Week 9 Day 2 of 2: "Monkeying" Around

February 28, 2010

For school my homework was to observe two primate species and answer a bunch of questions. So off to the zoo I went. The North Carolina Zoo is located just a few miles outside of Asheboro. It is a decent size zoo with a North American section and an African section. I was exhausted this morning after spending the wee hours of the morning purging my system and thinking I was dying. I will never eat salmon again, although I’ve heard there is a stomach bug going around so maybe that was it. Yuck! I got up later than planned; got to the zoo later than planned. Upon arriving I was on a mission: go straight to the gorilla and chimpanzees, monitor them, and leave. Not the greatest start to an adventure.

I started with the western lowland gorilla. What a lonely guy! Nkosi is the lone gorilla in the exhibit. His two female companions died this past summer of cancer. Apparently there are two more arriving this spring. Nkosi was sleeping when I arrived. There were no other observers around. Let me just add that this was an excellent time of year to go to the zoo. Hardly any people there! He heard me and stirred, sat up, looked at me and turned his back to the glass. He appeared to get annoyed with me and walked away. I followed the trail around to another viewing area. Nkosi looked at me, pulled some grass to eat, and walked away again. I followed back to the previous viewing area. At this point Nkosi got smart and walked to the back of the habitat where there were no viewing areas. About 10 minutes later the zookeeper could be seen at the top of the habitat. Nkosi walked over and sat right in front of the zookeeper waiting. He knew it was feeding time. Nkosi caught the first piece of food and began munching. His diet consisted of carrots, kale, and green peppers. Nkosi loaded up his hand and mouth with food and walked bipedal to a corner. This is interesting, considering that most of the time gorillas are quadrapedal (walk on all fours).

Next I moved on to the chimpanzees. These guys were a little move active. Two of the younger ones wrestled the entire time I watched them (roughly 20 minutes). They had a red blanket that the two of them were fighting over. The adult chimps were busy grooming each other. The chimps seemed to pay no attention to the observers at all. They were much more tuned into each other. However as more people started to file in to see them, the chimps started to wander out of view. The two that had been playing got up left first. The female was leading the male with his finger in her mouth! What a strange and funny sight.

On my way out I happened to pass by the baboons. This was not a planned stop, but turned out to be my favorite. There were roughly 20 Hamadryas Baboons. They were very active. The best part was that there were two baby baboons. They were hysterical. The babies chased, bit, grabbed tails, pulled hair, and pounced on top of each other. I spent the most time here, about an hour, because it was so very entertaining. Every so often a male baboon, who I’m guessing was the father, would intervene with the babies. The parents kept watch over the babies and kept them away from some of the other adult baboons. Most of the other adults spent their time grooming each other.

I took all of the notes I needed and headed home. It is amazing to me how interesting these primates are when you have a little bit of background on them.

As a final note: "Monkeying Around" is a misleading statement. Gorillas and Chimpanzees are in the Ape family and are not monkeys. Baboons are however in the Old World monkey family.

Now for something completely random....When is the last time you saw an Orange Crush sign?

Week 9 Day 1 of 2: Self Defense

February 27, 2010

With all of my travels, adventures, tours, and gallivanting about by myself, I felt is was a good idea to take a self defense class. This will prove to be one of my more expensive adventures compared to the usual, but well worth the money. I gained no cool pictures or funny stories from this adventure. However, I did gain valuable knowledge and a sense of empowerment. I highly recommend a self defense course to all the ladies out there. You never know when you might need it. I chose to take this course to protect myself if any occasions should arise. Better safe than sorry.

Safety in numbers, but if you want to do it and can't find a buddy do it anyways but be knowledgable and aware.

I'll be do something interesting tomorrow, so this is just the first part of this week,s adventure.

Week 8: Winterplace & DSO

February 20 & 21, 2010

The bus pulled out of the church parking lot at 6AM. Getting up early is for the birds. I chaperoned the youth from church on a ski trip to Winterplace, WV. The trip to the resort took about 4 hours. We arrived around 10AM and were skiing by 10:30. The skiing conditions were ok, not too icey. It was warm out and as the day went on the snow melted. The slopes were extremely busy with kids. So I set in the lodge and visited with the youth coming and going for a couple hours. By 5PM the slopes were clearing out and I headed out again. As the night went on, it did get icey. Welcome to east coast skiing.

Sunday was a half day ski. We skiied from 9AM to 1PM. The slopes were less crowed which made skiing much nicer. By the end of Sunday, I had skiied most of the trail. I spent most of my time on the blacks and blues. The slopes are not very difficult at Winterplace, so I ran the mogules much of the time.

We arrived back to the church a little after 6PM. I ran home to take a quick shower and head downtown for the Dark Star Orchestra concert. It was awesome!

Busy weekend, great time! I'm so sleepy!

Week 7, Day 2 of 2: Skiing Wintergreen

February 17, 2010

This week I had an extra adventure, skiing at Wintergreen Resort in Virginia. The bus left at 4:30 AM, which means I was up at 3:30. I haven't been up that early in....well, I've never been up that early. We arrived at the slopes by 8:30AM, donned our gear and headed down. The goal for today: ski every slope. Goal completed plus some bonuses! The bonuses were a little out of bounds skiing to check out the fresh untouched powder (aka the secret stash!). The trails here are fairly easy. Some are listed at black diamonds and double blacks, but nothing should be rated more than a blue. The only exception being the 2 mogullies (trails with moguls or bumps). I even hit up the terrain park for a little jumping. I'm sure I got at least an inch of air on my 2 jumps. Those little 8 years olds put me to shame when it comes to jumping. I only fell once because I got a little too confident at skiing backwards. Oops! We skiied from 9 to 4 on a beautiful sunny day. Extra adventures are always welcome!

