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Lost Clove Trail
Sunday, June 15 2003
Today was another beautiful day, so Gretchen drove Lin, Mark and me out to the west on Route 28 so we could partake of the splendors of the warm-weather Catskills. We stopped for brunch in Phoenicia at a restaurant called Sweet Sue's. It had only recently reopened after being closed ten months from fire damage. We sat outside in the patio area with the dogs (Sally and Rev, Mark's huge Rottweiler mix) and ate mostly lunch-type foods (as opposed to the sweet, eggy dishes most preferred by brunch enthusiasts). Nobody seemed to mind the fact that Sally spent most of the meal wandering under other people's tables eating all the delicious scraps that had fallen. Kids in particular (at least on this side of the Rio Grande) seem to generate an enormous amount of table scraps.
From there Gretchen drove us further west to Big Indian and busted a left into the mountains, and we stopped at a trailhead to something called Lost Clove Road. We had plans to hike it to wherever it led, but the damn trail was so steep and our stomachs so full (actually, just the stomachs belonging to Mark and me; we'd eaten Sweet Sue's so-called "wet bean burrito") that we had to give it up. As for Gretchen, she had a gastrointestinal complaint issuing from an entirely different street address - but it was cured by a simple detour into the brush.
On the way back home we stopped to look at some canoes and then a couple more potential houses for Lin and Mark to possibly consider buying. We didn't go into them or anything - we just did "drive-bys" - the kind performed by yuppies armed with classifieds and cameras, not thugs toting forties and AKs. One of the houses was painted with the weird color choices Gretchen remembers from a trip she once took to Newfoundland. Generally speaking, when houses are painted weird colors, particularly in marginal places such as Newfoundland and Tijuana, it's because the paint was free.
Tonight around 11pm, well after Lin and Mark had returned safely to Brooklyn, Gretchen and I went on a semi-moonlit walk down the neighbor's long driveway. We were joined not only by Sally the Dog, but by both Edna and Noah as well. Cats are normally very leery of unexplored territory, but they must make some sort of exception to territory in the immediate proximity of familiar human companions - so long as they walked into that territory on their own initiative. This walk afforded them the opportunity to explore an entirely new building - one likely full of small edible rodents: our neighbor's barn. It featured a small hammock hanging in the doorway for Gretchen and me to swing on.
[REDACTED]
Mark asleep in the backseat at the canoe merchant's place.
He works a night shift in Manhattan and scavenges what sleep he can.
Sally loves to be in the driver's seat whenever the car is parked.
Rev is a big dog. He likes to fetch thrown objects and (unlike Sally) has a tendency to drool.
Lin and Gretchen discussing canoes with the canoe merchant.
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