In which Camille enjoys quality walking around-outside-time with her brothers – May, 2017
LAKE MISHE MOKWA
Jim, Joe, and Camille got in a nice walk to the grocery store in Medford Lakes on Jim’s day off. The best part of this walk was when Jim sang the Lake Mishe Mokwa sea monster song Kathryn made up to sing to their grand kids.
GENTLY-USED DINOSAURS
At Camille’s urging, they ducked into a thrift store. Maybe they would find a replacement watch. Instead, she found a great carry-all purse. The guys discovered a cache of plastic dinosaurs, perfect for the grand nieces and nephews. Joe used Camille’s Ghana basket to haul the dinos home to Jim’s Roundabout Cottage.
REFRESHINGLY PLAYFUL
When they get together, these siblings do not behave as if they are in their fifties and sixties. Joe tempted fate by tight roping along an elbow height pipe railing next to a stream crossing and took a tumble. Happily there were no broken bones.
OUCH
Knees heal but slacks require patching. Joe’s injury looks all the more dramatic because he happens to have a birthmark on that knee.
THE HAUL
More fun than a barrel of monkeys. See how much joy these plastic animals brought on our Reunion 2017 page.
HONEY LOCUST BLOSSOMS
On the way up from DC, Joe, Bob, and Camille created a vacation bingo card. Camille marked a square on her card after John urged her to sample this year’s crop of honey locust blossoms. She wrote about this and other impressions of her visit to Shippensburg in Bridging the Gap.
TROUT RUN
It was hot, closing in on 90 degrees. Perfect weather to head for the hills so John took Camille up to North Mountain for a shady mountain hike.
RESERVOIR MINUS WATER
John stands on the catwalk that was once part of the infrastructure for a reservoir. The valley is massive. See if you can find John in the photo to the right.
Curious, Camille looked for more information and found this history:”Built in the early 1960s, the dam across Trout Run in Tuscarora State Forest was beset with concrete cracking and seepage. The 26-acre lake once formed by the high-hazard dam was drained by DCNR in October 2009.”
HALF TIME
John enjoys hiking up here even more since finding a green canvas camp chair in the woods. He and Camille took turns resting in the chair. When they were done he stashed it in the undergrowth for next time.
CRITTERS
Some kind of weird bug hung out on Camille’s thigh for a bit. They also saw a beautiful blue butterfly snacking on a road apple.
MAKING TRACKS
The two-inch paw print without toenail indentations may have been a big cat, a bobcat perhaps. The print on the right may belong to the animal who left the road apples.
THE OLD PLACE
John and Jim stand in front of their parents’ house located amid Amish farm fields and vacant for several years.