A Walk in the Cary Woods

Inspired by Bill, fellow Hungry Intellectual member Nathan and I decided to hike to Sunday's bookclub meeting & BBQ held at a picnic shelter in Umstead Park.

According to Google walking maps, our journey would take us 2 miles through suburban Cary along Harrison Avenue, and 5.5 miles along a couple of well-maintained trails of Umstead Park. The hike, according to Google, was anticipated to take no longer than 2 and 1/2 hours.

Much like most novice hikers mentioned in A Walk in the Woods, Nathan and I were in for more of a workout than we expected.

Nathan was definitely Bill in this scenario and I was Katz, mumbling and cursing as I tried to keep up with Nathan's brisk pace. Fortunately, I chose not to toss any of our BBQ supplies out of my pack along the trail. I did however, manage to convince Nathan to switch packs with me as mine was significantly heavier with most of the food, books, notes, water, and charcoal for the grill (that we didn't use anyway).

Instead of printing the Google map and bringing it along with us, we chose instead to rely on the park's maps and trail markers. This was poor planning on our part, considering both Nathan and I are the most easily disoriented people we know.

So 4 hours and 2 extra miles later, we arrived in true 3S hiker style: Sweaty, stinky, and starving!

Thankfully enough, though we were very much late for the meeting, everyone was waiting at the picnic shelter with an amazing spread of food for our Appalachian BBQ:

• Strawberries and blueberries from the farmer's market
• NC pulled pork & 'slaw
• Pasta salad
• Tossed salad from a member's home garden & homemade croutons
• Sweet potato chips
• Peach, tomato, & cucumber soup
  
• Strawberry cobbler

And most appropriately.... Snickers bars!

Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.

I stumbled across this NPR article while taking a break from reading one of 3 books I'm currently juggling and found it rather timely. It helps put into perspective what we choose to spend our time reading, listening, or watching.

There is more media to consume than time to digest them.

A good read. Check it out here: The Sad Beautiful Fact That We Are All Going to Miss Everything by Linda Holmes

"I'd bang Ben Franklin!"

The Hungry Intellectuals have a reputation for saying some hilarious, and often off-the-wall comments, but this month's one liner will go down in the record book!

The Billionaire's Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace has nothing to do with Ben Franklin but follows another "sexy" Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson. The book chronicles Jefferson's 1787 tour and escapades through Europe collecting some of the world's finest wine and follows a story line of the art (and deception) of the modern day comically extravagant high-dollar wine collecting business.

The question remains though: Why does an otherwise worthless object (i.e. an acrid and dusty old wine bottle) increase in ridiculous value simply because a celebrity is believed to have owned it?

Move over Oprah, there’s a new book club in town!

Do you know that 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year?

This is the beginning of a blog for those 20% of us who not only embrace reading, but also sharing a good meal and snob-free intelligent discussion.

So bring on the comments, disagreements, criticisms and recipes!