Over Presidents Day Weekend we took Judy and Elroy on a college visit to St. Mary's College in St. Mary's County, MD. That was on Monday and I'll post more on thei
r college searches some other time. On Sunday, we took Astro for a long hike behind Magruder High School. The area, nameless as far as I know, consists of acres upon acres of open fields and woods. Although this area had clearly once been farmland, and would make a great park, it is destined to one day become a cross-county connecter between two nearby interstate roadways. Even though there are countless trails crisscrossing the fields and woods, we've never come across anyone here and we can let Astro off the leash so he can run around without fear of meeting other dogs and getting into a fight. Until this area is developed we occasionally bring Astro here for leisurely walks. On this day as soon as we arrived at Magruder HS the sunny sky turned ominously dark gray (see picture above), shortly followed by an intense winter snow squall.
r college searches some other time. On Sunday, we took Astro for a long hike behind Magruder High School. The area, nameless as far as I know, consists of acres upon acres of open fields and woods. Although this area had clearly once been farmland, and would make a great park, it is destined to one day become a cross-county connecter between two nearby interstate roadways. Even though there are countless trails crisscrossing the fields and woods, we've never come across anyone here and we can let Astro off the leash so he can run around without fear of meeting other dogs and getting into a fight. Until this area is developed we occasionally bring Astro here for leisurely walks. On this day as soon as we arrived at Magruder HS the sunny sky turned ominously dark gray (see picture above), shortly followed by an intense winter snow squall.It has been frigid here for the past two weeks and the last snowstorm had left four hard-packed inches of icy-crusted snow covering the ground. The ice crust was so hard 
it even supported my weight and one could just shuffle-slide across the top of the snow. As we ventured carefully out onto the icy crust, soft snowflakes began to gently fall around us. However, ripping winds soon kicked-up and turned those welcome snowflakes into deadly ice crytals that felt as through they could pierce any exposed, unprotected skin. The snowflakes were being blown completely sideways by the gale force winds. I had to stop and put up the hood on my coat to prevent the lethal snowflakes from knifing down my neck. I was able to just get off a couple of pictures (see picture of Elroy and Judy) before my fingers ached so much from the biting cold that I was forced to bury them de
ep in my pockets to rewarm.
it even supported my weight and one could just shuffle-slide across the top of the snow. As we ventured carefully out onto the icy crust, soft snowflakes began to gently fall around us. However, ripping winds soon kicked-up and turned those welcome snowflakes into deadly ice crytals that felt as through they could pierce any exposed, unprotected skin. The snowflakes were being blown completely sideways by the gale force winds. I had to stop and put up the hood on my coat to prevent the lethal snowflakes from knifing down my neck. I was able to just get off a couple of pictures (see picture of Elroy and Judy) before my fingers ached so much from the biting cold that I was forced to bury them de
ep in my pockets to rewarm. The squall subsided after 15 minutes and the sky once again cleared and the sun shown. As we shuffled through the trails, there were signs of life everywhere in the dry brown thickets. Birds were flitting about, little mice were scampering under brambles and the many deer footprints frozen in the ice crust were evidence of their passing through. Jane and the kids found a large hill that they could slide down on their backs. Astro also slid down, unintentionally, which made us all laugh. It looked like a lot of fun, but I was too cold to try. We had come to this spot at the exact right time for an adventure and were not dissapointed.
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