@hchavers@nolrak Did anyone else actually listen to the whole song?
My God, it’s in my head!!!
Seriously though, @hchavers as someone with an almost debilitating chronic illness, supportive spouses who make sacrifices for us are things we can’t be without. So, thank you.
@hchavers@nolrak Indeed! Unfortunately, mine is on the way to Dubai and I am w/o her support for a week. Times like this I really learn how much she does for my son and me and not only being the family breadwinner and health insurance getter! Indeed A Toast /clink /golfclap
Why do you limit outdoorsiness to camping and hiking? About half the year I spend 8-12 hours a day outdoors in one of my yard swings reading or in my screen room working on art and other projects. Even when the weather is not nice I take my breakfast out on the deck or to the screen room to eat and then spend an hour or two reading or playing games before coming back in.
We are in the middle of visiting all the waterfalls, in Iowa, but also made our way to Harmony, MN, to see the waterfall in a cave. How much more perfect can you get, than an indoor waterfall?
FYI: They didn’t have WiFi in the cave and there was no cellular service.
@DVDBZN A lot of what were considered waterfalls were actually spillways, but we visited all of them. There is a total of 10, in Iowa. I made Facebook posts, for each of them, as we went.
@nolrak If they would have had all that, I would be moving in. They already had power run throughout the cave, so they could have lights, so I’m sure WiFi wouldn’t be too difficult. There wasn’t even cell service outside of the cave, because it was a couple miles outside of the town, on a county road.
@TheCO2
I can’t see the posts because I don’t have a Facebook account, but that does sound fun. I just assumed that Iowa would have far more waterfalls, but now I realize that Iowa is pretty flat compared to Washington, where I’m from.
@DVDBZN The north east part of the state, where most of the actual waterfalls are, isn’t flat at all, but still nothing like Washington. I was telling someone, today, it would be more fun to see all of the waterfalls in Washington and Oregon.
For our next trip, like this, I want to visit a bunch of the bigger caves, in Missouri. They have over 2000 explored caves.
Speaking of Washington and caves, when I was there, we went through the Ape Cave on Mount St. Helens.
I used to take people camping for a living in a number of countries (adventure activities: backpack, canoe, kayak, rock climb, cave, dog sled, cross country ski, sail, work on tall ships…). Many humorous and sometimes potentially dangerous encounters with wildlife:.
1)the moose that pee’d on the tent,
turning the corner and there is a grizzly and her 2 cubs at the stream (we slowly backed away and stayed away for 1/2 hour),
2) the brown bear who sniffed our tents, another one who was running, jumped the tent guyline and went up the tree right next to the tent,
3) the raccoon who tried to make off with a garbage bag of food (dragging it),
4) the porcupine who spent the summer eating the outhouse at the rock climbing site (you’d have to kick the outhouse so he’d get out before you used it),
5) the alligator who bit off the end of my canoe paddle and then went under the canoe and you could feel and hear each raised scale on his spine as it rubbed against the canoe’s keel,
6) the baby gaitors who thought they were submerged except for their eyes and their entire backsides were on the surface
7) the very cool right whale that was surfacing on either side of the schooner (we were drifting with our motor off) while eating krill, another one who surfaced so close to the schooner and then blew out his blow hole that we got a mist of really stinky water on us, seeing them breach
8 ) the baby rabbit that had curled up for the night under the tarp on a student’s sleeping bag…
9) the scrawny wild turkey that crossed our path hissing like a snake with his wings extended
10) the pack of wolverines around our campsite one night (after we were in bed)
11) brief encounters with the lynx at the rock climbing site
12) the panther in florida that was fishing off the stern of one of our canoes early one morning
13) the many dolphins who would swim in front of the schooner while we were sailing
14) the pelican who dove into the water between me and a friend while we were snorkeling in the keys to get a fish (looked like a missile and)
15) the pelican who rode the boat for about a half a day before taking off
16) human animals - a drug drop from a plane also in the keys (at night which was terrifying in case they noticed us - we were tied up to mangos, doused all the lights and sent everyone below and told them to shut up, plane circled several times before and after the drop)
17) The baby reindeer curled up waiting for its mom who was off feeding
18) the seals that would follow us when sea kayaking
19) and many, many more cool things.
