Camp Joan, Year 4, Day 5 - Aw Hail No

I'm really not qualified to post today. After finishing off our Orchard pizza from last night, Molly, Uncle Len and myself took the 50 drive to Jiminy Peak in the land of double consonants, Massachusetts. The only thing I did was ride the Mountain Coaster once. I was planning on riding the MC twice and the Alpine Sled once. Unfortunately for us, it rained before we showed up so the sled was closed. The only rides open was the Mountain Coaster and the Screaming Eagle.

Calm down, sir. You are having waaaaay too much fun.

Because of this, the wait for the Mountain Coaster was about 15 minutes long. Like a lot of things when I was little - the Star Wars prequels, Spongebob, spending time with my sister - it wasn't as fun as I remembered it. Waiting in line for 15 minutes and riding for two was just...eh. I called it a day there. Fortunately, Uncle Len and Molly had a much better time. The two went on the Screaming Eagle, which Uncle Len enjoyed, and the Mountain Coaster. I sat around and toyed with my phone as the ominous, ominous storm clouds rolled in like the mist before a Horseman of the Apocalypse shows up.

Think of the exact opposite of this.

After Len and Molly returned from the coaster, we figured we'd head in the tavern and wait out the rain. We ordered the Mile High Fries, which were good. For some reason, no picture of them could be found online. Here is an artist's interpretation.

Perhaps next year should be Camp Drawing

Once we finished up those, we started the drive home. While passing through Sand Lake, rain started falling. By the next town over, we could barely see through the sheets of rain. I thought it was really really bad until the hail started falling. Our windshield was like the side of a battleship; one wave of tiny ice rocks after another battered the glass. It slowed down for a second and I started to think Hey, it's slowing down! My brain was immediately punished for such silly ideas as the hail only got worse from there. When the cloud finally moved east as we moved west, the ground was like a recent snowfall.

We had pasta after we got home, I got new earbuds (old ones broke) and started watching Agents of SHIELD. Tomorrow, we get joined by Theo and Frank! Also tomorrow, our class takes a field trip to the humane society/shelter.

For more details on Jiminy, read last year's post here: http://campjoan.blogspot.com/2013/08/camp-joan-year-3-day-6-jiminy-peak.html

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Since when did we need a quote of the day?" - Dan's Brain

Camp Joan, Year 4, Day 4 - Dan VS Horse

I've never been that great with horses. Something about them makes me...iffy. Maybe it's the fact that they're way bigger than me, the fact that their hooves could end my life with a slight stomp, or their weird teeth.

It's definitely the teeth.

Maybe it's the Headless Horseman, or how easily they can throw someone off, or John Elway, but horses have always creeped me out a little bit. Even the Denver Broncos logo makes me a little uneasy. 

The resemblance is uncanny.

Anyways, after our lesson wrapped up, we headed on up to Little Brook Farm, a horse farm hidden in Nowhere, USA Chatham. The farm had about 40ish horses, all big and hungry. The intern there, Erika, showed us around the place and told us the names of all the horses. The ones I can remember off the top of my head were Pilot, Casey, Shane, Frisco,Dakota, Pumpkin, Falcon, and a slew of other names. I'd also like to promise now that I will not be making any horse puns for the entirety of the post, despite my inner corniness urging me on. Right, so Molly and Joan were on talk duty while Uncle Len carried food buckets and I pushed around the cart. I even dumped some food into a horse bowl, too. 

I can't tell who's ears are bigger. 

I wanna say this horse's name is Pumpkin, but I'm not sure.

Afterwords, I tried mimicking a photo I was in yesterday that had me giving the thumbs-up next to the huge pile of hay. It didn't go too hot today.

What can I say? I'm photogenic!

The woman in charge, Lynn, was telling me about a summer camp they have here and that I could be a counselor. I very quickly explained that I like working with little kids, they just don't like me. She said it didn't really matter, and if I wanted to help out, I'd be welcome to. I'm thinking about it, but the big thing would be the blog name change. I wonder what we could do...?

