I went camping from June 29th to July 3rd (5 days) at Lincoln Rock in Eastern Washington. Lincoln rock is located between Wenatchee and Lake Chelan on a portion of the Columbia river that is dammed off. It was fun
STP was July 11th and July 12th, Saturday and Sunday. I stayed over friday night at my dads and Saturday we rode the first ~112 miles to Napavine where we stayed at an elementary school that is on the course, and Sunday we rode the final ~90.5 miles into Portland where we stayed in a hotel for the night and drove back Monday afternoon.
Now for a more in depth analysis.
June 27th, Saturday
I woke up like every other summer morning: got up out of bed and zombied 2 feet South to my desk. Started up my laptop and went through the bookmarks. Pure Pwnage -> GomTV (even though they only do scheduled updates I check it because it is on my bookmarks bar) -> Cholera's youtube page -> Combat-Ex's youtube page (even though I disklike him more every video) -> VioleTAK (even though English commentators are really slow and always post videos a week after I've watched them in Korean) -> Nevake youtube page (here is where I generally start watching something). From here I usually start up a VOD and decide whether I want to bring my laptop upstairs so I can watch a game while eating Cocoa Puffs (or rather the Fred Meyer brand that comes in a huge bag and IMO tastes better). After breakfast I'll head back down into my man-cave and determine whether I need to bathe or not based on if I am going to have human interaction today besides Ashley (who I have been fortunate enough to see almost every day I've been home this summer). Parenthesis are awesome (I guess).
From here I either watch more SC or switch to Stargate SG-1. I'm now on Season 9 but I fucked up the torrent download somehow so I'm re-downloading it which should probably take 2-4 more nights from today (July 14th). I start packing while watching E01S09 of Stargate. At a couple points in skips like 10 seconds because Ididn't complete the download, but it's good enough for now. Oh also my sister already packed and left yesturday for my dad's house because it was her weekend with him anyway. For those of you who may not know the situation (I heard Ben reads this), my sister and I used to go to my dad's house every other weekend, but around when I turned 18 I decided to fuck it and just stay home from now on because it's boring as shit there. I pack and get ready and shit, try to find an extra tube for my bike because yet again I had a flat. My dad later told me that I probably get so many flats because I overinflate my tubes. The tires say the max is 110, so naturally I take that with a grain of salt and give it 115 just for kicks. Apparently this wasn't such a great idea these past couple years. Back to storytelling: I got packed and ready.
That night my dad picked me up and we went to West Seattle.
June 28th, Sunday
Fuck this is going to be a long post. I won't hold it against anyone if they stop reading now, I know I would have just read the first 2 paragraphs and stopped.
There was no hurry to leave early in the morning, so we woke up at our leisure and eventually headed out. The drive there wasn't bad, I had loaded my iPod up with the Adam Carolla podacast episodes that I hav ebeen slacking on since the start of summer. Before I knew it we were at Lincoln Rock National Park. My cousin, Uncle, and my cousin's mom had got there the previous day and were already set up. The reason I referred to my would-be Aunt as my cousin's mom is because my Uncle, who I call Gerald, never married her. I call her Mimi. My cousins name is Sam. See how random I type shit out when I just type what I think? It's great.
Alright I'm getting bored of this so I'm going cut out a lot of detail.
