Camping 2021 Adventure

Hey everyone, it's that time of year again, the time when I go camping with my family and friends. This is the first time I went camping as a married man, and got my own camp site. I would normally stay with my parents either in their hotel or on their site, but now that I'm married and we asked for camping equipment on our wedding registry I got my own pokematic site with mskate. In the week leading up I gathered up pretty much all the equipment and supplies, and mskate packed our clothes. I also took the Friday off so we could get there right at check in time, and do some shopping at the outlet mall on the way there.

 Friday started out pretty basic. I loaded up all the gear in our SUV and treated it like pretty much any weekday morning. Around 11 we got on the road. I needed to get my allergy shot and pick-up some things from my parents, and since they are on the way we stopped there. It was just a quick little stop, nothing big. After the parents stop and an hour of driving we went to the outlet mall. We were going to stop at the Coleman store since we needed table cloth clips and wanted some spare tent steaks, but the Coleman store was no more so we had to skip it. We did stop at the Pepperidge Farm store and got some goldfish crackers and millanno cookies, and some iced tea bags. After Pepperidge Farm we went to the Adidas store because mskate needed new tennis shoes. I've never been shoe shopping with mskate before, but I know what the comedians say about women and shoe shopping, so I brought my Nintendo Switch in and sat at one of the benches. It didn't take her very long, but I wanted to be sure, and I did get some animal crossing in, so that was good. The last store we went to was a new hot sauce place. The clerk asked if I needed any help so I asked him for some recommendations. I settled on fusion garlic and pepper hot sauce, and that was our shopping trip. After shopping was lunch. We were going to go to this restaurant that gives you big portions and is good for getting camping food, but unfortunately they had a line out the door so we went to a burger place. I got a pizza and fried pickles to get left overs, and mskate had a bunless burger. After lunch it was back on the road.

After about another hour of driving we arrived at the state park. Since I went camping with my dad and brother earlier in the year (link here) we didn't need to get a recreation pass. I checked us in and got our site. We pulled up and started the set-up process. This was the first time setting up our tent, and even though it was my first time I'm a bit of a tent expert so I did it no problem. Well, only slight problem since it kind of requires 2 people to get the poles all set right, so my godfather helped me with that. After the tent was set-up I pulled the air mattress out and started inflating it. Fun fact, I somehow ended up with the air mattress pump my parents used for 20 years when they camped, so I used that on our air mattress. After I got the air mattress inflated mskate set-up our sleeping bags and the clothes. Since we didn't have table cloth clips I improved with bungee cords. With everything set-up we visited with my godfather and his family. For dinner we had walking tacos, primarily because it has minimal clean-up (just need to clean the electric skillet after heating the taco meat). I forgot our extension chord, but thankfully one of our friends had an extra one I could borrow. My parents brought up an extension cord when they came up on Saturday. I also somehow forgot the dish soap. I don't know how, I had it out with everything, and I swear I had it in the car, but even after unpacking everything I couldn't find it. We got some from the camp store, and now that's part of our camping equipment.

Friday night was pretty low key. Mskate brought pot holder materials for making finger weaving crafts. She showed my god-siblings how to do it and some other camping friends, and everyone really enjoyed it. After dinner we went to the ice cream store that's just outside the camp ground. Mskate had a special vegan gluten free sunday, and I had a mixed ice cream thing with brownie bits. We had a camp fire at one of our friend's site later in the evening. Just a calm first night. I was going to take a shower that night but the water was too cold, so I said "I'll try this tomorrow." The air mattress was a little under inflated, so when I got in mskate shot up, and when I got off mskate sunk low. The following day I inflated the air mattress more so it would be more comfortable.

Saturday started out pretty basic. For breakfast we were going to have hash browns and bacon. I brought a box of freeze dried hash browns and basically figured hydrating them would be similar to other freeze dried hash browns I've had in the past (hydrate in the box), but they were "hydrate in the microwave." No big problem though, I just took a bowl of water and heated it in the electric skillet, and then when they were hydrated I took them off the skillet and fried up some bacon for the grease; who needs butter or oil when you have bacon grease. The hash browns and bacon was good. After breakfast mskate and I drove to some different showers and they had hot water. When we got back I told everyone in our group that the other showers had hot water. Between breakfast and lunch we primarily did the finger weaving and pot holder craft. I made us 2 pot holders and mskate made a 4 foot finger weave. Mskate and I also went on a little walk, just down the beach trails so nothing really big.

My parents got up to camp around lunch time, so we said our hellos and got lunch ready. Mskate had hot dogs and I had a ham and cheese mini-sub. They heated up something on our skillet, but I don't remember what. After lunch it was time for the beach. I didn't really feel like swimming, but I put on my trunks and went out to the beach. I brought my metal detector I bought last year on black Friday and combed the beach. Unfortunately all I found was 3 bottlecaps, but oh well, I helped clean the beach some. After metal detecting I read another chapter of my Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest manga novel. After a chapter I decided to join everyone else in the lake. It was REALLY cold and I only went up to about my waste. I visited with the group, but went back in pretty soon after. After some relaxing mskate and I went around trying to book a Disney vacation. We went to the camp store to use their wifi, but that wasn't working well, so then we went to my parent's hotel to use their wifi. We had to use my dad's laptop since mskate's ipad and both of our phones weren't working right with the website. We were able to book our trip and it's going to be over our 1 year anniversary. That will be fun.

It's now approaching dinner time. My mom and mskate went to pickup the pizzas that everyone ordered over the morning. This is when things got fun. No one really planned it this way, but everyone started to gather at our site, and mskate and I ended up hosting our first dinner party. After dinner I started setting up the campfire on our site. When I got the wood and paper set-up it was time for ice cream. Mskate got a different vegan ice cream thing in a gluten free cone, and I think I just got some basic seasalt caramel. When we got back I got the fire started, and then did a little treasure hunt with my youngest god-brother. I took the bottle caps I found earlier and buried them in the sand just below the surface, and we dug them up after finding them with the metal detector. I knew when I was his age I would have really enjoyed an activity like that, and he enjoyed it too. The fire was fun, and it was cool hosting everyone.  I brought some potatoes wrapped in foil to make in the fire, so I put the potato in the fire and made a baked potato. Everyone was really impressed by it and the idea of doing a potato bar next year was floated. Before I went to bed I decided to give the showers a try, and they were warm enough to shower in, yay.