Disclaimer: I did not take the bottom two pictures. All the pictures were taken with camera phones. I'm not risking my good camera on a ski trip.

Week 7, Day 1 of 2: Furniture Capital of the World

February 13, 2010

I headed west today, as usual, in search of “Weird N.C.” The first stop on the list was a giant milk carton. According to the Internet, the milk carton is in Burlington right off of exit 145. I hopped off at the exit for Burlington and went into downtown. I did a little site-seeing, but didn’t see a milk carton. I turned around and drove back under I-40. I saw a cool old brick building and a church with a belfry. Unfortunately, the giant milk carton eluded my detection…I will eventually find it.

Next on the list was High Point, NC – furniture capital of the world. Located in High Point is the World’s Largest Bureau. Yes that’s right and it has sox hanging out of it. As I drove down the road, I took the exit for furniture world. I spotted a large dresser right away, but it wasn’t the one I had seen online. Apparently, there is competition in the furniture capital of the world. I snapped a few pictures and was off to find the next World’s Largest Bureau. I drove to downtown High Point in search of this bureau. I drove around downtown for about 30 minutes trying to find this bureau. High Point is a very interesting town. The buildings are unique and the town is not on the grid system. It is definitely worth a visit. There must be 100 or more furniture stores in that town.

After driving around for a while, I found the object of my adventure – a giant bureau with sox hanging out of the drawer. It was sitting on a side street mashed between an apartment building and an insurance company. This bureau is a few stories high. At almost 5 feet tall, I barely cleared the claw foot. What a bizarre thing to build. I went around the back and it’s connected to a building. The bureau is hollow.

I saw what I was looking for so I thought I would head home. As which point I saw a giant bicycle on top of a building. I guess the whole town is trying to stand out. While trying to find my way back to the high-way, I found a hidden delight. High Point has a museum dedicated to furniture (imagine that). I couldn’t pass this up. I went inside to learn all about High Point and the furniture boom. It was a great little museum and it was free! Along with the museum, there were a few out buildings. As I learned, this was once the home of John Haley the black smith. Haven’t heard of him? Me neither.

The first house had two ladies cooking on the open fire. They were having beans and sausages for lunch. Next I strolled down to the blacksmith shop. The blacksmith was phenomenal! He was very talented and was currently working on a trivet that was rotatable. Quite the invention for 1793. There was a wide array of items that he had previously made – horseshoes, shovels, silverware, fancy candle stick holders. The final building was the home of Mr. Haley. It had furniture from the late 1700’s, although it was not original to the house.

And now for an advertisement from JD Construction Company. Check out the latest and greatest in home living. This is a step up from the double-wide that you have now. Behold the new triple-wide. That’s right ladies and gentleman, mix and match colors for your housing sections, line the doors up with each other, and park a few cars in yard. This is a great way to expand your home when that unexpected baby pops out. Fast delivery of your new module and installation will be completed in less than a day. See our module home below!

Week 6: Raven Rock

February 6, 2010

It’s been pouring dogs and cats here since Thursday; I imagined that hiking today would be a bit soggy. I purchased a rain coat for the hike because the weatherman predicted a rainy day. To my delight, I woke this morning to find the weatherman was wrong. I headed down US1 reading the signs as I went. The Deep River. As I crossed the bridge and looked out across the river, it was true to its name. All of the rain that has been pouring down had flooded the river banks. I took the next exit to try and get a closer look at the river. I went right – nothing. I turned around and went back across the highway and found another bridge that crossed the river. I stopped and snapped a few pictures.

When I got to Raven Rock State Park, it was 35 degrees and cloudy. I started out on the Raven Rock Trail. It was muddy as I expected. It was not long before I heard running water. I crossed over a meandering stream. The path followed the stream and eventually I changed paths to Little Creek Trail. Another very fitting name since; it followed the creek. As I walked the trail, I could hear the sweet music of the creek. Trickling and roaring; rising and falling. It made the stroll absolutely delightful.

The one thing about this particular hike was that everything was covered in fungus. Tree bark was covered in florescent green fuzz or orange bracket fungus. The orange fungus looked like barnacles stuck to the tree. Dead logs had brown puff balls on them. Rotten sticks were covered in pastel green cauliflower like fungus. It appears as though not much sun touches this forest floor.

At one point I had to go off-trailing due to flooding on the trail. The Little Creek was overflowing its banks onto the path. The creek was extremely calm at this point and looked as though it barely moved. It went from spanning 6 feet to 60 feet within 20 yards. Through the forest I went, getting jug by jagger bushes. I found the trail again and continued on a little farther. The next time I lost the trail in the water there was no hope of recovering it. Water had covered the bridge and the railing was just barely peaking through the water. There was a fork in the road at this point so I took the one without water.

I met back up with the Raven Rock Trail and followed it to a split. I took a steep path down to a set of stairs. They lead to the Cape Fear River. This is a massive river and it was even more massive today as it too was flooded. I lost the path again and again there was no recovery. The path lead between the river and the bottom of the cliff, so there was no chance of off-trailing. The rocks were amazing with the residual rain water running down them to form mini-waterfalls. I scampered across a fallen tree to clear a newly formed river and fell. I’m beginning to think I’m a bit clumsy. I got away with no injuries, making this a successful fall. I headed back up the stairs and hiked back to parking lot.

I lucked out with no rain, but I didn’t get a chance to try out my new rain coat.