Quantico Run Amuck 2012

Four of us, Mason, Shawn, Jennifer and I, ran the 2012 Run Amuck today at Quantico Marine Base. This was a 3.5 mile run with 18 obstacles including PT stations; mud pits; tire dash; barbed wire crawl, 20-foot pipe slither; A-frame climb, and more! This year there were over 3000 participants!! Oh, and we got to hit Marines so that was worth it right there!!!!!

Since I was running, I had to rely on Anais and Mary Ann to get pictures of the event.  Both did great and I wanted to share a few pics.  

The Marine Corps Marathon runs this event too.

Before!!

Jen, Shawn and me.

Jen, Shawn, my head and Mason.

This is one of Mary Ann's pics.

Another of Mary Ann's pics.  She took some great shots that Jen put up in her blog.
Go here:  http://picturepages.blogspot.com/2012/06/run-amuck-2012.html

Coming down one of the last hills.  There were about 700!!!

After!!!!

Oops........

Someone just HAD to go dance!

There was.....

Thanks Anais for the pics!!!!!!!!!!!

Great Day For A Ride / The Killing of John Wilkes Booth!!!

Wow, those two things don't particularly go together, but that's exactly how my day went today!  I got home from traveling to North Carolina and decided to venture out on the bike.  Although I had no particular destination in mind, I sure didn't anticipate that before my ride was through, I would end up standing on the exact spot where John Wilkes Booth died!!!  Again with the Random!!!!!!!!!!  

Couldn't resist some bike shots with all of the awesome backgrounds I had available!

After meandering around enjoying the nice weather for awhile, I decided to head over to Port Royal. I had flown over earlier in the day and decided to take a closer look and see what I could find. 

Port Royal dates back to 1652, and served as a deportation point for tobacco en route to Britain.

Some of the houses in old Port Royal date back to the 1700's!

The Rappahannock River. 

An Osprey flies over to her nest. 

Down near an old waterfront, I found a sign which mentioned John Wilkes Booth had hidden in the area, and in fact been captured and killed just a couple of miles outside of town.

I decided to go looking...

If I had this map available, maybe it would have been easier to find!!!

I discovered that on April 26th, 1865, Booth was tracked by the Union Army to a place called the Garrett Farm, and that it was pretty close to where I was. 

Living in this area, I’ve seen more historical sites than ever before, but none so hidden and off the beaten path as this one ended up being! When I finally tracked down the Garrett Farm, I discovered it’s long gone. 

There isn’t much in the way of markers, just one historical marker out on the highway, a directional sign showing the way to the site, a warning not to take anything, and a metal spike in a small clearing showing where the barn was.  

I finally found what I was looking for, but it looked like this was all there was.

As I got ready to go, disappointed that there was nothing left, I saw one more sign, across the highway, with a finger pointing off to the left.  I had to check it out!

The sign directed me down this friendly looking path!

I got to crawl under logs and cut through vines!!

Finally, I came to this.  A small clearing.

I took nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The barn Booth was captured in was burnt down by the soldiers, and the house he died in after being shot fell into disrepair in the 1930’s, and was later torn down. The whole site is now between the North and Southbound lanes of US 301, near mile marker 122.

 Although the barn and house are long gone, it’s still strange standing on the site where a major historical event took place. I know people do visit the site because of the 'sort-of' trail through the woods, but it was quickly obvious it is not maintained for mass traffic.

All that is left of the barn and farmhouse is this spike in the clearing.

But THIS is what it looked like in 1865!!!!!!!!!!!!

Staton, The Obvious: Art, Dead Cats, and...I Just Threw Up In My Mouth

This is a link to my friend Geraud Staton's blog.  We go way back, WAYYYYY back to a time of spiders and scuds in a far away desert land.  He kept us in stitches during our 'Vacation'.

It seems the years since then have only served to hone his skewed sense of humor into a sharp weapon of mass destruction!  In other words, he's a riot!!

As if his observations on life and all it's absurdity wasn't quiet enough, he's also a very accomplished artist and showcases both talents in his various blogs.  Do yourself a favor and give his blog a read.  Once you read this episode, which has to do with a "dead-ass cat", I'm confident you will want to peruse his other pages.

Oh, and he's probably going to cause me some physical pain for putting this up so If I disappear in the next couple days, well, you all know what to do!!!!!!!


Staton, The Obvious: Art, Dead Cats, and...I Just Threw Up In My Mouth

Here are a couple shots from that far away land in a time long, long ago.  Geraud is the guy that isn't me in the middle pic!  This was when we came up with the idea for the Lethal Weapon franchise.  Looking back, we SOOOOOOO should have trademarked that idea...............

Hershey Pennsylvania Part III-- Butterflys in Hershey Gardens

Somehow I missed putting up the final set of Hershey photos.  Not a whole bunch to write about, just 8 pics of butterfly's at Hershey Gardens (the last one is my favorite!).  They have an indoor butterfly garden with hundreds of butterflys flying around!  We also got to see a couple hatch out of their cocoons! 

These pics could have gone in one of the other Hershey blogs, but I do try to keep them fairly short so as to not bore the reader, which, of course, is you! 

Click Me!!!!!!!!!!

Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, aka, "Bug City!"

This afternoon, we visited the 644 acre Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge which is located where the Potomac river meets the Occoquan River. 

The varied habitats are claimed to provide visitors a "unique opportunity to view a wide variety of wildlife species and habitats in a relatively small area." 

We saw bugs. 

Not to say it wasn't a beautiful place, it's just that we saw bugs and no wildlife. Oh, we saw a bird too!

This is one of those shots that looks better if you click on it!

This and the next pic are the closest we came to seeing the thousands of species of wildlife we were promised!  It's the remains of a dead turtle!  The skull is like 10 inches long!  This thing must have been huge!!!!!

In the refuge's defense, it was pretty hot while we were there and most animals stay hidden when it's hot.  Maybe I'll try again early in the morning sometime and have better luck.  Hopefully I'll get to do a part II of this page one day with some great animal photos...