Sunday was a pretty low key day. I had a chocolate muffin for breakfast and then got dressed for church. We all went to the spot in the back that we always sit in. It was perfect for our group when we were much larger since we would pretty much fill the entire section, but now that we've shrunk significantly in size we only filled up about 1 pew. On our way to church I saw a garage sale advertised, so on our way back I decided to stop there and see if there was anything good. There was an Indiana Jones brand machete for sale, but I had to pass. When we got back I pulled out our food to share with everyone. I had a ham and cheese mini-sub and some bacon. I gave everyone else the rest of the sub buns, ham, and cheese (because I didn't want to bring it home). After brunch we packed up our stuff and got ready to go. Since we had the party at our site the previous night there was still a lot of other people's stuff at our site, so I made an announcement to get your stuff since we're checking out. I wasn't able to get the tent back in the original bag, and I tried when I got home but I just wasn't able to get all the air out and it just didn't fit back in the original bag. When we get a yard I'm probably going to try to get it back in the bag since I can do it on the grass, but for now it's rolled up as best I can and in our camp bin. Overall it was a fun trip. Next year we'll bring more finger weaving stuff and probably foil wrapped potatoes since that went over so well. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

A Simple Camping Weekend

Hey everyone. A month or so ago my dad had the idea to get a cabin in May and invite his sons (my brother and I), and last weekend was that weekend. It was about 2 hours north of me and 1 hour north of him, and there wasn't much of a plan (just getting together for some guy fun). Getting set-up was a pretty simple affair. Primarily we just had to make sure we had enough food and all the camping equipment we would need. My dad brought eggs, hash browns, brats, bacon, and ground chuck and bacon steaks, and I brought homemade chili, biscuits, chex mix, and pringles. For fun I brought some board games and an analog TV tuner to see if we could find an analog signal, and prescription bottle stickers and paperwork that I wouldn't be able to put in my shredder to burn, and my dad brought a wood burning experiment. I got everything ready and out in the living room ready for the trip.

Friday was the drive up day. I packed up my stuff and kissed mskate goodbye. The drive up was long. I hit traffic, and it wasn't very fun. Another thing that happened is my subscription to satellite radio ran out as I was driving, so that wasn't very fun. I thankfully had some comedy specials downloaded to my phone so I listened to them. I got there around 5:30 and we immediately started heating up the chili. I unpacked all my stuff as they cooked. After it was heated we served it up. Everyone really liked it, which made me happy because this was a new recipe, one where I forgot the chili powder. After dinner we had some of the chex mix and pringles, and everyone was happy I brought the chili in a mason jar because we used the jar to transport dish cleaning water from the spigot to the camp site. Now for the fun wood burning experiment. My dad saw someone make a thing where you drill a main hole in a 4X4 piece of wood, and then angled holes along the side, pour in lamp oil, and then you get fire to come out of the holes. He didn't have a 4X4 or lamp oil, but he did have some birch logs and sterno, so we drilled some holes in one and tried some different things. Here's the video.

Once the wood experiment was done we used the burning wood to build our camp fire. It was a fun time. We chatted as we sat around the fire. Nothing super spectacular, just talking about life. We did this until about 11 PM when the fire burned out and we went to bed.

Saturday was our main day. We woke up and had the hash browns, bacon, and eggs. Dad and I also had a biscuit. Since the forecast called for rain we went to one of the cities that was close to the camp ground. We explored the city and looked for some stuff to check out. We went to a farmer's market and I picked up some beef jerky and dark chocolate raspberry bark. It then started to rain, so we took refuge in the freighter watching building (because the city was along a shipping rout). We sat at a table and just waited out the rain. My crocks were filthy from the rain mud and campground pickups, so I left them out in the rain to get cleaned off (it helped a little, but not much). We went close to the border see if we could pick-up a TV signal, so I pulled out the tuner, set it up, and started trying to get something.

I like to say I was trying to contact the mother ship. Unfortunately I didn't get a signal, and I went through the entire VHF and UHF band (2-89). We went back to the camp ground to eat lunch after I wasn't able to find a signal. We had the brats and some of the pringles. After lunch we decided to go on a little walk down by the lake. There wasn't much of a beach, but there was a shore line, one with a lot of rocks. My brother found some flat stones and started skipping them. I then started looking for some good stones and went skipping too. Dad just sat down on a down tree and watched us. We did this for maybe an hour, just skipping stones and chatting. I managed to skip one about 14 times, but most of the time I either got 2-3 skips, or failed just went plop. My brother had pretty similar luck. Then there was one stone that I found, it was perfect for skipping; flat, slightly convex bottom, completely flat top, almost circular, and light. I was talking it up, and when I threw it, it plopped, not even a skip. That got quite the laugh out of everyone.

After stone skipping we decided to explore the other city near by. This is when I went thrifting. I found a habitat for humanity restore and a goodwill. I looked at all the VHS tapes looking for lost media, and then I went to the toys looking for American Girl Doll stuff. Unfortunately I didn't find anything, but my dad and brother enjoyed the restore and all the home equipment. After thrifting we went to the main street. My dad had been there in the past with my mom on get aways, but it was always so busy that they weren't able to explore the main street. This time since it was before memorial day it wasn't very busy, so we were able to got to everywhere. There were a lot of cool little shops, mostly tourist trap like knick knacks, but since we were tourists it was fun. What was really cool though was the city general store, a place that sold a little of everything. I picked up some pickle hot sauce, and here's my quick review from later that night.

Another cool thing was Wimpy's Hamburgers, a little restaurant that is based off the Popeye character Wimpy. That was really cool since Popeye is probably my favorite golden age cartoon. I didn't eat there since we already had all the food plans made, but if/when I go back there I need to eat there (and get more of that pickle hot sauce).

We walked a little more down the road and went to the brewery. Dad and bro wanted to go there and have a beer, but unfortunately they were closed down, so we just went back to the car and went down to the pier. They had a beach and a wave breaker set-up, and bro and I walked the wave breaker while dad just rested in the car. It was pretty cool, there were waves crashing on the boulders and it sounded like something from a pirate cove in a movie. When we got to the end of the wave breaker there was a light house beacon thing, and it was covered in graffiti. I was expecting the standard, "Jack and Diane 4 ever" and "Tim was here," and while there was some of that, most of it was religious inspiration, like "you're looking for a sign of God's presence, here it is" and "Jesus loves you." I was very conflicted as to how I felt about that, because while it is vandalism and that's something He generally frowns upon, there's also something about painting over this form of evangelization that just seems wrong. Whatever, not my moral dilemma to solve. We walked back to the car and went to an antique store on the drive back to camp. I like to go antiquing, and even though I typically don't find stuff there's always that "what if." Plus, I like to just look at all the nifty old stuff. There was a lot of decorations and toys, but what caught my attention was the room of records. Normally I'll find a half-full apple crate of albums at antique shops, but this was like an entire mini-record store, so that was cool. Then there was one thing that REALLY caught my attention, Mad Magazine the board game. I played this back in kindergarten in latchkey, and I remember the satirical humor being way above my head. Now that I'm an adult and developed a taste for Mad back in highschool, I wanted to play it again and see what the humor really meant. Unfortunately I didn't have $30 worth of want, so I passed.

