Halloween

I know it is silly. Here it is, days before Christmas and I’m blogging about Halloween. Oh well, better late than never.

Halloween weekend followed the stressful week that included my first 3-hour glucose test, ultrasound, and testifying in court. I tried to keep the party planning simple, but I love Halloween too much. We held our annual Halloween party on Saturday. Although we had a decent turn-out, it was a smaller crowd than our previous Halloween parties. I made the usual peach Jell-O brain, plus honey caramel apples, pizza burgers (pumpkin-shaped cheese on top), and a creepy face cheese ball. I also put out hot peppers stuffed with mozzarella and prosciutto, topped with a bit of black olive to look like eye balls. I was most proud of the cheese ball. My friends, Bob and Mel, had given me a skull ice mold that I decided would work for shaping the cheese ball. But I lined it first with prosciutto, and added black olive eyes to the finished masterpiece. It looked disgusting!

It rained most of Saturday, but the rain turned to big fluffy snow flakes for a bit in the late afternoon. The snow stuck long enough to make everything pretty.

As the evening approached, it was decided that some people would go to the Pumpkin Walk early, and others would wait until after dark. After hearing the story about one of my friends falling off the path into a creek during a previous year’s pumpkin walk, I decided that with the weather and being pregnant, I should go before dark too. I knew it would be muddy, so I decided to be extra cautious, and I took my hiking poles. At first it seemed silly to take them. But before we even made it to the entrance of the Pumpkin Walk, we were navigating around deep muddy ruts. The staff had put down cardboard on the path where they could, but it was a losing battle. The heavy rains had turned the path into a swamp, with knee-deep water in some places. I was so glad that I had brought my hiking poles! The pumpkins were amazing, and the snow made the Pumpkin Walk magical in the fading light. Unfortunately I didn’t take the camera because I didn’t want to chance getting it wet or muddy.

I had purchased 7 different pumpkins from the farmers market for people to carve at the Halloween party. However, I was not motivated to carve inside the house. I had no problem with other people carving inside; I just didn’t want to do it. But no one else seemed interested either, or else they just didn’t want to be the first to make a mess. So on Sunday, Aaron and I carved pumpkins. Aaron picked the bright orange warty one, and I picked a big flattened one. Gutting them took forever because we carefully separated the seeds into a pan for eating, and tossed the rest of the guts into the composter. The sun was starting to set by the time we each finished one pumpkin. In addition to the 5 other uncarved pumpkins from the farmers market, we had 2 small pumpkins from our garden. I couldn’t convince Aaron to carve a second big pumpkin, but I did persuade him that we should carve our tiny garden pumpkins. I let Aaron take the smallest one. Since I wasn’t sure if we could eat immature pumpkin seeds, we decided the seeds could just go into the composter. So it didn’t take long to gut and carve the mini pumpkins. All four pumpkins looked great lit up at night.

Monday was Halloween. Even though I wasn’t showing too much yet, I wanted to have a costume that showcased my belly. Being a big woman, showing off my belly isn't something I do on a regular basis, so I didn't want to miss my chance. Earlier in the month I picked up an orange t-shirt, a green long sleeve shirt, some felt and fleece squares, and some fabric paint, and turned it all into a no-sew pumpkin patch costume. Samantha was a pumpkin for Halloween! The costume wasn’t all that great, but I’m still proud of it. I was only one of a few people to wear a costume to work on Halloween, so I won one of the prizes during the costume contest. The prize was the little pumpkin I'm holding in my hand. 

After work, we set up speakers in our front windows, and turned up Halloween music for the trick-or-treaters. I think it really helped to attract a few kids that otherwise would have stayed on the other side of the street. We ended up seeing a lot of kids, much more than the previous year. Next year I hope to decorate the yard a few days earlier and add more lights and decorations.

Overall, it was a great Halloween. 

Additional pictures are posted at http://hooppics.shutterfly.com/12319

3rd Trimester

Today starts my third trimester! I almost missed it, but over lunch I spent more time than usual reading about my current week – week 28! And boy, am I already starting to feel it!

