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Blood, Sweat, and Fiends: A Fort Fourth!


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Maybe just a little. I need to set up another account just for TRs It may seem that way, but just because I was on the thread doesn't mean I was reading it. Nice detective work MD and nice job on the

Clairvoyance, it's a gift.

That’s the same expression I have on my face when starting a trip to the Fort. Enjoying the Trip Report. :)

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Product of the 80s myself, I am quite partial to the new elevator music. That is when you know you are old. You hear the music from your teens in the elevator.

Love the morph you did Metal Dad. Thank you for showing us the you inside.

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Loving your trip report! Can't wait for more. You're new fur baby is beautiful...I am sure you are enjoying her!

As a product of the 80's myself, there was some great music and not so great music coming out of the 80's. Think U2, Bon Jovi and those other hair bands who were great. Oh, and New Kids on the Block...yikes!

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Great Pictures John, sorry we only got a few mins to meet, where did the time go, we backed in and were leaving on what seemed to be the same day.

Oh and Music, boy you shoulda been around in the .........ahhhhh well an earlier decade or 2

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Product of the 80s myself, I am quite partial to the new elevator music. That is when you know you are old. You hear the music from your teens in the elevator.

Love the morph you did Metal Dad. Thank you for showing us the you inside.

That's funny about the elevator music. Dee Snider from Twisted Sister once said that you know you've made it when you hear a marching band play your song. I find myself humming along to 70s/80s muzak when I'm on hold and realize that I've become my Dad! If he were a fiend he'd be BigBandDad.

Great Pictures John, sorry we only got a few mins to meet, where did the time go, we backed in and were leaving on what seemed to be the same day.

Oh and Music, boy you shoulda been around in the .........ahhhhh well an earlier decade or 2

Bob, I wish I had more time to chat. I went by your site as well as frequent loops through 1700, schedules were just off. we'll meet again one of these days!

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My sister and I got into the worst fights over who got to listen to "their" station on the radio. I was a teen in the 80's and into metal and she was 8 years younger so she loved the pop music then. To this day, I want to shove a pencil in my ears when I hear Madonna. :gaah:

Heck Yeah!

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Day One:

Music: Paul McCartney, Grateful Dead, and Steel Pulse

Drink: Magic Hat #9, Heineken, and Hugs

Smell: Tar, Horses, Canvas

Arrival

And so it begins… We arrive at the metaphorically pearly gates!

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A little bit of a wait, but no biggie! Ben’s already checked us in.

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Cool! We’re next!

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Met by the gatekeeper. A very nice gent with a shtick about putting the kids to work instead of enjoying “Disney stuff!”. I knew his name, but can’t for the life of me remember it. I take great comfort in the fact that he doesn’t remember me either!

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So now we’re in! We had to go way the heck to the very back of overflow to wait until the site was ready!

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Ben went to retrieve the cart from its clandestine docking, we’d get the second one the following morning!

Now. I alluded several times to Ben’s packing.

First of all, he’s a rocket-scientist/engineer, which sounds like the butt-end of a joke, but he creates chips for satellites, like tortilla, potato, and micro…

He was never a scout, and is actually new to camping, but he is prepared… for any situation, and any permutation of the given circumstances.

As for me… I have a truck, a camper, and five people…if it doesn’t fit…we didn’t need it!

Plus, we’re talking about four days of simplicity… FOUR DAYS!

We planned on taking a long bike ride during our stay, so of course, we had to take seven bikes.

What I didn’t realize is that single detail kicked off a life size version of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. http://en.wikipedia..../Tower_of_Hanoi

Now, Ben needed to tow a trailer, which he has, buried in his garage. The dig-out netted an absurd list of items. A half dozen forgotten bikes with price tags still affixed, tile, a brand new generator, foam panels, and a coffin! The result was several items donated to charity, two new tires on the trailer, and a huge coffin leaned up against the fridge!

Ben’s ride plus enormous horse-type trailer…

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Now that he was pulling a trailer, he had a license to bring his entire collection with him.

Not only did he pack the van full of clothes, fire pit, firewood, air mattress, coolers, and fridge, but he had the trailer.