Now we're back at camp, getting dinner ready. We had hash browns and the ground bacon chuck steaks my dad made. What it was was ground chuck roast with bacon ground in with it, shaped into a patty. It was really good, but could have used more bacon. I put some of my new pickle hot sauce on it and that gave it some really good flavor. Now it's time for day 2 of the fire project. Since we tried some different things the night before, each of us got a log and had the opportunity to do what we wanted. I wanted to try 4 holes a 12, 3, 6, and 9, each of different sizes. Bro wanted to try some holes on the side in addition to the top. Dad just wanted to put a bunch of holes in his, and drill in to get more sterno. One thing we all agreed with though, is we needed something to cover the main hole that we put the fuel in. Lucky for them my alcohol of choice comes in bottles, so I flattened out some bottle caps and made little lids. Here's the video of the events.

While we were having fun with our logs, we built up a fire, this time using proper technique so it wasn't quite as tedious as it was the previous night. Then when the logs were done, we just kicked them into the fire. I burned all my prescription stickers, so that was good to get done with. Like the night before, we just talked about life and how great this campout was, and that we need to do this again (but maybe get a cabin with an attached toilet). This went on until about 10, then Dad and I went to bed. Bro handled the fire for another hour since he has some trouble sleeping.

Sunday was packup day. We ate the rest of the hash browns and bacon and biscuits, and then we packed up all our stuff. After we said our goodbyes I went to the church that was right there down the road from the camp ground, and their mass was at 10 AM which was right about the time I got there. Talk about convenient. After mass I began the trip home, until I had the bright idea of going an hour out of my way to go to a city that the FCC has listed as having 2 analog stations. I put the college that's close to the city in my GPS and started my detour. I got there and tried to contact the mother ship, but nothing. I then put the GPS coordinates of the broadcast tower into my GPS and it took me to nothing. I went to one last open location and tried it on the 1980s TV I brought with me, and nothing. That's when I drove home defeated. On my way home I got mskate a beanie baby happy meal toy. They didn't have the owl she was looking for, but I got her a penguin and she liked it. All in all, great trip. I had some great guy time with my family, and the only thing that could have made it better was finding one of the last analog TV channels. Oh well. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Oh, and thank-you Max for your continued patreon support.

Camping 2020 Fun

Hey everyone. It's been forever since I did a blog, and we all have the damn virus to blame. For those of you who may be reading in the future, I'm talking about the covid-19 pandemic/hysteria. That shot basically all the plans in the foot. Oh well, things cleared up enough for my family to go camping like we do every year, and boy was it fun.

This year was particularly fun, because mskate joined us this year. Why did she join us this year? Because we're engaged now. Yeah, I'll be getting married soon. Before I get to all that fun, first some pre-camp excitement. First off, my air conditioner went out, so I've been hot and have been taking cold baths to help with the heat. Normally I wouldn't be interested in swimming in the lake, preferring to sit on the beach and read my manga volumes, but because I've been SOOOOOO hot recently, I knew I would be going swimming. I also stayed with my parents the night before, because I needed a break from the heat and they had AC. It was a very quiet, simple night together; we chatted, ate dinner, and did some packing. Since I had been working 4 10-hour days that week instead of my normal 5 8-hour days, I was really tired and collapsed at 9PM. Mskate was asking what time we would leave, and I couldn't really give her an answer because my family "gets going when we get going, we're on vacation, no need to wake up early, the destination will still be there."

Now the fun starts. I picked up mskate around 9AM and pack her things in my car. Normally my family would just take 1 vehicle, but because we had an extra passenger with her own stuff, and I had a much smaller lease this year, we took 2 cars. For the drive up, mskate and I drove in my car and my parents drove in their car. I largely followed my dad up until we stopped at a rest stop. After that we went our separate ways as mskate and I wanted to stop at the outlet mall on the way. Her mom needed new croc flip flops, so we made a stop at the crocs store. They were having a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale, but since my current pair of crocs were still good and I had a back-up pair for when these give out, we didn't partake in the sale. We also stopped at the Coleman store primarily to see if they had pocket ponchos (we didn't have any, and they're good for camping). Unfortunately they didn't, but they had water bottles and mskate needed a new one. We got a 2 pack because that's what they had. Mskate wasn't exactly thrilled since she only wanted the one, but I told her it was good to have a back-up since she really likes those kinds and lost her last one, and if she didn't use it there was still packaging on it to indicate it's new so we could gift it. Since she loves giving gifts, that sold her on them. Around the crocks store I found a new store called "rewind." The name caught my attention, and inside was a millennial childhood paradise. They had Pokemon, Digimon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Sailor Moon shirts, stickers, VHS tapes, toys, original Jordans, original Supreme skateboards, and so much more. I really hope they can last, because that is an awesome store. I didn't get anything this time, but next time I go to the outlet mall I need to get me some stickers. We tried going to the Pepridge Farm store to get cookies for the group dinner, but they were closed. Oh well, we just got some from a super market instead.

After the outlet mall we continued to drive to our motel. My parents say "they're too old for tent camping anymore," so we get a motel room that's close to the camp ground and just visit for the day. Since we had 4 people this time, we got 2 rooms instead. Since mskate are not married yet and are traditional like that, my dad and I shared a room and my mom and mskate shared a room. My mom made the initial reservations so I had to call to change to my credit card on the way up. This is where I had to be very sneaky. Mskate has been begging me to get a new phone to follow her on dexcom, or other thing and with her birthday the following weekend, I got a new phone; I just had to keep it hidden from her all weekend. I asked her to drive while I called the motel and that worked to keep her from seeing my new phone. Men were in room L and women were in room B. Mskate commented that we should have switched, so boys were in B and ladies were in L. We didn't though, and unpacked our "hotel stuff" (toiletries, clothes, laptops and devices).

