Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires.
Dave's Exciting Vacation Travelogue-o-rama!
I accidentally just erased this whole entry on my Xanga. @#$%!
MONDAY:
Original date of departure. However, due to my family's amazing skills, we apparently didn't finish packing quickly enough to leave on time. Of course, no one told ME until I was all done. However, this did result in the first occasion of my being Ready to Go before everyone else. Whoo.
TUESDAY:
Spent most of the day being violently ill. Despite leaving almost a whole day later than planned, my family was STILL not ready to go by 2:30, and this, combined with my preemptive car-sickness, convinced my father that we should leave early the next day. Spent the next 17 hours on the chaise in the family room, which is nearly the same amount of time that Kurt (Kurtis for short) spent playing Morrowind, also in the family room.
WEDNESDAY:
Drove up to the Back of Beyond, PA. It's somewhere Northy-Centralish and by the NY border. Passed Bucknell. I would like to add to Meg Feeney's observations of that fine institute of education: it's like Bucknell-Farm-MOUNTAIN. Anyways, arrived at the campground and were assigned crap campsite #98. My father insists that it was fine. I insist that it would have been fine had it been bigger than 20 sq. ft. and also had grass. Dad and Kurt (Kurtis for short) hung the hammock at a height normally reserved for pole-vaulters and low-flying planes. Fortunately, my attempts to access it were all successful and did not result in my flying out and rolling down the heavily underbrushed hill and crashing into a tree.
THURSDAY:
Quotes o' the Day
Dad on Kurt, Kurtis for short: "The flies don't like you because you smell. They like you for your pleasant and charming personality!"
Mom: "Uh oh, it looks like there's going to be a revival."
Went hiking on the "turkey path" in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. As Grand Canyons go, this one was rather pathetic. It did however have many trees. Origin of the name "turkey path": unknown. The video at the visitors' center, in cataloguing the many hardy settlers of the area, spent some time describing the lumberjacks, or "wood-hicks". I spent some time trying not to laugh.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day...
Wood-hicks. Heh.
A discussion of attending campfire talks (which turned out to be on a different night anyway) led to the puzzling assertion, by my father, that my brother should carry on the family tradition of being a timber rattlesnake. Or something. It was all very mysterious.
FRIDAY:
Quote o' the Day
Various: "EN FUEGO!"
Went hiking on the other side of the Grand Canyon. Discovered that the "turkey path" signs boast of the area's many interesting waterfalls, wildlife, forests, and geology. Have decided that all national and state parks need signs that say "COME SEE THE WILD GEOLOGY!!"
A brief lark of Kirstin's that involved poking us with sticks soon escalated into my brother menacing us with small uprooted trees. Or something. Moral of the story: Do not poke people with sticks unless you are prepared to be poked back, with vengeance.
I lit the s'mores campfire with only one match, much to Kurt's chagrin. Go me!
It's fun to shout "EN FUEGO!"
SATURDAY:
Quote o' the Day
Smokey the Bear: "FOREST FIRES DELAY VICTORY!"
In what must be described as scraping the bottom of the Vacation Fun Barrel, my dad decided that we should go see the LUMBERJACK! Wood-hick/Civilian Conservation Corp museum. It was filled with LUMBERJACK! Wood-hick/CCC stuff. It was very special.
However, there were some rather entertaining Smokey the Bear posters, including one with Bambi and friends (for the kids), another with some battleships and a man hitting a flaming wolf with an axe and the quote o' the day, and another with a cute little deer staring at the viewer with pathetic llama eyes and clearly thinking "OMG YOU BURNT DOWN MY FOREST YOU BASTARD." Remember, kids: only YOU can prevent forest fires!
Also, I did a pirate crossword.
SUNDAY:
Drove home.
FINIS
I can't find any of the mentioned Smokey the Bear posters, but this one is equally hysterical: Only commies don't prevent forest fires!
I accidentally just erased this whole entry on my Xanga. @#$%!
MONDAY:
Original date of departure. However, due to my family's amazing skills, we apparently didn't finish packing quickly enough to leave on time. Of course, no one told ME until I was all done. However, this did result in the first occasion of my being Ready to Go before everyone else. Whoo.
TUESDAY:
Spent most of the day being violently ill. Despite leaving almost a whole day later than planned, my family was STILL not ready to go by 2:30, and this, combined with my preemptive car-sickness, convinced my father that we should leave early the next day. Spent the next 17 hours on the chaise in the family room, which is nearly the same amount of time that Kurt (Kurtis for short) spent playing Morrowind, also in the family room.
WEDNESDAY:
Drove up to the Back of Beyond, PA. It's somewhere Northy-Centralish and by the NY border. Passed Bucknell. I would like to add to Meg Feeney's observations of that fine institute of education: it's like Bucknell-Farm-MOUNTAIN. Anyways, arrived at the campground and were assigned crap campsite #98. My father insists that it was fine. I insist that it would have been fine had it been bigger than 20 sq. ft. and also had grass. Dad and Kurt (Kurtis for short) hung the hammock at a height normally reserved for pole-vaulters and low-flying planes. Fortunately, my attempts to access it were all successful and did not result in my flying out and rolling down the heavily underbrushed hill and crashing into a tree.
THURSDAY:
Quotes o' the Day
Dad on Kurt, Kurtis for short: "The flies don't like you because you smell. They like you for your pleasant and charming personality!"
Mom: "Uh oh, it looks like there's going to be a revival."
Went hiking on the "turkey path" in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. As Grand Canyons go, this one was rather pathetic. It did however have many trees. Origin of the name "turkey path": unknown. The video at the visitors' center, in cataloguing the many hardy settlers of the area, spent some time describing the lumberjacks, or "wood-hicks". I spent some time trying not to laugh.
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I sleep all night and I work all day...
Wood-hicks. Heh.
A discussion of attending campfire talks (which turned out to be on a different night anyway) led to the puzzling assertion, by my father, that my brother should carry on the family tradition of being a timber rattlesnake. Or something. It was all very mysterious.
FRIDAY:
Quote o' the Day
Various: "EN FUEGO!"
Went hiking on the other side of the Grand Canyon. Discovered that the "turkey path" signs boast of the area's many interesting waterfalls, wildlife, forests, and geology. Have decided that all national and state parks need signs that say "COME SEE THE WILD GEOLOGY!!"
A brief lark of Kirstin's that involved poking us with sticks soon escalated into my brother menacing us with small uprooted trees. Or something. Moral of the story: Do not poke people with sticks unless you are prepared to be poked back, with vengeance.
I lit the s'mores campfire with only one match, much to Kurt's chagrin. Go me!
It's fun to shout "EN FUEGO!"
SATURDAY:
Quote o' the Day
Smokey the Bear: "FOREST FIRES DELAY VICTORY!"
In what must be described as scraping the bottom of the Vacation Fun Barrel, my dad decided that we should go see the LUMBERJACK! Wood-hick/Civilian Conservation Corp museum. It was filled with LUMBERJACK! Wood-hick/CCC stuff. It was very special.
However, there were some rather entertaining Smokey the Bear posters, including one with Bambi and friends (for the kids), another with some battleships and a man hitting a flaming wolf with an axe and the quote o' the day, and another with a cute little deer staring at the viewer with pathetic llama eyes and clearly thinking "OMG YOU BURNT DOWN MY FOREST YOU BASTARD." Remember, kids: only YOU can prevent forest fires!
Also, I did a pirate crossword.
SUNDAY:
Drove home.
FINIS
I can't find any of the mentioned Smokey the Bear posters, but this one is equally hysterical: Only commies don't prevent forest fires!