The Evil Twins in the Bristolwood!

Yes, "Heat" and "Humidity" have arrived here and are making life nearly unbearable! I took this picture of our pretty and scenic road.....
You can see that the humidity is rising up from the valley floor below. I have bellyached and complained about the evil twins for as long as I can remember, but they just don't seem to "get it"! I know one thing for certain....I am NOT a "summer" person. I do enjoy seeing all the beauty that abounds in the summer, but summer also means hot and sticky and icky, and that is just too much to swallow!!!!

As I meandered down to take the above picture, I did see some "pretties"!

I am sure someone can identify these pretty yellow flowers. They are growing everywhere this year, along with lots of Queen Anne's Lace. I love the contrast between the bright yellow flowers and the dark green leaves. I also have an abundance of jewelweed growing in the streambed. The delicate little flowers are really pretty!

Yesterday at about 5pm, Mark asked what was for dinner. I nearly blew a gasket, so decided perhaps we should take a run to the fast food industry! Before that, however, there was one "thing" we needed to check out. Because Mark suffers from a spinal cord injury, he receives info from our local spinal cord injury association. In the last issue (and I think the first one Mark ever even "perused") there was a blurb about how folks with spinal injuries are allowed on roads/trails on state lands with special permits. So, Mark dug in further, and found out there were lands locally that he could go on. Why, he could even take his ATV there! Wow!

The longest trail happened to be an old railroad bed that had been "derailed". Cool! We hopped into the Explorer, and off to a new adventure....or NOT!

We came to a locked gate. No problem, Mark was given a key. I hopped out and unlocked the gate, but neither love nor money could push that rusted gate OPEN! Ben came out, and with both of us giving all we could, the thing finally budged open. Mark advanced through, and Ben and I spent another five minutes trying to SLAM the gate closed again so I could replace the lock. By this time, I was getting a BIT overheated....I know the literature said that the disabled person needed an able-bodied companion, but there was no mention of that person being the Incredible Hulk!

We began this "explore" down what seemed quite a bumpy road! As we progressed, we realized we were surrounded on either side of the Explorer by green oozy-looking SWAMP water.....ewwwwww!!! As the cattails increased at our sides, so did the gross liquid beside us seem to "thicken". The path we were on seemed about maybe 6 feet wide and suddenly, Mark stopped the vehicle. As Michelle and I looked at the unseemly swampland to left and right, we demanded to know WHY the abrupt STOP! Mark told us to look ahead....there was this ridiculous little narrow bridge with no guardrails...no sides....just this little PATH about wide enough for the vehicle to pass! After our encouragemant to "press on", Mark skillfully drove over the seemingly death-defying hurdle. Little did we know we would encounter TWO more, just like it, as well as swamp ON the path. This little exercise made poor Michelle sit in the back seat, hands over her eyes, wishing for solid road under the tires! Oh, I forgot to mention...As we made our way through "Death's Door", we were being dive-bombed by the most hideously LARGE horseflies (identifiable) and other UFO's. (totally UNidentifiable)

Well, obviously, we DID survive and we DID make a sucessful run of this horrible outing! As we drove through what seemed more of a training ground for GI's than an outing for handicapped people, Mark wondered WHY this road would be reserved for folks with dissbilities. My mind raced back to Charles Dickens....A Christmas Carol.....remember the part where Scrooge makes a crass comment about "decreasing the excess impoverished population"? Well, perhaps this was a cruel joke by the DEC to decrease handicapped people with weak constitutions, or HEARTS! There was absolutely no wisdom to allowing ANYONE on this land....were one to be stranded there, they would surely be consumed by the insect population and left as carrion for the meat-eating bird population!!! We will NOT be taking this route again! (As an aside, this land is actually set aside so handicapped folks can "hunt" and "fish". Yeah, right.....)

Thank heaven for Arby's. After that hair-raising experience, I took great comfort eating my onion petals and roast turkey and swiss market fresh sandwich!!! It is good to know that at the end of life's great trials, there is always one more fast food joint where you can pull up and fill up!