After checking in and registering on my godfather's site, we went around and said our hellos to everyone. It was really fun introducing mskate, because I got to say "[friend] this is my fiance [mskate], [mskate] this is [my friend]." It was kind of the first time I really got to do this, and it felt great. After introductions I wanted to get in the lake and enjoy the cool water. It's been years since I went swimming, and it was really fun having my fiance there with me. One thing we did was have fun with the buoyancy of water, where she was able to princess carry me with ease. We also spent time visiting with our friends as everyone else was swimming too. Dinner was simple, just hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats. After dinner we went to the ice cream store that's just outside camp, and it was fun getting to see my little god-siblings eat their ice cream. Ice cream is a pretty common date for mskate and I, so this was nothing new for us. After ice cream I went to the liquor store that was close by and bought sunflower seeds, because those are fun to eat outside where you can spit them anywhere.

Evening activities were calm, just a camp fire. What happened next was really cool. Since I took an astronomy class in highschool I was looking forward to seeing the clear, country sky and all the stars. As I invited mskate and some of the friends to the beach, someone asked us if we were going to see the comet. I wasn't, but now I was. I looked through the sky and I eventually found it. I pointed it out to everyone and they were really impressed. It was a little hard to see, but if you were looking at it in your peripheral, it was pretty clear. According to some news articles, this was the Neowise comet. Some friends were confusing comets for shooting stars, but then I explained what a comet is and why they're so rare. It was quite the experience, especially for someone with a mild interest in astronomy. After that we went to the hotel for the night.

Saturday was fun. We had breakfast in the motel room and it was simple cereal and muffins. After dinner we stopped at the camp ground, but then mskate and I had a zoom call for couples with a diabetic partner. This was our first real "engagement seminar" since covid killed all our plans. It was really fun being among other engaged and married couples in this kind of capacity, and I learned some things. After the call we went back to camp for lunch. Again, simple hamburgers, hotdogs, and brats; and bacon ends and pieces. I have a meat market by me where they fresh cut the bacon, and they sell the scraps. It made for good lunch. After lunch was more swimming. What was really fun was some more friends came up for the day, the ones with Louie the Chihuahua. We tried to take him swimming, but he wasn't really into it. He did enjoy the raft we put him on though, and he looked very regal in his pose. We also jokingly did some water zumba since some people were playing music on their boat. It was fun. After swimming mskate and I were going to go for a walk to the boat basin and watch the boats launch, and maybe find a swing to have a nice nature date. However, I had both room keys and dad needed to go back to the room. He called me a little into the walk and this is when mskate found out about the new phone. "Happy birthday, I got a phone for you." After walking back and giving dad the key, she set me up on her dexcom. We decided to drive to the boat basin instead. The boat basin was fun, but a little crowded. We weren't able to get on a swing, but had fun sitting on the side watching people bring their boats in. We also went to the camp store, just to look around since it was close. Eventually it was time to head back for dinner.

For dinner we got pizza from a local pizza place, and mskate and I split a pepperoni, pine apple, and banana pepper pizza. Everyone enjoyed the cookies we got. After dinner we went for ice cream again. This time my little god-brother was really thirsty. Since his dad did these kind of things for me at his age, I gave him a drink from my water bottle. His mom didn't know me then, getting married when I was a teenager, so I said "after all the times your husband did these kind of things for me, I can repay the favor." It's fun having that whole "full circle" thing. After ice cream we went to the boat basin and were able to swing. Mskate was really tired when we were swinging, so I took her back to the motel afterwards and came back by myself. More camp fire fun. I stayed maybe another hour, then I went back to the motel for the night.

Time for Sunday. We had simple breakfast in the motel room and got in our church clothes. We went to church together like we do every year, but because of social distance requirements we weren't able to take over the back chair section like we've been doing for 30 something years, so we just spread out. It was a good sermon. After church we went back to the motel to change into camp clothes, pack-up, and check out. There was a communal breakfast were we share what we have left, so some of the bacon ends and pieces went, as did the ice tea I brewed the previous day. I intended to make my iced-tea and lemon drop moonshine cocktails, but I forgot so we just had iced tea. I also brought some of my home made bread, and everyone really liked that. After breakfast we went home. Mskate and I drove home separately, and I dropped her off at her parents house with all her stuff. Well, except for her camp chair; that got left in my car. Oh well, I'll return it later. All in all a great time. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Family Camping 2018

Hey everyone, I went camping with my family over the weekend. This is the annual camping trip that we do with a group of friends every year. Here's the run down; my parents and this group of friends met in a singles group 32 years ago, one year they decided "lets all go camping," and they've been getting together to go camping ever since, bringing their spouses and children with them as they started appearing. Most of us "2nd generation" are close in age, so it's fun growing up together and catching up every time we have a gathering. Many of us 2nd generation are adults now, and some are married bringing their spouses with them and have kids of their own bringing in a 3rd generation. Now that you're all caught up, here's what happened.

On Friday I went over to my parents house early in the morning and we began our trip up. Since my grandpa is kind of on the way, we set-up a quick visit. Dad and I put salt in the water softener and had lunch with him. It's always fun seeing him since he lives kind of far away. After our visit we made it up to our motel. My parents used to camp in a tent, but as they got older they said "we can't do this anymore, there's a little motel not to far from the camp ground, we'll sleep there and just visit for the day." They sleep in the beds and I sleep on the floor on an egg crate mattress and sleeping bag, so it's kind of like camping.

