Thanksgiving Day Hike

So I be starting off at the ORAK mansion ruins in Harriman State Park in Noo York.  This be a HUGE park with 44,000 gabillion acres where no huntin be allowed efur efur efur so we can go hiking there any time.  Becoz of this it do be a bizzy park but on Thanksgibbing day, we has the whole place to ourselves - pawsome!

So, you mite ask, wot duss the ORAK mansion has to do with Thanksgibbing?  Well it woz builded as a summer home by this huMAN with lots of green papers wot werked fur the company wot makes KARO syrup.

So those of you (well prolly not YOU but your hoomans) wot had pecan pie (BLECH) with Thanksgibbing dinner prolly had KARO syrup.  And has you figgered this out yet?  ORAK do be KARO spelled backwards, so this mansion be named after KARO syrup.

So when the man went to the bridge, his kin gibbed the house to the park and they tore it down but some of it still be there.  Oh, and the living room in the house - it had a floor wot MOVED so it feeled like you be on a BOAT - SKEERY!  And the winders woz portholes!  SKEERY!  But that it not there any more, we just readed about it on the innerwebs.

So then we moved on and had to cross ofur raging waters coz we just had 3 days of rain, rain, rain and more rain so the creeks be furry loud with white waters and all.

Then we commed to this shelter where peeples can camp ofur night. It woz builded in the 1920's when the ORAK mansion woz still there.

 There be seeniks from this shelter but they be hard to see coz of the sunbeams in our eyes.

Noo York City Skyline

I can see the Hudson River ofur yonder.

Then we hiked ofur to Breakneck Pond where there woz summer camp cabins.  This do be where inner city childrens come fur summer camp.

Nobuddy home.

Irene broke the dock.  (I did not do it, it woz like that alreddy)

Now furrends, I knows that I encourage those of you wot likes to partake in archeology digs as it woz my most favorite activity as a yungun (and I has started to take it up again, BOL) but when you see a sign like this, prolly best to dig someplace else:

I think "prosekooshun" means more than no liver snaps fur dessert.

Woofing about liver snaps, I had some of the Thanksgibbing cookies mom made fur snack!

Then on to CRANBERRY MOUNTAIN TRAIL!

The mountain did kinda look like this it woz furry long and stuffs.

Atop Cranberry Mountain looking down on that Breakneck Pond where I woz afore.

If'n you notice my head be wet, well, let me tell you wot happened.  It woz a little chilly and I had not intended to do swimming but I was walking on a trail with puddulls, minding my own bizziness...

... when all of a sudden - SPLASH!  Mom looked up and all she seened woz my head sticking out.  Yes furrends, a puddull in the middle of the trail woz so deep I stepped in and WENT UNNER WATER!  Who would has eggspected that?  So I woz wet, my bandanana woz wet, efurry thing woz wet.  Refreshing, tho.

I found a big rawk.

Rood dogs on the trail with no hiking manners. The one by the arrow did snarly face at me and my mom yelled HEY at him and he stopped.  His mom sayed "Oh, he means nothing by it".  Rilly?  Well it skeered me and mom woz not amused.  His mom should has corrected him and had his walking string on if'n he can't behave right.

So at the end of the hike we commed to a fire tower wot woz also builded in the 1920's.  Mom only climbed up one level coz it be rilly rickety and stuff and mom be skeered.

Happy Thanksgiving Treats!

We be gibbing you an early Happy Thanksgibbing woofout coz I be HIKING tomorrow!  Yup, it do be our favorite day to hike coz there be nobuddy else out hiking and we has the trails all to ourselves.  Of course it be a Thanksgibbing hike so stay tuned fur where we go.  And I will be sporting my dorky festive Thanksgibbing bandanana.

So wot about Thanksgibbing dinner you mite ask?  I do gib thanks fur hasing a home and hiking all the time but I ended up with a mom wot be in the 9% of Americans wot duss not nom turkey on Thanksgibbing.  This be the Thanksgibbing dinner:

BLECH!

Butt....  mom did buy US some fur real turkey, yes she did!  And she made us treats out of it.  Now she say it has vegetabulls and froots in it but I is here to tell you furrends, these treats is nommy and NO WAY duss they has vegetabulls and froots.

Wot mom say be in the treats.

So wot I seened her do woz skin the sweet tater and cut it up and boil it on the fire maker with some water then put the sweet tater pieces and water in the blender and smoosh it all up like sweet mashed taters.  Then she added the FUR REAL TURKEY two-legger pup noms and peeled the apple and clawed it into shreds.  Then in anudder bowl she mixed up 2 cups of the whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of the cornmeals.  Then she smooshed that all togedder, rolled it out and made BONES!  Magic, I tell you.  (This recipe woz adapted from the Whole Foods Market.)

Can I try some cookie dough pawlese?

Nope, no sweet taters or apples in there.  This be way nommy.

OMD! I love sweet taters and apples!

Do they has to go in there?  Can't we just has cookie dough?

Then after they did bake fur 35-40 minits at 325 degrees mom leaved the oven door a little open fur ofur an hour to let them cool off.  Sheer torture I tell you!  But finally, good things come to those wot wate:

NOM, NOM, NOM, NOM, NOM....

Happy Thanksgibbing efurryone!

Giving Sarge the Bird

Sarge ofur at Sarge Speaks Out do be hasing a contesty where we is supposed to give him the burd.  Okie dokie, you asked fur it...

