j.e.dickersons

What I Did on My Autumn Vacation
by Kris

I took a rare weekend away from the shop.
I went to Roaring River State Park in Missouri
with  13 other Dickerson folks.
We had fun.  It was pretty.

Here's what we did there:

We ate constantly.

Here we are stuffin' it in as fast as we can.

Kelley brought campfire cupcakes: tootsie roll logs roaring with pink fire,

 teensy little marshmallows roasting on pretzel sticks. They were so cute and tasty,

we wrestled each other for them.

Ok, not really but try to visualize it anyway, if you have a strong stomach.

We took fly-fishing lessons

from my nice cousin Rob, who's an expert.

Everyone else caught on immediately.

 I had fourteen thumbs and got knots in my line and caught a bush and a tree and a rock.

Rob was very patient. 

I was very bad at it.  I gave up. 

I am a quitter.

My brother David in his official fishing duds and my Dad's old hat.  

Tony and my niece Sara and I took
 a short 30 minute hike.
 It turned into a very long hike.

We weren't exactly lost because we thought we were still in the United States of America
but it took a while to find our way out of the woods.

 Like 3 hours.
 I had an owie on my foot so Tony and Sara

were always about a mile ahead of me.

"If we pick up the pace, I think we can lose her for good."

 Sara and Tony are very fit. I'm old and fat and slow. 

 Plus I am distracted by things like very tall trees.

And beautiful scenery.

This is the Lodge where we stayed.  I thought we'd never see it again.

We saw caves with bats and signs warning us not to come in.

As if.

We finally found our way out of the woods

and shuffled another 4812 miles back across the park.

This time we went around the foot of the mountain instead of over the mountain. 

 Muuuuuuuuuuch easier.

We also played Nature Bingo

at the Lodge one night with a lot of  smart little children. Unlike them,  I didn't really know what a Yellow-Bellied Missouri Skink or a Purple Feathered Watamajiggy looked like, so I ate most of  my Skittle candy  Bingo markers instead of marking the Bingo squares with them.  I did accidentally win one game and came home with a Bass Pro Shop Bourbon glass.  I was so proud.  One Dickerson (who shall remain nameless but you know who you are) cheated and "won" a camoflauged ballhat as his/her prize.

  He/she's a very bad, bad boy/girl.  Aren't you , Kelley?

We watched

 my great-nephew Noah single-handedly redirect Roaring River by throwing in three tons of rock, one piece of gravel at a time. It's fun to be a kid at Roaring River.

It's fun to be a grown-up there, too.