Now for the big fun, seeing everyone. When we showed up one of the first people to greet me was my 10 year old godbrother (my godfather's son). He was quite happy to see me, and I was happy to see him. Soon after that I said hello to my aunt and her kids, and made my way to say hello to everyone. Our group has shrunk over the years, so it's a little easier to remember everyone and spend time with everyone. Last year we had our first 3rd generation baby; first of the 2nd generation to get married, and first to have a baby. This year she was a little older and able to stand (albeit assisted). What added to the cuteness is my 6'5" cousin rescued a chihuahua from under his neighbor's truck 2 weeks before. His name is Louie, and he's really friendly, with everyone. Like, I expected him to be at least nervous around all these new people, but no, just walk right up and asked to be picked up. He looks kind of funny when my cousin holds him, because he's like half the length of his forearm. Now, when we put our little 3rd gen toddler with Louie, it was something else. I think I was holding Louie and her dad was holding her, and both of them wanted to play with each other; like, both were reaching for each other and it was pretty clear they wanted to play. Both us "adults" were careful "our babies" didn't hurt each other; the dog didn't nip or scratch the toddler, and the toddler didn't squeeze or "pet" the dog too hard. But no, both were well behaved and enjoyed each other without problem. There was a little sadness when we said "play time was over," but whatever. It was really cute. There was a little problem with Louie though; because he was so new to his new life, camp was a little overwhelming and he didn't want to eat. Now seeing that chihuahuas are naturally tiny little dogs, and this guy was recently rescued, he really couldn't afford to not eat. Since he didn't want to eat his dog food, I said "lets try peanut butter, dogs like peanut butter." Mom was a little worried that peanut butter wasn't the healthiest thing for a little dog (there's a lot of added sugar, and it's not something dogs should have a lot of), but my cousin was in agreement that "it's better than nothing." Welllll...Louie didn't want to eat the peanut butter, even after we smeared some on his snout where he would instinctively lick off and show "see it's good." Since that didn't work, I suggested cheese, the go-to "hide a pill" for all dog owners. He didn't want that either. It was around lunch time, and I was having bacon with my lunch. I said "lets try bacon," and that thankfully worked. Granted, cured salted meat isn't all that good for anyone, but if it gets him some calories so he doesn't starve that's all we need to worry about. I also gave him some of my hamburger, so that was good.

After that fun, I played corn holes with my godbrother. It's the picnic and camp game where you throw bean bags at boards and try to land on the board or in the hole. It was quite fun. I teamed up with his other godbrother and he teamed up with one of the other "adult 2nd gen." We had a lot of fun. After dinner we went to the ice cream stand that's not too far from the camp ground. I had a soft serve raspberry flavor of the week. It was good, but it was a "sorbet" and not "ice cream," and I wanted some ice cream. Because I didn't want to have another full ice cream cone, I got the smallest thing on the menu, a doggie sunday (little cup of vanilla ice cream topped with a dog biscuit). Since they don't give spoons to dogs, I didn't have a spoon to eat it. After taking off the biscuit I ate it like a dog (or like a cone, it's not completely against social norms to eat ice cream with one's tongue). I tried to give it to Louie, but he didn't want to eat it, so I gave it to a lady who had a dog with a doggie sunday. Our friends thought it was kind of weird I was eating a doggie sunday, but it's just an extra small vanilla ice cream dish. Fun time. After ice cream I brought out my moonshine. I made plans with a couple of the 2nd gens at New Years we would bring different alcohols since we didn't have much at New Years. I brought lemon drop moonshine and captain morgan long island. I like to make what I call a "Backwoods Arnie" with the lemon drop, but I didn't have any iced tea so I just shared some strait moonshine with anyone who wanted it. I didn't get many takers, but whatever. My 4 year old godbrother wore a Spiderman costume that night, and he wanted me to make him "fly like a super hero." I corrected him and said "Spiderman doesn't fly, he swings" as I picked him up by his hands and started swinging him around. He really enjoyed it. It's fun being the semi-responsible young adult; the one that pushes you really high on the swing and will have rough and tumble play, but at the same time is careful enough to make sure you don't get hurt. I had some adults like that when I was little, and it's great that I'm able to be that adult now. When it got late we left for the night and went to our hotel.

Now for Saturday. I started with breakfast, and it was good. Unfortunately it was rainy, so to pass the time Dad and I went into the local town. They have a St. Vincent DePaul thrift store, and sometimes there's good stuff. Unfortunately there wasn't anything this time. After St. Vinnie's we went to a grocery store. I wanted to pick up some iced tea and disposable cups for later that night, because I wanted to make Backwoods Arnies. I was able to find a half gallon of iced tea and little disposable shot glasses. It was perfect. Because of the rain, we went to Saturday evening mass, and then to pizza dinner at a local pizza place. We've been getting pizza from them for a couple years now, but it's always been take out. This is the first time we ate at the restaurant, and we overwhelmed them. They lost my family's pizza order, and it was like an hour before we got our pizza. At least we got to spend time with each other. It was good pizza, we got 5 toppings; ham, pepperoni, banana peppers, pineapple, and mushrooms. After dinner, I made Backwoods Arnies for whoever wanted them. I had more takers on the cocktail than the strait liquor. Unfortunately the iced tea was really thick and didn't mix with the moonshine well. It's a good thing I had the shot glasses because the only way to enjoy it was to just shoot it. It went over quite well, so come new years I'm bringing my own iced tea that'll mix better with the moonshine. It was fun. Once it got late we went back to our motel.

Come Sunday we had breakfast and said our goodbyes. On Sunday we basically pool our left overs and have a community breakfast. I brought the last of my bacon and some bread and an egg. It was fun. I said my goodbyes and it was alright. On our way home we stopped at a Pepperidge Farm outlet store and I bought $75 worth of goldfish crackers and other snacks. Since it's an outlet store, things were significantly discounted, which meant I brought home a lot of food. I ended up filling an entire cupboard. It was a really fun time.

Now for some miscellaneous. One funny thing was how the little kids entertained themselves when it was raining. I don't quite remember what I did when it was raining when I was little, but I know it wasn't "casually annoy the young adults." I mean, when I was between 4 and 10 all the "adults" were "parents." Now, all the "parents" are older, and most of the "kids" are adults. Then again, all the "kids" were also between 4 and 10, and a little older and younger, so we didn't have to "annoy the young adults." I mean, it's not like they were causing problems, we enjoyed their company because they're fun and remind us of camping at that age, but I know my parents would say something like "Pokematic, find something else to do than ask the same questions over and over again." Then again, we also had fun with the answers, so it was all good. I also finally got to finish my Mallard Filmore comic book. I started reading it last year, and haven't read it since last year. I should review it someday. I also finally delivered our friend's "home movies" DVD, after 2 years of converting and waiting for my editor to edit it. That felt good to finally finish that part of my unemployment project. I also didn't take a #vidmewashere picture this year, because vidme is sadly no more. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Christmas and New Years 2017 Craziness

Hey everyone. Here's a blog I meant to get out earlier, but I've been so busy I just didn't have the time. First and foremost, I moved. Yeah, moved out of my parents house to my own place. I'm now much closer to work, and I'm kind of wondering what I might do with the extra 2 hours I have every day. Basically every moment I wasn't doing a Christmas activity, I was packing my stuff and making runs to my new place. I'm still unpacking, but every day I get closer to "fully moved in." Now on to the fun stuff. And for future reference, whenever I say "kid(s)," I'm referring to someone that is not in my parent's generation; (s)he is not necessarily under 18.

