Rachel: Lot’s of beard oil, soap and balm to make today.
Barry: I’m ready. I’ve been up for hours, in fact I’m blogging about it right now.
Rachel: OK great. I’m starting with the Big Forest Beard Balm so you have some time to write.
Barry: OK, fine. You know I want to write about hiking and stuff, I’m really looking forward to our next hike. I feel renewed since we started. It’s really something. I mean I feel renewed spiritually and physically. We would never have started had we not hiked Watkins Glen. Funny how things can open up. It’s right in front of your eyes and you don’t see it. I mean, we’re here in Brooklyn and yes, we have the beach and that helps to give us the feeling of getting out of the city but it’s nothing like getting up in the mountains.
Storm King Mountain NY
Rachel: I liked Riis Park too.
Barry: Yeah, me too. It felt like we were way off somewhere on the beach. The wind blowing hard, the waves crashing and the beach nearly empty.
Rachel: Let’s go back again on a Thursday night and see what it’s like. Maybe the wind kept people away.
Barry: Yeah, Time Out Magazine keeps plugging the Beach Bazaar and Riis Park advertises in the magazine but there was not a big crowd. I think it was the wind. Or maybe the remoteness - not sure what kind of public transportation there is there. The bands were good, the bar was open and parking lot is huge.
Rock Away, Riis Park
Rachel: I think it’s lack of good public transportation there.
Barry: You’re right. I just checked. It takes an hour or more from downtown Brooklyn and 90 minutes or more from midtown Manhattan. The website shows a shuttle that runs there but it doesn’t run late enough for the Thursday night Rock Away events.
Rachel: So I guess it will be pretty quiet there on Thursday nights.
Barry: I guess, you really need to drive there. But I like it. Go for a swim at sunset, shower off, change, grab a beer and listen to some good music while the lights come on and the stars come out. Makes me feel like we really got out of town and it’s right here.
Rachel: If you have a car.
Barry: Right. So how’s the beard balm coming along?
Rachel: Pretty well. Almost ready to pour it. We can get started on the Medicine Man’s Anti-itch Beard Soap soon. Have to make a lot of that.
Barry: Sounds good.
Rachel: You are being so nice and agreeable - what’s going on? This is supposed to be a shtick, a little action, a little back and forth, a little spice and some laughs.
Barry: What, you want me some action? I’ll give you some action.
Rachel: Whatever you want.
Barry: Whatever I want?
Rachel: Whatever you want. Anyway, what’s our next hike? I want to go to Acadia and do those hikes with the ocean views.
Acadia National Park
Barry: Gorham Mountain Trail looks great and there are a few others that aren’t too hard. Can’t wait till we get in shape and can start doing the hard ones. Anyway, I’d love to go up there, we need to make the time. It’s a long drive.
Rachel: Yeah, let’s go. I want to go.
Barry: There’s a lot of great hikes a lot closer. In the Catskills for example and Bear Mountain, we haven’t done Bear Mountain yet.
Rachel: You said it was hard.
Barry: A hike or two more and we’ll be ready for it.
Rachel: So what’s next?
Barry: I think the Millbrook Mountain Trail at Lake Minnewaska near New Paltz. And this time we’ll stop for a beer on the way home at Newburgh Brewery , I liked the way it looked when we drove by on the way back from Butter Hill Trail at Storm Mountain and you know I wanted to stop. This time we stop.
Rachel: We could have stopped.
Barry: You were looking at your watch. You wanted to get back to Brooklyn.
Rachel: I would have stopped.
Barry: Really?
Rachel: Yes, really!
Barry: OK, just know that beer tastes best after a hike. If there’s some good craft beer in the neighborhood of a hike we are going to check it out.
Rachel: OK, I said OK. Mercy.
Barry: OK - just leave the evenings free when we hike so we don’t have to rush back home. It’s crazy to get out and have to rush back for something. Just leave it free.
Rachel: OK. Oy Vey. How about we change the subject?
Barry: OK - you know I love the hiking shoes we got at REI in SOHO. What a store! And the service was great.
REI, SOHO, NY
Rachel: It took forever. I was going nuts.
Barry: But in the end we got the perfect shoes for us. Those guys know their stuff and they were really helpful. There’s a lot to picking the right shoes - the shape of your feet - the kind of hiking or packing your doing etc. etc.
Rachel: Yeah, but I hate shopping with you. You take forever.
Barry: I’m just focused. I have endurance. When I saw those guys knew their stuff and would give us the time I decided not to leave until we got exactly what we needed. I mean, there were shoes I thought I would like but they just didn’t feel right. Each one is different and when you are hiking you need something that really fits your foot. We got that. I made sure we both got that. You should thank me because you would have quit.
Rachel: You’re a nudnick. You drove them crazy and me crazy.
Barry: But you’re happy with the shoes?
Rachel: Yes, very much so.
Barry: And you would have had the endurance to work your way through all the choices to finally get to them?
Rachel: Probably not.
Barry: And, in the end, it’s not really important that we drove those guys crazy. Is it?
Rachel: I guess not.
Barry: And we are ready to take on longer, harder trails?
Rachel: I guess so. Any more questions?
Barry: Maybe, why?
Rachel: I don’t know, don’t you think you’ve asked enough?
Barry: Maybe, is that what you think?
Rachel: I think you’re a huge nudnick. That’s what I think. I’m not sure REI will let us back in.
Barry: So it would have been better to buy something that kills our feet?
Rachel: Do you think kill is a word you want to use now?
Barry: Why not?
Rachel: Why not? I’ll show you why not! Get off the couch and help me out with the Big Forest Beard Shampoo.
Barry: What’s to help? Can’t you see I’m busy blogging here?
Rachel: Do you want to eat a home cooked meal ever again?
Barry: I’m coming, I’m coming, just relax, take it easy...
