This post is coming from Wayne and Darlene's comfy blue chair in snowy Milwaukee. The past couple of weeks have been nuts in our travel schedule. We ended up not going south to Little River as the camping was sketchy at best. It was cruxy finding a campsite anywhere near the canyon and once we found one, it was right next to the highway, no bathrooms, well hell let's just lay it out, it was part of the front lawn in a trailer park and they wanted $12 a night to park there, screw that! We came back up to Chattanooga and fought the weather there for a few more days before we drove back north to the Red.

The forecast said it was going to be beautiful and we were psyched on finishing some undone projects. It's become apparent to us that the good Lord doesn't want us to have good weather this winter. We drove back to a deserted Lago Linda's in a downpour, parked, and went to bed with visions of sun and dry rock. We woke up to four inches of snow and drip drip drip at the crag. After four days in the Scamp, we nearly strangled each other in our sleep. We ended up getting two days of lovely weather before we bailed to Wisconsin. Our conversations lately keep drifting back to how we can alter our lifestyles to come back to Kentucky next fall. I can say without hesitation that the Red River Gorge is the best crag I've ever been to, period!

That's all the stuff of the past though now. Wayne and I are watching TV and looking at the weather forecast which is calling for 13 inches of snow tonight, whoopee! Lin and I fly out to Costa Rica on Tuesday, we're praying for good weather and clear roads by then because we have to drive down to Chicago Monday night. We've got all our travel needs met I think, 30z bottles of bug spray, sun screen, and toothpaste. I need a pair of swimming goggles yet (and a speedo, don't tell Lindsay ;). When we get back, we'll head back to Kentucky, pick up the Scamp, and make for Rocktown GA to start bouldering. It looks like we'll be in the southeast yet for Jan. at Rocktown and Horsepens 40 and then Hueco Tanks for Feb. If I don't update before we leave the country, the next post will be accompanied by lovely pictures of exotic birds, fish, and scantily clad Wyoming-ites!

We may not have any more Internet access after this morning so we're filling in the pieces for the next two weeks before we go to Costa Rica. We've been in Jasper Tennessee for the last week, climbing at Foster Falls State Park, or Chosster Falls like we call it. The sandstone here is still bullet hard but it's not compact like the Red. This rock is more blocky, which means smaller holds, bigger holds, and nothing in between. It's been fun climbing more technical routes, humbling at times too. We're afraid to fall again, mostly we figure from the fact that the walls are just off of vertical and aren't the huge sweeping overhangs like the stone up north.

Lindsay's climbing really well here, she fell one move shy of flashing a .13a two days ago. Unfortunately the cold weather is following "the Whippets" (that's what we've been dubbed by all our new friends). Judging by the national weather map, it's not just us. The entire southeast is caught in a cold snap and it's taking it's sweet time moving on. Henceforth, we've been relegated to relying solely on the weather forecast and if it says that one hour south it's 20% sunnier and four degrees warmer, we head south. So this morning we're packing up and heading to Little River Canyon in northern Alabama. Our friend Tyler is giving us the proper locals tour and if I remember correctly, the rock is slightly more solid than Chosster Falls.

We've got two more weeks of climbing before we head back north to Milwaukee/Chicago to fly down to San Jose Costa Rica with the rest of the Gasch clan. Eight days on the south western peninsula and back again before we start the bouldering leg of the trip. Hopefully the gods will smile on us and bless us with some sunny weather, both here in the states and down south. We'll try to work out an Internet connection in Fort Payne and update before we leave for Costa Rica.