Sunghee and I decided to try this on after we dropped of CJ and I wanted to do something outside while it was still nice. We had GPS coordinates for the entrance of the trail, but didn’t see the sign for the trail anywhere so we continued a bit until we got to the “approx. 2 miles� mark from the start of Old Post Road and there we saw a trail with a sign holder (but no sign). “This must be it� we thought and headed off down the trail. Well, the closest we got to the cache was 0.9 miles as we were going down Bald Mountain instead of up it. We did wander past a few nice camping spots though and found a river. Then we somehow managed to lose the trail and get lost. I repeat, we got lost with a GPS. After bushwhacking up hill for about 20 minutes we found the trail again and headed back to the car to try another day.
!/images/37.jpg (4.25.04 Path)!
The “X” in the lower left is where we were trying to go. The red squiggly in the upper right is the path we tried to use.
On the way back to the car we decided to go out for some food. Where to go though? We just came out of the woods from a hour long hike and we didn’t really want to go back home to clean up and change so lots of options were crossed out. Plus it was 8pm on a Sunday night. Not a lot open. Sunghee hates Applebee’s, and we’re both kind of sick of Denny’s. Ponderosa was a option, but when I go a buffet I just grab all the stuff I like so I tend to get sick of those pretty quickly. Example, if you eat the Chicken Fried Chicken at Applebee’s no matter how much you did like it at first, you will start to tire of it. Then you can switch to the Bourbon Street Steak and all is good. But at the buffet everything is right there in front of you and you want to sample a bit of it all so it all becomes one big meal of meatloaf, chicken wings, mac & cheese and vanilla pudding. Anyways, we decided to go to the 99 with half of their menu has garlic something on it which Sunghee approves of.
So we’re at the 99 and the hostess seats us in a room with a “family� in a booth diagonal from us. The “father�, early 30’s, 6’2� or so, athletic build, is sitting with his back to us, the “mother�, early 30’s, 5’3� or so, blonde hair, 150lbs or so, has a chair pulled up to the end of the booth with a baby in a high chair on her left, and the “father� is to the left of the baby on the bench. To the right of the “mother� is a 4-5 year old girl and to her right is a 6-7 year old boy. Sunghee and I were pondering the menu choices when the girl started squealing in a annoyed manner. This got my attention and I lifted my head in time to see the “father� lean across the table and punch the boy in the head so hard that he slammed back into the booth. The “father� start trying to get out of the booth almost pushing the highchair laden baby over in the process. He’s trying to get the boy out of the booth and yelling “I told you not to do that! You always have to ruin dinner don’t you!? Come on, lets go to the bar.� The kid just has this horrified look on his face and is in shock. The “mother� just keeps looking straight ahead and saying “sit down please, sit down� in a very quiet tone. Finally he does and starts apologizing… to the “mother�. “He’s always the one to ruin dinner, you know that.� At this point I found a waitress and requested another table. Kids are kids, I can deal with them fooling around in a restaurant. I don’t like it, but I tolerate it. It’s not going to ruin my night. Watching a grown man punch a 7 year old boy does ruin my dinner, and evening, and probably week for that matter. Thanks a lot Mr. Asshole.