Last week my lower back started aching. The kind of ache I associate with my herniated disc, and which usually requires heavy drugs before getting better. Unfortunately I can’t take anything other than Tylenol now, which does nothing for my back pain. The next best thing is to walk a lot. So my initial plan for this past weekend was to find time to walk both days.

Other than my back, I actually had a good ending to last week. I had another ultrasound on Thursday, and managed to get into the breastfeeding class the same day. Although Samantha is still breech and not showing her facial profile, the ultrasound tech asked the doctor to come into the room this time. They discussed the issue, and the doctor decided that the images showed enough of the nose bone. The doctor told me that sometimes there is an issue if the nose bone isn’t visible. So yay, Samantha has a nose, and I won’t have to have a 5^th ultrasound follow-up. I was also told that Samantha looks good and is the correct birth weight and such for my due date.

Saturday we cleaned the house a bit, and then I spent the day going through beads and bead shopping with a friend. I didn’t get a chance to walk, but my back was feeling better and I figured I’d walk extra on Sunday. As my friend and I discussed a baby shower over dinner, I fell back on my usual response that I may still have to go on bed rest soon. But feeling so good after my glucose test and ultrasound, I also said that maybe I’ll go full term and have to work until the very end. I should know better than to say things like that.

At 3:00AM I woke up very sick. I didn’t have a fever, so it wasn’t the flu. I suspected something like food poisoning or a stomach bug. I called the advice nurse, and she told me that my symptoms could be early labor. I would have to go to Labor & Delivery at the hospital if I puked any more. I went back to bed and had a few sips of water every hour when I woke up to go to the bathroom.  By 7AM I was exhausted and dehydrated. Samantha didn’t care. She knew it was breakfast time, and my stomach was extra empty, so she started her morning kicks. Being pregnant means I feel like puking if I get too hungry. So I had no idea whether I could eat anything or not. I ate 3 Saltines and drank a few swallows of water. An hour later it came back up.  “Aaron, wake up, we have to go to the hospital.” This is why I love my husband: he replies, “Well it beats going at 3 o’clock in the morning.”

We got to the hospital and Aaron discovered a third symptom. I had a rash all over my face. I still don’t know how that is connected to my digestive issues, but it can’t be a coincidence.

I spent Sunday morning and afternoon in Labor & Delivery. Just as I suspected, it wasn’t early labor. Samantha was fine, and it was really neat to actually HEAR her kicks on the fetal monitor along with her heartbeat. I wasn’t having any contractions. The doc came in around noon and told me that my labs showed that I was dehydrated. I thought that part was obvious. But I still didn’t feel like I could drink much. And I certainly didn’t want to chance it while being hooked up to a bunch of monitors, stuck in an uncomfortable bed with back pain, and told that if I had to puke, to do it into a tiny kidney shaped bowl. I imagined that I’d fill 3 of kidney bowls in one go, if I was lucky enough to have control and fast reflexes. The image of no control and slow reflexes was even less appealing. Finally they decided to hook me up to an IV for fluids. But they let the nurse who was new at it have a try on me. I’ll spare you the details, but it wasn’t pleasant. Since my arms haven’t even recovered from the glucose test the previous weekend, I am wearing long sleeves today.  I was also given some anti-nausea drugs. Before my IV bag was even finished, the doc was working on my release papers.

The rest of Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful. Aaron made a run to the grocery store for me to get soup, juice, and ginger ale. I kept stuff down but still had to keep up with fluids to avoid dehydration from the back end.  I rested, beaded, and wrote thank you cards. Normally this would sound like a good time. But remember, what I really needed to be doing was walking! The more I sit or lay down, the more my back tightens up.

 That’s what I fear the most about bed rest. Between beading, reading, and TV, I have plenty to keep me occupied if I go on bed rest. But if I can’t take drugs, can’t lay flat on my back, and can’t go walking, there is nothing to help me if my back starts hurting. Before getting pregnant, my back problems were my main concern with pregnancy, and I even cried about it a few times (mostly when I was swallowing Percocet for the pain).

