The Daring Adventures of Diefenbaker and Damned Rodan

Ms. Brugger went to another artsy-craftsy retreat this weekend, so friend and longtime geocaching partner Diefenbaker (a.k.a. Scott) came up from Newbern, NC, for a long, bachelor-oriented geocaching weekend. He arrived early Thursday evening to find a rack of slow-cooked pork ribs with corn on the cob and cole slaw I'd made waiting for him. He brought with him some marginally fiery ghost-pepper infused vodka and a bottle of mezcal; I introduced him to my version of the Botanic Martini, which I had originally experienced at Nord Social in Midland, Michigan, last month. There may be a new convert to the cause. We sat out on the back deck with massive quantities of food and drink until quite late, and enjoyed the required, semi-inebriated phone conversation with Ms. B., which happens whenever we have one of these get-togethers. Fun was had.

Early Friday morning, after a breakfast of bacon and eggs, we departed for a long day of it on the geocaching trail, beginning with Rocky Mount, Virginia, at Bald Knob, a unique rocky, cactus-crowned ridge that rises above the town. I'd been there numerous times over the years (see "Number One and Driving High" for an example), but a new trail system was completed this past May, and several new geocaches awaited our attention. We found them without difficulty, but I also took Scott to an older cache I had previously found, and negotiating the intense terrain to reach it from where we departed the trail left us just about spent by the time we returned to the bottom. Silly me, I took no photos during the hike, but here's an older one:

A view of Rocky Mount, VA, from Bald Knob's summit

From Rocky Mount, we drove eastward to a spot along the Pigg River in Franklin County. During my days at Ferrum College, I spent a lot of time at the Pigg River (though much closer to Ferrum), frequently in search of various altered states, which I usually found. This time, there weren't any altered states, but we did find a very creative geocache.

 

From there, we drove on to Gretna, Virginia, for a quick park & grab hide. Then down to Danville, where we found a late lunch at the fairly new 301 Tavern on Craghead Street. The braying country music was a bit loud, but the food and drink (cheeseburger, fries, and Pernicious IPA) certainly hit the spot. Then we roved around Danville for a bit to complete the stages of a nice Adventure Lab cache created by friend Skyhawk63 (a.k.a. Tom, with whom I've recently shared some awesome geocaching adventures).

 

It was a lot of driving (about 150 miles) for a relatively small number of caches, but damn, it was satisfying. After returning home and making ourselves reasonably presentable, we headed over to Hamlet Kitchen, which is a regular hangout for Kimberly and me, but on this day, I had to make do with Scott. Hey, no complaints from this quarter. We had a couple of glasses off wine and then ventured over to Yamato Japanese Restaurant for sushi. As we wandered in, we ran into friend Anne, with whom Ms. B. and I had enjoyed a fantastic Thai dinner (along with Anne's sister, Mary), a few weeks back. She joined us for dinner and some very fun conversation, and then Scott and I (after a brief liquor store stop) returned to Casa di Rodan to test a few spirits. I'd say they tested satisfactorily.

 

Interestingly, as we sat out on the back deck in the dark, something big, heavy, and quite angry-sounding went thumping and huffing through the woods right at the edge of the driveway, just beyond our line of sight. We have tons of deer, foxes, and coyotes in these woods, but whatever it was, I've never heard such a thing before. Wampus cat, I'd say.

 

Another shared call with Ms. B., and then... a good night.

A theme, perhaps?

An interesting view from my phone camera, facing upward to the underside of our deck umbrella

The view on our side of our phone call with Kimberly

The view on Kimberly's side of our phone call

Saturday morning, Scott and I got up early again. I made blueberry pancakes, and then we set out for very long walks on a couple of different legs of the roughly twelve-mile-long Dick & Willie Trail. Many of the caches along this trail belong to either me or friend Fishdownthestairs (a.k.a. Natalie), but since Scott had never found these, I was happy to go along and offer either help or heckling, whichever I figured would be more entertaining at the time. We put in about six miles of it, and then found lunch at Don Pepe's, a Mexican restaurant that's been here for a while, though I'd never tried it. Damn if it didn't turn out to be excellent—very authentic. We ended up having a mellow afternoon (I mostly worked on the blog) before I cooked up some BBQ chicken wings, which turned out better than satisfactory, I'd say

 

For the evening, we again sat outside, told stories, listened to music, and waited for our big huffing friend to come stomping through. It never did, though a rather cute little possum wandered by. We had a brief, enjoyable chat before he waddled off again.

L: A couple of wacky gentleman on the trail; R: Diefenbaker trying to extricate himself from the depths of hell

Chorizo street tacos at Don Pepe's

Scott and Rufus engaged in a serious tête-à-tête

And, at last, Sunday morning, I made coffee and some very good egg bites for breakfast, and then Scott hit the road to return home. What a nice weekend all-around, though I certainly missed Kimberly, as I always do when she's gone. Scott's hoping to have us both down to their place in Newbern in the not-too-distant future, and to me, this sounds like a winning plan.