The low pay was not one of the cool things which is why I finally went back to school to do something else for a living. Really miss it at times though.
@llangley Those jobs had a really nice side to them (and there were some things that were a giant PITA too like any job but overall it was a wonderful way to earn a living if you didn’t mind being broke all the time).
Something not on the animal list was the all night canoe paddle with the group (working for outward bound in Canada at the time) headed north up Lake Nipigon and the northern light display was fantastic.
It’s funny, because I would have said “low”, but with the descriptions provided, I was easily in the “high” category.
I don’t hunt, fish, rock-climb, backpack, canoe or kayak; and generally speaking prefer a hotel to camping. But I do camp-out once or twice a year, and go hiking in the woods most weekends.
I live on 30 acres of PNW forest that adjoins hundreds of acres of Weyerhaeuser timberland. I hike at least 3 times a week, but don’t do that much actual camping these days (nicer to sleep in my comfy bed and cook in my convenient kitchen).
My wife calls me an “avid indoorsman.” But I do try to take at least a short walk every hour during the day and have been averaging about four miles a day. A little less during this California heat wave, though.
When we were kids we tok camping trips almost every year, and sometimes we’d go to the Colorado River or Lake Mead to go boating and fishing (mostly day trips). We spent 10 days on Mt Rainier (before Mt. St. Helens blew), Wheeler Peak, Fishlake National Forest, Donner Lake, and a lot of others. That all ended when my Dad took a different job… better pay but hella more hours and no way to get a straight 2 weeks off any more.
I still miss it. I put together what I needed to do day trips for fishing around here but work just keeps stomping my schedules. Hopefully when we retire it’ll get easier.
@duodec We did that too as kids. Dad was a minister and if we didn’t leave town he wouldn’t get a vacation at all. We saw so much of the USA as kids. Starting with a station wagon and the 5 of us sleeping in that, then moved on, when there were 6 of us, to a small apache tent top trailer pulled by a van. It was really neat to see things we had only read about and to have actually been to places they talked about in school.
In retrospect, especially with the “you are over the line” slam down a fist on the offending finger, hand…, I am surprised our parents didn’t strap us to the roof or leave us behind at a gas station on occasion. Actually they did once accidentally leave my brother behind once and didn’t realize it until 3/4 of an hour out. When we got back to him he was eating an ice cream cone happy as a clam.
I feel like I am an indoor person, but maybe not. I don’t really enjoy camping but have hiked in several states/countries. Snorkled in Mexico and the Carribean. Swam w dolphins and sharks and lots of other animal related activities.
Just don’t like snakes and insects!! Or extreme heat
I really enjoy the outdoorsy stuff but more in the fall and it isn’t 80-90-100 degrees outside. I look forward to getting out quite a bit this year to hike and enjoy the fall foliage.
@tnhillbillygal With respect to the heat, it takes about 3 weeks to get acclimated to the heat and then it isn’t nearly as bad - but you have to totally stay away from air conditioning for that to work. When I worked in FL taking adjudicated youth canoeing across it, staff from Maine would come down and they’d battle over who would get to sleep in the walk in cooler despite what we’d tell them about acclimating so you didn’t suffer as much.
From age 15 to ~22, I did several backpacking trips a year, mostly in NH (White Mountains), VT (Green Mountains) and NY (Shawangunks and Catskills). There was one bicycle trip from outside Middlebury VT to NYC (used a hammock and tarp, instead of a tent). The most serious of my backpacking was in June 1985, when three friends and I did a two week hike from Aspen to Carbondale, CO; we crossed the Rockies using Trail Rider Pass and climbed Snowmass Mountain. After that, two people returned home and I and another guy did two weeks of car camping on the way to Dead Horse Point, UT and then back to Denver for our flight home.