Today I am glad to be back at work. This morning was a bit rough, shuffling through the house to get ready and having to sit down to brush my teeth and wash my face. But just being able to walk through the halls at work has eased my back tension from the past two days quite a bit. And the only lingering signs from my illness are the bruises on my arms and the rash on my face.

So that’s what has been going on with me physically. But mentally, I’ve been keeping an eye my week number. In early November I was looking over the March 2012 Birth Club forums at Baby Center. The featured post is the “Official March 2012 Birth Announcement Thread.” Curious, I clicked it. At the time, there were already 3 posts about babies supposed to be born in March 2012, but they had sad endings. The third post was from a mother who actually delivered at 20 weeks, but the doctors couldn’t do anything for the baby unless it was 25 weeks. Until I read that post, I hadn’t considered what the cut-off was for how early a baby could be born with a chance of success. At the time, I was somewhere between 21-23 weeks. I didn’t celebrate when I made it to 25 weeks, but I’ve been keeping track of how many weeks I’ve made it past. It would still be terrifying to deliver this early, but at least there would be hope.  And I am happy to report that while the Birth Announcement Thread has grown longer over the past month, there are several happy hopefuls, even a few prior to 25 weeks!  

Results

Today was a pretty good day thanks to a bunch of good news. 

My arms look like I’ve been used as a human pincushion (that’s not the good part), because I went for another 3-hour glucose test on Saturday. Surprisingly, the results came back before lunch today, and my sugar is in the normal range.  So I am happy that I don’t have gestational diabetes. I think that might be the last glucose test I have to take during this pregnancy.

The nurse also called this morning with the results of last week’s ultrasound.  The good news is that my placenta is no longer considered low. But still no official word on whether or not I’m allowed to have sex again. I think I’m going with yes. The bad/dumb news is that the tech still couldn’t get one of the measurements: the profile of Samantha’s face. Does anyone know why it is required to get the profile of the face? Because it sounds a little silly to have a fourth ultrasound just for a face profile. I made an appointment anyway since they had an opening on my day off.

Yoga is tonight… and tomorrow!   Someone asked the yoga instructor if she could offer a class later in the evening for parents that can’t make Monday’s class due to the early time. So today it was announced that a new class is starting tomorrow. I am pretty excited about having 2 days of yoga a week. But the best part is that if I get home too late on a Monday (traffic this time of year can be a nightmare), I can still attend the Tuesday class and get at least 1 day of yoga. Woo-hoo!

Okay, the rest isn’t news, but it makes me happy. Aaron put almost all of the Christmas cards in the mail box this morning to mail out. I’ve got 2 more to address tonight and maybe a third if I hear back from my cousin with his address. And then the Christmas cards will be all mailed! I still need to write a bunch of thank-you cards, but I decided those were too hard to write while waiting for my blood draws on Saturday.  

Yesterday Aaron put together a Deluxe Nursery Center Playard. It solves the dilemma of where Samantha is going to sleep initially.  It has a co-sleeper type bassinet that sits on top of the playard, at just the right height for our bed.  The co-sleeper bassinet can be removed, and like most fancy playards, it has a full bassinet feature and a changing table. Eventually I think we’ll try to move Samantha to a crib, but I’m really happy to have found a solution for co-sleeping to start with.  Isn’t it pretty:

Court

I’m a little behind on my blog posts. I still have a few from October to write up and post, as well as a few more recent ones. Here is one from October when I testified in court. It is long and probably boring, but going to court was a significant event for me.  It happened to occur in the week between the 3-hour glucose torture test and the nurses’ freak-out over my blood pressure. October was a hard month.