First day was pretty laid back, we set up our shit and just got to know the area. Our campsite was overlooking the body of water (dammed up Columbia River) and there was a small "dock" that went... 20 yards? into the water and was... 10 feet? wide. I think my dad will be attempting to post his some hundred pictures on facebook if he ever figures out how to use it. I'll keep you posted. Alright so basically: campsite, pretty steep hill down to the water level, 1-2 foot edge dropping down to 2-8 feet of rocky "beach". An entire portion of the campground was taken by our group that consisted of like 5-8 families. For the first couple days, the non-parents consisted of 5 people my age, 2 Sophomores as they were called, and a lot of young girls (10 and under I'd say). Our "group" was my cousin Sam, his friend Riley (who I met at Sam's graduation barbecue), Cameron, a friend of theirs, Cameron's girlfriend Samantha (Sam), Robby (Riley's younger brother), and Mitch who was there with his mom and a friend of theirs. Riley and Mitch were the Sophomores obviously. First afternoon/night we just kinda sat around. We threw a disc, but it was really windy so then we threw a football. Dinner was with seperate families (except my Dad, Andrea, Kelsey and I were on the same site as my cousin, Gerald, and Mimi so we always ate together). I think this was the night we (the previously established "group") played Blackjack. Sam and Mimi had found out that there was an 18+ casino in Chelan and we planned on going there one day/afternoon. Here I realized that playing cards is a great way to get to know people. Because of the age limit, I learned everyone's age, and I was able to learn everyone's personality. I'll try to break it down now because I'm bored and have nothing to do, I realize that people probably don't care at all but David is working on lab so I have a while before Starcraft commences, and I don't even know if Ashley is coming over today. Holy shit Kwanro just build like 50 sunken colonies. ANYWAYS.
Sam: More outgoing than I am, also known for his dancing abilities (MJ style). Half Filipino. A bit shorter than me, but probably bigger in size (strength not fat). Single. Plays basketball and is in a summer softball league for fun that is all ages. Going to UNLV next year.
Riley: Half Filipino. Avid basketball player. Going to UW next year. As far as I know, single. Family seems to be good financially.
Robby: Half Filipino. Fanatic basketball player. Ladies man. Doesn't seem that intelligent. Sophomore next year. Family seems to be good financially.
Mitch: Red head. Very outgoing/loud. Perhaps comparable to a young Jake. Will probably be single a very long time. Sophomore next year.
Carmeron: Light skin. Great sense of humor. Really fun to hang out with. Good person. In a relation ship with: Samantha (Sam). Future plans: unknown. Family seems to be good financially.
Sam: Hmm... 7/10, maybe an 8. Nice person. Wasn't too involved with the group, but seemed to come around every once-in-a-while to see Cameron.
Blackjack was fun, Riley taught us how to count cards from a book he read for math class. Much comedy ensued with lines like: "What's the count what's the count?!" And: "It's +10 ALL IN!"
We should go to a casino some time it's a lot of fun.
Sleeping situation was as follows: On one side of the camping site 3 tents. One for my sister, a two person tent, one for my dad and Andrea, and one for Gerald and Mimi. On the other side of the site, past the "kitchen", a pretty big tent for Riley, Sam and I. Later Andrew (wow was that his name? I can't remember) joined us.
The first night sucked. It was hella windy which made a lot of noise in the trees, and then every morning it was extremely hot once the sun rose so it was almost impossible to stay in the tent.
June 29th, Monday
I was out of the tent first, and I zombied over to the "kitchen" and picnic table.
Ok a couple of notes now, that's the second time I've used "zombied". I made it up just now as a term for the way I walk in the morning. It's probably already been used, but I swear I didn't get it from anywhere else.
Second, Gerald and Mimi brought 2 tables, which put together parallel would probably equal the card table in my basement. One is just a sturdy camping-quality table, and the other has 2 sinks and a drainage system. It was very useful for washing dishes, and called the kitchen.
Breakfast was pancakes and scrambled eggs, a standard camping breakfast. Morning chatter included talk of the Harry Potter movie and how Mimi was engrossed with the Twilight series. Throughout the 6 days camping I believe she read the last half of the first, all of the second, and started the third.
Hmm I'm not sure what we did today so I might just combine the camping trip into one mesh. I know we threw a football around again, and we dived off the dock... oh today badminton was set up that's right. Throughout the trip badminton was almost always being played by at least 2 people, usually more. Wow I really can't remember the order in which things happened... so I'll just mention the major events now.