After I got married in 1986, we did maybe a half dozen more backpacking trips in NH and NY, but life got in the way (and I got fat). I’ve not been on a real backpacking trip since about 1990. After my kids got older, we did some day hikes over the years, but never anything overnight or more than about 6-8 miles, though last year we did get in several decent days hikes.
I’ve been losing weight, trying to get into better shape. Maybe my daughters and I will get back out for some good hiking and camping before too much more time passes.
We camped when the kids were young. My sleeping bag always ended up on a rock. No bathroom, no shower, always watching for snakes. Not my idea of recreation. Especially since I was the one who had to pack everything for everybody and try to cook in a skillet perched on river rock. Ummm … no thanks.
Never knew how beautiful thus place is I’ve traveled this place in the last year and have only missed approximately four states.
Have been shore to shore over a half a dozen times and North to South just as much .
Just leaving Los Angeles, wow, ish I could include pictures.
Best I can do…
There is only ‘indoors’. Or, as I like to call it, ‘the safest part of the universe’.
https://www.teeturtle.com/products/dont-go-outside
I used to. I’m too busy for outdoors stuff. I go to parks with the kid, but that doesn’t really count.
I enjoy outdoor activities. Unfortunately my wife has health problems and I keep her company. (Insert sappy song here)
@hchavers
@hchavers @nolrak Did anyone else actually listen to the whole song?
My God, it’s in my head!!!
Seriously though, @hchavers as someone with an almost debilitating chronic illness, supportive spouses who make sacrifices for us are things we can’t be without. So, thank you.
@hchavers @jelliott04 to the spouses!
@hchavers https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZGNhZWYyNTgtNDkwNi00N2Y4LWJmYjEtYzQzMDMzY2NmZTE1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjU1MTY3NDQ@.V1_UY268_CR43,0,182,268_AL.jpg
@hchavers @nolrak Indeed! Unfortunately, mine is on the way to Dubai and I am w/o her support for a week. Times like this I really learn how much she does for my son and me and not only being the family breadwinner and health insurance getter! Indeed A Toast /clink /golfclap
Why do you limit outdoorsiness to camping and hiking? About half the year I spend 8-12 hours a day outdoors in one of my yard swings reading or in my screen room working on art and other projects. Even when the weather is not nice I take my breakfast out on the deck or to the screen room to eat and then spend an hour or two reading or playing games before coming back in.
@moondrake That looks very nice!
Seconded! What a pleasant space.
I camp occasionally but try to avoid hiking. Don’t know where that fits on the scale.
I garden a bit. I used to camp almost every weekend, but then I realized I hate camping.
Where does mowing the lawn fit into the spectrum?
@rtjhnstn And yes grilling!
There are mosquitos and ticks outside. No thank you.
@rtjhnstn And chiggers. Those can go to hell.
I do my outdoors on a golf course. Fresh air, lots of walking, lots of greenery.
I am fairly sure that I would arrange my life to spend time outdoors, but employment ruins everything.
@InnocuousFarmer employment is the worst
@InnocuousFarmer @nolrak OTOH, employment allows us to buy the stuff here.
@InnocuousFarmer @narfcake like I said …
@InnocuousFarmer Yeah when you have a job you have the money but not the time and when you are unemployed you have the time but not the money. Sucks.
We are in the middle of visiting all the waterfalls, in Iowa, but also made our way to Harmony, MN, to see the waterfall in a cave. How much more perfect can you get, than an indoor waterfall?
FYI: They didn’t have WiFi in the cave and there was no cellular service.
@TheCO2 well, clearly a waterfall in a cave with WiFi and cellular service would be more perfect
@TheCO2
How many waterfalls are there in Iowa? Are you only visiting the big ones, or small ones as well?
@DVDBZN A lot of what were considered waterfalls were actually spillways, but we visited all of them. There is a total of 10, in Iowa. I made Facebook posts, for each of them, as we went.
@nolrak If they would have had all that, I would be moving in. They already had power run throughout the cave, so they could have lights, so I’m sure WiFi wouldn’t be too difficult. There wasn’t even cell service outside of the cave, because it was a couple miles outside of the town, on a county road.