A year and a half ago, when I was driving home from work, I heard a police siren as I exited an intersection.  The police car was on the other side of the median, going in the opposite direction that I was headed. However, since the median is fairly long, people have to make legal u-turns at that intersection to get to several businesses. On the small chance that the police car would be making a u-turn, I continued to watch in my rearview mirror. After the officer maneuvered around stopped traffic at the red light, the police car appeared in my rear view, almost directly behind me. It was still headed away from me, not making the u-turn. But as I watched, a blue SUV plowed into the side of the police car. There was a huge bang, and dust quickly billowed up around the cars. It took me until the third repeat to realize I was shouting, “Oh my God!” over and over again. As I continued home, I wondered if I should go back to the scene. But there had to be plenty of other witnesses. With rush hour traffic and the way the intersection is set up, I’d be lucky to make it back to the scene, let alone try to get home before it was completely cleared. Initially I thought the driver’s side had been hit, and I didn’t think the police officer could have survived. Although the speed limit is 35mph, people routinely drive 50mph down that road, possibly more if they are trying to beat a red light. Although I hadn’t seen much of the SUV before it hit, I had the distinct impression that it was going fast and didn’t try to stop. I cried a lot that night and prayed continuously that the officer was okay.  I’m not sure when I realized that the mirror reversed the image. I had actually seen the SUV plow in to the passenger side instead of the driver’s side. That gave me some comfort, but I was still worried.

The next day I was still upset by the accident so I called the police station. I told them that I had seen the accident in my rear view mirror, and asked if I should make a statement.  The officer said it might be helpful. The officers at the station didn’t seem very friendly, but I don’t imagine I’d be in a very good mood either, if one of my co-workers was in a serious accident. After I turned in my statement, the officer asked if I would be willing to testify if this should go to court. I said yes, and asked if the officer was okay. I was told that there was only one officer in the police car, and that she was in the hospital, but she would be okay.

After a year I still hadn’t forgotten about the accident, but I was surprised when I received a phone call from a lawyer asking about my statement and whether I’d be willing to testify. The driver of the blue SUV was actually suing the police officer. I said I was still willing to testify, and I received a few follow up phone calls over the next few weeks.

The trial was scheduled 2 days after my full ultrasound. Five days before the trial, I was in the middle of the horrible diet for the 3-hour glucose test, I was still upset with Nurse T. with how she treated me on the phone regarding the glucose test, and I had a regular doctor’s appointment. Of course my blood pressure was high! I told my doctor, “Just let me get though court next week, and I’m sure my blood pressure will come down.” She agreed, but asked me to get my blood pressure checked more often (hence the blood pressure debacle in a previous post). 

I was terrified. The night before, I tried on a few nice outfits. Thank goodness my mom had purchased me a pair of nice black maternity slacks. I’m not sure what I would have worn otherwise. I decided to go with a blue collared blouse and a black blazer. I couldn’t button the blazer, but it looked fine unbuttoned. Mom would have been proud.

Trying to get through security didn’t help my nerves.  I heard, “Make two lines,” so I continued to the further but shorter line. “Empty your pockets,” but all of my stuff was in my small backpack headed into the x-ray machine.  “All electronics must be out of bags and put into a tray,” I heard, as I stepped through the metal detector. Oops. I had left my cell phone in my bookbag. “Whose bag is this?!?” an officer grumbled, while the bag was still in the machine. “Mine, I think, I’m sorry. This one?” I said, as I pulled it off the line.  “I said all electronics must be taken out and put into a tray,” the officer said. “Yes, I’m sorry. It’s my cell phone.” I’m standing there holding the cell phone out for her to inspect, and waiting for her to tell me how to proceed, but she continues to stare at me and doesn’t even glance at the phone. “Is that it?” I ask, not sure if I am asking (1) if my cell phone is the offending object, (2) if that is the only electronics she needs to see, or (3) if I can go now. She just replies, “Yes.” Hoping her “yes” and lack of direction means I can go, I walk away.  Man, all of the TSA agents I’ve ever dealt with were friendlier, even when I forgot to remove my belt.

I found the courtroom easily enough, but the door was closed and the hallway empty. I was at least 20 minutes early, but I didn’t know when court officially started and whether I was supposed to just walk in. So I went to the restroom, and then went back down to the main lobby to ask at the desk. The lady was used to giving directions to a particular courtroom, so there was initial confusion when I tried to ask what I should do. “Yes, just walk in and sit down. When they ask for witnesses, stand up.” She still insisted on giving me directions to the courtroom.

