Well, I've finally lived an Indigo Girls song.

[judecorp]

Now the parking lot is empty.
Everyone's gone someplace.
I pick you up and in the trunk I've packed
a cooler and a two-day suitcase,
'cause there's a place we like to drive
way out in the country.
Five miles out of the city limits, we're singing
and your hand's upon my knee...

This weekend was won-der-ful! It was everything I needed, we needed, and then some. To say I had a good time would be an understatement; to say I had a great time wouldn't suffice either. One of the things I love about my Jennifer is that she has an uncanny way of diffusing any potentially cranky situations, and she knows me well enough to know what those are. So even though the "check engine soon" light came on in my car about 10 miles into the trip (I wonder what they did to it at the dealer when I got my oil changed), and even though one of the geocaches I really wanted to find was gone (and it was the one I wanted to put the travel bug in), and even though my GPS crapped out for a little while yesterday afternoon, nothing was a big deal, nothing was spoiled, nothing so much as put a frown on my face. Wonderful.

We left on Friday at around 6:30pm, and the only thing eventful about the trip was the engine light. We got to the place and checked in, and the woman who owned the cabins was totally nice to us and didn't even bat an eyelash about the two girls who were renting her little romantic cabins. We dumped our stuff in the loft cabin (the smaller one - we actually had to switch cabins each night because that was all that was available) and headed back into town to buy some stuff at Wal-Mart and get some dinner. We ended up eating Wendy's because everything was closed after 9. On Friday. Hee. So we went back to the cabin and went into the hot tub. I'm /really/ sensitive, blood pressure-wise, to hot water, and I think I gave myself heat stroke (I got really sick, really nauseous, really dizzy, couldn't breathe, my face was flushed for a long time, etc.) but that went away in time. Jen was really sweet to me while I was sick. The heat exhaustion episode is really a separate story I'm formulating in my brain, so you'll have to wait. We went to bed.

On Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early. We showered and she made banana pancakes, and then we took the little paddleboat around the pond while we were waiting for the people in our new cabin to move out. We moved our stuff and got settled in, and then headed out into the woods. We tried to find one geocache unsuccessfully, and then went to Rock House. There I found the Blackhand Sandstone Cache. From there, we drove back to the highway to catch the companion caches - Get Half Your Kicks #165W and Get Half Your Kicks #165E. From there, we got some lunch and then went to Cedar Falls, which was absolutely breathtaking. In the spirit of watching the Queer River (no joke, hee!), I got pretty mushy and said a lot of sweet things. By then, The Girl was pretty tired, so we headed back to the cabin, showered, and hit the hot tub. I didn't die this time. We doubleteamed and made a fantastic late dinner (9:30pm or so) - grilled salmon steaks, tomato slices with mozzarella and pesto, and asparagus. I kicked her butt at The Game of Life (I was a millionaire by the end - it /must/ be a game!), and I think we went into the tub again. I drank a bottle of cheap wine. She fell asleep and I read.

This morning we got up and again she greeted me to banana pancakes. I did our laundry (there were a washer and dryer there, yay!) and we cleaned up and checked out. From there, we went to Ash Cave and took more pictures. Then we went to Old Man's Cave. We tried to find The Heine Cache - "It Rocks" (because I wanted to hide Dr. Fritz there), but I think it's gone. Bummer. So we took some pictures of the doc climbing the rocks, and we walked around Old Man's Cave, and then I think I'd totally hiked Jen out, so we headed home. We stopped at Easton on the way back for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and I called my family to do my Easter duty. Now I'm unpacked, and tired, and content... but not at all ready for the work week. But I loved every minute I was away, and I even got good use out of my new camera.

I told Jen that I thought we were wearing Eye Magnets all weekend. People couldn't stop staring at us. We heard a bunch of rude and snarky comments by various people we ran into at the parks, and a barely pubescent Eminem wannabe even yelled "Dyke!" at me at OMC. Oops. :)

Comments

[photodork.livejournal.com]

./me mails your jennifer a cookbook. :)

ps im glad ya'll had fun .
sounds like a good time!

[grrlpower.livejournal.com]

Glad you had a great weekend! Tara and I went running today out in Highbanks and moaned about wanting to go camping, and talked about how you two had an excellent weekend to be outdoors. Glad it went great!!! :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Definitely a good time!

What kind of cookbook?

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

The weather was amazing. It really couldn't have been more perfect. I would totally love to go camping, and backpacking, too. The Girl and I were talking about how we need to get each other in better shape so we can do more outdoors - since she got really sick, she gets tired really easily. :(

[sacharine.livejournal.com]

do you have any info to give me about these places you went to? I'd like to go stay there and explore with my boy sometime. it sounds fantastic.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I would just check www.hockinghills.com. They have info about the state parks, about lodging, everything.

Definitely worth the short trip. It was fantastic! :)

The place we stayed at was at www.hockinghills.com/dewberry, I think.