@TheCO2
I can’t see the posts because I don’t have a Facebook account, but that does sound fun. I just assumed that Iowa would have far more waterfalls, but now I realize that Iowa is pretty flat compared to Washington, where I’m from.
@DVDBZN The north east part of the state, where most of the actual waterfalls are, isn’t flat at all, but still nothing like Washington. I was telling someone, today, it would be more fun to see all of the waterfalls in Washington and Oregon.
For our next trip, like this, I want to visit a bunch of the bigger caves, in Missouri. They have over 2000 explored caves.
Speaking of Washington and caves, when I was there, we went through the Ape Cave on Mount St. Helens.
I love in Florida so whatever outdoorsy stuff is usually limited to night or winter.
I used to hang out outside a lot more when I rode horses. I dealt with the heat a lot better then.
My best camping experience was when it was around 50° at night. I haven’t been since then, and that was probably 7+ years ago.
I used to take people camping for a living in a number of countries (adventure activities: backpack, canoe, kayak, rock climb, cave, dog sled, cross country ski, sail, work on tall ships…). Many humorous and sometimes potentially dangerous encounters with wildlife:.
1)the moose that pee’d on the tent,
turning the corner and there is a grizzly and her 2 cubs at the stream (we slowly backed away and stayed away for 1/2 hour),
2) the brown bear who sniffed our tents, another one who was running, jumped the tent guyline and went up the tree right next to the tent,
3) the raccoon who tried to make off with a garbage bag of food (dragging it),
4) the porcupine who spent the summer eating the outhouse at the rock climbing site (you’d have to kick the outhouse so he’d get out before you used it),
5) the alligator who bit off the end of my canoe paddle and then went under the canoe and you could feel and hear each raised scale on his spine as it rubbed against the canoe’s keel,
6) the baby gaitors who thought they were submerged except for their eyes and their entire backsides were on the surface
7) the very cool right whale that was surfacing on either side of the schooner (we were drifting with our motor off) while eating krill, another one who surfaced so close to the schooner and then blew out his blow hole that we got a mist of really stinky water on us, seeing them breach
8 ) the baby rabbit that had curled up for the night under the tarp on a student’s sleeping bag…
9) the scrawny wild turkey that crossed our path hissing like a snake with his wings extended
10) the pack of wolverines around our campsite one night (after we were in bed)
11) brief encounters with the lynx at the rock climbing site
12) the panther in florida that was fishing off the stern of one of our canoes early one morning
13) the many dolphins who would swim in front of the schooner while we were sailing
14) the pelican who dove into the water between me and a friend while we were snorkeling in the keys to get a fish (looked like a missile and)
15) the pelican who rode the boat for about a half a day before taking off
16) human animals - a drug drop from a plane also in the keys (at night which was terrifying in case they noticed us - we were tied up to mangos, doused all the lights and sent everyone below and told them to shut up, plane circled several times before and after the drop)
17) The baby reindeer curled up waiting for its mom who was off feeding
18) the seals that would follow us when sea kayaking
19) and many, many more cool things.
The low pay was not one of the cool things which is why I finally went back to school to do something else for a living. Really miss it at times though.
@Kidsandliz what wonderful memories! Thanks for sharing them with us.
@llangley Those jobs had a really nice side to them (and there were some things that were a giant PITA too like any job but overall it was a wonderful way to earn a living if you didn’t mind being broke all the time).
Something not on the animal list was the all night canoe paddle with the group (working for outward bound in Canada at the time) headed north up Lake Nipigon and the northern light display was fantastic.
It’s funny, because I would have said “low”, but with the descriptions provided, I was easily in the “high” category.
I don’t hunt, fish, rock-climb, backpack, canoe or kayak; and generally speaking prefer a hotel to camping. But I do camp-out once or twice a year, and go hiking in the woods most weekends.
I live on 30 acres of PNW forest that adjoins hundreds of acres of Weyerhaeuser timberland. I hike at least 3 times a week, but don’t do that much actual camping these days (nicer to sleep in my comfy bed and cook in my convenient kitchen).
@macromeh how do you like living there? Sometimes I think about moving to that area.