Now there were a few people sitting outside of the courtroom. I walked in, apparently a few steps behind the bailiff. Otherwise the courtroom was empty. I sat down and the bailiff continued up to the front and took his seat. The people waiting in the hallway came in and sat down. One of them went up to the front and asked the bailiff a question. I couldn’t hear most of the conversation, but I did hear the bailiff tell the guy that witnesses had to leave the courtroom. I wondered if I’d know when I would need to leave. Luckily a lawyer type walked in, surveying the people. I half smiled, hoping it was the lawyer I had spoke with on the phone. “Are you here for the <police officer’s> case?” she asked me. “Yes, I’m Rebecca Hoop.” She introduced herself as the lawyer. Whew! I followed out to the consultation area, and met the police officer being sued. She explained that she was still recovering, and had just recently returned to work doing light duty. We sat down and went over my statement, and the lawyer asked me a few questions. Another witness showed up, and I got to listen to his story as well. The lawyer representing the SUV driver stopped by, and had brought pictures mounted on a display board.  After he left, our lawyer told us that the other lawyer didn’t believe his side had much of a case, based on something he was going to ask the judge to decide first. 

Interestingly, our court did not have an assigned judge. After some time, a judge finally appeared and told the court that they had lost 3 judges to a higher court the previous week. That meant that the remaining judges had to fill-in at our court when they could. He looked over the cases. In addition to our case, there was one case of a woman suing a lawyer. The woman did not have her own lawyer. The judge was bewildered. He strongly advised her that she should get a lawyer, because the rules of evidence would apply. Then the judge left and said that he or another judge would be back soon.

We sat in the courtroom for a while, and I chatted with the other witness. A different judge came in and reviewed the cases. He asked the lawyers on our case how long it would take. The lawyer for the officer said she had 2 witnesses present, but 4 had been subpoenaed, and she gave the judge an estimate of 30 minutes. A woman fidgeted in front of us with a subpoena in her hand, and she turned out to be a third witness. Then the judge looked at the other case. He too was concerned that the woman did not have a lawyer, and explained that he would not be able to help her if she didn’t know the rules of evidence. The judge gave a baseball analogy, saying he was the umpire. The woman still wanted to proceed. The judge asked if there was anything he could say to her to convince her to get a lawyer. She said no, because she couldn’t afford a lawyer since the defendant had pushed the case to this higher court. Instead she said she would rely on God.

The judge decided that the other case wouldn’t take very long, so he decided to hear it first. From what I could understand, the woman’s son was in jail, and she hired the defendant to represent her son. She gave him two payments that totaled about $12,000. But according to her, the lawyer never did anything. After several months, he withdrew from the case and would not return the woman’s money. During her explanation, the lawyer objected several times and the judge sustained. She asked the judge if he would like to see the evidence, and he replied, “No, I don’t want to see the evidence.” There was a long, tense pause, and then the judge made a reference to his baseball analogy. The lawyer said some stuff to the judge that I really couldn’t understand, and then the judge seemed to make a ruling, although I didn’t follow it either. The woman and her family left the courtroom.

The judge then called our case. He asked that the witnesses wait in the hallway and not discuss the case with anyone. The bailiff escorted us to the hall, and when we got there, the woman and her family were still standing there.  She turned to the bailiff and asked what had happened. He told her, “You lost your case.”

We stood around for 30-45 minutes. The mother of the suv driver came out and tried to talk to the third witness, so the witness told her not to talk to her, and started reading her bible. I chatted with the second witness about non court stuff, and it helped relax me a bit. I was the last witness called in. I wish I would have thought to ask what exactly I’d need to do. I had to ask the bailiff to clarify where I was supposed to go. Everyone was staring at me and I had no idea if I was supposed to say anything yet. I was sworn in, and then asked to say my name and address. I was so nervous that I was afraid I’d say the wrong thing. So I just went slowly and tried to think about what I was saying.  I think I got it right. Then I was asked to stand beside the display board and use the pictures to show where I was during the crash. I looked at the pictures and froze. I had already seen the pictures, and was sure I knew where I had been. But I started to doubt myself. Was that building the gas station? It didn’t look like the gas station. I took too long and someone prompted me to start talking without the pictures. The lawyer noticed I was shaking, and asked if it was because I was nervous or because the accident was so traumatic. I said it was both. And I told them that initially I had thought that driver’s side had been impacted, and I didn’t think the officer could have survived.  The important part of my testimony was that the officer had the sirens on as she approached the intersection.  Later the lawyer said that I did fine, and it was good to show the judge that the crash upset me.

