Location: Paint Creek, north of Hot Springs, NC
We found the “ducky slam” we intended to paddle over congested with logs, so we headed downstream. 
Paddling: Paint Creek
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Paddling: Nolichucky
We continued our paddling venture down to Erwin, TN, a town historically known for hanging an elephant. What a gorgeous river, though.
Paddling: Big South Fork & Rockcastle
Wade, Ray, and Kevin met me in Knoxville, TN, and we caravanned up to Kentucky for some paddling. We’re all open-boaters, meaning we paddle canoes through whitewater rather than kayaks.
We began our weekend with the magnificent Big South Fork:
Then we headed up to Rockcastle, which had a bit of a steep hike down to the put-in but was a beautiful paddle:
Florida Earthskills Gathering
Location: Hawthorne, FL
I worked-traded at the Florida Earthskills Gathering. I learned how to reverently slaughter a chicken, learned about pheromones, and how to take care of a gathering’s worth of humanure.
Oktoberfest 2013
Everyone should do it once.
One day is enough.
I took a bus from Berlin to Munich for the first weekend of Oktoberfest, which actually started September 21st. The night before, I met a vampire from Romania who bedazzled us with card tricks. Dawned in my dirndl, I awoke bright and early to catch the train into the festival, where we waited in a crowd outside the Armbrustschützenzelt tent for a bit before being one of the first waves allowed in. We secured a few tables and waited til noon.
My first liter of beer came right out of the first-tapped barrel of Oktoberfest 2013. The rest is history.
A word of wisdom: EAT. Eat as much as you can, so you may continue to drink coherently. ;]
Random Wedding Graffiti “tour”
As part of a German class, we all hiked up to Wedding to “tour” some “legal” “graffiti.” (Like, five. Nur funf!!~)
In the cold and wet.
After my own personal exciting urban exploration, this was sort of a drag, whether it beat the classroom or not is still in debate.
