Let Me Tell You About the Smart Asses in my Life, Then I will Tell You About Our Ocracoke Trip.

Most of my readers think they are sooo smart. Start with you Mel. I rejected your comment about me linking to a certain last name so now the whole world knows my last name. You should be a detective, except I'm one step ahead of you. This blog can only be googled with RiverYak. I'm very keen on keeping any form of I.D. from being typed into the body. If you noticed, until a few weeks ago I had a picture of myself on the front page. I don't know what happened to it, but it seems to be gone for some reason. So in short, the little shits at work cannot google my name and find this blog.

I'm not a nine year old girl, so I'm not worried about predators discovering things about me. Those of you that know me should have in mind that I work with criminals. Those are the people I don't want finding this blog and reading it.

OCRACOKE, NC

Way back in August, Mrs. Yak and I took a trip to the Outer Banks island of Ocracoke. The outer banks are a group of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. We drove our little car down there (on 3/4 of a tank of gas) with both of our kayaks strapped to the roof. The trunk was loaded with our tent, sleeping bags, clean clothes, paddles, PFD's, and assorted safety gear that Coasties generally always take to the beach.

This was my first trip to the OBX (slang for Outer Banks, only used by those in the know, like myself and 13 million other people), and I have to say, I was disappointed. The drive down to Ocracoke which lies at the far southern end of the N.C. OBX was no different than any other beach I've been to in the South. Heavily developed, crowded beaches with traffic jammed roadways were the icon of our drive. I've never understood why people drive everyfuckingwhere they go! The beach is no more than two blocks from any place of lodging, yet the roadways were clogged with SUV's and 4x4's going to the beach. Amazing why this country is so fat.

We were supposed to be at our campground before 10:oo PM, but because of all the traffic, we were delayed over an hour. The ferry runs every half hour during the day, then every hour at night until midnight. At 9:30 PM we still had about 60 miles to the campground. That mileage includes a ferry ride from Hatteras to Ocracoke. Just my luck, I got stuck behind some son of a bitch driving 35 MPH in a 55. There was a shoulder in some areas, but he wouldn't pull over. Finally we hit a long straight section of road so I was able to pass him. Not knowing how much farther the ferry was, I drove an undisclosed speed and arrived at the ferry terminal at 9:50.

Mrs. Yak called the campground to let them know we were going to be late. The guy on the phone didn't have any problem with that and told her to set up camp and find him in the morning. Good news since we were imaging the worse and figured we wouldn't have a place to stay that night.

The ferry arrived and we departed on the long ride to Ocracoke in the most narrow channel I have ever seen a boat that size navigate. Most of the buoys weren't lit, so the captain was using a spotlight to find the reflective dayboards that marked his path. Crazy.

I thought the ferry landed in Ocracoke and we were done driving. Nope. It lands on the opposite end of the island that the town lies on. Fifteen more miles to go and the time was now 11:00 PM. We pulled into Teeters Campground pretty late that night. I don't know what time it was. We had no problem locating the owners, they were the two guys sitting in the lit garage of the only house on site drinking Miller Light. It was apparent they had been in the garage drinking Miller for quite some time.

One of them stumbled in front of us as we followed in our car to the site that would be home sweet home for the next 6 days. I need to put here now that the owners of the campsite were awesome. The campground had hot showers that were decently clean and large tent sites. Everytime we saw the owners they were all smiles and friendly.

We set up camp by the headlights from the car and fell fast asleep in our little tent. We purchased the tent for this trip but also with future trips in mind as well. It isn't a large tent because we wanted to keep the weight down so that we could hike with it, but also be comfortable on car trips. We set the tent up in the back yard when it first arrived and lounged in it for the afternoon getting to know the most comfortable angles to adjust it and so forth. At that time it seemed so big and roomy...

The following morning we woke up and stayed in our domicile for a while before climbing out and making breakfast. When we finally did breach the comfort of the tent we found ourselves surrounded by log cabin sized huts that loosely fit the term "tent." I even joked with one of our neighbors that if it gets really nasty out, could we set up our camp inside their tent. Everything we had with us, including the car and kayaks, could have fit inside their tent.

We spent a lot of money on our little home. Even though our tent was much smaller than our neighbors, it cost about the same, and in some cases it cost more. I knew in my heart though there was a reason we paid a premium for our well designed and constructed tent. One thing you can always count on while spending a few days at the beach is a good wind storm. I think it was night three while we were reading books and eating Oreos in luxurious comfort that the neighbors were running around in the wind and rain chasing flailing tent pieces and frantically staking them back down. We would have slept rather well that night, had it not been for the neighbors tent flapping in the wind.

