The holiday weekend at Deep Creek Lake, MD was, overall, a pleasant time. It certainly started rather inauspiciously. On Friday, I waited around for this girl to see my apartment, and she never came. Well, she was running late, and I told her we'd try next week. So then I tried to get to Atlantic Avenue to meet Jen so we could take the Long Island Railroad to pick up our rental car in Garden City. It was particularly frustrating missing the train, because I didn't even show the apartment, and that was what I was waiting around for. Anyway, we get there around 1:30, then it takes us forever to find our way back from Long Island. I swear, some weird warp thing happened, because one minute our exit was no where in sight, then after turning around it was right in front of us. The drive was aggravating, to say the least. It moved so slowly, that we were able to read this sign in Brooklyn and decide it was worth taking a picture of:
That's an awful lot to expect people in cars to read on a busy city street. Though I do recall seeing a lot of car repair and bodyshops.So we picked up Jed and Miss Charming Melodee in Park Slope and high-tail it out of there. By this point it was already 4, and I was already fuming from the twenty mile, hour and half trip back from Long Island. If we'd collectively made more money, we wouldn't have had to go all the way out there, but it it saved us almost 200 bucks, so the trip had to be made. So we leave Brooklyn at 4, optimistic that the bad weather and bad luck was behind us.
Unfortunately, the brunt of the bad luck was well ahead of us. It's about 80 miles from Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY to Bethlehem, PA. In between, you have the width of the state of New Jersey. On an average day, you only have to be in NJ for a little over an hour. We got to New Jersey around 5:30, due to traffic and a few bathroom stops. I think we stopped for dinner in Bethlehem around 9:00. From the time I picked up the car around 1:30, to the time Jed took over around 6 or so, I think there was a combined 20 minutes where i got going over 40 mph. Garden State my ass. Although we did resemble potted plants on the highway. During moments where I had to pee, I reall could have gotten out, ran several feet into the woods, peed, and run back out and had no trouble finding the car. I probably could've taken a nice long squat for that matter.
Despite the long drive and stir-craziness, very few of your standard issue car games were played. At one point, I initiated a 20 questions, 'I'm thinking of a person' game, and that proved entertaining for an hour or so. I was extremely stunned and impressed when Jed correctly guessed when I was thinking of Meriwether Lewis.
So we finally rolled into Deep Creek Lake around 3 am. It was foggy, raining, and cold. The area is at a relatively high altitude, which is good because there are very few mosquitos and whatnot during the summer, but bad because it's usually pretty chilly at night, no matter the daytime temperature. Jed's brother and a few of his friends were already there, set up in the other of the two lake houses, and we drank a beer a chatted with them briefly before shuffling off to bed.
Got up early in the morning (well, around 10:30) to find it blissfully to sunny and not too chilly. The forecast had called for rain all week, which weighed heavily on my mind during the 15 hour odyssey that took me from Brooklyn to Long Island to western Maryland. So we spent a lot of the morning firing bb guns. Jed's brother and his friends apparently like to play a lot of kickball, so there was a game of that as well. Hadn't played that since junior high. Also played some horseshoes in the muddy horseshoe pit. A grand game. Then Miss CM and I took a little canoe ride out on to the lake. Nice day for a little paddling.
That sounds weird.
Me, looking weird in the canoe on SundayAnyway, in the evening, barbecuing was done, burgers were eaten, burned hot dogs were peeled, recooked, and devoured, and much drinking was done. A lot of drinking over the weekend. Those kids can drink. But they stay up late and get up early. Oh, to be young again. It's kind of weird that they all went to college together and all live in DC and still hang out. It was a pretty sizeable posse. A large bonfire was built down by the water, and in the evening we all hung out down there while this dude played the guitar. Then again, anything said about the whole weekend could be followed by "...while this dude played the guitar." There was this guy who showed up on Saturday, and from the first moments he was there he was playing the guitar. And almost never stopped. The first time I saw him without the guitar I didn't even recognize him. He was a really nice guy and played a lot of crowd pleasing tunes, but man, it was kind of weird.
On Sunday Jed's parents came for the afternoon and brought a ton of food for dinner. The largest chicken breasts I'd ever seen. Really, the were ginormous. They looked like they came from some Russ Meyer chicken movie. But surprisingly juicy and tasty. We a good part of the afternoon playing cards with Jed's parents, then Miss CM and I went for a little drive around town. In the evening, the rain began, so we sat inside and played cards. There was an attempt to make margaritas, but all agreed that the tequila was a bit off. We were using alcohol found around the houses, and one hint as to the age of the opened bottles was a $6.50 price tag on a bottle of bourbon. Even a litre of cheap bourbon can't be had for anywhere close to that cheap. We had a hankering for frozen drink though, and I kind of wanted a Jack Daniels and coke, so in the end we made frozen jack and cokes. And I must say, it was delicious. It was so good, I couldn't believe we hadn't thought of it before. Especially me liking slushies as much as a I do. It was just like a slushy with Jack Daniels.
I'm sure this drink has already been invented, but I can't find a name for it anywhere. I propose "Jack Frost," "Co-Jack (Kojak)" or "Sissy Drink #7"
So anyway, we spent the rest of the night sitting on the dark porch, listening to it rain. Then guitar guy showed up and some songs were sung. We headed out the next morning. The drive back was surprisingly pleasant. An hour or so after leaving, we ran into Jed's brother on the highway. He had a quite a fondness for the pepperoni rolls they sold at the local market in Maryland, so when I saw him in the next car over, I signaled to him and threw my pepperoni roll, which Jed had recommended, over to the other car. I lamented the loss of the delicious roll, but there was a certain satisfaction in throwing it into a moving car going 50 mph. And then we were home by 8. Only 7 hours, compared to the 11 before. I thought something terrible had happened in New York and we didn't find out about it. The total lack of traffic was a bit disconcerting.
All in all, a fun trip, and just good to get out of the city for a while, see stars, smell the air, walk around in bare feet, chat with friends, watch bats over the water, drink a ton, and shoot bb guns.
Something else notable on the trip was the amount of beef jerky I consumed. Jed and I consumed quite a bit on our trip to South Carolina two months ago, and that road trip trend continued. I ate so much, in fact, that I actually acquired a brand. I didn't realize this until we stopped for gas somewhere and I wanted more beef jerky, but didn't buy any because they didn't have "my brand." I can't recall what it is off the top of my head. But they just came out with a new product called "Steak Chunks" that I'm very curious about. The problem was I only found it in large 6 dollar packs, and you couldn't see inside the bag and I was reluctant to buy something I couldn't even see, especially when it felt like doggie treats. But the deli where I often get lunch has them for 99 cents. Something to look forward to after work I guess.