Extreme Hobbies

Enfield Gorge, New York

Our neighbors, Dave and Kristin, have a strange rig. The living quarters are in front. In the back is a very nasty looking Porsche 911, 4 sets of racing tires, some Nomex coveralls, twelve empty five gallon gas cans and a full set of tools. The trailer itself is 42 feet long.

They are in their maybe 30s and both of them drive the Porsche at races in Nomex suits. They have to winch the Porsche back into the rig because the racing clutch would put the car right into the living quarters. Watkins Glen is famous for it's summertime sports car races up on the mountain. It a venue where amateurs can sometimes compete. Dave and Kristin will be practicing next week and doing qualifying laps before the big weekend race on Memorial Day.

Mrs. Phred and I never did much more for hobbies than an occasional week or two on a Caribbean dive trip or a long camping trip or sometimes a trip to Europe. These folks look like they might have a couple of hundred big ones tied up in their hobby..Oh well...they have no kids...I hope they have a good time with life...

We invited Cousin Everett and his wife Midge to a picnic and the 2.5 mile hike though Enfield Gorge. We get up early and buy hamburger, buns and fruit salad. The Gorge is always spectacular...we walk it whenever we hit this area. Much of the geology is ancient here but the gorges have carved the soft shale within the last 12,000 years. It all looks the same to me as it did 60 years ago...give or take a few recent shale slides.

The swimming at lower Enfield opens next weekend. They will raise the water level by damming up the lower gorge water basin. I jumped in here when I was six, before I knew how to swim, and was surprised to find the water was way over my head...it taught me something important about life (and being in over my head).

The hike is fairly strenuous with a lot of ups and downs. We forget water , so we're dehydrated by the warm weather by the time we come all the way down to the lower falls.


In the evening I try out my new favorite grape, the Seyval Blanc.