BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

hopyards and hooligans. okay, so no hooligans in this post but I liked the way it sounded with hopyards.

We decided to take this little scalawag...
...Out for a nice long hike today. We settled upon Devil's Hopyard State Park in nearby East Haddam and don't let the name fool you: we saw absolutely no sign of the devil.

And if I knew what, exactly, a hopyard is I could tell you if we saw any sign of one. But honestly, I have no idea. We could have been walking on a hopyard the whole time, Strider could have even relieved himself on the hopyard, and we wouldn't have known it.

Hopefully Strider did not relieve himself on a hopyard--especially the devil's own personal hopyard. I wouldn't want to make an enemy of him by messing up his hopyard, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I can tell you that we saw this.
And walked over a nice covered bridge.
There were also plenty of fallen logs like the one my mom is sitting on comfortably here.
Some were right on the trail, too, and Strider was quite a little champion as he scrambled over each one. He'd get his two front paws over the hump and then scratch and heave and push with his back paws until his little rump would disappear over the tree.

It was then that my mom decided that maybe he didn't need quite so much help getting up into the passenger seat of her car anymore. That was Strider's problem; now that we saw he could do it, we expected him to do it every time.

Let that be a lesson for us all. You might not want to divulge an ability to someone who has a say in your life unless you're ready to be expected to do it all the time. I still let Drew think that I have absolutely no idea how to change the kitty litter.

And it works like a charm.

Ahem.

Please excuse the state of my hair. On impulse, and at the five minute call before my show the other night, I grabbed a pair of scissors and just snipped away at my bangs...
As you can see, not every impulse should be followed. Especially when it involves scissors and a five minute call till show time.

As we were driving out of the park, we were quite relieved to have an almost full tank of gas since this was the only station we saw for a while.
Yeah, good luck if you run out of gas on your way out of Devil's Hopyard State Park.

And we were lucky enough to drive by Lake Hayward on our way back to Hartford.
Gorgeous. Blue. Tranquil.

I really love New England, folks.

19 comments:

Jenna Latshaw said...

i wish i was there with you guys!

Jessica said...

from your pretty mouth to God's ears, Jenna!

Anonymous said...

New England looks very nice, but you have to admit it's no Cleveland.

Anonymous said...

What's not to love? Beautiful, absolutely beautiful! I am glad y'all had a great hike, Jess!

Karenkool said...

I wish Long Island had a few more rocks with streams running over it and fallen logs to sit on while hiking.

Hopyards! I think all we have here is the devil's playground!

Beautiful dog.

Jessica said...

Kool--just be grateful that your hands aren't idle or else you'd have the devil's workshop in ADDITION to the devil's playground!!!

Jessica said...

Jase--you bring up an excellent point--New England will NEVER be Cleveland.

or, for that matter, Detroit.

*sigh

Anonymous said...

We've had many adventures this week. Traveling with a dog is very interesting. Strider is game for everything but he doesn't like crossing busy highways because he thinks he's going to get hit. He's definitely a country dog in the big city.

It's fun living this life with Jessica for a little while. Her friends are very warm and friendly. Jess and I are strange but very compatible roommates. Jess stays up very late (like you, Jen) and I go to bed early and Strider and I get up very early. Does this still work? Yep. Jess can sleep through Strider barking and playing with his squeaky toys and running around the room. I wish I could sleep like that!

Anonymous said...

About Devil's Hopyard State Park: Legend has it that the devil hopped through the state park's waterfalls, burning holes in the rock with his hooves. These holes, some up to a foot deep, definitely make the state park unique. So this place is the devil's hop yard.

Another explanation: A man named Griffin grew hops in a small clearing -- the "hopyard" -- beside the road running through the area now called Devil's Hopyard.

What people know now: These holes are perfectly cylindrical and range from inches to several feet in diameter and depth. These potholes were formed by stones moved downstream by the current and trapped in an eddy where the stone was spun around and around, wearing a depression in the rock. When the rock wore itself down, another would catch in the same hole and enlarge it. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery that they tried to explain with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil had passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away.

Jessica said...

Well, I can't really blame him--who DOESN'T get extremely angry after their tail gets wet and then burn holes with their hooves as they stampede away?!?!

Natalie said...

The pictures are gorgeous, and I'm glad you got to enjoy the park!

In other news, a friend of mine is going to see ACL tomorrow night. I told her she's in for a treat. =]

Jessica said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jessica said...

Well, thank you for the kind referral!

Natalie said...

She's apparently going to stop by the stage door after the show. I told her to tell you I said hi if she saw you. Who knows what'll actually happen, haha.

Jessica said...

Oh great--I will look for her then!

jdawgigy said...

uh oh jess deleted another one! hmmmm...wonder what they could have said! I am imagining something truly horrendous!

Jessica said...

sorry to disappoint, but it was nothing so horrendous or exciting--It was my own comment that I had made but was missing some choice words in order for it to make sense, is all!

Mimi said...

I love Devil's Hopyard. I live like... ten minutes away from it, so we're there all the time. Glad you enjoyed it :)

xoxo

Jessica said...

Hey Mimi--thanks for stopping by and how lucky you are to live next to such beauty;-)