Now the good stuff. We went kayaking! I kayaked once in Alaska in the ocean, but other than that, this was our first taste of salt water blowing over the bow. On our first full day in Ocracoke we stopped in a surf shop that also gives kayak tours. Mrs. Yak started chatting with one of the girls that works in the store, getting all kinds of useful information about the best places to paddle. She even told us about the shops put in and gave us permission to use it and leave our car there for the day. "By the way," our fellow paddler said as we exited the store, "Watch for the ferry when you exit the channel. You don't want to be in the channel when the ferry comes in."

Now that we were in the knowledge of the local paddling grounds we spent the remainder of the day walking around Ocracoke and getting aquainted with the little town. The following day we parked our car at the surf shop and headed towards the channel. As we were putting in a ferry left the channel and one was still loading at the dock. The channel was clear so we made our way out into the open water.

Wind driven swells greeted us just out of the channel. We learned really quickly that stern-to swells will take control of the kayak from you and do whatever in the hell they please with your boat. Out in open water this was tons of fun. Closer to the rocks in the channel, it sucked. But we did enjoy playing in the waves. At one point we found a sand bar. If a wave was caught just right, it would carry the kayak up and over the sand bar without having to paddle or hit bottom. That was about as much entertainment a person could ask for.

Around the point we discovered some creeks that the surf shop employee told us about. I was out in deeper water and Mrs. Yak was closer to shore looking for rays. I was playing in the swells but also keeping an eye out for fish and rays. At one point I looked at the place I had last seen Mrs. Yak, but she wasn't there. Hollering for her was futile over the wind and waves, so I paddled to the place I last saw her. It wasn't until I was almost on top of the shore line that I saw her in a creek. The entrance was completed camouflaged until you were in it.

We paddled the shallow water as far into the creek as we could. Shrimp were jumping from the water into our boats. The banks and most of the bottom were smothered in a layer of Hermit Crabs of all sizes. Some of them were by far the largest Hermits I have ever seen, even of those in aquariums. Their conch's were every size and color making each one a temptation to pluck from the water to survey.

Finally we hit the bottom and had to walk our kayaks out of the creek. Shrimp continued to bombard us during our walk out and Hermit crabs scurried out of the way of our stomping feet. Back in open water we played in the waves some more before pulling onto a beach for lunch.

This area played host to hiking trails. Mrs. Yak and I are not people to pass up a good hike, so we changed shoes and secured the boats from floating away and spent the next few hours hiking. We rested under a giant oak before heading back to our boats and finally calling it a day.

The rest of our trip was pretty definitive of any trip to the beach. We played in the surf, shopped, and ate lots of not very good food. Ocracoke was Blackbeards hideout, and ultimately his last battle ground. Blackbeard lost his head in the area where we had been paddling, which is now called Teach's Hole. Blackbeards name was Edward Teach.

We went to all the Blackbeard memorabilia shops and museums. With all the information posted about Blackbeard and pirates in general, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know. It's a little disappointing when one realizes he knows pretty much all there is to know about a topic. I guess that's me with pirates...I've read too much about them, now there isn't really anything else for me to learn. I got a coffee mug, although I forgot to get a t-shirt. No problem, we'll be back.

On the drive home we stopped at another hiking area on Ocracoke where we saw a Vine snake. Once back in Virginia we stopped at the Dismal Swamp. Sounds cool huh? We are planning a kayaking trip there. Stay tuned for that one.

We didn't take the digital camera, but we bought a waterproof disposable while we were there. Maybe some day I will get those pictures on here so you can see.





Fair winds and following seas...

If blogging was a sin, I'm sure I would be doing it more often...

It's getting so damn hard to keep up with this blog. But I'm persistent and will do whatever it takes to type some black across the vastness of white that fills my screen. Whether it makes sense or not, I don't care. It's a good thing I don't get paid to do this. I'd be broke as shit. Because I don't get paid, though, I can write whatever the hell I want and it won't matter to anybody. Knowing you guys, you'll either read it or not, then come back for the next post. And I love you for it. Seriously.

Since this is a theme blog, I guess I should stick to the theme. Kayaking. Oh yes, those crazy little boats that everybody thinks they would flip over if they ever got in one. I'm a dynamo when it comes to balance on the water and have never flipped a kayak, although I'm sure you would. I'm kidding, seriously.

