"Go thru Nine Times and turn left at Sunset."

Of course I'm blogging b/c I'm SUPPOSED to be GRADING! See how it all comes around sometime?! When I'm supposed to be blogging I'm usually napping or watching movies, in case you were wondering.

Anyway Nine Times and Sunset were both towns we went thru when Andy was here on Mem. Day weekend and we did our incredibly beeyewteefull drive to NC and back. And at one point Andy really did say that so I made a mental note to use it for the blog title. Crazy town names. Way crazier that I remembered to use it! Ha!

Anyway here's our route, thanks to AP, mapper extraordinaire...
Start and end at the B and go counter-clockwise to reenact our trek. This was my first realization of how cool an area I'm living in now. It's like being back in Tucson but with slightly cooler temps and less rattlers (I'm guessing). This is the drive I mentioned a few weeks ago as being a good idea if anyone is visiting and we're not sure what to do with ourselves but don't feel like exertion (and no one minds the lack of AC in Hal since he would probably be the cheapest vehicle to take, gas-wise :) nyernt nyernt). I think driving time we did about 2.5 hours? If AP has a better idea I'll correct this later.

We stopped for pix and scenery at Caesar's Head. Short hike and tremendous lookout at a place whose name I can't ever remember (isn't this a great info-y post?!) and for some reason the pix Andy sent me won't load. I think they're probably really big and since I didn't pay attention that day in Summer Academy when they were telling us how to alter image properties (mostly because, frankly, the guy who always did the PhotoShop sessions irked me to no end) I don't know how to make them smaller so that they'll post. Maybe Andy will take pity on us and tell me how to do it. Then it will probably only be another 3 weeks til I get around to it. Actually shorter most like' since school ends Tuesday.

Anyway here you can see hiking pix from this weekend with the Meetup group. Page down if nec. and please disregard my weird locked-out-knee stance; I can just hear Mom if she saw that! We were just a little north of Brevard, NC (which you can see at about 1 o'clock on Andy's map), at the Butter Gap Loop hike in Pisgah National Forest. John's Rock, where we ended up before the last 2 miles back to the car (when I sprained my ankle :) , I think is roughly across from the major lookout where AP and I stopped whose name I can't remember. There are bunches of those huge bald mountains up there and incredible views everywhere. Incidentally if you look in the righthand sidebar, the pic with my name is kind of a topo shot AP took of me at Caesar's Head. I keep wanting to use it for my new Blogger profile pic but haven't got round to playing with it yet. Anyway thanks again AP.

It's pretty amazing to live so close to such incredible places. I'm told there are some fairly nice hikes closer to town, as well, but I haven't gone looking yet. I really need to since I'm still a bit sore from Sunday which means I better start using my hiking muscles more in between the big hikes. (In fact I'm in more pain from sore muscles than from my ankle, luckily.)