As I left the courtroom, the officer was called to the stand. The bailiff allowed us back in the courtroom as the judge made his remarks and ruling. The judge said it was clear that there was nothing that the officer could have done differently. He said that although the plaintiff had testified he had been going 35, the pictures of the police car showed otherwise. So the judge ruled in favor of the officer.

In the hallway, the police officer thanked us and gave us each a hug. I found out that the police officer had seen the third witness’ face in her dreams over the past year and half, and it turned out it was because the officer’s car ended up head to head with the witness’ car. The second witness remembered looking up at the traffic lights as soon as the crash occurred and seeing them all red. So the SUV driver was probably trying to beat a red light. According to the other witnesses, the SUV’s radio was blaring and the driver was having an animated conversation with the passenger - his girlfriend. The judge had also noted in his remarks that he thought it was strange that the plaintiff didn’t have any witnesses, not even the girlfriend. After the accident, the SUV driver was walking around just fine after the accident while the police officer was taken to the hospital. And yet he was suing her for chiropractic bills for his knee.

I was so glad the police officer won. It makes me mad the way most people around here completely ignore emergency vehicles.  I wish people would realize that someday they could be the ones waiting for that emergency vehicle to arrive.

 So while pregnant, I testified in court. Not something I do every day. Despite the emotional rollercoaster, I’m proud to have done my civic duty.

It's a...

GIRL!!!

On the day before Thanksgiving, my mom took me to get a 3D ultrasound. Samantha Mary Hoop takes after me, in that she does not like to cooperate for doctors. I wish she would have gotten the memo that the 3D ultrasound was not performed by doctors and is purely for fun.  But Samantha chose to remain curled up in a ball, with her hands and feet around her head. Although this prevented us from seeing her face most of the time, we were finally able to determine gender.

The funny thing is that she should have been active. She likes to kick me when I’ve eaten and when I have to pee. And drinking a sweet drink is supposed to make her active as well. I had a snack and sweet drink before the ultrasound, and I even had to pee, but she did not want to move.

We had a full house for the ultrasound – 12 people, including me! I think that everyone had a good time, despite Samantha’s stubbornness. The techs tried their best, and let my session run over time, since they knew I wouldn’t be able to come back within 2 weeks.

I’m just glad we got a few pictures and found out the gender. Since Samantha hasn’t cooperated at any of my doctor’s appointments, I really thought we’d end up with a butt shot and no gender determination! 

In fact, the day before the 3D ultrasound, I had my second regular ultrasound. The tech still didn’t get the needed measurements. I came home from our Thanksgiving vacation to find two messages from my doctor’s office. When I called back, I was told that I had to make another ultrasound appointment. Good times.

Although it isn’t very clear, I think this is my favorite of the 3D pics. It looks like Samantha has both hands (or feet?) up to her mouth. 

More 3D ultrasound pics at http://hooppics.shutterfly.com/12377.

Greenbrier

Over Columbus Day weekend, we decided to go camping one last time with Sue before the baby arrives. I was really looking forward to this trip. I was starting to feel less morning sickness so I could wear some of my camping t-shirts and enjoy some of the meals. I picked Greenbrier state park, located between Frederick and Hagerstown in Maryland. Just far enough away without having to worry about being in the middle of nowhere. I called the park ahead of time to ask about cell phone coverage and night time emergencies. They said that cell phones usually worked throughout the park, and that campers were given the code to the gates. It turned out that the gate to the campground was closed at all times – only campers and staff were allowed back in the camping loops. The main gate had the same code as the camping area and was closed at night. 