 

To old friends...

Extending the Dick & Willie

I shit you not, the Dick & Willie has gotten longer. Yes, about two decades ago, the old Danville & Western rail line — commonly known as the "Dick & Willie Line" — closed down, and the tracks through a fair portion of Martinsville were converted to the Dick & Willie Rail Trail. For several years, we had a continuous 4.5-mile section of trail completed, but three or four years ago, a new, 2.5-mile section opened up at the eastern end of town, terminating at the Smith River Sports Center on Spruce Street. That has left approximately four miles of trail to be completed, thus connecting the two ends. As of just a few weeks ago, a new, 2-mile leg along Mulberry Creek opened up, which Ms. B. and I hiked out today, and it is by far the most scenic, relatively isolated part of the trail. Eventually, it is slated to extend even farther from the current northwestern terminus at Commonwealth Boulevard & Virginia Avenue and connect with the Fieldale-Smith River Trail, a few miles to the northeast.

It goes without saying that I have already populated with local trails with numerous geocaches, but the new D & W extension certainly begs for several more. I plan to oblige, more likely sooner than later. As it is, I discovered today that I need to perform maintenance on a couple of my older caches out there, so that will be my next geocaching priority.

We encountered several folks today riding e-bikes on the trail, and the lure to avail ourselves to such devices is strong. Perhaps once Ms. B. is again gainfully employed, we'll set us ourselves up with a couple.

For now, hike on!

Black Friday at Black Tooth Pond

I needed to perform maintenance on a geocache out on the Dick & Willie Trail near uptown, so I headed out fairly and hiked out to it. Once I'd replaced the old, damaged container, on a whim, I decided to drive over to my old high school and see if I could get back to Black Tooth Pond, where I'd misspent countless hours back in my checkered past (you can read about an early adventure or two here,)

I gave Black Tooth Pond its name because, when I first discovered it, several hundred yards down a little dirt road behind the high school, a large number of old tree trunks protruded from the water at the pond's farthest end. (In more recent years, my dear, late friend Pete Wells, an expert in local history, informed me its actual name is Lester Pond; the Lesters have been a prominent family in this area for many, many years.) In 11th grade, circa 1976, my biology class hoofed it down the old road to the pond and took samples to test for water quality. Later, I furthered my education here with a select number of female specimens of the species. Not long afterward, I returned to the area to conduct experiments with certain chemical substances, the results of which are in mostly hazy.

I knew from looking at Google Maps that, some time ago, most of the woods around the pond had been razed, which pisses me off royally. (Around these parts, wooded areas no longer stay wooded very long. I'm assuming the motherfuckers want the trees solely for the wood, since, inevitably, only hideous scrub grows back in place of the once-healthy forests.) Thankfully, the pond remains back there amid all those now-desolate acres, though with only a thin ring of living trees surrounding it. Almost all the old trunks that once jutted from the far end of the pond have finally succumbed to the elements. Only a couple of very small, stubby trunks still protrude from the water.

Still, I very much enjoyed walking back there and taking a few photos. My latest short story, titled "The House at Black Tooth Pond," which is based both on this location and an ancient, abandoned house my brother and I discovered out in the county a good thirty years ago, will be appearing next year in a new anthology, titled Shunned Houses, edited by S.T. Joshi and Katherine Kerestman. Of course, I will post updates on the book as it gets nearer to release time.

Black Friday indeed.

View of Black Tooth Pond from 2010. As you can see, in those days, far more unspoiled forest surrounded it. More of the old tree trunks in the water are visible here, although even then, they were far fewer and smaller than when I first laid eyes on the location in the mid-1970s.

Another current view

A very old bench overlooking the water

A view of the current terrain, which up until recently was lush, beautiful forestland.

Ghost Train & Other Geocaches

I set out to do maintenance on a couple of the geocaches I own out on the Dick & Willie Passage, not far out of Uptown Martinsville this morning. I did maintenance, all right, but — rather unexpectedly — I also placed three new caches. I hadn’t really planned on doing so, but it was as nice a morning as we’ve had lately, and I’ve had it in my head recently that I really should hide a few new ones in town.

So... I bloody well did.

 

Due to the character of the terrain around the trail, two of the three are physically challenging (in fact, I called one of them “The Bad Place,” hinting at where you might end up should you lose your footing). Since the Dick & Willie is a rail trail, several of my caches out there are train-themed, and my favorite of the new ones is called “The Ghost Train.” A similar hazard awaits you here as well, for should you lose your footing, look forward to becoming a ghost doomed to wander the old rail trail from now till eternity...

