About a month ago, my husband, another couple and I went to the REI Scratch & Dent sale here in Nashville. We got there at 4a.m., which I thought was nuts until I realized just how many other people were as crazy as we are. Our friends had done this before and told us just how crazy it is, so we got our butts up at 4a.m on Saturday, put up some camping chairs and waited until the sale began at 9a.m. Luckily, Starbucks was also in the same parking lot so at 6a.m. we had the help of caffeine.
We got together our strategy...the 4 of us dispersed to different areas of the store gathering everything that looked appealing and went to a central location in the store. We had a GIANT stack, so large that the store associates came over and made us take everything to the register immediately. We paniced. We had no idea exactly what we were buying so we had to go through the stack QUICKLY.
We finally decided on what was crap and what was worth buying. In the end we ended up with:
2 person tent
1 sleeping bag
1 pair of Keens
2 sets of trekking poles
1 camping stove
1 set of camping pots
1 back pack
Our grand total was $300. If we wouldn't have bought it at the sale, it would have cost us at least $900. It was a pretty successful day if I say so myself.
Last Sunday, August 15th, Jeremy and I hiked to Greeter Falls outside of Altamont, TN. The map above isn't entirely accurate because at the end of the hike, we got in a car and drove back to the starting point. It was a 7 mile hike before we got in the car. A little longer and a lot harder than our previous hike. The pace we went at was what made it challenging for me. Our guide does these things so much it felt like I was running to keep up.
The falls felt excellent and were worth the hike.
Cumberland Transit, an outdoors store downtown, was where we did the hike through. It was free to sign up and we made friends with another couple. It was exhausting, but I'm proud of myself each time I do something like this to test my physical limitations.
Today Jeremy and I decided I needed to break in my hiking shoes (which I desperately needed if I'm going to do this outdoorsy thing). I got Merrell Siren Sport Hiking boots this tax free weekend thanks to my Macy's. They were the best deal on hiking shoes I could find at $75. I wanted to be prepared for my 6 mile hike next weekend.
Anyways, we weren't feeling our best this morning. I believe I have a cold, but we had decided we were going to go hiking last weekend. Jeremy says he doesn't back out, so we went ahead anyways. Once on the trail, I was hesitant to do anything more difficult than a basic walk b/c I couldn't stop sneezing and my throat was killing me. Jeremy lured me to the top of the strenuous trail by telling me that he read about the fantastic views in Backpacker magazine. I went ahead hoping to see this so called view. The incline was steep and left me breathless. Not because of the fantastic views, but because I was severely out of breath. Once we got to the top of Ganier Ridge trail, I was saddened to realize there was no view. Just wooded forest. While, the nature of Radnor Lake is beautiful, I felt lied to by my husband. Quickly I decided to think of the positive. A. We were exercising together B. I was breaking in my shoes and C. I wasn't on my couch on a Sunday watching trashy VH1. The trail took us about :45 minutes and the rest of the time was the time walking back from the trail along the road, which has been destroyed by the floods earlier this year. They've raised $1,400 so far for clean up, but it's going to take them a lot more money to repair that damage.
I have this app for my Droid X called Cardio Trainer. I enabled the GPS on my phone and it detected our entire hike. It was pretty cool. I then went to their website and am able to give you a screenshot of my hike.
There you have it! Radnor Lake is pretty cool in that it's in the middle of Nashville. I can't wait to go back when the water is actually flowing into the streams and the lake isn't as stagnant as is in the summer.
Today, while getting rid of the GIANT Starbucks I had in the work bathroom, I had this idea. Why not start a blog entitled Grown up Girl Scout? Grownupgirlscout.blogspot.com was already taken, so I improvised...Agrownupgirlscoutsadventures was born. I know that's a long address, but it makes sense.
The reason for starting this blog is the post my adventures in life with my husband. We've started to go camping and absolutely love it. For me it brings back my childhood of being a Girl Scout for nearly 17 years. I think I'll post some pictures from my favorite Girl Scout adventure later, but for now this is all about my husband and I.
We've recently started frequenting REI not far from our house. While it is a little expensive, it's kinda like a playground for us. Since his shifts at work rarely allow us time to go camping, we are really going to take advantage of him having weekends off for the next two months. This blog will chronicle those trips.
Below is a video of our first adventure over July 4th, 2010 weekend. We went to Rock Island State Park in Walling, TN, which is about 2 hours east of Nashville near McMinnville, TN.
Overall, we loved the park. The campsites were really clean and bathrooms were easily accessible. We used the camping set we got for Christmas from Jeremy's parents over 2 years ago. It had a really huge tent, however the sleeping backs were lacking. Right before we left for the trip, we had the car packed and ready to go when Jeremy decided that we could cut down on how much we take by leaving out the mats that go under the sleeping bag and replace them with Yoga mats instead. This was not a very good idea. Those mats he decided to leave were the same ones I took on my trip to Alaska in highschool. They would have been a lot more comfortable. The morning after we used those Yoga mats, he decided I was right.
