Appalachian Trail

On Independence Day, Linus and I went looking for some mountains. The Appalachian Trail is about an hour west of us. I'd like to hike the whole thing someday, but Linus now seems to only have the patience to hike about one mile on my shoulders.

I tried to show him how to use walking sticks to encourage him to hike on his own feet. Unfortunately, he had more fun using really long hiking sticks from upon my shoulders.


After a while he discovered that the trail was marked with white blazes and then made a great navigator. After that he claimed to not get lost but said that mom was lost because she couldn't see the painted trees from home.


We finally made it to the end of the park (1.5 miles with 500 feet of climb).


He was then ready to go home so that he could say, "Hi mama, I'm home." At first he wanted me to get the car, but after a couple crackers he consented to walk down with me -- again, mostly on my shoulders. After a long nap in the car, he told his mother all about the Mountain he climbed.

Suggested Summer Reading List

This is a great book and should be read in the summer. The hot muggy Petersburg weather seems to be a major antagonist in the story and the book is best understood when you can empathize with Raskolnikov. So turn off the A/C, clime up to the attic and get a taste of the agony that can be avoided by not axing old ladies.


If I had the time, I'd read this every summer. I cannot write a comment that would do this book justice, so I'll just say read it. This is one book where the movie actually comes close to capturing the story, but it leaves to much out.


I read this on a summer day shortly after I got out of school. Are you a pig, a horse, or a sheep? Four legs good; two legs bad! Four legs good; two legs bad!


This summer I plan to read (finish) Huck Finn. I got through about half of it during six sigma training at work, but the instructor caught some of the others reading emails during the class and made us turn the computers off. At least I got something out of the first half of the week.