First, the Christmas party with my mom's college friends. Oh it was fun seeing them again. One thing you need to know, one of the "kids" is an army vet. I made a couple of tasteful army jokes, such as asking him if they ever sing the Mickey Mouse theme song on patrol. To play along, he shushed me and said "that's a secret." Then there's the thing that my local hospital does. Every night in December, members of the community go outside the children's ward and shine flashlights up to their window and they shine them back. It's a nice little thing we do to show the hospitalized kids that have to be away from family and friends during the time of year. We were running a little late to get over there, so we jogged over. While we were jogging I chanted "one-two-three-four" in my best drill sergeant impression to my vet friend. He just turned to me and snarked "shuuuud-up." We made some kids happy, even though it was really cold. At the end of the night we always get all the "kids" on the couch and take a picture. We've gotten big over the years, and every year it gets more fun cramming onto the couch.

Now it's Christmas Eve. Every year we exchange gifts with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve. It started as a way for our grandparents to give my brother, cousin, and I our gifts from them and with my mom's side of the family. Us kids used to go to the McDonalds that's right by their house so Santa could set-up, and it's still tradition to do it. Though, with it being so cold this year and my grandparents not getting any younger, we just brought the McDonalds in. It was a fun little time. After spending the day with them, we went to church and had Christmas Eve mass. My brother and I drove my grandparents to church and the roads were REALLY bad. I was almost in an accident. After mass we took my grandparents to the Irish restaurant they like to go to on Christmas Eve. While they went to dinner, I went to a little Christmas party held by some old church friends. I haven't seen them in like 8 years. While I was never really close with the kids, it was fun seeing how much everyone has changed since then. While I was just getting comfortable to visit, my grandparents called and said they needed my brother and I to pick them up. While the roads were bad, I gotta say, I love driving at night in the snow with my car all warm. There's just something about "man concurring nature" that makes me feel so alive. That was Christmas Eve.

Now it's Christmas Day. My family exchanged gifts. Get a kick out of the thoughtful gifts I got my family. I got Dad a string of exterior solar power LED lights, Mom a box of dry erase expo markers, and my brother an LED pocket flashlight. Now you might be thinking "those aren't thoughtful, those sound lazy," but no; Dad loves exterior accent lights, Mom loves writing things on her white board, and my brother loves pocket flashlights. Now, because I was in the process of moving, I got a bunch of home appliances, like a George Foreman grill, fry baby, and the piece de resistance, a crockpot. That's a running gag in my family, because when I was in 2nd grade I swear my little brother got a crockpot for Christmas. Of course I'm the only one that believes it and I'm probably remembering events wrong, but it's a fun story. In highschool my parents got themselves a new crockpot, so they wrapped it up and put my name on it one year. Now as a 24 year old, I really did get a crockpot for Christmas. After some hanging out and watching A Christmas Story on TBS (because I needed to atone for A Christmas Story Live), we got ready for hosting Christmas at our house. We had my grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousin, and my grandparents close friends. We visited, had dinner, and did our sing-along, because grandparent's friend plays the accordion and we always have a sing along with polkas and Christmas music. After some family visiting, some close friends from middle school came over for fun. It was great catching up with them. Good fun.

Now for the first day of Kwanza we had Christmas with my dad's side of the family, my grandpa and aunt. There isn't much to talk about, other than we visited. Here's a question, what do you get a 90 year old man? Kind of difficult, but he likes meat, coffee, and is great grandkids (oldest cousin's kids). So, we got him steaks, 5 pound bags of Dunkin Donuts coffee, and a photo mug with pictures of his 2 great grandsons. He really liked them. We gave my aunt the same photo mug, and she really liked it.

Now I'm not quite sure what day this happened on, but we had the get together with my mom's best friend since elementary school and her kids. We grew up together, and it was really fun seeing them. I don't have a lot to really talk about with this one, but I remember it being fun. There was also another day where I got together with Mskate. We hung out at my new condo and watched Treasure Planet. I suggested we watch Muppets Treasure Island but she wasn't too interested, but didn't know what Treasure Island was. I said "well, you know Disney's Treasure Planet, it's like that." She said she never saw Treasure Planet, but she loves the soundtrack. I said "OK, we're watching Treasure Planet." She enjoyed it, and she really did and wasn't just trying to be polite (because she does that every now and then). It was fun.

Now for New Years. It was hosted by one of our camping friends with most of the camping friends. We've been doing it for years, on and off. It was quite fun ringing in the new year with them. What was quite fun is one of the "kids" works for the same company I work for, so we had fun exchanging some war stories. All the "adults" enjoyed hearing about how I bought a condo. A fun thing was the hosts were sitting a hedgehog, named Quilium. It's been a while since I saw a hedgehog in person, and it was seeing another friendly small mammal. The hosts have some younger kids that were the primary caretakers, but like kids do they let the hedgehog go under the couch, so getting him out was fun. We also ended up playing XBOX after a while, and I said "man if I knew you had an XBOX I'd have brought my controller," (they only had 2 controllers). A funny thing was 2 of the host kids were arguing and another host kid said "you 2 need to behave better infront of guests," to which one replied "they aren't guests," and I added "at this point we're all family," and then one of the other "kids" said "for years I thought we were all cousins." We also played ping-pong, and they didn't have a ball for a good 10 minutes. Lucky for them, I carry around official bear pong balls with me wherever I go, for situations like this (I don't play beer pong, but I got them free at college). Around 11 PM, one of the "kids" (who was 26, just not in the parent's generation) wanted to make an alcohol run. We almost did, but through a combination of tired, rural area without a close liquor store, and really cold temperatures made us decide "we'll just wait until we go camping in the summer and can walk to the liquor store that's right off the campground." We watched the ball drop and everyone hugged each other "Happy New Year." About 30 minutes afterwards we left. I drove home because Dad was tired and Mom doesn't do directions. The roads were pretty clear. I guess all the "12:01 partiers were home" and the "up till 3 are still partying."

Overall fun time. New Years Day was pretty slow. I spent the night at my new place and went to work the next day. Overall, it was a fun time. But I'm quite glad it's over since my days were constantly getting ready for new parties. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Camping with Friends

Hey everyone, it's that time of year again, the year I go camping with my family's camping friends. Let me get started with the prep-work. We went up on Friday, so that meant I had to take Friday off. I also packed up 3 days worth of clothes, with both warm and cold weather clothes. I also pulled together some activities. I brought my travel laptop and 3DS for the ride, and Mallard Fillmore comic collection to read. Now for the fun stuff.