The cache listings have been submitted to geocaching.com, so I hope they’ll be published quite soon, while the weather is still conducive to trail hiking. I got in several miles of walking, so with all the up and down of placing the caches as well, the old dude managed to get a bit sore. I reckon it’s nothing a little splash of the Old Infuriator won’t help with.

Spring Springs on Good Friday

Early this past week, I finished up my latest Ameri-Scares novel, Georgia: The Haunting of Tate's Mill, and it’s currently getting the editorial once-over. Next step is plotting my not-for-little-people novel tentatively titled Ca' Dolore, which is set in Italy. There will be monsters, murders, and mayhem. And yes, of course, there will be updates as things happen along the way.

Ahhhh, but what an evening. As per the norm, earlier in the day, I ventured forth to Pleasant Hill — happily, picking up a geocache en route. Once here, I visited the local market to acquire vittles and other staples; feasted on some very lovely dead bird; and then set out on a moderate hike to perform maintenance on one of my caches, out on the Dick & Willie Trail (yes, yes, I know). Then I settled myself on the porch to further plot the novel. I made some progress, which pleased me. But the truest pleasure at the time was the serenity of being at the old homeplace, on a truly beautiful evening, with thrushes, mourning doves, and barred owls singing their way into the twilight; bumblebees buzzing around the azaleas; and a couple of bunnies scampering about in the yard. Scarcely a hint of human racket for the better part of two hours (apart from one useless jackass blasting hip-hop from here to the coast). To accentuate the mellow, I made a couple of lovely martinis and a platter of blackened scallops for dinner.

Following, I spent a pleasant hour or so on the Lovecraft eZine Patreon Podcast gathering, which usually happens on Thursday nights, but this week's was moved to tonight. I don't think it'll become a regular Friday thing, but tonight, it was certainly convenient.

This just in: the signed/numbered edition of Fugue Devil: Resurgence is now available for pre-order — here.

Hot, Cold, Hot, Cold, Hot....

The sad conflict in Ukraine, and its potential global ramifications, has overshadowed almost everything this weekend. Here, just as COVID-19, at least as it currently stands, has finally become less a complication in our daily lives, here comes the Amazing Pootin to throw a monkey wrench into the worldworks. Today, we hear Pootin has upped the ante with his nuclear deterrent force. Just what we need to escalate a volatile situation.

In this little corner of the world, Ms. B. and I are doing our best to get through each day with as much positive energy as we can generate, for ourselves and our sphere of influence, such as it is.

My second week of retirement was not quite as relaxing as the first. Things pile up, things fall apart. Such is the way of things. Mostly, I've been spending my regular day job hours writing. Progress has been pretty good; I've certainly been more productive than over the past year, certainly within comparable time periods.

Friday, I took my usual trip to Martinsville, fit in quite a bit of work, and entertained myself with Godzilla vs. Gigan, which is far from my favorite daikaiju flick, but it sure enough features some fun monster scenes. Saturday, I hiked a ways on the Dick & Willie Trail to do maintenance one of my old geocaches. It netted me a couple of miles on the trail. Once back in Greensboro, more writing, and Ms. B. and I continued our Game of Thrones binge. Today, it was cold and wet, but that didn't stop friend Scott (a.k.a. Diefenbaker) and me from going after several new caches in town. We got first-to-find on two of them (after I DNF'd one earlier this morning on a quick solo outing). For lunch, we visited Fisher's Grille, which, once upon a time, was very much a favorite dining/drinking establishment. I hadn't been there in years, though. It's gratifying to find that virtually nothing there has changed. The cajun chicken wings were as awesome as ever. And in the men's bathroom, the same framed newspaper spreads about the 1984 World Series that adorned the walls the first time I visited Fisher's in 1988 are still hanging there. Somehow, that's kind of satisfying.

Another stint writing this afternoon, and then I decided to try my hand at making some hot sauce from the kit that Brugger gave me for Christmas. I went with the smoky chipotle ingredients provided, but added some extra hot red chilis we brought back from Italy. It was my first attempt, and I've gotta say, it's a winner. Delicious flavor and quite hot — though not so hot that Brugger can't tolerate it. I'm about to go roast a chicken breast and try the sauce on it.

Wish the old dude luck. Peace out.

Storms a-Comin'

We've had a very pleasant, cool, sunny spell for the past few days, although there are violent storms predicted for the next 24 hours or so. I rather hope we miss the worst of it, as I'm working at home and really can't afford a prolonged power outage. And in this area, any power outage is usually prolonged.

Anyhoo, it's been a beautiful Easter weekend. On Friday (Good), I headed on up to the old homestead in Martinsville, as I have quite regularly on the weekends.

