Excitement and Adventure and Really Neat Things!

So it has been a while since my last post, but that while has been far from boring.  I suppose for the sake of structure I'll try to go chronologically (I have no idea if that is spelled right but I hope it is).

First off, in the land of Ceylennor, tragedy has struck our band of adventurers.  They were successful in getting Satura home, however both Deeka and Gerb were killed in the ensuing battle. So while they were successful in thier quest, their rewards were few and they have been left wondering if it was worth it.  Once they left the caves they found a party of Vrill who explained the reason they wanted to kill Satura, possibly placing the characters in an even more akward predicament.  Finaly, as they started the return journey to Horvath, they met Skull coming across the Blighted Hills in his airship and were invited aboard to spend the night.  A perfect place to end a session and it leaves my characters in a precarious situation.  Excellent for character development.

The next item of interest, I graduated from HVCC on the 17th...  And I'll be going to PACE for Environmental Studies starting next semester!  Ok, moving on.  

Sunday May 18th, 5am
I am awakened by the insistent banging of Fuzzy's fist against my door.  
By about 6am, Dan, Laura, and I were on the road and headed for our grand adventure in Tennessee.  We were going to meet up with 4 of Laura's friends from Wisconsin, and the seven of us would be hiking almost 50 miles over 5 days through the back country of Smokey Mountain National Park.  The hike included climbing over Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the park (and in the state I think).  We started our trek at about 3pm on Monday, after finaly getting all the cars in the right places.  We climbed about 2000 feet over 5 miles to reach our first camp and we were exhausted.  Tuesday started better than Monday ended.  We got a fairly early start out of camp and were making good progress because the trails were mostly flatish or slightly downhill with occasional uphill sections.  Sadly our good fortune was not to last.  As we discovered, the trail we were on was apparently one of the least popular in the park, and so was convered in several inches of leaves in many places.  This means that things like tree roots are not always apparent.  Laura found 2 of these roots the hard way, rolling her left ankle not once, but twice.  Even so, it seemed like we would be able to make it through until we stopped for lunch.  The three of us got as far as the next available camp site and had to stop.  The three of us managed to set up the tent in record time and even kept it fairly dry  dispite the thunderstorm that had started up.  We spent the rest of the day and that night in the tent and then hiked out 7 miles to a ranger station the next morning where we were lucky enough to get a ride back to Dan's car from one of the rangers.  Not wanting to miss what would have been the high point of the trip, we drove up to Clingmans Dome and climed up to the observation tower at the peak (pun totaly intended).  

Now as it happens, my family had plans to go to Havre de Grace on the shore of the Chesapeak in Meryland for sailing lessons, and they had planned to arrive there on Thursday night.  And since we were out of the woods several days earlier than planned we had lots of free time.  We spent Wednesday night at a motel and drove the next day to meet my family in Havre de Grace.

When we arrived that night I was made an offer I couldnt refuse (I might not have survived if I had).  Dan and Laura left the next day to visit Joe and go home.  I stayed and learned to sail over the next three days.  So now if ever I say I'd rather be sailing, don't laugh, I'm being serious.  Sailing is a lot of fun, and now I'm certified to rent a 22 to 30 foot sailboat and take it out for a day of sailing.  

The final event of note was yesterday when my dad and I went up to The Duck for the last time to finish packing up my room.  Dispite all the quirks (some of them quite major) I'll miss Troy, though I fully intend to visit everyone.  

and now summer projects call, lounging is not something that will happen often...