This was definitely a fun, action packed Epic Weekend! I had a wonderful, classic summer in the Tri-State weekend for sure. Friday night we enjoyed a beautiful sunset after going for a nice leisurely walk down my mountain to Minerals. The weather by Friday night was perfect for a summer walk. Walking back up my mountain got me a little winded, no matter how good shape I'm in or out of shape, steep inclines always crush me. Steve doesn't like inclines, his shins don't either! I grilled a couple of burgers that came out terrific. It really does feel great to grill on my deck again for the first time in 5 years. It's a fun different challenge from a gas grill, electric basically takes more time and requires more patience. Electric grills also require much more cleaning than a gas grill, but hey it's still way better than no grill at all! I know that for sure. Friday night while going through Minerals I casually walked by a nice picture of the Appalachian Trail Boardwalk in Vernon. My friend Brooks was blown away by the beautiful picture as I nonchalantly walked by it. Saturday morning I came up with the surprise idea for us to go hiking at The Appalachian Trail Boardwalk in Vernon. I haven't walked the entire boardwalk in several years. I think most locals try to avoid The Boardwalk during summer weekends, because it tends to be packed with tourists. Right before I moved here in Jersey, several popular sites ranked The Appalachian Trail Boardwalk in Vernon as one of the best hidden gem hiking spots in America. As you can guess, once a hidden gem is nationally ranked well, it won't remain a hidden gem for much longer. Locals tend to hit up Maple Grange in Vernon instead, since that isn't as loaded with tourists. I'll take my friend Brooks to Maple Grange sometime soon, we're so lucky to have these beautiful places right in our backyard, well more like, our yard. I forgot how much fun it is taking someone to the Boardwalk for their first time. There's so much beauty all over the place. I pointed out how we usually see turtles from a little bridge halfway down the boardwalk. After being disappointed that there weren't any turtles visible at first, they started popping up out of the water to say hi. I counted 20 turtles one time, this time probably 8-10. They were beautiful and fun to watch, granted from a distance. We then saw a black snake that was likely harmless, but happy that it was down near the water far away from us. We had an absolutely wonderful walk. We were almost 80% of the way done with our walk when all of the sudden out of nowhere something stung me. It might have been a yellow jacket. All of the sudden, something out of nowhere just stung my back left calf without warning. I never saw it coming, so it felt like someone randomly stabbed me in the back of my leg. It was so intense I honestly almost collapsed. My friend Brooks was stunned and I don't blame her, it's not like we could even see anything coming at us that stung without warning. We're enjoying a beautiful, leisurely walk and all of the sudden I nearly collapse out of nowhere screaming in pain and jumping. Fortunately we were almost done with the walk, and I was able to ice it when we got back home. Brooks also had some pain cream stuff that I rubbed on and it definitely helped.
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Saturday afternoon time to venture out to Bethel Woods Center For The Arts. The weather was gorgeous, only raining on us during the drive to our favorite concert venue. We were so happy to meet up with our besties Margie and Artie. I have had so many wonderful, fun memories tailgating with them whether at Bethel Woods concerts or New York Giants games at MetLife Stadium. We got delicious sandwiches from MarketPlace Deli on Route 23 in Hamburg. My friend there immediately recognized me and asked if I was getting my usual plain roast beef sandwich and I said "absolutely!" Artie, Margie and Brooks all enjoyed their delicious italian subs, that were much more "normal," than my weirdo boring plain roast beef sandwich order.
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This was a first time at Bethel Woods concert for my friend Brooks, and she was blown away by everything. This was definitely another case of having a great, fun experience when you see someone's face when they see something like that for their first time. We went to a bar nearby Bethel Woods, and saw a sign for it that was really special. We know that Bethel Woods is the site of original Woodstock in 1969, I totally forgot that this past weekend was the exact anniversary of it! August 15-17 1969 was when the original Woodstock happened. It's one of those cool places where you can feel the history of what has happened there in previous years. The crowd was so friendly, several nearby new friends offered us food from their grill. We were all in near food comas after our delicious sandwiches!
Zach Top was terrific live, you can see that he's probably going to be one of those next huge stars. Many in the crowd were having fun singing along to his songs. Dierks Bentley was tremendous yet again. Dierks mentioned a couple summers ago how much fun it was for him to play at the original Woodstock site, and you could tell he was psyched that his show happened on an anniversary of Woodstock. I highly recommend Dierks Bentley live, he's been terrific both times I've seen him.
Sunday was a low key pool day for 2 hours, then due to thunderstorms they closed down the pool and had to have everyone exit the golf course. The rain seemed to miss us and we just had a nice chill afternoon on my deck. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my Epic Weekend In Pictures. Time to start planning next weekend! I'll be out of office next week, visiting my family back home. I can't wait to see them, I haven't been back up there since Father's Day. You can always see my Epic Weekend In Pictures in real time on my Instagram Story, @SteveAllanRadio.