This do be a baby blue jay wot woz here fur a while afore my time back in 1999.  (I didn't come along until 2001.)  So one day the boy woz driving in his car and seened a nekkid baby burd in the middle of the road and drived rite ofur it.  No, he did not squish it, he aimed so he would miss the baby burd and he would go unner the car.  He stopped his car and moved the burd ofur to the grass.  When he commed home he told mom and mom made him show her where he put the burd.  Well, it woz in full sunbeams and the nest woz way up in the tree ofur the bizzy road (wot burdbrains fur pawrents he had) so mom brought the baby burd home.  Well mom sayed she do has an appreshiashun fur burd moms.  From sun up until sun down, efurry hour on the hour the baby burd would SCREAM HIMS FOOL HEAD OFF fur noms and mom would has to hop to it with shoveling noms in his beak wot would open rilly big and he chowed down as fast like down the hatch!  Fortunately mom did not has to chew his noms and spit them back out like burd moms do.  She gibbed him Science Diet canned kitten food and he did thrive on that.  (That be wot the innerwebs say to feed orphaned baby burds.)  So when he got bigger and got fevvers and wanted to learn to fly mom would take him out in the yard and he followed her all ofur like she be his fur real fevver mom and flapped his wings and hopped in the air.  And then kittehs started coming from blocks away and woz stalking him.  They did love how mom be fattening him up fur them - NOT!  It woz not safe fur the baby burd any more so mom made arrangements fur a wildlife sanctuary to take him coz he needed to be in a safe place to learn to fly properly with burds of a fevver, not peeples.  Becoz it woz a 2 hour drive away, mom even had to stop and give the baby burd noms on the way.  Wot an appetite.  So as far as we know, the baby burd blue jay lived happily efur after.  The end.

A Hike Back in Time

This hike did take mom back in time to when she woz a yungun two-legger a long, long, LONG time ago.  We be getting to that part soonly.

So we hiked all they way up this steep gravel road to the top of the Blue Mountain in Pencilvania to find the Appalachian Trail.  On the way there do be a seenik:

I woz being blinded by sunbeams so I could not watch fur Khyra's X-Terra and I know it do come this way on Sundays...

So we climb all the way to the top of this road and mom is a huffin' and a puffin' only to find there be a parking lot way up here wot woz not on the map!

Stealth parking lot at the top of the Blue Mountain.

So from here we hanged a left and had to cross ofur the Appalachian Trail a minit to get to anudder seenik.

This be the Auburn Overlook where I can see some of where we is going to be hiking later.

Now we is on that Appalachian Trail.

The Appalachian Trail bringed us down to some railroad tracks.  I think I need to hook mom up to the walking string now.

Follow me SLOWLY down these steep rawk steps mom so you dussn't fall.

Then I made mom STOP - LOOK - LISTEN to cross the railroad tracks.

Making mom follow the arrows fur walking into Port Clinton, PA.

Then, OMD, duss you see wot I see?

It do be my stunt dubbull and she woz doing def defying stunts alrite!  Furst she woz on our side of the bizzy, bizzy road with cars going ZOOOOOM, ZOOOOOOOM by us.  She woz trying to cross ofur and mom woz saying COME! COME! COME! but the dog could not hear her coz of all the loud cars.  Then fur a split second there woz no cars and the dog runned like the wind across the street.  Then she seened us and wanted to come back ofur but the cars started zooming by again and mom did not call her coz she did not want her to be roadkill.  And we could not get ofur to her.  So the dog just started walking away up the road.  There be nuttin we could do and mom did see she had a collah and tags on.  But she woz long gone by the time we would has gotted across the bizzy, bizzy street.  So sadly, me and mom continued on not being able to help her.  It did rilly put a damper on mom's travel back in time, which happens NOW.

When mom woz a yungun two-legger, a long, long, LONG time ago, her great gramma in Illinoy had a corner store with a candy counter and when mom visited, great gramma would gib her candy cigarettes (ahem, the start of her furry long cigarette smoking career wot is now long ofur) and a candy necklace from the store.  So here be mom's destinashun:

Waiting outside securely attached to the bench for just a minit while mom runned inside and had udder customers running out to report back on me and let her know if'n the udder dog like me commed back.

Evidence wot mom bringed me of wot be in the store.

And JACKPOT!  Mom sayed she feeled like she be 6 years old again.

Then on the way out of Port Clinton...

We started walking along the Schuylkill River Trail when all of a sudden...

OMD!  It woz that free range dog's dad and her name be Sheba!  Mom sayed to him that no, I be Shawnee, not Sheba.  Mom eggsplained to him that we seened his Sheba and told him where and wot direkshun she be heading in when we last seened her and he taked off to go find her.  Silly Sheba, had she commed to mom and not crossed the street we would has takened her with us and runned smack into her dad.  Sadly we will nefur know if'n this be a happy ending or not so lesson lurned furrends, if'n you dogs and kittehs is lost DO go to strangers!  I would has even shared my chickun jerkey wif her!

So we hiked back around to the Appalachian Trail and by that furst seenik again so I could look fur Khyra's X-Terra without sunbeams in my eyes:

Khyra, did your mom see Sheba?  She woz heading in the direkshun of Cabela's on Route 61.

Mom thought we hiked 10 miles today but turns out a setting woz wrong on her pedometer - it must has gotted messed up when she changed the time fur when we got an eggstra hour (she just did that this week - better late then nefur) so once she fixed it, it showed we hiked 13.6 miles.  No wonner we be dog tired!

Hope you found your dad, Sheba!