THURSDAY: What just happened?

With football starting up soon I decided to take a few days off before I have to work almost every day from now till December. The Wife wanted to go camping so we went to a Lake Vesuvius just outside my home town of Ironton.

We got up late because we are on vacation and its going to be hot and didn't want to sit around in 90 plus weather with 100 percent humidity. We finally got the car packed by 11:00AM. I got the bikes on the car. This was the first time we had two bikes on the bike rack that I have had since 1995. Well the rack did not sit well. We started driving and it got real bad after I went over a set of speed bumps. So we had to head to Dick's Sporting Goods and spent WAY too much for a new rack. It's now 12:30 and I'm started to get frustrated. This trip isn't going well and we have not left Columbus.

We get on the open road and I notice the new bike rack sits a lot higher on my car and well, it's causing massive draft on the back of the car which forces the Mazda to suck gas. A trip that normally I can do on just over a quarter of a tank, Well it took over a half a tank. We almost ran out of gas. We took the back way in which is very rural and not a lot of gas stations. We actually passed one station selling gas at $3.15, not too much of a problem but when I know that in Ironton it will be $2.70 I'll try to make it and I barely did.

We fill up and head to what I called Ft. Baker, yes Ft. Baker, if there is a Ft. Wayne then I can have a Ft. Baker. With the help of Wilson we find a suitable site that is close to the bathrooms for the wife, but kind of way from other people. We picked the site and then found out Wilson had bad memories of this site, you can ask him about it if you ever get to meet him. After we set up we then head to his former ranger house for dinner.

I have a new found respect for old man Wilson, THAT MAN CAN COOK! He got some beef from his cattle raising parents. He opened the package, unfolded the beef and then unfolded the beef once more. These steaks are FREAKING HUGE! We ate like kings and a queen. Beef straight from the butcher is better than any steak you can buy at a store or a restaurant.


After dinner we put on our smoking jackets and sat around discussing world politics and how we can better society... Who are we kidding we drank out ASSES OFF! IT got ugly and early quick. It started off with wine and Guinness, then it went to the mother of all drinks the Black and Raspberry which shall be referred from this point on and forever as the Vesuvius Special. Wilson and I had three of them and then more Guinness and then the hard stuff. Some special rum from the Caribbean and some Italian death drink. All I have to say is enjoy the picture show.






Wilson seems to be very relaxed.