This brings me to a point that I could write about: Mrs. Yak and her new kayak. They are getting along just fine. Neither has gotten the other too terribly wet, although the two of them put together have been the source of several soakings for me. Seriously.

We haven't had the boats out in a while, but I'm sure we'll go play in the water this weekend. Too bad we're not in Texas right now. I hear there is plenty of kayaking going on down there. My mom called me the other day and left a message asking if she could borrow my kayak because of all the rain. Seriously.

No mom, you can't borrow my kayak, but you did give me an idea for a trip! Speaking of trips, my cousin emailed an idea for a trip that was a little out of the parameters I set forth, but it intrigued me so...I still owe her a sticker. Oops. I haven't forgotten it, I just haven't sent it yet. I'm not going to make any promises because my last name is Johnson and you know how that always plays out, but I'll do my best to get a sticker in the mail this week. If you have no idea what I'm talking about see the side bar for trip contest, or whatever I titled it, I can't remember. Seriously.

That will do for now, but before you shut down your computer and go back to trimming your toe nails, or whatever it was you were doing that is more exciting than reading this blog, check out my brother and sister in law-to-be's new blog: mistyandjonjohnson.blogspot.com. That is as hard to type as it is to say. Seriously.

That's all for now. Be safe, wear your PFD, and remember kids...kayakers do it with paddles.



Fair winds and following seas...




Addendum: What's up with the "seriously"? I wanted to see if I could end every paragraph with the word "seriously". At first, I thought it would be difficult being how I would have to actually think each paragraph through and consider sentence placement. After the second paragraph, though, I realised you can say "seriously" after ANYTHING and it works. All you have to do is change the inflection in your voice to make it fit the tone of the sentence. Seriously, I could have put it at the end of every sentence. Or beginning. I left it in because I wanted to see if anyone would notice it, even though it killed the mood of the post and probably left the reader questioning my aptitude while trying to drink the word "seriously" out of his brain. Dude, seriously...

Here to Finish What I Started.

Mrs. Yak is officially a kayak enthusiast. We added a bright blue (called "Cloud") boat to our fleet on Saturday. This brings our fleet total to...well, two.



We couldn't wait to get the new kayak into the water. So Saturday evening when we returned to Charlottesville with the new boat on top of the car we made a bee line for the reservoir. We splashed our boats and Mrs. Yak was as happy as a duck in a pond. I tried to give her some pointers on paddle technique such as stroke length, how to hold the paddle and use large muscle groups to paddle rather than arms only. She seemed more interested in seeing how fast she could paddle the boat, quickly blowing me off and then started ramming my boat. It didn't take her long to figure out that paddles are very efficient tools for splashing people. I had to beg her not to splash me and explain that the water gets on my glasses and I can't see. Thinking about it now, I can be a real pussy sometimes.



We paddled up the reservoir to my favorite areas for watching wildlife. I've been wanting to take her to this area ever since my first trip here last summer. The animals didn't let me down and were out in abundance. We saw several deer, one that scared the crap out of Mrs. Yak as it ran towards her in a couple of inches of water. Thankfully, it veered off and ran away, saving Mrs. Yaks "When Animals Attack" debut for another time.



The beavers were out milling around collecting twigs that they carried back to their lodge. Turtles weren't in short supply either, basking on logs and swimming to the surface here and there for a sip of fresh air. We even saw a large, dead snapping turtle. Ducks and Geese swam around the islands with their babies crowding their mothers.



We only paddled for an hour or so before heading back to the car. I didn't get a chance to try out the new kayak, but Mrs. Yak seemed to be thrilled with it.



Today I got to try out the new yak. Mrs. Yak was at work so I seized the moment and took her boat to the river. It's easy to paddle but a little small for me. The cockpit is tighter than my boat. I say this because I can't really find anything that my boat is better at. Oh well. More about that next week.




Fair winds and following seas...

No Time To Talk

Hello everybody!

I haven't been keeping up with the blog because there hasn't been any blogworthy stuff going on. Work has been keeping me so completely preoccupied that I have only had the Yak in the water twice this year. The first time I had to wear my dry suit and heavy weather clothing. I couldn't stand to see my kayak hanging in the basement any longer, so I braved the wind and snow and went paddling. The second time was a few days ago, but it was extremely boring so I only stayed out for a few hours.