The campground had 4 camping loops. Cedar and Dogwood loops allowed pets and only Cedar loop had electric hook-ups. After waking up to a woman scolding her dog in our campsite the last time we went camping, I was willing to give up electricity for not having pets. The Birch loop was crowded when I booked, and it has an amphitheater located in the center of the loop. I guessed correctly that there would be some groups using the amphitheater that weekend, and decided it would be best to avoid that loop. The Ash loop was mostly handicapped sites that had tall fire rings and extra long picnic tables. Since most of the loop appeared to be handicapped sites, I didn’t feel guilty about booking one. The only sites that were close to the bathroom were also near the loop entrance. The nice thing about the online reservation system for Greenbrier was that it had pictures of all the sites, listed whether the site was level or not, and listed the approximate distance to the restrooms. I did the best I could and booked site 4. Without seeing the whole loop in person beforehand, I’d say I did pretty well.  It turned out that the whole loop was on a hill. Although most of the sites were leveled, the walk to the bathroom was only level for the 4 sites closest to the bathroom, and one of those was the camp host site. Our site was just below the camp host, so we had a slight incline. The site across from the camp host that I decided against had no privacy because it was surrounded on three sides by roads and thin trees. Since the reservation system didn’t show the walkway on the other side of the bathroom, I wasn’t sure what other sites would be considered close. It tuned out that the walkway on the other side of the loop encroached on one of sites, and the last site without an incline to the restroom was smaller than the rest.  

The handicapped picnic table was awesome.  We could fit a lot on equipment and food on the ends, and still have enough room to sit and eat. However the handicapped fire pit turned out to be not so great. The tall sides meant that heat was being radiated more upward instead of out at us. This coupled with the bad firewood made our first evening uncomfortable. 

The worst part of the weekend was the firewood on Friday night. Due to the emerald ash-borer infestations, firewood is not supposed to be transported across county lines. Greenbrier asks that firewood not be brought in at all. So when we checked-in, I purchased 6 bags for $33. Although the bags were smaller and more expensive than at other parks, I didn’t worry about it. After Sue arrived and we set up camp, it was time to light a fire. We opened a bag of firewood to find only wet bark planks. Sue eventually ripped open all 6 bags that night trying to find some decent dry pieces, but had no luck. Apparently whoever sold the wood to the park kept the good center pieces for himself or to sell to the rich neighbors, and sold all of the outer bark planks to the park. And since the park stored the wood in a shed, the jerk must have kept the bark planks out in the rain and sold them soaking wet to the park.  

The fire starters that I had brought must have picked up moisture in the garage during storage, because they felt damp and didn’t want to work very well either.  Leaving Aaron to keep an eye on the smoldering mess, Sue and I left the park and headed back toward the highway. We stopped at a small market, but they didn’t sell firewood and had no idea where to buy any. After driving around the gas stations with no luck, we headed back to the park. We tried to get a fire going all night without much luck. Instead the planks just smoldered. Even when we thought we had enough coals to cook with, we ended up eating lukewarm bratwursts. We even skipped bothering with s’mores. Sadly Friday night was the coldest of the weekend, and the fire wasn’t enough to keep warm.  We went to bed early.

Saturday morning Sue attempted to get another fire going. Since Sue had laid out the firewood around the ring, it was slightly drier than the night before, but the resulting fire still wasn’t enough to cook with. The camp host stopped by and we asked him where to get firewood. At first the camp host suggested that we take our remaining firewood back to the office and trade it in. I knew that all of our bags had been cut open, but I looked over to see how much wood we had left. My jaw dropped. We had 2-3 pieces left that had not been smoldered away. Thirty-three dollars worth of firewood smoldered away in a few hours with no output. Reluctantly the camp host gave us instructions to a grocery store. As soon as we finished our cold breakfast, Sue and I headed out. Luckily I took Aaron’s phone because the camp host left out a crucial step in the directions. When we finally pulled into the grocery store, there was a welcoming site: a huge display of bug-free kiln-dried firewood. The bags were huge and cost the same as the small park bags. Next to the firewood were boxes of “Enviro-logs.” These were supposed to be eco-friendly recycled pressed cardboard logs that burned hotter and longer than regular wood and produced high flames. They were also supposed to be safe for cooking, unlike similar log products. Of course a box of six logs was expensive at $18. But we figured we would only use one or two enviro-logs in each fire along with the regular logs.  Since it was October, we made an impulse buy of a giant Halloween spider. He looked great perched on top of Sue’s orange tent all weekend, and the other campers got a laugh when they walked by.

