Marc on 15 years ago...

Those were some good times! Other than those already mentioned, here are a few of my favorite memories from those trips…

- After spending a few days in the woods and being chased out by the snow flurries, we decided to go to the mall. We entered through Nordstrom looking like we just stepped out of a hee-haw episode! I bet someone was humming the dueling banjos song as we walked through…

- We spent one day in the mountains going up and up and up. We FINALLY got to a beautiful vista and sat down to enjoy the fruits of our labor – then noticed the paved road about 50 yards away that we could have driven up on.

- We dropped about $20 in the Galaga machine at the Laundromat… and it all ended with Ed being pissed off because he couldn’t beat Brad’s score.

- After giving Ed a ton of shit about how long it took to set up his $200 Coleman tent compared to Brad’s $25 Walmart tent, we crawled out one morning after a night of rain. Ed and I (in the Coleman tent) were rested and dry. Brad and Jamie were grumpy and wet as they turned the $25 tent upside down and dumped out about two gallons of water!

- I learned very quickly that it’s a bad idea to sleep while Ed and Brad make sleeping “arrangements” with the park ranger. I can still hear Ed saying, “It must be right around the next bend” (referring to the sleeping shelter that didn’t really exist).

- We were hiking down a path and Ed exclaimed, “Look, wolves!!” It was another hiker with two dogs.

Brad, it was actually you in the trunk holding onto that huge limb while I drove and we dragged it into the campground. It was down in the 20’s that night and you weren’t even allowed to “gather” wood in the campground. That’s why we went out to get that limb. Do you remember the jealous stares as we drove in with that thing? We had the biggest fire in the campground and had others coming over to warm up at our fire!

That Velveeta shells and cheese with summer sausage sure is good after a couple of days of hiking in the sticks. And don’t forget, I can smell deer before I see them!

We had a great time at the Cousins reunion a couple of years ago and have some great memories and laughs. I agree with Ed; so what’s next? RAGBRAI 2011??