shooting stars

I was in Western Virginia late last night.
After hiking Old Rag by myself and finding that it cleaned out the dusty parts of my mind, I feel quite driven to return to the mountains. I've spent time on REI.com checking out 2-lb tents and backpacks and sub-zero sleeping bags. I want to plan an expedition.
My talk of this seemed appealing to a fellow named Matt. We just met, but he agreed to a day hike in the Shenandoah National park. So we drove out there. It was raining, but we hiked anyways. Among other things, he had a bizarrely thorough knowledge of edible mushrooms. It was a good time, but far too short due to weather and daylight.
It was a foggy drive back. We saw deer crossing the road, and two baby bears loping across the yellow lines and tumbling up and over the stone wall on the other side.
On the drive back, we pulled the jeep over and looked at the milky way. I watched the International Space Station move across the Big Dipper. And I saw about 5 shooting stars.

Today, I trained early and made it in time for an 1100 interview.