Saturday afternoon we headed to the nature center to hear a talk on black bears. During the bear talk, the naturalist said that a huge male black bear had been spotted on the Appalachian trial nearby, which put the park in its territory. So I worried all weekend that we would have a bear visitor, because campers kept doing their dishes at the water pump next to our site. That was another small annoyance. Other than forbidding people to do their dishes in the bathroom, there was no other guidance and nowhere to dump dirty wash water. Some campers sat at the water pump and let it run while washing their dishes and leaving food and soap wherever it fell and ran down the road. Other campers came to the pump and filled a bucket, but then set up at the empty site across from us to wash. They dumped the dirty water in the grass there when they were finished. Luckily the bears stayed away, even on Sunday night when the camp area was mostly deserted.

With the enviro-logs and kiln-dry firewood, we were in business. In fact, our campfire was so hot on Saturday night, we had to douse the embers with water before going to bed. Despite our efforts, the coals were still hot the next morning! Sunday morning’s fire meant bacon for breakfast!

Now that we had a fire, we had to carefully plan our day so as not to be stuck tending a fire when we wanted to do something else. At some point Sue and I ran to the store to get more firewood and enviro-logs, leaving Aaron to tend the fire again. Eventually we let the fire die out that afternoon, grabbed our hiking poles, and found a trail. The hike wasn’t great. Maryland parks are a little stingy with their maps. I had to pay $3.00 for the hiking trail map. I assumed that meant the trail guide was accurate. I mapped out a loop from several intersecting trails that would allow us a gradual ascent with a slightly steeper descent. Unfortunately the map was not accurate and we started from the wrong trailhead. When we got to the first intersection, I had a hard time seeing the error. Luckily Sue kept suggesting we had started at the other trailhead, and eventually I put all the pieces together and realized she was correct. So we had hiked the hard part I had wanted to avoid. No matter, we could still continue the hike and loop around. We started up the yellow trail that seemed to degrade into an empty, rocky, creek bed. But we were still following the yellow blazes, so we continued onward. Sue warned us to watch for snakes sunning themselves on the rocks. Before long, we came to a stop. A sign was posted in the middle of the trail saying that the remainder of the trail was closed for habitat restoration. I was not amused. If you’re going to charge me $3 for a crappy trail map, I think you should tell me which trails are closed. Or if you are too lazy to open your mouth, at least have a sign posted at the office. So we turned around, and took the other section of the trail that we had intended to start from. All the while back, I thought about how dangerous it could have been to leave the trail unmarked as closed. What if it was closed near the end of the loop and I had an emergency and didn’t have enough time or energy to hike all the way back the way we came? I like a little adventure, but now that I’m pregnant, I am becoming more aware of dangerous scenarios. Of course, we made it back fine. The trail ended to the right of the RV dump station. The map showed that it should have started to the left of the dump station. I didn’t see any sign post indicating the trailhead, and looking back at the tree line we couldn’t see the trail at all.

Since our hike was cut short, we wandered down to the beach. Although a RC battleship boat race was scheduled for the weekend, it looked like we had missed the whole thing. We took the trail back to the campsite and watched many of our neighbors pack up camp.

I had a lot of weird and vivid dreams that weekend. I even had a nightmare that woke me up for a bathroom break in the middle of the night. I remember walking to and from the bathroom in the dark, scared that something was going to get me. Unfortunately, that weekend was when I started to make 2 bathroom trips per night instead of just one. But the skies were beautifully clear at night. So when I wasn’t scared that something was going to get me, I actually didn’t mind the trips, and enjoyed looking up at the stars as I walked.

Despite the wet firewood, the worry of bears or nightmares, and the closed hiking trail, we actually had a great time. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the plague of stinkbugs when the weather warmed up. But everything else was great – the company, the food, and the weather.  We relaxed a lot and I took a ridiculous amount of pictures just of the fire…

Additional camping pictures can be found here: http://hooppics.shutterfly.com/12279 

And additional campfire pictures can be found here: http://hooppics.shutterfly.com/12170