There is good news for my diligent and good looking readers! Mrs. Yak and I have decided to get another kayak! After expressing my concerns to her about how boring it is to paddle alone, she informed me that she has been wanting to get a boat, but feared she didn't have time to paddle. Pish Posh! We have made time, now we just need a boat.

On Saturday we are hoping to solve that issue. We found a really cool store here in Virginia that stocks over 2500 kayaks and canoes, so hopefully we will be adding another member to our little family this weekend.

In my last post I promised good news would be coming soon. Be patient, my darling readers. Good things come slowly, so you should be hearing something by August 1.

Gotta run for now. It's 5:00 AM and I don't have time to finish this post. See what I mean? Soooo busy....

To be continued...

What's In Store For '07

As you may have noticed (or not) I have not been keeping up with the blog very well. That doesn't mean there hasn't been anything going on. On the contrary, Mrs. Yak and I have been hitting trails and doing some light travelling in the last few months and making plans for the upcoming year. 2007 looks really exciting around the River Yak compound.

The most exciting trip we are planning at the moment is a road trip to Ocracoke Island, the North Carolina area of the Outer Banks where the infamous Blackbeard made his last stand and lost his head. It all started with a trip planned to the island for a few days to get away and go to the beach. Then one day an idea popped into my head while on the phone with Mrs. Yak. "What do you think about camping in Ocracoke rather than getting a hotel room?" I said to her rather hesitantly. To my relief she became very excited about the prospect of camping and we quickly dove head first into figuring out what we would need to make it happen. Before we got off the phone she had found three good campsites and we eagerly agreed on one. We have to wait until the site opens in March before we can make our reservations so we started looking for a tent.

Since we are car camping and not backpacking we are not worried about the weight of the tent, but room. Because we plan on spending about as much time in the tent as we would in a hotel room, we decided a three or four person tent would fit our needs better than a practical two person tent. After we got off the phone I began searching for tents and found "The One." A three person, three season tent called the Mutha Hubba (actual name). Mrs. Yak fell in love with it as quickly as I did and the decision was made.

Next on the agenda is meals. Are we going to eat out or make our meals at the camp site? Being budgetly challenged, we decided to eat out as little as possible. This will require a camp stove, a viable little gadget that we are still searching for. We have some models in mind, and being that cook stoves are comparatively inexpensive (compared to the tent) we have pushed this to the back burner (ha ha, get it?) and will worry about it later on.

Since this is a low budget trip we have decided to get cheap sleeping bags from a box retailer as opposed to expensive bags from an outfitter such as The North Face or Patagonia. From our research into this matter we have found no important differences between a $30 sleeping bag from Target and a $200 sleeping bag from REI. We are camping in the Outer Banks in August, not competing in the Iditorod.

The tent will cost as much as a hotel room, but as you will see in a bit, this is not the only camping trip we are planning this year. Therefor, the cost of the tent will be justified by the time we get to Ocracoke and we can spend the savings over a hotel room on Blackbeard paraphernalia. I can't wait to get a Blackbeard sticker for the kayak!

Before the Ocracoke trip, my wife will be taking an Independent Study class at school which will require us to hike and camp in the backwoods of Shenandoah National Forest. That trip should yield some great photos and stories for you to view here.

The one trip we are taking this year that does not include camping is for my brother's wedding in September. It seems we can't do anything without being in the water or the woods anymore, so we had to come up with something to make our trip to Weatherford worthwhile. Not that seeing my brother get married isn't worthwhile, but Mrs. Yak and I aren't happy with going anywhere unless we can get wet or muddy. There aren't any "real" hiking trails around Weatherford, so we have decided to rent a canoe at Possum Kingdom Lake and paddle around for a day of bird watching and turtle gazing. I mentioned this to my brother to see if he would like to go, but he didn't seem interested. At all. He did, however, express an interest in going to Six Flags to ride roller coasters with us. I guess canoeing on a lake isn't as thrilling as roller coasters.

About a month ago, Mrs. Yak and I set out on the Rivanna River Trail that begins not far from our house. The trail is planned to circumvent Charlottesville, but has yet to be completed. We planned on taking lots of pictures and posting the hike on here, but in usual Riveryak fashion, I forgot the camera. We walked the paved part of the trail that we have walked countless times before, waving and saying hi to people we met and enjoying an unseasonably warm day.