On Friday we packed up my van and went up to camp. About halfway up we went to the outlet mall where I purchased about $50 worth of discounted goldfish crackers, all with varying flavors. Some were manufacturer's defects, some were past sell by, some were well beyond expiration, but I've been eating outletmall goldfish for years, so I don't care. I do remember one time Mom baught goldfish on sale from a regular grocery store when I was younger, and they were amazing. After hours of driving, we arrive at our motel. We pulled out all our stuff and settled in for later that night. Now for something interesting. On Monday I went to the doctor with some pain in my ear. I needed some medication, and got my throat swabbed for strep, because as my doctor said "your throat is supposed to be the color of pork, yours is the color of beef." Turns out I had strep, and needed anti-biotic. Well, I'm hundreds of miles from my home pharmacy, and it can't wait. So, I look up where a pharmacy is, and lucky for me there's a RiteAid in the local town. My doctor faxes my script to the RiteAid and I pick it up after it gets filled, hundreds of miles from home. Technology sure is impressive.

Now that I got my medicine, it's time for camp fun. We parked our car on my godfather's site. Fridays are easy going, just set-up camp. I said my hellos and enjoyed the fun. For dinner I had a pre-cooked hamburger and a hotdog. My 8 year old godbrother saw what I was eating and asked his mom "why is he having a hamburger AND a brat?" and she answered "because he's big and wants both." It was true. After diner I helped make the group's fire. Being an Eagle Scout, I know a thing or 2 on building a fire. I was able to build it well, though I ended up burning myself on grill grate that our friend installed to cook on. A burn that's still on my wrist a week after the incident. I didn't have it on there long, but it did take me a little bit to realize it, so I don't know if I'm permanently branded or not. Oh well. I did show it to the little kids to say "this is why you need to be careful around the fire." I had a smore and enjoyed being with friends I grew up with and watched me grow up. One of them wanted to open a bottle of beer but didn't have a bottle opener. I made sure to bring my multi-tool pocket knife for situations like this. Around 11 PM we left back to our motel. I watched some youtube videos and fell asleep.

Now it's Saturday, and we're ready for some fun. I had my normal muffin breakfast. It was just some good visiting with everyone. I wasn't able to go in the lake, but I did sit on the beach reading my Mallard Fillmore book. Oh man, like a fine wine, Mallard Fillmore got better with age. All of the jokes are more relevant today than they were in 1995. I also sat there snacking on sunflower seeds, because that's something I have to do when camping. I love sunflower seeds, but the worst part is finding some place to spit the shells. When you're outside though, you can just spit wherever. When I go camping, you know where I sat, because I'll have a nice scatter of shells on the ground. My 3 year old godbrother asked if he could try one, and I know his parents wouldn't want him chain munching them like me, but I also know he lacked the coordination to eat them without getting shell splinters (not dangerous or anything, just annoying pokes). I've found that wtih really young children, it's best to let them try 1 seed and find out for themselves "this hurts, I don't like this" than try to explain "no, you're too little." I also watched the 3 year old for an hour while his parents ran an errand.

After my godfather and his wife finished their errand, my dad and I went to the town just to see if there was an event going on. Many years there has been a little art fair happening when we went camping, and it was a fun thing to do. There wasn't anything this year, so we just went to the St. Vincent DePaul thrift store. I must say, this was some pretty high quality thrift junk. Dad found a china set with plates that were worth $15 each for like $2 sticker. If we lived closer, we would have tried eBay with them. I found some games; DDR Disney Channel for PS2, Urbz for PS2, and Toy Story Action Player for Windows 3.1/95/and higher. I had it as a kid, but it didn't play well on our computer back in the day. I decided I was going to try it out on my Windows 10 computer. Unfortunately it won't work since it's a 16 bit program and I have 64 bit Win10, but I'll hopefully find proper emulation. I mean, I have DOSbox, and I know windows 3.1 can be booted in DOS, so I can hopefully find a way to make it work. Whatever.

After exploring town, we went back to camp and just hung out. One of the 1st generation adults talked about how it all started and the kind of fun they had. All of them were about my age when they met and started this. It's kind of crazy. Since many of us 2nd generation are adults, the stories are now a little more...mature. However, since some of the 2nd generation are little kids, they can't get too mature. One funny thing they told us was when one of the 1st generation had "too much juice." Soon it came to dinner time. Back when they started, Saturday night was steak night, which evolved to catered chicken night when the 1st generation started having kids, which turned into pizza night when the 1st generation decided they didn't want to go through the hassle of catering chicken. Since my family set-up how we were going to order, we went to pick it up. The order wasn't quite ready when we went to pick-up, so I got to watch an episode of The Loud House on the restaurant TV. It was lucky for me that they had a channel that I liked on. We picked up everyone's pizza order, packed it up in the van, and went back to camp. It was good.

Now for the fun part. Every year since the start we've taken a group photo. We added in "generation pictures" (adults and kids, with the whole group) when everyone started having kids. This year after 27 years, we added "3rd generation" and "retired" pictures since now one of the "original kids" had their own kid and one of the 1st generation is retired. Oh it's fun watching how we all change. We had another camp fire, but only after going to the local ice cream stand. Every year we walk up to the ice cream stand that's about a quarter mile from the camp ground. This was really funny. One of the younger girls (10 years old) wanted to ride her rip stick down the hill we were on, and her parents said "no, it's too steep, you're going to get hurt." About 5 minutes later, her 2 oldest brothers (19 and 16) come zooming down the hill on their rip sticks. After that, her dad said "OK go ahead, we're not that far up now anyways." At the ice cream stand, I had tripple peanut butter cup; peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter ribbons, and mini-peanut butter cups. We had some fun hanging out eating ice cream. Once ice cream was over we went back to camp and had our fire. Again, around 11 PM we left for our motel.

Now it's Sunday. My family packed up our motel room and went to church. All of us our Catholic, so every year we go to this church up there. We take up the same 3 rows in the back. It's right by the cry room. It's kind of funny how much room all of us take up. After mass half of the group went out to breakfast, and the other half just made a bunch of left overs. My family was planning to eat something on the road, but we had left overs so we contributed to the group "lets make left overs" breakfast. After breakfast we went home. We stopped at a different outlet mall, but there weren't any stores I was interested in, though Mom got something I think.