Hmm, now we know whom to pester about hunting permission… [wild-eyed, drooling, disreputable-looking emoji]
My wife calls me an “avid indoorsman.” But I do try to take at least a short walk every hour during the day and have been averaging about four miles a day. A little less during this California heat wave, though.
When we were kids we tok camping trips almost every year, and sometimes we’d go to the Colorado River or Lake Mead to go boating and fishing (mostly day trips). We spent 10 days on Mt Rainier (before Mt. St. Helens blew), Wheeler Peak, Fishlake National Forest, Donner Lake, and a lot of others. That all ended when my Dad took a different job… better pay but hella more hours and no way to get a straight 2 weeks off any more.
I still miss it. I put together what I needed to do day trips for fishing around here but work just keeps stomping my schedules. Hopefully when we retire it’ll get easier.
@duodec We did that too as kids. Dad was a minister and if we didn’t leave town he wouldn’t get a vacation at all. We saw so much of the USA as kids. Starting with a station wagon and the 5 of us sleeping in that, then moved on, when there were 6 of us, to a small apache tent top trailer pulled by a van. It was really neat to see things we had only read about and to have actually been to places they talked about in school.
In retrospect, especially with the “you are over the line” slam down a fist on the offending finger, hand…, I am surprised our parents didn’t strap us to the roof or leave us behind at a gas station on occasion. Actually they did once accidentally leave my brother behind once and didn’t realize it until 3/4 of an hour out. When we got back to him he was eating an ice cream cone happy as a clam.
Roughing-it means basic cable at the hotel.
I feel like I am an indoor person, but maybe not. I don’t really enjoy camping but have hiked in several states/countries. Snorkled in Mexico and the Carribean. Swam w dolphins and sharks and lots of other animal related activities.
Just don’t like snakes and insects!! Or extreme heat
I really enjoy the outdoorsy stuff but more in the fall and it isn’t 80-90-100 degrees outside. I look forward to getting out quite a bit this year to hike and enjoy the fall foliage.
@tnhillbillygal With respect to the heat, it takes about 3 weeks to get acclimated to the heat and then it isn’t nearly as bad - but you have to totally stay away from air conditioning for that to work. When I worked in FL taking adjudicated youth canoeing across it, staff from Maine would come down and they’d battle over who would get to sleep in the walk in cooler despite what we’d tell them about acclimating so you didn’t suffer as much.
Love me some camping, tenting preferred but anything is good. Autumn camping is best.
From age 15 to ~22, I did several backpacking trips a year, mostly in NH (White Mountains), VT (Green Mountains) and NY (Shawangunks and Catskills). There was one bicycle trip from outside Middlebury VT to NYC (used a hammock and tarp, instead of a tent). The most serious of my backpacking was in June 1985, when three friends and I did a two week hike from Aspen to Carbondale, CO; we crossed the Rockies using Trail Rider Pass and climbed Snowmass Mountain. After that, two people returned home and I and another guy did two weeks of car camping on the way to Dead Horse Point, UT and then back to Denver for our flight home.
After I got married in 1986, we did maybe a half dozen more backpacking trips in NH and NY, but life got in the way (and I got fat). I’ve not been on a real backpacking trip since about 1990. After my kids got older, we did some day hikes over the years, but never anything overnight or more than about 6-8 miles, though last year we did get in several decent days hikes.
I’ve been losing weight, trying to get into better shape. Maybe my daughters and I will get back out for some good hiking and camping before too much more time passes.
We camped when the kids were young. My sleeping bag always ended up on a rock. No bathroom, no shower, always watching for snakes. Not my idea of recreation. Especially since I was the one who had to pack everything for everybody and try to cook in a skillet perched on river rock. Ummm … no thanks.
Camping for me is taking our pop-up tent trailer with electric hookups to power my CPAP and charge phones.
Never knew how beautiful thus place is I’ve traveled this place in the last year and have only missed approximately four states.
Have been shore to shore over a half a dozen times and North to South just as much .
Just leaving Los Angeles, wow, ish I could include pictures.
Best I can do…