(no subject)
I went camping with my family, my best friend Clem's family (minus their dad), and ReChang's family (minus dad as well). We planed all March, and I got up at 3:30 AM on April 4th, woke up my brothers by 3:45, and my parents at 4:30, with coffee.
Day 1 (Apr 4)
We left the house at 5:15, heading for a rendezvous at 6(AM) in Peet's Coffee and Tea, Dublin, CA. We were all a little late for rendezvous (couldn't they just spell phonetically: 'rondeivu') but since our friends arrived only a few (10) minutes before us, it was okay. We drove for about four more hours, then stopped at The Stink (unofficial name) -- a system of gas stations off Interstate 5 unpleasantly near a horrible-smelling, high-density cow farm that, despite being completely unremarkable, stinky, and at least four hours' drive both we and Clem's family had been to several times. It turned out ReChang had brought not only her own girls, Knoa and Avi, but Knoa's [female] friend, Charlie. Two or three hours later, we drove trough about 1/2 hour of mountain pass, with snow not all that high above our heads, and a beautiful mountain river right next to the road. At next stop we traded (switched between cars) Ephriam and Clem. We drove down to Death Valley on a winding road with huge dips. On the way up the dips we screamed, even though it wasn't scary, and we certainly weren't going to jump, but pent-up energy, complex ______olgical/***ical reasons, and under-developed neural/cognitive system cause children [between the age of 0 and 30] to enjoy screaming...
We arrived at our campsite and set up our tents, then climbed the man-watered trees in the middle of each cluster of campsites until lunch. After lunch, drove about 3 miles in a huge hook to reach Harmony Borax Works, an old borax mine. Clem, Ev, Knoa, Charlie, Yakov and I ran ahead and climbed a hill made largely of gravel and rocks with an (apparently) mud foundation, going all the way to the top, despite Clem's (fortunately wrong) protests that the hill just led to the top of the mountain, to far to climb. When we got to the top, we saw that camp was visible from here, and someone suggested that we could walk across. It looked like only a mile or two, and we all agreed it was a good idea (as in: fun, unusual, & crazy). We found the adults, and got them to look at it. Surprisingly, they agreed, and my mom and dad came with us ((Clem, Ev) (Knoa, Charlie) (Yakov, Ephraim, me)), while Susan and ReChang took Avi, Greta, and Susan's car back to camp. We plotted (conspired on) our course, remarked how the bushes grew in perpendicular line to the road, which we could always follow if we got lost, found we had four compasses, six whistles, and 1.7 packs of Assorted Objects, and set off. Going straight across, it was only about a mile to camp and we arrived only five minutes after Susan, ReChang, and the little girls. From where we climbed up the hills were dark gray, but from the direction of camp, they were white. The ground in most places was a thin layer of crusty mud, which broke when stepped on and made each foot sink an inch, but in others, where there was, at some point, a lot of water like the dry river-beds that snaked across the desert floor, the crust was thick and springy so I couldn't make even a crack in it by jump-stomping on it with full force. The lines of bushes were taller and thicker than they had looked from the hills, and we couldn't get through it without getting badly scratched, so we walked around them, orienting ourselves with somewhat disagreeing compasses and The Wrinkly Mountain (later Mt. Wrinkle), which camp was in the foothills of. When we got back we had dinner, and everything we ate on this trip sounds like a Trader Joe's ad. After dinner Yakov, Ev and I walked across the campground to the tallest tree we could see. First I, and then Ev climbed up to a branch where we could sit safely, if not comfortably, but Yakov, being more than eight inches shorter than us, couldn't make it up, so we started to climb down, which was very hard, and got bleeding scratches all over. We slept without the fly on, and we could see the stars through the mesh windows.
To be continued.
Day 1 (Apr 4)
We left the house at 5:15, heading for a rendezvous at 6(AM) in Peet's Coffee and Tea, Dublin, CA. We were all a little late for rendezvous (couldn't they just spell phonetically: 'rondeivu') but since our friends arrived only a few (10) minutes before us, it was okay. We drove for about four more hours, then stopped at The Stink (unofficial name) -- a system of gas stations off Interstate 5 unpleasantly near a horrible-smelling, high-density cow farm that, despite being completely unremarkable, stinky, and at least four hours' drive both we and Clem's family had been to several times. It turned out ReChang had brought not only her own girls, Knoa and Avi, but Knoa's [female] friend, Charlie. Two or three hours later, we drove trough about 1/2 hour of mountain pass, with snow not all that high above our heads, and a beautiful mountain river right next to the road. At next stop we traded (switched between cars) Ephriam and Clem. We drove down to Death Valley on a winding road with huge dips. On the way up the dips we screamed, even though it wasn't scary, and we certainly weren't going to jump, but pent-up energy, complex ______olgical/***ical reasons, and under-developed neural/cognitive system cause children [between the age of 0 and 30] to enjoy screaming...
We arrived at our campsite and set up our tents, then climbed the man-watered trees in the middle of each cluster of campsites until lunch. After lunch, drove about 3 miles in a huge hook to reach Harmony Borax Works, an old borax mine. Clem, Ev, Knoa, Charlie, Yakov and I ran ahead and climbed a hill made largely of gravel and rocks with an (apparently) mud foundation, going all the way to the top, despite Clem's (fortunately wrong) protests that the hill just led to the top of the mountain, to far to climb. When we got to the top, we saw that camp was visible from here, and someone suggested that we could walk across. It looked like only a mile or two, and we all agreed it was a good idea (as in: fun, unusual, & crazy). We found the adults, and got them to look at it. Surprisingly, they agreed, and my mom and dad came with us ((Clem, Ev) (Knoa, Charlie) (Yakov, Ephraim, me)), while Susan and ReChang took Avi, Greta, and Susan's car back to camp. We plotted (conspired on) our course, remarked how the bushes grew in perpendicular line to the road, which we could always follow if we got lost, found we had four compasses, six whistles, and 1.7 packs of Assorted Objects, and set off. Going straight across, it was only about a mile to camp and we arrived only five minutes after Susan, ReChang, and the little girls. From where we climbed up the hills were dark gray, but from the direction of camp, they were white. The ground in most places was a thin layer of crusty mud, which broke when stepped on and made each foot sink an inch, but in others, where there was, at some point, a lot of water like the dry river-beds that snaked across the desert floor, the crust was thick and springy so I couldn't make even a crack in it by jump-stomping on it with full force. The lines of bushes were taller and thicker than they had looked from the hills, and we couldn't get through it without getting badly scratched, so we walked around them, orienting ourselves with somewhat disagreeing compasses and The Wrinkly Mountain (later Mt. Wrinkle), which camp was in the foothills of. When we got back we had dinner, and everything we ate on this trip sounds like a Trader Joe's ad. After dinner Yakov, Ev and I walked across the campground to the tallest tree we could see. First I, and then Ev climbed up to a branch where we could sit safely, if not comfortably, but Yakov, being more than eight inches shorter than us, couldn't make it up, so we started to climb down, which was very hard, and got bleeding scratches all over. We slept without the fly on, and we could see the stars through the mesh windows.
To be continued.