Just before the pavement ended, we encountered a thick bamboo grove. Mrs. Yak could not resist the temptation to go into the bamboo and hide from people as they walked by, just a few yards away. I didn't think we would be able to get into the bamboo, but somehow she found a little path inside there that was just enough for us pass. My backpack kept hanging up on the large stems and they would shake violently as I pathetically tried to free myself. If nobody could see us, the shaking bamboo would surely spark their interest as to what kind of animal was lurking in the dark thicket. We hunkered down as a family with several small children passed slowly by on bicycles. Nobody saw us, but then again, I doubt anybody was looking. A few more people went by unaware we were watching them stealthily from the bamboo. She found a way to get deeper into the bamboo so I followed as she squeezed through the tightly woven stalks. The bamboo would shake and rattle noisily as my pack kept snagging and holding me back. We would have been very covert had it not been for all the bamboo.

The bamboo parted on the river bank and I was able to walk upright and more stealthily, even though we had lost the cover of the bamboo. We found a bench on the river bank and sat there for a little bit with the bamboo behind us and the lazy river in front of us. Small children had now found our new hiding place. One of them was particularly observant as he called out to the others, "Hey! There are some people over here in the bamboo!" We moved around to keep them looking. The others, less observant, never found us as we crept back through the bamboo. Even with my pack shaking the hell out of the bamboo as I tried to squeeze it through, the kids didn't find us.

We emerged from the bamboo back onto the paved portion of the trail listening to the kids inside still trying to find us. "They were right here!" Mr. Observant would holler to his disbelieving friends. We got the best of them. He never should have opened his mouth. Now he looks stupid.

The pavement finally ended as we stepped onto raw trail. There weren't any people on this portion and, had we not known better, would have sworn we were out in the woods somewhere and not within 100 yards of a neighborhood with busy streets. The trail followed the river for a little way then diverted up a steep hill and onto a road. Slightly bewildered by this, we followed little placards that were tagged to light poles with arrows on which road to take. After about twenty minutes we found were the trail left the street and headed back into the woods.

The trail took us down a slight embankment to a small stream. From here the trail split and crossed the stream or kept going in the direction we were headed. We opted to not cross and continued in the direction we knew would eventually take us to one of the busiest roads in Charlottesville.

When Mrs. Yak hikes, she likes to stop and smell all the flowers and turn over all the rocks to see what may be living underneath. Most of the time I don't mind this because she is very good at telling me about the flowers and what their names are. Usually she finds some sort of wildlife living under the rocks, and is always equally impressed by each find, even if it's a colony of ants. But at this moment it was getting dark and neither of us knew how much further we had to go before reaching the road we wanted. And doubling back to where our car was parked was not an option because neither of us likes to see what we have already seen.

I urged her on, trying to be polite and compassionate about her needs to smell the moss on the trees and turn over rocks, even the ones she had to dig up in order to flip. She understood time was running out but her curiosity as to what might lie beneath that rock and that rock got the best of her. When it finally became too dark for her to see under the rocks she let me know that my constant preening about the time was OK and she wouldn't turn over any more.

At one point a nicely built, well planned boardwalk had been constructed over a particularly wet section of the trail. Along this was some more bamboo that Mrs. Yak absolutely had to go into. I tried to wait patiently as she disappeared into the dense bamboo, but the thought of werewolves and anything else evil that could be lurking in there raised the hair on the back of my neck. Hiking in the dark is OK, but the prospect of hiking in the dark next to bamboo that she had disappeared into completely frightened me. If I couldn't see her with her brightly colored clothes, how the hell was I going to see a werewolf in there?

To my relief she emerged from the dark abyss and we continued on the boards until we reached a set of stairs that led up to a road. It wasn't the road we wanted so we continued down the other side and discovered a post with a stash of trail maps. In the dim light we studied the map and figured out where we were and how much further we had to go.

The sun did not wait on us and the trail grew completely dark before we reached our mark. When we finally did, we found that the trail does not lead up to the road. Instead, we had to cross under it before going up. It was pitch black under the bridge and large boulders had been dumped down there to prevent erosion. We stumbled our way through, praying there was not an escaped criminal hiding in the darkness. Because we are generally lucky people, we did not encounter werewolves or escaped convicts. Now the hard part: getting back to our car without getting run over.

We walked the familiar roads of Charlottesville back to the park where we had left our car (passing our house on the way). About halfway back, I remembered the city closes the gates at all the parks at sunset. We trudged on in the ever cooling night hoping to find open gates.