Yesterday, just as I was preparing to head back to Greensboro, I received notification of a new geocache, courtesy of friend Fishdownthestair (a.k.a. Natalie) on the newest leg of the Dick & Willie Trail, very close to my neighborhood. How fortuitous! So, I very quickly packed up to leave (a little too quickly, as it turned out) and headed to the trailhead at the Smith River Sports Complex. From there, it was most of a mile hike to the cache, which I managed to find quickly — and I snagged the coveted FTF (first-to-find) honors. (There are no actual honors; a cache is a cache is a cache. The FTF doesn't mean diddly except perhaps for the bragging rights.)

There were a good many people on the trail, but everyone did a good job spacing themselves out and moving away to maximize social distancing. I was just about back at the Rodan Mobile when I noticed the Big Blue fellow you see in the photo above. He was hanging around on the stone base of one of the floodlight posts. I believe it's a Giant Stonefly (family Nemouroidea), about two inches long. These are not uncommon in the area, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen one this blue before. Very striking!

Last night, Ms. B. and I enjoyed takeout dinner from Uptown Charlie's as well as a nice bottle of Campo Viejo Reserva Rioja. We finished watching the French series Marianne on Netflix, which is well-done and creepy as hell. One of my favorite horror properties of the recent past.

I mentioned upstream that I had left Martinsville too quickly yesterday. What happened was I headed back home leaving behind important computer accessories. Oy! So, this morning, I decided to drive back and set right my boo boo. However, happily, another new Natalie cache had just come out on the Dick & Willie. So, for me, that meant another FTF, bright and early. Once again, she asked if I'd be kind enough to check the coordinates on a couple of other unpublished caches out there, to which I enthusiastically agreed (mind you, I do not claim FTF on caches I find prior to publication, as this would not be sporting). I was also able to do some much-needed maintenance on a few of my own caches in that area. So, while it was kind of a pain in the tail to go back so soon, I had a most enjoyable time and got in plenty of exercise.

Now, it's back to working on New Hampshire: Ghosts of the Skies. Just to remind you, in case you've forgotten: Watch the skies! Keep watching the skies!

A beautiful Easter morning on the Dick & Willie

Lots of space for social distancing this morning.

Spoiling my fun, they are! Actually, it's not out of the question that I may be the reason
for the new signs and railings at the pipes....

Extending the Dick & Willie

Sure, it's an amusing nickname: "Dick & Willie" refers to the old Danville and Western railway that used to run through Martinsville. The tracks were taken up several years ago, and now the Dick & Willie Rail Trail uses those old rail beds to traverse Martinsville, VA. Since 2008, the trail has run about four and a half miles, from Commonwealth Blvd. at the northwest end to a point just north of Spruce St., east of town. After many months of work, a new, two-and-a-half-mile trail extension leads to the Smith River Sports Complex, at Martinsville's easternmost corner. This puts the trail very close to my old neighborhood, and since I'm at the homeplace frequently, I went out yesterday to properly inaugurate the trail extension with several geocaches.

I put out four yesterday, all on the leg that runs from the end of Country Club Drive (the stories I have from that place!) to the sports complex. One ammo can (Country Club View); a medium-size Tupperware container (Dick & Willie Rocks); a small, camouflaged jar (Dick & Willie: The Hole Thing); and a wee little bison tube (Dameron's Disaster). They're out there, already published at geocaching.com, and all found exactly once so far — by fellow geocacher tbbiker (a.k.a. Todd). I hope these caches, and other new ones yet to come out, will entice lots of geocachers in the area to pay Martinsville a visit.

I did manage to cut my finger pretty good while placing one of the containers. Just call me Captain Klutz.

As a youngster, I spent a fair amount of time back in those woods behind Country Club Drive. In my teens, several friends and I would on occasion go camping there (and possibly drinking things other than water from the Smith River). At one time, a sewer line and utility road went back where the trail now leads. Although one wasn't supposed to, one could, if so minded, drive a car back down into the woods and cross a very narrow, earthen bridge over one of the creeks. When I say narrow, I'm talking a couple of inches clearance on either side. I think it was during my first year of college that friends (whom, for the purposes of this account, I shall call Johannes, Ramon, and Keebler) and I all drove back there to camp out overnight. When we saw that little land bridge, we had our doubts about proceeding any further. But Johannes resolved to drive across that treacherous space in his powder blue Ford Maverick. And he up and did it — successfully. Whew! So I figured that if Johannes could do it in a Maverick, I could do it in my little mustard yellow Toyota Corolla. Well, yes, I did it, with Ramon in the car with me. It was hairy, to be sure. Then it was Keebler's turn. He came roaring down the hill, hit the bridge, and... woops! BOOM! His little green whatever-it-was slid and toppled partway over the edge. What a disaster! Now, he was fine, and I don't think the car suffered too much damage... but it did require a tow truck to pull that vehicle out of there. I sure hate to think of the aftermath for poor Keebler. It couldn't have been pretty.

Anyway, there is now a geocache out there, at that exact location, commemorating the event.