Hiking Adventure: Monday

I didn't give any mention to our Park Ranger/Host for the week. Mr. Larry Wayne Johnson. We weren't totally sure what to call him because his emails, prior to the start of the trip, seemed to be from both Larry and L. Wayne. I think we may have waivered a bit over the first two. I'm not sure when Kristen and I just started calling him Larry Wayne, but we did (and were the only ones). Larry Wayne was hilarious! He had a southern drawl, but talked super fast. There were a lot of "So, uh, so uh," phrases as his mouth tried to keep up with his mind. He was great. Any time you asked a question, he always had a humorous story to go with his answer. It didn't take long for Kristen and I to develop our asexual crushes on him.

We had all signed up for various meal preparation/meal cleanup, so unless you were responsible for a meal, meal times were the one times when you could just relax. For lunch, we packed PB&J sandwiches and had various chips and fruit to take along. Work day one involved the introduction of lopping into Kristen and I's lives. Basically, we hiked a trail and cut down all the overgrowth along the way. I enjoy lopping! We quickly established our place in the back as "clean up crew" with Brian and Ron. Kristen had her first experience with peeing in the woods today (I was able to hold out for a few more days). We also quickly decided that picker bushes piss us out, too.

By the end of our day of hiking, Kristen admitted that she really did need new hiking boots. So we decided to run to Bowling Green (about a 30 minute drive) to look for some boots for her. Ron asked us to pick up some beer, too, because we were in a dry county. This ended up being the first of three trips to B.G. Kristen found some great boots on sale for $30. We decided, when picking up beer for Ron, to get a 6-pack for us, too. We thought it would be nice to have a beer after dinner each night. When we returned, a few hours later, we noticed there were some new additions. "The boys" as they quickly ended up being called, were four guys from the National Park Service's Southeast Exotic Plant Management Team. There was miscommunication and we all got booked at Maple Springs for the week. We were excited to have people our own age with whom we could hang out. They had brought their corn hole game (where you throw the bags into the board with the holes), so that become a nightly activity over a few beers. Kristen and I ended up finishing our whole six pack the first night, along with a few of Ron's beers. We ended up staying up much later than we'd planned, and Kristen had a few of the boys' beers (PBR) which led to a really rough Tuesday for her.