Indeed the gates were open, but once in the park the truly terrifying moment of our hike started. We couldn't see our hands in front of our faces so we cautiously and quietly crept through the parking lot listening with all our might for any little noise that hinted danger. From the trees just beyond our car came an unnaturally loud "CRACK" that sounded like a blunt object striking somebodies head. We stopped and looked at each other holding our breath trying not to make any sounds. Again, "CRACK!" We started walking briskly towards the car. I dug in my pocket for the keys. Before reaching the car, it happened again. I unlocked her door then quickly and as quietly as I could crept around the front of the car to keep from turning my back on the source of the sound. One more time, "CRACK!" I grasped the keys tightly to keep from dropping them. Mrs. Yak unlocked my door as I approached it. I quickly climbed in, locked the door and drove the hell out of there.

A few days later we realized we had a three day weekend when neither of us was doing anything, so we decided to go somewhere for the weekend. I am always looking at boattrader.com and am always seeing boats for sale in a small town on the Chesapeake called Deltaville. A couple of times I have looked up the town to see what it's like and always found neat little things about it. The towns website makes it look like a quaint little Victorian village on the Chesapeake bay. Not long after we decided to go, I received an invitation in the mail from a yacht brokerage in Deltaville to get into a boat show in Richmond for half price. So we decided to go to the boat show, then head down to Deltaville and check it out.

Mrs. Yak found a nice little hotel in town and a hiking trail not too far away. Being that we were going in the winter and the website said the hotel was open year round, we didn't make any phone calls. We planned on getting there then checking into the hotel if we decided to stay.

The boat show had some interesting kayak displays and a sailboat that I have been wanting to see. It was a small show, so we only stayed for about an hour then headed to the Bay. It was dark when we arrived in Deltaville, so we drove around for a little bit and found all the places we would like to visit the following day. Eventually we stumbled upon the hotel we read about on the Internet. We drove down an ill-kept road and turned into the dirt parking lot of the hotel. To our dismay every door was open to the rooms and mattresses sat outside propped against the wall. Hmmm.

Someone was walking around on the second floor balcony where the mattresses were propped. We sat in the parking lot for a little bit then decided to keep driving for a little longer before checking in. We drove past the hotel and found several marina's along with the yacht broker that sent me the half off deal for the show.

It was getting late so we decided to go back to the hotel. The lights were all still on, but we stopped on the side of the road before pulling into the parking lot. Mrs. Yak called the number on the sign to see if they had any rooms. She talked to somebody for a little bit before hanging up and informed me to keep driving. When she asked if any rooms were available, the person on the phone said he would have to check. I guess while she was on hold, Mrs. Yak made the decision for the person and decided they didn't have anything. I would have thought they could have poked their little head out the office and noticed there weren't mattresses on the beds and said no, but evidently it took a little more reckoning then that.

We drove back into town and found a gas station. While Mrs. Yak went inside to find a phone book I took the opportunity to top off the gas tank, just in case. She hadn't come out when I finished so I went inside and asked if they had a restroom. I was directed to the side of the building where a Porta-Potty stood. No problem, I thought to myself, until the door shut and I realized Porta-Potties do not come equipped with the necessary lighting required to see what you are doing. And the latch had been taken off the door. After peeing in what I figured to be the right place, but could have been the floor, I walked out of the potty checking the bottom of my shoes.

Mrs. Yak had found a hotel in Gloucester and acquired directions. After figuring out we were going the wrong direction and two more phone calls to the new hotel, we found our bed for the night and settled in. I grabbed the phone book and dialed a couple of pizza places because we didn't feel like going back out. Nobody delivered to that area of the county. So we loaded back into the car and found a Ruby Tuesdays where we waited outside for about 30 minutes for a table.

The next day we left the hotel early and headed for the hiking trail Mrs. Yak had found in one of our hiking books. The trail was in a state park with lovely facilities that put the gas station Porta-Potty to shame. We hiked to a bird watching blind, but the sun was reflecting brightly off the water, effectively camouflaging all the birds. So we continued on. After taking a short cut that turned out to take us back to where we started, just a little wetter, we hiked out to a point and picnicked with delicious food packed by Mrs. Yak. Another perk to hiking with her, she knows how to pack good food that fits in a backpack.

We got back to the car, feet wet and shoes soaked from our scenic short cut, washed up in the tidy facilities, then headed back to Charlottesville with more memories and large grins. Just no pictures because I forgot the camera...again.

I have been kayaking, but nothing note-worthy. Mrs. Yak wants to hike more and we are looking to get her a kayak. 2007 appears to shaping really well and we both look forward to an exciting year in the outdoors together.



Fair winds and following seas...