Todays title does have something to do with the latest adventures though. On Thursday, I emailed Chad and Andrew to see if they wanted to hang out. Andrew was out of town for the weekend in Chicago for work, and Chad texted me saying he had Friday off. So I met Chad at the Old Rag parking lot a little before noon. Maddog in tow, we hiked up through the woods to a, until recently, never before climbed area on Old Rag. The weather was cool, but nice enough to work up a little sweat on the hike up.
We made it to the wall and took a few minute break to snack and rest. As Chad was setting up the anchor, the weather took a turn for the worst and started raining. We hung out under a big overhang for an hour or so hoping it would blow over, but it became obvious we were going to be able to climb that day. So we packed up, and took most of our stuff back down. Chad left his crash pad since he was going back soon and didn't feel like lugging it back down. It was left out of the rain and hopefully out of reach of the mice which might like to use the foam in the crash pad as nesting material.
We ended up heading to the movie theater to see Act of Valor which was really good. I didn't realize the actors were real Navy Seals before hand, so I was a unfairly critical of their dialogue and banter. Knowing that, they did a great job. Really glad I saw it, and would recommend it.
Chad's girlfriend Liz came up Friday night and on Saturday the three of us went caving. There's a hole in the ground somewhere around Martinsburg, WV that'll take you down a ways under ground. Through some smaller passages and mud covered rocks we made our way through the labyrinth into the depths to the center of the earth... okay, not really, but we did get pretty far down there. As my first caving experience, it was really fun. I'm told it was relatively tame in comparison to what "real cavers" do, but I thought it was awesome. We rappelled down about 40 ft at one point and had to squeeze through some pretty tight spots. Headlamps, rappelling and getting covered in mud. What more can you ask for?
On our way back to Chad's we stopped for lunch at a surprisingly good Caribbean food joint, and peeked in to check out Big Bucks Bingo. Their website is about 100 times classier than the actual place. The blue haze of smoke coming from the doors, where close to 500 extremely out of shape people were all hoping for B-12, or N-7, was as intriguing as a car wreck. You really didn't want to look, but just couldn't help yourself.
On stinkbugs; Chad's house is a refuge for them. And they take advantage of his hospitality. To the point of extreme occupation. Dang stink bugs. So we escaped on Sunday too. We thought about going outside to boulder, but it was really windy and not all that warm, so we figured we'd be more comfortable and get more climbing in at the climbing gym in Warrenton. It recently opened and Chad's been setting routes, so we did a bunch of climbing and finished in the bouldering area. I felt weak and soft skinned, but it was fun and was great exercise.
On the way home I stopped by Karen's house to share weekend stories, let the dogs hang out, and had some light dinner. Another great weekend! Next weekend is already shaping up to be another good one, with the Banff film festival coming into town, Primal mud run training, and a dinner party. And why coffee in the title? Mainly because I was drinking some coffee when I started writing this post...
1 comment:
awesomeness dude.
caving pixs are sweeeetness.
strong work.
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