Next Weekend, All Planned Out.

“Kindled by the dying embers 

Of another working day,

Go upstairs take off your makeup,

Fold your clothes neatly away, 

Me, I’ll set and write this lovesong 

As I all too seldom do,

Build a little fire at midnight

It’s good to be back home with you.” *

Goal, Relaxation

One week from today, actually one week from last Thursday, we will be at Shawnee State Park in southern Ohio. It might be a little premature for a kayaking trip but we can always light a fire, open a bottle of wine and relax. Sometimes it is good to just stop and take a breath. Life can seem like the episode of Star Trek with the tribbles, everything piles up too quickly, and you are buried under small, insignificant tasks. Life can be strange sometimes.

It is a small cabin, which, from the pictures on Instagram and Trip Advisor, is almost exactly like the cabins at Lake Hope. Small, comfortable, and wonderfully adequate for a couple of days of leisure. Ohio Department of Natural Resources really did a great job with these small treasures scattered around the state. When you look at the world from those windows you see the world, our country in a whole new way. The sense of isolation is palpable, just the two of us, in the wealth and glory of Nature’s splendor, and there is less than 100 feet to the next cabin.

Preparation

To make sure we have all the information we need I put the Shawnee State Park in Entune on our Tacoma. I installed Portsmouth, the nearest real town, on the weather app on my phone, and check it often. Thursday is predicted to be 58 with a chance of rain, Friday cloudy and 53, Saturday sunny and 49 and Sunday cloudy and 60 degrees. It has changed several times in the last week. But, any of those days might work for a quick paddle around either lake. Or, they might stay in the back of the truck. We will be prepared though. 

Plus, I know exactly where the Kroger is in Portsmouth. My wife loves Kroger. She says they have the best deals and the most polite employees. She is a coupon clipping machine, and shops the sales with a keen eye for detail. I always check for a Kroger, anywhere we go. If the pictures are any indication the Portsmouth Kroger is much nicer than either the Athens or Nelsonville Kroger. It might even be as nice as the Kroger Marketplace in Gahanna, but I am not holding my breath. 

We will do some hiking, too, on the trails running through the ancient forests, with all of their secrets, and smells, sounds and natural mystery. But we will also walk along the river front and hike through downtown Portsmouth. Every town and city we have walked through had a story to tell, and it was always a good story. A tale of survival, struggling through difficult times, enjoying the wealth and warmth of economic growth. America lives and breathes on those streets, America will walk with you as you walk down those streets.  History at a relaxed stroll.

One of our favorite ways to find out about a place is to try appetizers at small local restaurants, local delicacies, born from legend or need, growing with the times, evolving from simple origins. You are what you eat, and you are definitely what you serve to people who happen in and ask what is good.

Taking a Detour

On the way home we are going to swing by Cincinnati and stop in at Jungle Jim’s (also installed on the navigation app in the pickup). It is a place we have to stop by whenever we can. It can be crowded, the help can be a little testy at times, but the place is spectacular. If it is food, and it isn’t at Jungle Jim’s it probably isn’t really food. They have miles of rows of shelves. We find things we can’t find anywhere else. Plus, it is just fun, wandering the aisles, looking at the selection, and thinking this is a crazy grocery store. It is a destination, we can kill several hours just looking, and we always find something we want.

Sometimes, I think we spend too much time walking through grocery stores. Maybe it is our way of reaching into our long lost past, hunter gatherers, making our way through life, harvesting our food, preparing to meet the challenges of the tumultuous week ahead. Work, alarms clocks, traffic jams, lunch in the break room, coffee in a mug you found in the the cupboard, it might be anybodies, the tension of the potential, “Hey, that is my coffee cup,” ringing through the building, everybody looking. So much tension, so much stress. Preparing for the awful requires dedication and calm. Zen and the art of grocery store browsing. I’m a subscriber.

* Fire at Midnight by Jethro Tull.

Escape from Reality.

In 12 days we are making one of our great escapes, off to Shawnee State Park in Southern Ohio. Small cabins nestled in the woods of southern Ohio. Despite being so close to each other the cabins seem isolated and alone. You can feel like the only people on the planet if you just use your imagination. And, I never feel too alone when I am with my wife. 

The internet is almost non-existent, phone service is spotty and the television is more like a snowy, flashing display, you can make out the shapes and decipher some sounds, but it is more of a challenge than I want. So, even if it is turned on we don’t really pay much attention. In the fall we were in a cabin during football season and it could have been tennis or baseball. So we turned it off and went kayaking. From there we drove over to Midnight at Moonville. Where we walked through the haunted tunnel, finally found the Moonville cemetery, listened to some very talented local musicians and had a good time. 

Afterward, we went back to the cabin, discovered we didn’t have a corkscrew (since then we added one to our “go box”), drank a few beers, grilled some steaks, and relaxed in the comfort of seclusion. After dinner we built a fire in the fire pit.  There is something cathartic in watching a fire roar on a chilly evening, the crack, pop and sizzle as the orange, blue, yellow and white consume the logs. The smell of conversion as wood is transformed into light, heat and smoke. A perfect chemical reaction, nothing wasted, fuel turned to energy, smoke and light, but you can forgive me if I forget the science and enjoy the warmth, the pleasant heat of the fire, the intoxicating touch of my wife’s hand cradled in mine. 

This spring we are going to someplace new. A park with two lakes, hiking trails, and not far from Portsmouth, Ohio. In Portsmouth there is a bakery (Heaven Scent, I think) with donuts are supposed to be almost unbelievably good. I will let you know, in detail. Lake Hope is one of the most beautiful, magic, haunted places I have ever been.  It’s black water captures the sun, the surrounding woods, the hills that climb from it’s shores in stark, clean portraits. It is almost terrible in it’s magnificence. But, we have high hopes for Shawnee State Park, tucked away in the wooded hills just north of Kentucky. Primitive and deep, they hold thousands of years in every foot, every step, every moment. 

And, that is why we are going. The moments. I have always believed life is best lived by the minute. Simple snapshots that define what you hold important. It is easy to forget what makes you happy when you think about an hour, there are too many minutes, too much to process. But in those minutes where everything has stopped, the world is waiting for you and you’re with the person you love it is easy to understand what really matters.