The maiden voyage of the Goose was to Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, North Carolina. The campground was full and the weather was perfect. This being the first outing, we were both a bit on edge about how it would all work, but systems performed as expected, so any concern was for naught.
Stone Mountain provides several hiking trails of varying difficulty. We had some past history with the “tough” trail, but after some deliberation, decided to try it again. We spent four or so hours wandering the trails and had a wonderful experience.
Lessons Learned:
1. Beware of new metal – We discovered **new** serrated knives from Wally World are in fact sharp enough to dice a finger!! All was good, but it did emphasize the need to carry a stocked first aid kit and not be too anxious to get the hors d‘oeuvre out on the table!
2. Make lists and USE them – There is nothing like getting 30 miles from base and realizing life sustaining meds are back at the ranch. That added an hour, but was obviously well worth the detour. Make a list and USE IT!
3. Face your daemons – The last visit to Stone Mountain proved to be the initial discovery of the necessity of the above mentioned life sustaining meds. During that visit, we had no clue how close we came to creating a serious medical calamity, thus, this visit was a reincarnation and also a mental challenge to overcome what had previously defeated us. We met the challenge and overcame with room to spare.