2003-05-09 - 1:46 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "What is Love", Howard Jones

Have you seen the "Extreme Sports" commercials on Fox? The "Don't Be That Guy" commercials?

You can see my favorite one here. It's hilariously funny (to me, anyway), and it helps you understand a joke Poindexter makes in this entry.

(Link might ask you who you are in the advertising field -- I said "non-industry (specify below)" and typed in "Advertising Viewer". Or you could lie. Take your pick.)

Damn, this entry is taking forever to write.

So, we FINALLY, after well over a year, packed up the bikes and went to Tower City last weekend. Last year we paid our membership dues and never got up there, so hopefully we'll make up for it this year.

Descriptions of Tower City and our other two excursions there can be found here and here.

We got there with a couple of daylight hours left, and set up the truck tent. This is an old bad photo of the truck tent, from the driver's side of the truck bed (that's the tire at the bottom of the photo):

Here's the camp road we park on to camp:

Some people have erected (heheheh, I said, "erected") "permanent" structures on their campsites. I would love one of those if it had a shower in it.

So, anyway, we had dinner, then I got in the tent to keep warm and Poindexter went off for a ride. I don't like to ride before sleeping because I can't stand smelling the dirt on me all night. Ugh.

**** TOO MUCH INFORMATION ALERT

We don't have a permanent campsite -- we just find a flat spot in the parking lot. Tower City has port-a-potties here and there. But when the temp goes down to 40 at night, I don't want to be getting up to pee in the middle of the night.

Note to self: If you don't want to get up to pee in the middle of the night, DON'T DRINK DR PEPPER WITH DINNER.

Sigh. So, we passed out about 10am, and I noticed around 12am that I needed to pee, but I tried to ignore it. Finally, at 2am, I finally admitted that I had to get up. So I did, and sat at the entrance of the tent for a good 2 or 3 minutes trying to decide if I had the nerve to just go in the grass a little ways from the truck.

I finally decided to give it a go, but then I stuck my legs out of the tent and saw my pasty white legs shining in the starlight (in the STARLIGHT! The moon was NOWHERE TO BE SEEN! Yet I GLOWED!) and decided against that idea.

**** END TMI

So, on with the jeans and I start heading down the road to the potty. It was still pretty dark, and it was 2am, and I had no hearing aids on. And I was in the middle of nowhere, which is probably exponentially safer than being in the city, but I felt very nervous and alone.

About 50 feet away from the truck I saw something that looked like a guy standing by the side of the road. I freaked out, spun around, and started walking back toward the truck twice as fast as I'd been walking away from it. I opened the tent flap, and whimpered pitifully, "Snugglebunny, I'm scared. Will you walk me to the potty?"

Bless his heart, he came with me without a complaint. "It's nice to get out and see the stars," he said.

But I am an idiot, 'cause y'know what the "guy standing beside the road" was?

It was a post with a white numbered sign indicating a campsite.

I guess seeing it out of the corner of my eye, not in focus, and not knowing what it was, my imagination ran haywire. Sigh.

The next day, I went riding. I was extremely nervous about falling off the bike, because I'd done it before and because three people I know personally had bone-breaking accidents recently with motorcycles/quads. So when I first started, I was so nervous I couldn't even go down the hill on the camp road.

So I stayed near the truck and practiced on some small hills and gravelly areas, and then had the confidence to go out. It came back to me a lot faster than I had expected it to -- by midafternoon I was almost completely comfortable with familiar trails and was ready to go out and try something more difficult. Of course, by then it was time to go home.

I think I'm gonna have to bring a disposable camera with me next time so I can take pictures of the stuff on the trails. It's too bumpy for me to want to risk the digital camera.

Ooh, and lookit the cute little kiddie!!!!!!

It cracks me up that they make dirt bikes so tiny.

There was a guy who parked near us on Sunday, a really nice guy with long hair and a beard.

He and Poindexter were both hangin' out near their trucks and someone rode by on the camp road on a MOPED.

A motorbike with pedals on it, in the middle of a rocky dusty mess of trails.

I dunno about you, but I thought mopeds were mainly for paved roads.

Poindexter and Nice Guy exchanged dubious looks, and then Nice Guy said, "Well, as long as he's havin' fun!"

Poindexter said, "Don't be that guy."

When he told me this later I had a laughing fit. I love those commercials, and it was SO APT.

Here are a couple of shots of me on the bike (from Sept 2001, but nothing has changed since then, including the clothes):

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