“An Object in Motion, Tends to Remain in Motion…”.  is one of Isaac Newtons laws of motion. Its called Inertia.   The Other side of that law is “An Object at Rest, Tends to Remain at Rest”….  and that is the law I am currently living by.   (The rest of the law is: unless acted on by a force, which also applies here. See the end of the blog).

So what I am trying to tell you here, is that I am currently living a life doing nothing but sitting in a chair. (I am an object at rest). I took my 5 day vacation and spent a lot of time exploring and taking videos. Akela and I had a lot of fun, and made a ton of future plans from what we saw during those 5 days. But as a result of that trip,  I did 5 videos in the next week. All to be published weekly for the next month and a half. So the videos that you have been watching are from a trip I took back in the beginning of September, and now it is the end of October. I don’t really like to get that far ahead. Mostly because  I can’t remember what happened during those videos, and it makes it hard to answer questions in the comments..LOL.  I don’t think it’s much because I am old, as it is that I just have bad memory wiring. I remember things in a “LARGE WAY”, but not things in a little detailed way.  I mean I don’t remember the step-by-step detail of  things like changing the brakes on the car. But I do remember that I know how and can accomplish it without much trouble. And so I can think my way through it and remember the little important things once I get into it. The

same is true when I do vacation trips I video. I don’t remember everything that happens, but I remember that I had a great time and that it was a great place. Though not always a great place, and that comes out in the video too. Though along with that lack of memory detail, I also don’t remember the bad things that made a trip less than exemplary. So, all in all, my memories are mostly good ones.

But let’s get back to Isaac Newton’s laws here. When I’m doing videos and traveling and having a great time I just wanna keep going. The momentum of activity is incredible. We get into the hiking and traveling and researching and exploring places and it is hard to stop. And starting in spring, I get on the roll to just keep going. But these big trips where I have a lot of things planned and a lot of videos that come out of them cause me to slow down and take a break while the videos catch up. And that causes me to be an object at rest, and will remain at rest. Luckily, I have a force that’s acting on me to get out and do things. Akela is extremely good at forcing short-term activities. But the bigger force I have coming this weekend is my son. My older son, number one son, the lawyer, is flying down from New York for recreation and entertainment. This year he’s only staying for 4 days due to COVID and his large workload at his firm, but I’m sure we will have a great time. If you are new to the channel and have never watched my earlier videos of him coming down when I first  moved to NC and some of the things we did you really need to go back and watch them. To get an idea of what happens while he’s here you should really watch “The Lazy 5 Ranch Visit “. It was a major adventure. At the end of this day my chest hurt, my face hurt, I was so exhausted from laughing, I was thinking I should never invite him down again. But oh, good gracious, we had such a fun time. (country talk there). And the other thing we did was climb a couple mountains with the brand-new puppy, which you could check out at “Return to the Top of the Earth, 3 Top Mountains“. I’m sure after his visit this weekend there will be another video recapping the trip. And again if you’re new to the channel and you haven’t seen the story of my son you can check out this video” The Law Took My Son.”  It is a very old video, but its one of my very favorites.

So for you who want to know the status on the puppy after the last blog. He is doing fine. The panosteitis seems to be getting better a little bit each day. He hasn’t been on any pain medicine nor drugs since we went to Hanging Rock State Park. Which was about 3 weeks ago. And I guess I haven’t talked much about that particular adventure or video, so I’ll add a few comments here. This is definitely a very strange year for outdoor recreation. The COVID-19 affect on crowds in the forest is just amazing. Places that are normally empty are absolutely packed with people who really are not familiar with outdoor etiquette or manners. In my last video of the Cherokee national Forest, I think I got a little tired and started complaining about the messes people were leaving  at campsites and on trails. It’s not the type of thing I really want to show in my videos but, somebody needs to let people know , and it needs to be taught.  People apparently don’t know what to do when you’re in the woods and “nature calls” when it comes to leaving toilet paper everywhere. So I’m sorry for that part of the video, just think of it as a public service announcement.

But we took a trip to Hanging Rock State Park for camping and it was a pretty nice success. We had a nice campsite, we did a great hike, and really enjoyed a quiet weekend.  It was raining when we started out, and it was so foggy driving up the mountain to our campsite we barely could see the road.  But we found our way around, and finally get settled into our site.  But I kid you not, we were up in the clouds. We went after work and its a 2 hour drive, so we got there about 8pm.  By the time we go leveled, stabilized, set up and opened up, the fog was so thick, I could have walked naked around our campsite with all the lights on and no one in the adjacent campsite would have known(I’m not saying I did this, so don’t ask).  I could not see their campfires, any lights. For all I know we were actually on another planet. It was the thickest Fog I had ever been in. The final walk to the bathroom before bed was a very eerie adventure.  We woke up early after a night of listening to acorns dropping on the trailer. Those of you who don’t own an Aliner have no idea how loud an acorn can be if it hits one of those big bubble windows.  It is like a bass drum being beaten. And that happened All night, I’m pretty sure over 100 times.  Its amazing what you can get used to just to get sleep.  But we got up at our usual 6am and headed to the trail head to go up to the Hanging Rock Mountain top.  At 7:30 am the crowds were already starting to accumulate.  I could not believe the number of people coming to the park so early. Usually we get on the trail early  to avoid crowds and back down off the mountain before 11am when most of the people start tricking in.  This time it was like a flood of people by 8:30, and the top of the mountain was covered in people.   I had previously done a video on going to the other mountain at Hanging Rock (Hanging Rock State Park; More of North Carolina !)  which was my first year in NC. But it probably  gives you a better idea of the park on a normal year, without COVID crowds.  That video does not have anything about the campground though. And I did a 3rd Video of Akela as a puppy going to the several Hanging Rock Waterfalls for some “Crowd Training” Obedience training-  Dog Training at Hanging Rock State Park .  Each of these have different aspects of the park.  Each is worth watching if you are looking to visit the park or just want to know the different features and wonders of the park.

In the morning of the second day of camping we went to the Mayberry RFD days at Mount Airy, North Carolina.(video to be released 10/29/20) I have tried to go to Mayberry days 2 other times, and each time it was a fail. The first time I tried to combine it with some hiking in the Mount Rogers recreation area in Virginia. That time, by mistake, I left my camera at the Mt. Rogers visitor center. So when I got to the Mayberry days I had no camera. And the visitor center had closed, so I had to come back another day to pick it up. The next time I  got caught up at an event at work and had to go later in the day, and by that time most of the activities were over. So not much to video and not much to see, but I did get a good layout of what to expect from those 2 fails. So this time I got up early in the day and it was just kind of taking off with all the activities and good stuff you experience at that kind of street festival. So we got to see a number of the people pretending to be characters from “the Andy Griffith Show – Mayberry RFD”, and some of the featured places from the show. The one downside was that I was a bit tired because we were camping and had hiked earlier, and it was pretty crowded and a lot of people were smoking. So I didn’t stay very long due to both the smoking and the risk of COVID-19. But on any other year I probably would’ve spent the entire day there, as I did the time I had no camera. There is a lot of fun stuff going on, great foods and treats. And a number of unique shops to explore.  I would recommend the Mayberry days Festival to anybody in the area that wants a fun day of shopping and visiting a nice old Carolina town.

Well,  the small “FORCE” is breathing down my neck to go for a walk, so I guess we will do that!
Hope Y’all get out and enjoy some of these beautiful fall days and enjoy a piece of pumpkin pie! We’ll hope to see you on the trail again in a week or two!

Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast