This weekend was an exciting one. Went camping out on the AT with a bunch of friends, and since it was gonna rain we decided to stay at a shelter. Ended up staying at the Jim and Molly Denton shelter, AKA the Hikers Hilton. It was pretty nice. Had a shower (not that it would be warm now), a nice spring fed spigot for dishes, and cooking pavillion and a pretty big shelter with a nice bench. Once we got everyone together we left (late as usual) and got to the parking spot around 9:30, I think. We then started drinking. This shot is next to the road at the tiny little parking area we found.

After a nice muddy mile in the dark that took at least 3 times longer than it should have we arrived at the shelter. Set up the tents, got a fire started and the drinking commenced. Here's the shelter with fire and a shot of the girls.

Saturday morning we woke up to rain....and more rain....luckily we knew of a few wineries in the area, so off we went to drink some more (notice a theme?) The first one we went to was Oasis, where they didn't have many wines to taste, but they did have a nice big fire. We got to talking with the owners wife and she gave us all a free champagne tasting too. Pretty sweet deal.

Then we went to Rappahanock winery where they have a lot more wines to taste and to be honest the wine is a lot better. Had some wine, bought a few bottles and off we went to hike back to camp. When we got there we discovered that some people had moved into the shelter (which I think is pretty shady when you see three tents, but thats just me) so our situation changed a little. We hung out in the cooking pavillion and had our own fire there while they did whatever they were doing in the shelter. Drank the new wine, ate some dehydrated dinner, and drank some more. They were probably regretting their decision around midnight, but thats fine with me.

Left on Sunday morning after the obligatory group shot.

Got home, cleaned up, and got ready for the Super Bowl, where my Steelers were once again victorious! Not the most exciting game in the history of the NFL, but there were some sweet plays thrown in there. Randel-El had an awesome TD pass to Hines Ward, and Fast Willy Parker broke for a 79 yard TD. Not too shabby.

Brian fried up a cajun turkey and I made some red beans and rice.

And again...we drank. Not as much this time though, and only beer, so its a little better in my book. A good time was had by all. Crazy weekend, but it was fun.

I guess its been a little while since I posted here. We've been really busy at home...we're going camping out in Shenandoah this weekend and we're having a bunch of people over on Sunday for the game, so its been a lot of cleaning and packing and shopping and craziness. Hopefully I'll have some sweet pics to show for the weekend. We're doing part of the AT near Linden VA and we're gonna stay at the Denton Shelter...AKA the Hikers Hilton. Its a pretty sweet shelter, so even though we're not gonna stay in it we'll still get to reap some of the benefits like a cooking pavillion and a fire ring. Should be a lot of booze and s'mores. Personally I'm stoked.

I just read that some HS chic scored 113 points in a b-ball game. Her team won 137-32. Damn. That would suck to be on the other team. I mean, talk about feeling defeated. It doesn't get much worse than that. Seriously, was that necessary? So what if she broke some stupid record. Is that going to help her lead a productive meaningful life? I suppose if she gets into a good b-ball school and plays in the WNBA it might work out for her financially, but that doesn't mean shes gonna be happy. Some records don't really need to be broken as far as I'm concerned. So what...move on...live life.