A Walk in the Woods: In this comedy adventure [movie from 2015], Robert Redford & Nick Nolte star as old friends who make the improbable decision to hike the 2,190–mile Appalachian Trail.

Trying hard to enjoy nature. String Lake, Wyoming, 1986

As some people may know, I grew up in Maine. What you may not know from my currently, um, unimpressive physique is that I and my family spent every summer day canoeing, hiking and camping. I’d love to say that it was an idyllic childhood, but to my parent’s disgust I pretty much hated every moment of it. You really don’t know how much you miss your couch and cable until you’re out in the wilderness being eaten alive by mosquitoes and black flies.

(As an aside, Good Pennsylvanians, you do not know what Real mosquitoes are like. You have only met the tamed and sprayed mosquitoes. Maine mosquitoes are incredibly determined, will bite through two layers of clothing, scorn Deet like a minor hazard and swarm you in clouds of 100s at a time. If you’re really lucky, they’ll team up with black flies, who, instead of sticking their sharp needle-like proboscis through your skin, will chew messily through the skin and leave a bloody hole. Then, for a capper, add deer flies, who are huge and will buzz  you. The only way to escape them is to get completely underwater. You think I’m kidding? When my parents came down to visit me, the very first thing they said after getting out the car was, “No mosquitoes!”)

Despite this, or maybe because of this, I do sometimes have nostalgic moments for the peace of the woods. Thus, when I tried out our new resource, Hoopla, I was delighted to find the Robert Redford movie A Walk in the Woods.

Another aside: new resource? Hoopla? Well, on May 2nd, Upper Dublin patrons will be able to try it out for themselves! Hoopla is a website that serves up movies, music, ebooks, comics, and audiobooks. The best thing ever about it, though, is that that there are no waiting lists. Everything is available to everyone all the time.

To give you an idea of how exciting this was to me, I was number 45 on the holds list for the physical DVD of A Walk in the Woods. I don’t even want to think how long it would have taken me to get it. *sigh* But on Hoopla, it was available right away. After I created an account which took all of three minutes, I was streaming the movie! It really couldn’t have been easier.

However, back to Walk in the Woods. As someone who adores the book by Bill Bryson, I was quite pleased with the movie. They punched up the story a little for dramatic purposes, but basically stayed true to the heart of the book. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte are perfect as the loveable buffoons who really have absolutely no idea what they’re getting into but are doing it anyway. And I blubbered at the end. What else can you want from a movie?

So, on May 2nd, create your own account on Hoopla Digital and you too can be streaming or downloading A Walk in the Woods!

As for me, after that blast of nostalgia, I celebrated by going to my screened-in porch, having an iced tea and playing Gems of War via wi-fi on my tablet. Ahhh. Life is good. 🙂