Blackjack/Casino
We played blackjack another time at the campsite before going to the casino. Sam had a blackjack layout similar to my poker table except it wasn't a hard table so it was more portable. Mimi taught us the general "strategies" and what is good when. Cameron made it a lot of fun with his personality. One afternoon we headed over to the casino. It took like an hour to get there. The people who came were: Sam, Riley, Cameron, Sam(antha), Mimi, Gerald, Riley/Robby/Riley and Robby's younger sister's mom who's name I can't remember. Another short Filipino woman similar to Mimi, but doesn't know how to gamble much like Mimi who is a Lawyer. Gerald was going to drop us off and then go fishing. Gerald is an outdoors person who does pretty much any work involving exterior housing such as painting, roofing, cleaning gutters, etc. Very cool person, eldest of 3 in my dad's family. When we got to the casino, he decided to come in with us instead. He played craps for like 3 hours on like $25. At one point he was up quite a bit, but Mimi and Gerald don't really play to win, they choose an amount to spend and play for fun. We ate dinner at the casino restaurant, and then headed over to the blackjack table. We were very dissappointed to find that the minimum was $5 >.<, but our $25 lasted for around an hour and it was a lot of fun. Riley even walked away with $50 bucks, so at least we all didn't lose =P. First dealer was great. She realized it was our first time so helped us out and was nice. Second lady was a bitch. Hard to understand her muttering especially with her accent, and wasn't as friendly as the first, who explained things to us and was really lenient. Second lady just dealt the cards.
Oh also Sam and I were joking before hand about how people were going to accidentally just shout out "What's the count?!" jokingly and get us kicked out, luckily it never happened.
But yeah we all got in on the same table and it was a lot of fun, I heard the casinos on Aurora have a $2 min so we should all bring like $25 some time and check that out.
Poker
One night was poker night, the adults had their game with $5 buy in, and we had ours. It was funny how nooby they were, unfortunately the cards just weren't coming my way. I knew Sam was pretty good as well so he and I got to joke quietly to each other about the other players. It was fun intimidating them by shuffling chips and doing that chip rotate thing in my fingers. We had to quit at 12 because Mimi got mad when we stayed up late and were loud. I finished with $6. Not as great as I had hoped, but it was fun. Oh also at this point 2 more Sophomores had came so there were a lot of people
Beach football/Clay fight
Alright at this point there is another character, but the 2 sophomores have not yet arrived.
Andrew: "Pretty boy". Track star, class vice president, outgoing in an oddly quite way. Obvious that he has the respect of everyone else there. As far as I know, single, but could have had any girl at school he wanted. Future plans: college at unknown location.
The group, who btw has been doing this for years, knew of a place that was sandy and had shallow water, a great place for a friendly football game. It was open of any other people, but this was probably because we had to pass a no trespassing sign to get to it. We found a nice spot, but there was a lot of random shit under the water so we spend a bit of time clearing the ground of sticks and large rocks. Despite our efforts I'm pretty sure everyone got at least one cut. Football was fun, and pretty back and forth. Score was within one touchdown when people kinda got tired of football and started throwing shit at each other. I'm not sure who discovered it first, but if you dug around in certain places you could find large amounts of clay just under the sand. This clay worked great for molding into balls and chucking at each other, mostly because it had a larger effect than sand but didn't hurt as much as a rock. The "teams" were randomly "chosen" by who was standing where when the clay started to fly, and so the battle commenced. 7 people (the original "group" minus Sam(antha) plus Andrew), not exactly even numbers for teams, but it was extremely fun. After a victor was "decided", we all gathered around an area on one side of the battlefield where there was a very large deposit of clay under the surface, and we all started prying it up. I say prying because this clay was seriously like a 6 inch layer of clay we were peeling up under a foot of water and amassing in a giant pile. After we had gathered a large amount, we grew tired of this location. Again I forget who started this, it was probably Andrew now that I think about it, but somehow we decided it would be funny if we all covered our selves in clay. Seriously this was like a spa-style coating of clay from chin to toe, even getting each others backs. We then walked back to the campsite, which was past a boat launch, water hole/kiddy swimming area, and a walking/biking path. We got many looks from adults and children alike, yielding inqueires such as, "what happened to you guys?" from little kids, to which Sam quietly but wittily responded with "eat your vegetables". He is the kind of person that sometimes had funny things to say, but doesn't say them very loud so they don't get recognized. A couple dads watching over their kids in the water asked if we were the incredible hulk team, for when the clay started to dry (immediately) it had a slight green tinge and gave us pronounced "muscle" lines.
