I'm starting off in Shenandoah National Park outside Luray, VA because their website is so in-depth (http://www.nps.gov/shen) that it makes camping seem easy even for the nature-impaired such as myself. The trip started off with an unpleasant surprise: the price of a US national parks pass has SKY-rocketed from 50 dollars to 80 dollars this year! The park ranger assured me that this is because it now gives me access to certain hunting and fishing areas which I certainly do not give a shit about. C'est la vie, I'm 80 dollars poor-er but now I can visit as many national parks as I desire in the next 365 days. Due to poor planning on my part, I spent the first night in Shenandoah in the campgrounds because I got there too close to sundown to find a decent place to camp in the backcountry. 17 more dollars down the drain, but at least I've got a toilet for the evening.


As I gathered kindling for the little fire I built that evening I was gripped by a sudden panic and a loud voice in my head said "Run! You don't know anything about camping and you don't even like being by yourself. Go back to New York and get your old life back before it's too late!!!" However ladies and germs, if there's one thing I've learned in life it's that it's always more exciting to take the new difficult path as opposed to the old familiar one. That may or may not be true in this case but I've got to try this shit out for at least one summer, right?!?



OH YEAH the goat... On my way from White Lake to Shenandoah I stayed with my sister in King of Prussia, PA (home of a gigantic mall!). We took my nephews to this park that not only had a petting zoo and a playground, but they had ice cream too! Baby heaven, anyone?
xo
m.

9:20 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

This has nothing to do with anything... but did you know you can buy a flattened dried bunny face at gander mtn, hunting and fishing superstore if you so desire? It's for fly fishing lures. Now I don't know beans about fishing, but why in the hell would a fish want to chomp on a piece of a dead bunny's face? PS I know that gander mtn is a chain, but the folks who work at the one in Montgomery NY in particular are very very rude, especially to young ladies. I'm just sayin' do your camp goods shopping at the wal-mart next door, where you can also buy bill and ted's bogus journey for $5 if you so desire and the employees treat you with a modicum of decency.

9:19 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

Nature rules OK!
Okay I don't think this is a very exciting week for blogging, but here goes... I'm officially a non-resident of the BROOK to the LYN!!! I dropped my keys in my landlord's mailbox and got the hell out of town on saturday. Moving is so tiring! But now it's over. So let's move on. Now I'm in White Lake NY with my three favorite boys in the world (apologies to anyone else who thought they were my favorite boy, you're still beautiful) and I'm doing REALLY exciting things all week like registering and inspecting my car, getting a PO box, and making spreadsheets and maps of all my routes. Phew the fun never stops when you're upstate! Just kidding, actually it is a blast hanging out up here, it's very pretty and very quiet and there's lots of nice walks and hikes to take through trees and mud and whatnot. And I do mean mud, because of all the shite rainy weather there's very little solid ground to walk on here. Setting chairs on fire is fun fun fun!!!
xo
m.

9:18 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

getting rid of all your belongings is harder than it looks.

5:41 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...

Common sense tells me that my energy level is waaaaaay too low to write my first post right now, but did common sense ever get anybody anywhere? No way Jose. Here's what's going on in my week friends, I'll make a bulleted list so it's easy to read:

- moving out of Brooklyn after 7 years. 7 YEARS?!? Criminey I've got to get out of here... How long does it take to make a window display anyways? You got me, I'm not an expert or anything.

- Dropping my few earthly belongings off at my "storage space" a.k.a. my parents' basement. I love you mom & dad! But I love your unfinished basement more.

- Going upstate to hang with THE COOLEST BOYS IN THE WORLD. Just kidding, really I'm hanging out with Benji and Jacob and Brain. Do you like pizza? Do you like the Catskills? Check yourself before you wreck your pizza-self and go to the Benji & Jake's link on the left!!! I'm going up there to mary-nate (does that joke work in print?) for a little while before I leave. Hopefully while I'm there there will be a miraculous spring thaw, because it is still way too cold to camp anywhere!

- I'm going to learn how to camp. What the hell do I know about camping?!? I've been living in Brooklyn making window displays, I don't even know anything about being outside! Last time I went outside, I fell in a river (see a re-enactment below, it's in 2 parts)!!! I've been reading lots of books on the subject, but I really don't think that's the same thing. I'll update you on how this goes...





** Here's an interesting fact I learned in one of my camping books: Don't pick up a poisonous snake, even after it's dead, because they can deliver a venomous bite by reflex even after death! Whoa!

I like writing in bullets!

xo
m.

5:40 PM;

Like a drifter i was born to walk alone...