We headed out Friday afternoon and stopped for dinner at the Pink Cadillac diner in Natural Bridge. Suffice it to say that its been a LONG time since the place looked as good as it does on the website. I'd read somewhere that it was fun--kind of 50's Elvis themed. The only thing that was fun was the irrational fear that I felt upon seeing the angle of the hostess's anterior dentition. And the place was absolutely filthy--its a wonder they have a license. We stuck with it, though, because there was no where else to go and, after all, what good is an immune system if you don't use it now and then? They did have a very cool King Kong out front, though! We finally got to our campsite at Jellystone around 8:15pm after some haggling about our original site which was WAY too small. It turned out great, though, because they ended up moving us to a much better, bigger RV site down near the river and closer to the main activities area. The Bairds arrived 45 minutes later which meant that there was alot of setting up for everyone in the dark. But, we're experts now, so we did really well, built a campfire and had s'mores before calling it a night. The only thing remarkable about that first night in the tent was that it was absolutely FREEZING cold. Stupidly, we had not unpacked the sleeping bags from the car and only had sheets and thin blankets on our inflatable beds. Thankfully, Connor ended up snuggled next to me and he is like a hot brick at night.
On Saturday morning we had a donut breakfast at the campsite and headed up to the Flagpole for the Pledge of Allegiance with Boo Boo and Cindy. While waiting for the festivities, Connor found this pooch tied to the bench unaccompanied and spent some quality time giving him attention. I think he needs a dog, because he was really happy and serene spending time with that pooch. We followed that with a brief trip to the waterslides and pool for about 90 minutes, but wound our way back to the river where we spent most of the day.
Ralph called this the Redneck Whirlpool. When I brought them out those Corona's in a water bag you'd have thought that I had just cured cancer.
This is a disgusting helgrammite. Ralph fetched it from under a rock after Bob reported seeing something in the Port-A-John that Ralph thought sounded like one of these suckers. Gross. The boys loved it and Connor chanted "Hel-GRA-mmite, Hel-GRA-mmite" all weekend long. Per Ralph, these are preferred bait of fisherman and he spend many a summer day hunting them for his dad's fishing endeavors. Since returning home I have (of course) researched the creature extensively. I learned that I am absolutely correct--it is disgusting.
Here's a nice shot of the boys wending their way across the rocks. Shout out to whomever thought of inventing watershoes/crocs. Spending the day staggering there, I was coveting a pair of these, which would have been perfect. At the end of the day we headed back to the campsite for a great dinner prepared by the Bairds which consisted of a smorgasboard of kebabs and "packet" dinners. Of course, there was more marshmallow roasting, including some leftover Peeps which are the best roasted and carmelized. After that, we headed to the campground beach for the Saturday night "Glow Stick Dance Party". I didn't get any good shots of that because I never turned on the flash on the camera. But, buy 9 or so the party broke up because weather started rolling in and everyone hightailed it back to camp to secure things for some storms. Connor and I were at the bath house when Carole came in and told us that the storms were coming. By the time we got back to the campsite, Bob had packed everything up and we pretty much made it into the tent in the nick of time. The storms were loud and there was a fair amount of rain, but we stayed dry and snug in the tent. On Sunday morning we packed up in the relative mud and headed out early to visit the Natural Bridge. Here's a shot of all of us at the end of the long trail in the park at the Lace Falls.
The Natural Bridge itself was really awesome. I'd seen many pictures of it, but did not appreciate how BIG it really is. I'd highly recommend a trip there with a picnic lunch and plans to walk the whole trail. I wish I'd worn better shoes, though! I'm the only dummy with flip flops on. After a few hours there, we headed to the Safari Park which was very surprising. Its really in the middle of nowhere, but it is a well run, highly professional place. Basically, its a drive through safari where you can feed the animals from your car. Hightlights included: a long lick up my right arm from a camel, an entire Bison head in the passenger compartment of the minivan, the spilling of half a bucket of feed into the car console and onto the car floor, the spitting at Ralph of another nasty camel, the viewing of a hatching nest of rheas, and a quick camel orgy right near the exit gate. A good time was had by all!
After that, we headed home. It was a great weekend. Connor's big reflection on it was that we needed to "spend more nights in the tent so we can have more fun". I couldn't agree more.
