I think I can! (But I can’t.)

Today was coooold to start. The thermometer in the van said 7 degrees F as we drove to LRC. It was almost painful to warm up at first, but the sun felt great and the entire boulder area was basically ours, so we were psyched to get on some friction-dependent problems (that weren’t covered in snow).

Pictures with words

Click on a photo below to make it bigger, then use the left/right arrow keys to move through the gallery. (Esc will close it.) Or just skim over the thumbnails, but you’ll miss out on parts of the captions…

Hiking into Dayton, TN. The river was an interesting mixture of water, slush, and ice.

I’m not quite sure what caused these cloud bands…

Riverdance (v9) and Capoiera (v10).

Since I’m so short, it’s really easy for me to look at the ground.

Rest day? Nah. Drexel and I were humbled by the stout overhangs at T.B.A. but it was good to get moving.

Welp… I couldn’t do anything harder than Beginner. Drexel could do a couple Intermediates, but all in all, we got our butts kicked. Cried a lot. I asked a girl who works there and she said that EVERYONE gets their butts kicked, even locals, but maybe she was just trying to be nice.

Technology!!!

Almost everything was closed because of the snow. We managed to sneak into a noodle shop ten minutes before they closed. Bowls of thai curry soup were ONLY $1!!!!

I call her, Matilda. She’s my one-of-a-kind masterpiece. I made her in the Whole Foods parking lot using our plastic camping shovel. In the middle of the night, she pulled herself up off the ground, crawled her way to our van, and watched us sleep.

Matilda called on her little animal friends to watch over us too.

SURPRISE! It’s snowing!

“Know that everything is in perfect order whether you understand it or not.” -Valery Satterwhite

…backwards on a pig.

I am absolutely enamored with the people and animals of Fletcher, NC. Jesse (and Jen) are the best hosts a girl could ask for. It was Drexel’s first visit to the farm, so he got a full tour of the lake, gardens, and chicken + rabbit hutches. Although I was raised vegetarian, I am supportive of people who have the courage and means to humanely raise and kill their own meat.

Hmm, which one shall we eat for dinner tonight?

When Jesse wasn’t looking, I snunk one of the baby bunnies out and brought it up into the house. And thus began the game of devising as many cute uses of a baby bunny as possible. We put it in pockets, in socks, pretended it was a christmas stocking stuffer, cuddled it, squished it, hopped with it….

Bunny scarves are so “in” right now.

Ebb and Flow

A blog post is long overdue. After basically a month at Rocktown, we had to make a quick weekend jaunt back home to put the final touches on some car paperwork. Spending time with Drexel’s family and eating a delicious meal is icing on the cake!

Our sun-soaked camping spot at Rocktown is 100x better than a Whole Foods parking lot.

My day, Your day

Two days ago was “my day.” It was an experiment of sorts, and so far it’s been doing wonders for our relationship. 🙂 On “my day” I got to make all the big decisions and decide where we would climb. Drexel was the perfectly supportive side kick as I tried some new hard projects at LRC. It was humbling and exciting to try things at my limit.

Carousel #2!

This morning I woke up without any thought of finding a carousel. Instead, the carousel found me. And this one wasn’t even on the map!

I bless the rains down in AAAAAAAFRICA

While you’re reading this post, why not listen to some quality music in the background? When is the last time you grooved to Toto?

Yesterday was wonderful, stupendous, terrific, absolutely FANTASTIC! After two rest days, our skin and spirits were renewed. The sun was out, I had a bag of chocolate covered espresso beans, and ♥Olivia♥ drove down with Ryan and some other friends to spend the day climbing at LRC.

Name change

We might have to change our blog name to “Cross Country Carouselers.”

My new goal is to ride every single carousel we come across. And of course, Drexel is super ecstatic to help me realize my dreams.

Invisible Ethics of Climbing

We’ve probably all done these at one time or another. I know I’m definitely guilty of at least half of these. I’m not trying to lecture. And… it’s important to be aware of how we act as climbers, as human beings, and try to follow these often unmentioned ethics of climbing.