Travels and Vagabonds
Corn
After partying at the Charlotte Oktoberfest, we went to the Cleveland County Fair in Shelby, NC. The fair is 90 years old and in a well-established location. It was a mix of culture and fine deep fried food. Continue reading “Shelby, NC: Cleveland County Fair and Corn Maze”
Alexis and I took off to Brevard for some late summer hiking and camping. We left early on Saturday, and got to the Trout Hatchery pretty quickly. After feeding the aggressive and hungry trout (if only we had more quarters we would have feed them all), we hiked up the Cat Gap trail.
Continue reading “Looking Glass: John’s Rock and Southside of LG”
Wrapping up the Duck
Plans came together while drinking beer and eating pasties at the Greek Festival in Charlotte. With sugar, pulsing through our veins and complete disregard for the forecast for tomorrow, plans were solidified for Alpine-esk departure from Charlotte to go climb Dopey Duck at Shortoff Mountain.
Continue reading “Linville Gorge: Shortoff Mountain – Dopey Duck”
Face Plant – Lilly Grace Von Doombringer
Great weather window and good coordination with friends and parents, I was off and up to the New River Gorge again for Labor Day weekend. With the Jeep, in good working order, after some hot date nights with Alexis at the Junkyard to pull off new parts I left Charlotte for the 3.5 hr drive to the bridge.
Continue reading “Labor Day 2014 – New River (Junkyard, Bridge, Cirque)”
Aaron and Matt invited me out to climbing at Looking Glass Rock for the first time, specifically the north end. The other time I was there was back when I visited Alexis before moving here. We did a quick day hike to the cliff face and I got to experience stinging nettles for the 1st time. This trip I was aiming to be more vertically inclined, rather than horizontal stung.
Excitement was in the air as we made our way up from the south to the hills of western pa. However, after leaving Charlotte Wednesday afternoon, we decided it would not be necessary to make the haul up in one push. So we stayed the night at the ACC campground at the New River.
Again during the fourth of July, I ran away to the New River to climb. Loaded down with camping gear and too many racks, John Lee and I drove up in his robust red Focus aiming to reach the Kaymoor area early Friday morning.
On a nice weekend in June, I got invited to go climb up in the Linville Gorge once again. John Lee let me tag along with him, David Barbor, and new friend Joe. We all piled into David’s car and took off for the Carolina Highlands.
Hollywood Sky
After all the wedding festivities, were complete Alexis and I ran away to the south and down the 1 to experience SoCal. Our first stop was Santa Monica after driving thru Malibu and seeing multiple Bentleys, a dozen Lambos, Multiple Rarri’s, and too many Porsches. In Santa Monica, we checked out the pier and the shops.
Anacapa Island
Now back in Santa Barbara a couple days before the wedding, Steve and I had some tasks to perform while everyone else was getting stuff ready. The main goal was to return the Sprinter Van to Bandago, back down in Hollywood. In the morning, after a couple hours sleep on Jimmy and Lindsey’s floor, we pulled ourselves together enough to make some coffee.