We left Astoria at midnight on Friday night and got to Glen Spey at about 3:30am. The following morning, we walked to a nearby lake and even though we were told to clear the property because of a wedding, we took a quick dip. Unfortunately, the bottom of the lake was full of algae that kept grazing our legs.
We then explored the woods for a bit and studied different mushroom species with Oksana's Russian Mushroom Guide.
My friend and his pup Bentley ended up making their way to the house later in the evening. Carmen immediately fell in love with Bent and their wrestling entertained us for the rest of the night. There's a great video of her commanding him to "cut the shit," but she would kill me if I posted it on the Internet.
We woke up on Sunday morning without electricity due to Irene. Apparently parts of Upstate had flooded and several trees had fallen.
After breakfast in a nearby mom and pop diner, we went to Price Chopper and bought an excessive amount of candles and meat to barbecue for dinner.
A serious rager of a night ensued and a bonfire was built. Lots of "interesting things," as Carmen puts it, happened. Encouraged by the consumption of 2.5 L worth of liquor amongst the four of us, we hopped over the fire and then Oksana "baptized" us with rain water. Fun times.
We felt pretty brain dead and extremely dirty (reminder: we had no running water) driving back into the City on Monday afternoon. I87-S was closed and getting around it was a tremendous bitch. Alas, I got to work around 4pm and completed my lab chores.
Let me tell you, you learn to appreciate functioning toilets and showers after being out in the woods for a few days.