...Okay, maybe not that.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Curse you, orange!" - Molly, during an unsuccessful stitch on orange (part of our Vet Science class)

Camp Joan, Year 4, Day 3 - Power Struggle

When Abe Lincoln was a child, he read by candlelight every night because he wanted to become a lawyer. I can tell you this because every history textbook in America will mention this without fail. I'm part of a new generation that's basically doing the same thing; thinking of what they're gonna write as soon as the stinkin' power comes back on.

Anyway, we woke up at 7:40, ate breakfast, and went on over to St. Rose. In our vet class today, we had a guest speaker come in to talk about rabies and being a veterinarian. Upon completion, Molly and I got in the car and we started our trek towards the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary, surrounded by the Catskills mountains.

Website here: http://woodstocksanctuary.org/

After an 1.5 hour drive, we arrived at the sanctuary, ready to work.

Our task was to pick up the combination of hay and poop and place it in two wheelbarrows. We were given pitchforks as our means of disposal. The job took about an hour and 45 minutes. Highlights include a goat and a sheep headbutting and a baby goat (goatling?) almost getting it's head stuck in the fence post. 

A job well done. After our ride home, I was prepared to have a nice, relaxing night with grilled cheese on cheese bread for dinner, Reese's PB cups for dessert, and watching Iron Man 3 before going to bed. After we got back, we had some thunder and lightning. No big deal, until the lights went out. Yep! No power for about two hours. It came back on a little while ago, though.

Tomorrow, we go to another animal farm. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I feel like I could fight a goat." - Dan

Camp Joan Year 4: Dan Is A Dummy Edition (DOUBLE FEATURE!)

Hello! Welcome to Camp Joan Year 4! Sorry about the lack of post yesterday, but we had a long day that, unfortunately, was not very exciting. We were picked up at Wegman's at noon (after a blunder by my father had us traveling there one day early). We got our cereal and hit the road. The next several hours were not exciting in any way, shape, or form. Us campers arrived at about 415ish and unpacked and had delicious pizza. Molly watched Death Note and I watched Captain America 2 on my laptop.  After that, we ate ice cream and slept like the dead. We woke up at 7:40 the next day and went on over to The College of Saint Rose for our third iteration of classes.

This year's class was Veterinary Science. The class learned about fields in veterinarian science, including public health workers, surgeons, animal behaviorists, and the like. Not much else to say here, but we are going on a field trip on Wednesday.

After that, Uncle Len, my sister and I met up with Sara and Chewy at a park. We took a hike that was about an hour and a half. Molly sat around on the shore looking sad for a little while I tried to skip rocks on a stream. It was a bit of a workout. After that, we stopped at Lighthouse Ice Cream and Deli for ice cream. I had peanut butter pretzel, which was peanut butter, chocolate, and pretzel bits all swirled up in vanilla ice cream. Molly had a flavor called Play-Dough, which was (according to her) very good. It tasted like cake ice cream with little candy things, again according to her.

Tomorrow, we visit the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary and we will help volunteer and help out the animals there.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Uncle Len: "Does she have any experience being a vet?"
Dan: "No, I don't think she went to war."

Camp Joan - Day 7 - Good news, the movie didn't suck.

We finished up our animation class today. My dad can probably send our animations out to all of you. You do need chrome to open it up.

We saw Percy Jackson : Sea of Monsters today. It didn't suck.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it.
Uhhhh...
So, I guess we'll see everyone tomorrow at the reunion.

So...
uhh...
bye.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"I've never had a quote of the day"
-Theo
"I hate you, Dan!"
- Molly

Camp Joan - Year 3 - Day 6 - Jiminy Peak

After our St. Rose classes, we drove to Sara and Jeff's house and met up with them. We crossed the border to Massachusetts to go to Jiminy Peak. It was only a 45 minute drive. Anyways, once we got there, Aunt Joan purchased 8 tickets for the 4 of us who were participating (Molly, Sara, Jeff, and myself) and we went to the coaster.

This is the difficult part to explain.

So, you sat in what was essentially a slimmed down go-kart with two levers on the side. The levers controlled your speed. If you pushed the lever towards the front, you would go faster, and if you pulled it to it's upright position you would brake.