It was packed full of seven bikes and other various supplies, which may or may not have included, a porcelain statue of a cat, 8-track tape player, a seat flotation device from an old 747, and a theremin!

OK, that may be a bit much…but it was! We took 3-4 cart trips back to the van just to store the empty boxes!

Anyhoo! We had some time to kill, so we went into the welcome/check-in/Outpost building to look around and use the…you know!

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The girls sat down for a game of checkers, a game that they really fell in love with during our January trip (which you can read about here: http://www.fortfiend...nter-fortitude/ ).

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I’ve read a lot of trip reports here and it really has opened my eyes to the sheer amount of details to be savored at the Fort. I tried to revel in that idea for this trip, so I looked at things a little more closely than I used to. It was like looking at the Fort with freshly cleaned glasses!

There’s obviously less and less sightings of Musket Mickey as the years roll on, but there is one on each side of the checkerboard, and a badass shellac-ed belt-buckle type at that!

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I took the picture from the spectator’s perspective, and it’s staying that way, sorry, turn your head a bit!

I strolled out to the deck near the RV check-in. I saw what could be the world’s second or third worst break-down spot on a holiday!

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I can’t help but notice that it looks like my old TrailBlazer, same year and color. A great vehicle for us. But these folks had just taken this one down off of jacks, and apparently were having transmission problems.

Talk about tripping in front of the finish line!

Then I saw a sign, which I usually read, but never really immerse myself in the message.

This time, I was ready for it!

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Site was ready, Ben was taking the kids out to 1517 by cart, and I had to walk across the newly sealed parking lot…all the way out.

I warned you that there was a healthy dose of absurdity in this TR, especially in the photos. But sometimes you just say “What The Fort? I have some dumb stickerage on my truck and camper, but this one…I just had to snap a photo of this other dude's truck as I trotted by…

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I got back to the rig, and was very happy with its appearance.

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What a difference from the blazer. This was no longer a Brady Bunch excursion vehicle, this is a ‘NY born and raised’ boy's embracement of 30 years of living in the south!

Between the truck, the camo, and the banjo music, my Mom suggests perhaps a professional can help.

Now… Back up for a minute. Yes, I referenced the Brady Bunch a moment ago.

You may recall the episode where they go to the Grand Canyon!

You’ll notice that on the way to and from…they rocked a popup!

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To say it was hot is an understatement. It was oppressive, left corner of hell type of heat.

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I pulled the rig all the way back to our home for the next four days…That’s FOUR DAYS Ben!

Site 1517

First order of business? DISNEY ON ICE!

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A newcomer for MetalWife…

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And the MetalDad/BassMaster camping staple…

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Set-up was a breeze!

I do the outside of the camper, MetalWife does the inside, Ben sets up the extra stuff like the fire pit and Ezup.

And the kids go looking for dead animals and getting hopped up on Hugs…Now we’re camping!

These are Hugs!

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Cheap kids juice from Walmart. We’re camping…they’re entitled!

And holy ish if we didn’t get devoured by giant skeeters!

Good Lord, it was like getting blasted by a swarm of Sikorsky helipcopters!

Our first casualty was the music.

I painstakingly prepared an unreal collection for 4 days, only to find that I left a cable home that gets my mp3 player to the radio.

So, I scoured the truck for CDs and we ended up with a pleasant selection of Paul McCartney & Wings – Band On The Run, a Grateful Dead compilation I made, and a couple of my favorite Steel Pulse records.

They are in my opinion, the world’s greatest reggae band!

Drink a little beer, cruise a little loop, get down tonight!

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You had me at #9, which made up for the Heini, and still making up my mind on the Bud-Rita's.

I've promised Marilyn/Confused some the last of Sep, so will rethink then. Gary gets PBR.

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The Heineken is for when I get real thirsty, ice cold, fast, and crisp! Wife loves the ritas.

There is a pretty good parade of beers on it's way...stay tuned

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I've been playing some old Paul McCartney and Wings music on Pandora lately as I cook. Brings me back to childhood working in the greenhouses on the farm during the spring.

We're so sorry, Uncle Albert. But we haven't done a bloody thing all day.

Anywho, loved the update. And I really like the look of the black decals on the pup with the truck. Very stylish!

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