It was a dark and stormy night...

Earlier this evening, we got a really big thunderstorm. The thunder and lightning really weren't too bad, but the wind was probably the worst I've seen with a storm in this area. And as proof I wasn't wrong in thinking that, I found out that the school that's almost next door to us, which is a WeatherBug station, recorded a gust of 54 mph this evening! That's definitely the highest gust I've ever seen recorded at the school.

With winds that strong, it's pretty tough to escape some negative consequences. Our neighbors on either side of us had large limbs break off of trees in their yards - just one more reason I'm glad we don't have trees in in our yard! Luckily, neither of them really had any damage from that happening.

However, I'm sure the winds were also in some way responsible for the power outage we experienced as the storm was winding down. The power went out several times during the peak of the storm, but after 30 seconds or a minute, it would come back on again. Finally, though, there was a time where it went off and didn't come back on. It didn't really affect us right away, since it's neither cold enough to need heat nor hot enough to need air conditioning, and it was still light outside.

However, after a while, we decided we should think about dinner. Probably most people in our situation would have just driven until they got to an area with power, and then eat at a restaurant, but that's not what we opted to do.

Brian suggested we go get propane for our grill, since it had recently run out, then go to the grocery store and get some food to grill for dinner. I could think of no reason to protest this idea, so that's what we did!

After we got the gas tank filled, we picked up a couple of little Delmonico steaks, some shrimp, some raw broccoli and petite baby carrots, and some potato salad.

By the time we got back to the house, it was dark. Luckily, I have a bunch of jar candles sitting together in one section of the kitchen, so I was able to quickly get them lit and distributed throughout the kitchen so we had some light. Brian quickly found our crank flashlight too, so we were all set.

Brian hooked up the gas and started the grill, and we started working on our veggie packets. We really like making packets of mixed vegetables for the grill. We normally have a larger variety of vegetables, but we didn't want them to take too long, so we only chose broccoli and petite baby carrots this time. We each had a sheet of foil and piled our veggies on the foil. Then we splashed some olive oil on them and seasoned them to our own liking. After that, we just folded the sides and ends up, leaving a little opening for steam to escape, and put them on the top rack of the grill.

The steaks were just as simple. We didn't have time to marinate them, so Brian just put some olive oil on them too, along with some kosher salt and black pepper.

For the shrimp, we tried something different. Normally we marinate them and thread them on pre-soaked wooden skewers, but we didn't have time for any of those things either. So we decided to try the foil packet approach with the shrimp as well. We put a slice of butter in with each packet, but no seasonings.

As the food was cooking, I suggested we have some wine, which Brian thought was a great idea - we already had the candlelight, so why not add some wine to the meal?! He took the flashlight to the basement and found a nice little bottle of Late Harvest Riesling from Stony Lonesome Wine Cellar along Seneca Lake in New York (which we visited last August). We sipped our wine in the candlelit kitchen as our food cooked outside in the dark, although Brian had to keep going out to the grill with the flashlight to check on the status of the food.

Finally, everything was done, and we sat down to eat our meal. And what do you know- just as we did that, the power came back on! We joked about it no longer being a romantic meal, but we enjoyed it just the same. Everything was cooked to perfection! I was pleasantly surprised at how well the shrimp turned out being cooked in foil packets, although they did take longer to cook than I expected.

So now the storm has passed, the power is restored, and life is back to normal. But we did have a neat little cooking adventure this evening, which we both thoroughly enjoyed!

Biking at Stony Valley

It's sad to say, but I hadn't been on my bicycle since the first day of spring! Yesterday, though, I finally had the chance to go out again. Brian and I met up with our friends Rob and EB, and we headed to Dauphin to the Stony Valley Railroad Grade trail.

I had heard about this trail from a friend at work who rides it regularly. We thought it would be good to try it out since it's not too far away and it's a rail trail, which means it's pretty level.

Well first of all, getting there was interesting. The last two miles of the trip were on a pothole-laden dirt road which was barely wide enough for two cars. The ruts and holes were so bad that we could hardly ever go above 15 mph - which made the hand-made sign at the beginning of the road, asking people to go slowly, laughably unnecessary.

We finally arrived at the parking area, got on our bikes, and started down the trail. I had read on one website that the trail was kind of rough and best suited for mountain bikes, but when I asked my friend about it, he said he had pulled a baby trailer on the back of his hybrid bike along the trail several times last year, and that we shouldn't have a problem with it.

Well, we were able to ride on it, but it was definitely not easy in some places. I thought because it was a Rails-to-Trails trail, that it would be much like the one in Newville, which has crushed cinders and some small gravel, and is pretty well-maintained. However, apparently the Stony Valley trail is not specifically designed for bikes such as ours - it's more of a hiking and mountain biking trail. We encountered a wide range of conditions and ground coverings on the trail - anything from packed dirt, to crushed cinders, to small gravel, to pretty large gravel - and there were a few areas with some pretty big puddles in the path. It was quite inconsistent: we'd be going along just fine on packed dirt, and then all of a sudden there'd be this section with some pretty good-sized gravel, and we'd have to slow down some to be able to get through it. Our tires are just not that wide, and don't handle rough conditions as well as mountain bikes do.

Having said all that, we did enjoy the trail, at least the portion of it we rode (it's about 20 miles from end to end, but we only went 6 miles before we turned around). It's out in the middle of the woods, and it was very peaceful and pretty. It was a beautiful day to be out there, and I took quite a few pictures along the way.

However, I don't think any of us are in a hurry to go back there anytime soon. The road to get to the trail, and the trail itself, are just a little rougher than we want to deal with. (I guess my friend - and his baby - are tougher than we are!) But at least now we can say we tried it.