The first time, I used the brakes. Big mistake. But I'd get another two turns to get it right, and the third time I went down without the use of brakes. I'm not kidding when I say this thing gets fast. It gets really, really fast.

After that we went to a bobsled/alpine thing. It was like those little scooters in gym class, but longer and with a lever similar to the aforementioned one. Same control scheme. The first time, I got stuck behind Sara who was stuck behind Molly, who happened to be taking her time. Whatever. The second time I was up there, we raced and Molly won BECAUSE OF A FIVE SECOND HEAD START, MOLLY. STOP TELLING ME IT WAS A FAIR RACE. ( I still won :P - Molly )

But, before that, you had to go on a 5-minute ski lift trip. As someone who had never done any winter sports with the exception of a, oh, one hour tubing stint, it was quite terrifying. But I sat next to Jeff, and we talked about which falls would be fatal and which ones wouldn't, and I devised a theory that I would stick out my left leg which should only break that side of my body rather than both legs.


The final ride we went on was called the Screaming Eagle. It was a ski lift chair, but on a zipline. Once you got on, it zipped you back about, oh, 300 yards and then you completely stop. In mid-air. 100 feet off the ground. In a swaying ski lift. After that, it started up and you were going about 30 mph. But then, when you reach the landing platform, it brings you to a screeching halt and there's a terrifying second when you look down and your chair is about an inch away from the safety netting.

All in all, the Screaming Eagle was the scariest ride.

After that, we went home. Theo and I found some awesome NFL jerseys online - from China. Twenty bucks, Dad!

Also, I got Theo hooked on Canadian Football.


Go Blue Bombers!

Tomorrow, we go see Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Sea of Monsters.

HOPEFULLY it won't suck.

...hopefully.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"IF I DIE, TELL BRUNO I LOVE HIM!"
"Molly, if you die, I'm probably going to end up dying with you on this ride. There'd be no one to tell anyone anything."
-Molly and Daniel on a terrifying 15 second stop on the Screaming Eagle.

Camp Joan - Year 3 - Day 5 - MBV! MBV!

After finishing our classes, we took the 35 minute voyage to the Martin Van Buren home. Before that, we ate at a Mexican cantina owned by Europeans in America. (?!?!?!) called Love's. They had great food and beyond the orchards they had animals. They were cool. There was an alpaca/llama, 3 goats, a pig, a turkey, and a chicken. I shot a video narrated with an Australian accent.

After that, we went to the MVB house. For the unfamiliar...well...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Van_Buren

We took an tour of the house where the man with the funny hair lived. Nothing too exciting. I forgot to take pictures,  but mainly because there wasn't much that was picture-worthy.
Here's a sweet picture of the thing;

After that, we went to the grave site. We parked expertly, and then we found the headstone. It was very modest;

... except for the huge obelisk next to it.

That's Molly facepalming next to it.

After that, we went to the birthsite and I got a picture.

And that's really all that happened today.

Tomorrow: St. Jiminiy.

Hoo boy, here we go.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"GIMME A WHEAT THIN!"

- An extremely aggressive Molly.

Camp Joan - Day 4 - Year 3 - Capital City

Same old, same old for the St. Rose classes. After they were done we traveled to the park to grab a bite to eat. I got a gyro and Molly got a grilled cheese with bacon. Uncle Len got a banana. Once we finished, we 

went to the museum for a little while before going to the capital building. 

Our tour guide had a lot of history about and with the capitol building. From her great grandfather to her, they had worked on or been involved with the building. The tour was excellent. There were heaps of information, dates, and facts. Fact: It was supposed to take 4 years/4 mil. to build the capitol. It ended up taking closer to 32 years/25 mil. Fact: There was a fire in 1911 and one person died - the spirit of that night watchman is said to haunt the halls to this day. Fact: Because of these two facts, some say the building has a curse. Apparently, it was placed by a stone carver. If you look under a carving, you can see a little head and face. It's said to be a demon.

