(13) Fall Hike Weekend

Saturday, October 18th: I packed up all my stuff and was taken to the airport to fly to Cleveland for my Mom’s family reunion, called Fall Hike. It was a very last minute decision. Today was actually our day off for the week and tomorrow the company is starting the drive back to McLean, VA for our next show. I made plans with my boss to travel away from the company and meet up with them in McLean, which is a suburb of Washington, DC. My flights got me in to Cleveland just after 5:00pm and Carrie, my sister, and Brian, her husband, picked me up from the airport. We went to the hotel to drop off my bags, got some food, and left to go play Whirlyball with a large group of my cousins. Whirlyball is a combination of bumper cars and lacross. You play 5 on 5. Each player drives their own bumper car and has a scoop, like at the top of a lacross stick. You play with 1 large wiffel ball that you have to throw against a backboard that is about 8’ off the ground with a net in the center of it. If you hit the backboard, your team gets 2 points and if you hit the net your team gets 4 points. The games are 15 minutes long and are a whole bunch of fun! I played in two games and was on the losing team both times. The Barcus side of the family ganged up on the Liss side on the family in the last game and totally destroyed them!

Sunday, October 19th: Carrie and I had Panera for breakfast and then Casey and Celeste met us at the hotel. They had brought Celeste’s dogs with them and a crate of Casey’s old t-shirts. I took a couple of his t-shirts(which I then forgot in Carrie’s rental car) and a long sleeve shirt. The temperature outside was FREEZING cold! It was about 30 degrees when I woke up in the morning. I definitely have not seen temperatures anywhere near that since I moved to California, so it was quite a wake up call! We packed up the cars and made our way to Strawberry Lane, which is where we start our hike from. On the way we passed my Great Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel on the highway. When we got off the highway, we almost turned the wrong way, but saw Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel and followed them. After getting in behind them, they slowed to a stop in the middle of the street to look as a family of deer who were in the field near the road. Now, up until a year or so ago, everyone who came to the family reunion would meet at my Grandma’s house on Claver Street and caravan(usually 10-15 cars) over to Strawberry Lane with Uncle Sandy and Auntie Evel leading. It was always a stressful and hilarious even trying to follow in the caravan. This episode was a great reminder of why we should never do the caravan again! When we got to Strawberry lane, everyone gathered around to take the family picture. There were 46 people and 3 dogs at the hike as counted in the annual picture. We always end up suckering someone at the park to take pictures with everyone’s camera. We walked across the street to the area where the hiking path starts and Bob Barcus(my Mom’s cousin) gave a quick speech. Then off we went on the hike, and not on the path like most people would, but strait into the woods. We went up a down a couple of really good ravines and about 2 hours later ended up at Squire’s Castle on the other side of the park. The people who hadn’t hiked had set up our typical lunch of corned beef sandwiches, noodle kugel, macaroni and cheese, apple sauce, beans, coconut bars, and Ant Cathy cookies. After lunch, we had a egg toss, which is always a big deal because it give you bragging rights for the whole year. Brian Vogel and I teamed up, which ended up being a great idea! Let me preface this with saying I don’t ever remember coming in higher than 3rd. Brian and I were up against Kenny and Mike(more of my Mom’s cousins) who had won a number of times. It came down to these two teams, who then had to do a double egg toss(where each person gets an egg and you have to throw both at once.) On the first toss, both teams broke one egg. On the next toss, both teams broke the OTHER egg! For the first time in Fall Hike history, there was a tie in the egg toss!

My Mom took me to the airport and I flew back to DC to meet up with the rest of the company who was starting the driving back to McLean, VA. I met up with David Paige, my boss, whose house I was staying at that night. I met him at a metro station and we drove back to the restaurant where he and his wife, Liz, were having a birthday dinner for Liz’s Step-Mom and her friends. It was a little strange because everyone else was really dressed up and I was wearing jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Fortunately everyone was really nice and they invited me to join them for dessert. It was a long weekend, but worth seeing everyone on my mom’s side of the family.