Day 2

Mom and I woke up first and wandered out onto the misty deck and watched the fog roll through the cedar forest.  Off to our right, we saw two chipmunks chasing each other.  My family would doubtlessly ask, was one of them Hans?  Answer: Doubtless.  Hans the Chipmunk makes a frequent appearance in our family.  Doesn't he?

Slowly the girls wandered out with us and climbed up on our laps to rock in the early morning light.  Right then and there I decided that I didn't want to work any more.  Screw it.  Sitting and looking out in the woods with the kids would be the best way to spend the rest of my days.  The general store at the campground had homemade donuts.  And they were well worth the price.

Since it was rainy, we decided to hit some of the stranger sites.  We went to the World's Largest Toy Museum which, oddly enough, had a bunch of toys.  For lunch we went to a fifties diner and we ate diner food.  Mmmm.  Diner food.  The girls sat in a giant rocking chair and made friends with a strange plastic goose (notice how Gert rarely looks directly at the camera).  We drank Coke from classic bottles and wandered around looking at stuff.

As the afternoon wore on, Gertrude started to get crabby.  She told us that she was tired and wanted to go back to the "cabinet", which is what she called the cabin for the whole vacation.

We agreed and off we went.  Gert fell asleep and mom went out on the deck to sketch.  Matilda and I decided that seeing a two-headed calf and a shrunken head was more important than relaxation.  So, off we went to the Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum (luckily, Dean Cain was nowhere to be seen.  Sadly, neither was the ghost of Jack Palance.  Believe it . . . or not).  Most of it I didn't believe, quite honestly.  We were frightened, amused and disgusted by a lot of things in that building.  But the other tourists slowly moved out of the way and allowed us to see the freak show that we paid for.  The highlight was the kid in the gift shop who was in awe of my "Know Your Roots" Nintendo t-shirt.  I had to be honest that, if I were true to my age, my shirt would represent not Nintendo, Atari or even Intelevision.  No, for me, it would be Pong.

On the way back to the cabinet we stopped and picked up graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate.  That's right, we decided to make stew.

We grilled some brats and what not and ate out on the deck.    When our tummies had settled we roasted the marshmallows over the grill and made ourselves sticky and sated on the chewy, chocolaty goodness.  Gert was covered head to toe in marshmallow and chocolate.  But she was happy.  Damn happy.  Matilda retired to her bed with a good book.  After the girls were asleep, Mom and I sat outside and listened and watched the nothingness around us.  So peaceful and quiet.  No internet, no cell phone, no one calling me.  Nothing to do.  I could have stayed forever.

Day Three