We walked back to the campsite only to be dissappointed by the fact that the kids had gone to the water park with their children, and the majority of the other parents had gone to Costco. The only people there were Riley/Robby's dad, Gerald, and my dad. Pictures were taken, we made great poses. After the pictures we all dove off the dock and created a large... mist? of clay in the water that floated away. It was a very large... cloud? Good times.
Basketball
There is an annual basketball game between the kids and adults that takes place during the camping trip, and apparently the adults have won 3 years straight. At this point the 2 sophomores are here btw. We all walked over to the blacktop one afternoon, and the griping would commence. I chose to sit this event out, because the kids seemed determined to upset, and I'm not exactly a Kobe. I sat by and watched with the many other spectators and few subs on the sideline to enjoy the game. it was really hilarious how intense it got. Though the adults had less energy, they clearly had the experience. One of the women was apparently in the WMBA or something, but she was taken out fairly quickly when Sam made a quick stop and she tripped over his back twisting her ankle. Despite their star player being taken out of the game, the adults managed to secure a win without too much trouble. It was really amusing watching how Robby (younger brother) slowly got more and more pissed off. Though he is the younger of the 2, it looked like he was the better player. Whoever was better, they were both really intense. The losers had to dive off the dock, and at this point it was late, dark, and getting cold. Some of the kids dodged, but those that had the biggest impact on the game all took the dive.
Water Activities
I don't know why I'm covering this last since it was a pretty big portion, but either way here we go.
So in past years they have had inflatable... things that gave them much entertainment. I heard much talk of a giant banana that entertained for hours, however these had either popped or been forgotten at home. One thing I was pretty excited about though were the jet skis (wtf when you google image jet ski you get a picture of a babe with some nice side-boob). Crap my patience for blogging is running thin. One day was pretty much the jet ski day. My dad and Gerald went 50/50 on renting one, and 2 others were rented by other families. Also there was one that was brought by one family. They could go 70, they were fast, it was fun.
A bit of Frisbee
One of the additional 2 sophomores that came was interested in frisbee and wanted to learn how to throw forehand, so we threw a disc for a long time. We threw well after sunset, until we couldn't see the disc anymore. That was the night we played $5 poker. Oh also one day during some down time between events my dad and I threw a disc, I showed off by throwing an air bounce under the badminton net and having it come back up on the other side. I told my dad how to throw it, and he was able to have it down in a few throws. I was jealous.
Food
We ate pretty well. Three good meals a day, and s'mores at night. I could do without the s'mores, so I used that time to call Ashley, which I did twice I think. Once we got shaved ice, which I'm pretty sure I get every time I go to the Lake Chelan area.
Sun Burns
I was actually pretty fortunate when it came to sunburns. I forgot to put sunblock on my feet and I really payed for that. Other than that I was fine. My nose hurt for a few days after getting back, but I think I may have had clay stuck up my nose because a blew my nose a couple times and gray shit came out.
I guess that was it. I'm already looking forward to next year, and hopefully Ashley will be able to come or I'll think to ask someone else if they want to go.
Oh also on the way back we stopped in Wenatchee with Sam, Gerald, and Mimi and ate at Red Robbin. I saw their logo for Bottomless Steak Fries and had to take a picture. When I got back I got the logo from their website and David used his uber photoshop skills to make it say Bottomless Stack Fries.
STP
I rode by bike 202.5 miles in 2 days, what else there to say?
Whether was better than last year, second day was overcast instead of 95+ degrees, but the morning of the second day we got poured of for like 20 miles and it was miserable. Next year Sam swears he will ride it, but I'm pretty sure I remember him saying that for 2 years now. We stayed in Portland Sunday night after the ride. I was going to go see Bruno with Sam, his cousin Steffy (9/10) and her boyfriend who are... 2 years older than us? I'm lucky I passed out in the hotel at 8:30 though because Sam said there was a lot of gay porn scenes.
Oh also I rode it on my dad's bike this year because my bike was fucking stolen out of my garage. Luckily for me, my dad is having back problems and was told he can't ride it.
Alright I might add more later but I'm bored of this.