After that, we returned home and at 7 o'clock we went to the ValleyCats baseball game. When we left (6th inning) it was 8 - 2 Valleycats. I was conflicted because the VC were playing the Williamsport CrossCutters, a Phillies farm team. I'm not sure who to root for...

Sadly, I forgot to bring a camera, so instead I'll make a post of just stock photos of the Capitol tomorrow.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"STEAL HOME, MARTINEZ! STEAL HOME!"

- The Drunk Guy Several Rows Back

Camp Joan - Day 3 - Year 3 - Camp Joan becomes a food blog.

Today kicked off our College of St. Rose classes. We awoke at 8, arrived at the sign in tent at 9, and were in Computer Animation at 9:10. We spent the next two hours and fifty minutes learning the basics of Adobe Flash. I drew a dragon breathing fire, Molly drew Pokemon, and a good time was had by all.

See, the problem with this class is that it's extremely difficult to share. Unless I uploaded it to, say, Youtube, there's no real way for you folks to view it. So, we're kind of in a rut with this class. I'll find a way for you readers to view it, but it might take a while. 

After St. Rose, we went to a pizza place called Orchard. Joan and I ordered personal pizzas and Molly ordered a mac and cheese. When they got here, well...

yeah. They were EXTREMELY delicious though. One of, if not the best pizzas I've ever had. It was the right amount of cheeseiness, sauce, et cetera. I can't really do it justice. If teleportation technology was available, I would get a few pizzas and teleport to Doylestown on Saturday and share this pizza masterpiece with the family. Alas, we don't have technology like that...yet.

After polishing off our pizzas, we went a mile out of our way to the comic book shop. We were greeted by a girl (couldn't be more than 4) who was very enthusiastic to help us. She guided me through the store, pointed out some comics (Popeye and My Little Pony) and whatnot. I got my comic and checked out. Joan left her a tip that she ran over to purchase Skittles with.

After that, we hung out at the library for about 45 minutes before returning to Ghost Lodge. We enjoyed a hamburger/hot dog dinner before I sat down to write this blog.

Tomorrow we visit the capitol.

Can't wait.

Sweet action shot of us leaving the comic book store

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Take any book woo like"

 - Claudia, the comic store helper.

Camp Joan - Year 3, Day 2 - Over and Under...Again.

Does the title seem familiar? Well, probably because the lineup for the day was identical of Day 5 of Year 1.

Today, we went to Secret Caverns, about an hour from Ghost Lodge. Theo and Molly tried to, ahem, lighten up the mood by singing multiple songs (poorly) loudly. Once we got there, we waited around for, eh, twenty minutes and we were off. We had a really cool tour guide. We squeezed our way through formations, hallways, and a claustrophobic nightmare. I took a real whole lot of pictures. At one point, our tour guide killed the lights. Your eyes do not adjust in caves. You can hold your hand a centimeter in front of your face and you will still not see anything. Apparently, if you stay in a cave without lights, you will go blind in 1-3 months. 

We went outside, finished off last night's pizza, recorded a Camp Joan Update. It started to drizzle. As Theo said "It's going to rain in 3, 2, 1...", it started to pour. "I'M PSYCHIC!" shouted Theo, his arms raised in triumph. It was an hour ride home. I took a nap until dinnertime, much to Molly and Theo's dismay. 

We ate dinner and drove to the exact same zipline place as last year. The twist? Theo tagged along this time. We met Sara and Geoff (or is it Jeff? Oh, great, now I'm going to feel bad if I misspell it.)As we were getting hooked up, Theo and I opted to latch together so that he wouldn't get stuck. We figured that my weight would carry us to the next stop. 

And now for something completely different. 

Theo's part will be posted tomorrow.

So, anyways, Theo and I got down fine, but Sara got stuck about a hundred feet from the rest area. So, the guy who was running the rest area had to run into a ravine, attach the latch to Sara's gear, and pull her allllll the way back. It was pretty funny.

We all did two laps around. After that, we got into the car and drove back to Ghost Lodge and had ice cream.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"I see dead people"

- Molly, in the pitch black cave.

*le video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4LA49rkapA&feature=youtu.be