Afterglow 2009 - Day 1 Saturday

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All good things always have to end, and just like that Day 1 at Afterglow was over. At this point I wasn't worried because we had just got here and we still had 6 more days up here in paradise. Not that anyone is counting though, because when you're up here, things like counting, rational thought, reason, acting like a civil member of society and other important things are left at home. Being an upstanding member of the human race needs to take a vacation too. I didn't even bother pulling out the bed on the sleeper sofa tonight, because I feel more in touch with nature when I'm sleeping on a bears in evergreen forest coach print and a moose pillow. Nothing says North Woods like the aforementioned living room items. Things sure get wild up here at Afterglow. And the week had only just begun...

Brian got the fire going and Jenny got the music going, so Stacy gave the thumbs up. As far as we were all concerned, we didn't need anything else. We were at Afterglow. What more would you need?

I don't know how Kevin and I came up with the concept of Teenage Bears (we found a replica of one sitting on the mantle of our fireplace.) Although I've never seen one with my own eyes, I know how I would recognize one in the wild. They wear backwards baseball caps, size 4XL shirts and baggy jeans hanging low around the waist. Surrounding them will be rap music coming from their iPods and the snapping of bubble gum in their jaws. They have been known to cause a ruckus around the woods, and have been accused of ghostriding bikes, putting $10 worth of logs on the fire after 11:30pm, lighting fireworks in the middle of the road in front of a Vilas County Sheriff's car, shooting Roman Candles at an Osprey's nest, being too loud, throwing plastic chairs off of the dock into the water and being told to fish them out, having too many teenage bears on the top of the raft, overflowing the hot tub and getting kicked out of the go kart track by hillbilly hicks. Damn Teenage Bears. 

No matter how many times you do it, you always surprise the hell out of people why you take a flash picture of them at night. Everyone ends up looking like Tommy and Kevin in this picture. The only difference is that in most people's pictures, one of them isn't wearing a sombrero. That only happens in my pictures.

The pictures of me (with the exception of the one below on the right) really didn't show how much I had been "partying" today. That's what the video on the previous page was for. But all good things have to end, and apparently I crashed on at some point that night. Since I don't remember doing that, I'll say that's not me, and that I'm falsely accused of passing out. Look at me! Scott Reck! Who would believe it?

There are laws in effect to punish anyone who is drinking and driving, and I totally support that. But up here at Afterglow, Burt never laid down a rule that said anything about drinking and kayaking. Even though it is frowned upon by MADK (Mothers Against Drunk Kayaking, of which my Mother is on the board of trustees) it is not illegal at Afterglow Lake. If Pete ever sees these pictures (or the video on the previous page) look for a new rule to be added into the Red Book that prohibits drinking and operating water vehicles for next year.

Due to some silly Red Book rules enforced by Pete and Nancy, quiet time starts at 11pm and no logs are allowed on the fire after 11:30pm. As soon as the logs burn out, we have to find a new place to hang out. Most nights it is the KK, but tonight Greg and Sandy let us be too loud in their cabin. That was real nice of them.

Tommy was playing with one of those straw hot pads that Moms set on the table so the the hot pan doesn't burn the table. I do remember that he was throwing it up it the air like a pizza pie and catching it again. It was a very exciting Saturday night.

I did wake up in time to check out what my cousins were doing, although I don't remember what they were doing. So I only have these pictures to tell the story. So I'm just going to go ahead and point out the obvious. Stacy was sitting in a chair and smiling.

We went down to the fire pit, and although it was still relatively early, the site was vacant and the fire was dying out. It would be Brian's job to get it going again. Our night depended on it.