All in all it was a good little vacation. It's great seeing everyone again. And here's a little something I took for SurfersSelfies #vidmewashere initiative. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

Family Camping 2012

Hey everyone, just came back from camping with friends that I have been camping with since, well forever. Mom and Dad were in a singles group, where they met, and they've all been camping together for over 20 years every year. We've grown and shrunk over the years, and this year seemed much smaller. I used to have trouble keeping tack of everyone's names, because we would have like 10-15 families all with kids and I only saw them a couple of times a year. This year we had 6 families, all of whom have been constant in coming to most gatherings. I know their names, except for a few who still trip me up.

Well now for the fun. We arrived Friday where we helped our friends who we were staying with set up their tent. Mom and Dad didn't want to do full camping so they stayed in a motel while we stayed with some friends in their tent. Friday tends to be a day where we all just kind of hang out and catch up. It's also the day when we go to the ice cream store that's right within walking distance, and is affordable, and as what happened a couple years ago, has onion water. I had crunchy munchy peanut butter. It's vanilla ice cream, with chocolate chunks and peanut butter. Really yummy.

Saturday is typically beach day, and this year was no different. We spent time at the beach, and since the friends we were staying with brought their dog, we spent time at the dog beach. The other time their dog came, 9 or so years ago, she was afraid of the water. This time, she went all the way in, with a little coxing, but fine, and had fun. I went toobing, and was able to stay in, until they made me turn around, then I kept falling off. The toobing was taken on the way to the sand bar with the drop off. It wasn't to too special. It was kind of on the other side of the lake with a bunch of people docked there. I swam off the drop off, and it's like a 45 degree angle. I did see drunk people partying on a pontoon boat. My friend that also went toobing didn't see much with the sand bar, so we just hung out on the boat and chatted about things. One drunk guy swam up to the boat and asked if we'd take him toobing in exchange for the rest of his beer. Friend handled it well with "this isn't my boat so not my call." He was like "OK I can respect that, but if you want to just find me." Well that was our fun on the beach and on the lake.

It was nearing dinner time, and Saturday dinner is always the big dinner with everyone. We have had different dinners over the years. This year, we had pizza and bread sticks. I had my pieces and we just had fun visiting. Our group has a Bob and a Larry, both dads, and they have young kids. As good Christian families, we all love Veggie tales, so Bob and Larry both have Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber T-shirts respectively, and their respective kids have shirts just like their dads. We got this really cute picture of Bob and Larry with their "little Junior Asparaguses." I would upload it but I don't know if they would want it up for the world to see. Just take my word for it.

Sunday, today, was go to church together, pack up, and say goodbyes. We're all Catholic, so we all go to church together. It's a nice church, and to my knowledge, we've all sat in the same spot since we can all sit in this one area. We normally go out to breakfast, like we did back when we all went to the same church and before everyone started moving away, but we had to get my brother to boy scout summer camp and had to miss it. To bad, it's normally quite fun. Well this has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.

Camping was fun

Hey everyone, good news, my swagbucks was reactivated. Aparently because I did a bunch of searches at one time it thought I was a bot. Note to self, use bing for a while. And I'm sorry about not uploading any videos this summer. The busy excuse holds some ground, but I probably did have time to but forgot. Oh well, on to fun stuff.

This weekend was the 25th camp out my family has gon on with a bunch of family friends. Being 18, I oviously haven't been on all of them because it's a once a year thing. This year was kind of crazier, and crazy as in fun. We caught chipmunks, went to a local river festival where I shot a pellet gun, BTW I did decent, went swimming, played with my godbrother and godsister, had a fire, slept in a tent, went to Tony's on I-75, collected bottle caps and pop can tabs, went to the icecream store that's close to the camp ground, read my book, and some other miscilaneous things.

The chipmunks probably need some explaining. Well one of the families brought a can of peanuts to give to everyone. But then the chipmunks got into them by chewing through the lid. They ate half of them and we couldn't eat them because of deseeses and stuff. So what did we do? We used the bad peanuts as bait to catch some chipmunks. We set up the stereotypical trap of bait uner a box that is held up by a stick with a pull string. The oldest of us stupid enough to mess with nature people was the one with the pull string and the one that went over to release the chipmunks after capture. Here is what there was: a box, a tent stake, a half eaten can of peanuts, and a string. To my suprise, it worked really well. We captured 2 chipmunks, and I was waiting for the chipmunk to jump up and start trying to eat the one guys face. We were going to do it later, but the chipmunks ate all the peanuts. Oh well we had our fun.

The river festival was fun. We wanted to go primarily for this poorly writen event on the flyer. We had this flyer that told us all the events at the festival, and it had this event called "youth shooting sponsored by the NRA." OK, it wasn't worded exactly like that, but that's what we kept calling it because it emphasised "youth, shooting, and NRA." We weren't able to find it until the end. They had a bunch of venues where people were selling their art and some other stuff. There was some good stuff, but the shooting was the best part. Oviously it wasn't shooting youths, but designed to get the youth into shooting. It was pelet guns, shooting into a trailer that is basically a portable indoor shooting range. I won't bother describing it because if you don't know what an indoor shooting range looks like, go to one, rent a gun, and go shooting. It's really fun.

Tony's on I-75 is more than a restaurant, it's a destination. It has been on both food and travel channel many times. It's like many other restaurants with specialties and atmosphere, but the kicker is the portion size. You order eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and baccon, you will get 3 giant slises of toast, 3 eggs, a pound of hashbrowns, and a pound of baccon. You order a roast beef sandwhich, you are getting a mound of roast beef. You order icecream, you're getting a half gallon. They have giant portions. We went there becaue of the left overs you get. Get leftovers, put them in plastic bags, put them in the food cooler, and warm them up for a meal later. We got full breakfasts and lunches for our family of four out of those leftovers, and when camping, that's easy.

Now for some miscilaneous details. We're a group of maybe 7 families that have been doing this for 25 years. We started out huge, but slowly shrunk. Earlier I mentioned my godbroher and godsister. I just call them that because they are the children of my godfather. The lake had this dog beach put in where we would alwayse go to for the beach because we are almost alwayse in the same area each and every year, and we plan it like that. We prety much took over the dog beach. And teh lake water is really clear because of the zebra muscles. They are an invasive species and bad for the environment, but good for us tourists who want a clear lake. It's almost as clear as a pool of fresh tap water in a clean container. I have a book that I'm reading so I read there. I'll talk about it after I finish it. There's this ice cream store that's with in walking distance from the camp ground. It's good. I think that covers most everything. It was a fun weekend. Now if you'll excuse me, I needto go sandblast my feet. Only bringing crocks to a dusty sandy campground was a bad idea. Laters.