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Table Rock and get-togethers on Labor Day

Two years ago, I took my new girlfriend to Table Rock State Park for some old-fashioned camping and hiking. We tried climbing Table Rock mountain and got a mid-afternoon start. After reaching the summit, we turned around and made a quick descent. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the huge mass of granite on the front of the mountain that offers the best view. We weren't as fast as I anticipated, the mountain was taller than I remembered, and since the sun moved a little faster than I wanted, we ended up coming down the mountain in darker and darker conditions. Then and now... (the dark one would be the one from 2 years ago)

Eventually, darker turned into just plain dark. We had no flashlight so I took a picture of my white undershirt with her camera, and we used the white light from the playback screen to guide our steps down the last few hundred yards of mountain trail. I felt foolish for pushing her up the mountain, and a little more foolish for trying to go up so late.

I went back to the mountain again this past weekend. Except, this time, I conned my new wife and in-laws into coming too.

We started climbing much earlier this year. I was determined to reach the huge granite face this time, dragging my poor bride as I went. But along the way, we stopped at the same spot where we took a picture two years ago and took a few pictures. But this time, the sun wasn't setting.

The mountain was a little steeper and even longer than either of the in-laws signed up for, and they spent some time at the CCC shelter about half way up. And that's pretty much how I think I've been banned from planning activities for our get-togethers.

You see, last time I organized a camping trip with the in-laws, things didn't quite go as planned either. That was this past Easter when we went camping at Hunting Island in windy 30 degree weather. I still got sunburned somehow. This time I think I nearly drove them to heart attacks. The in-laws are probably beginning to think that my ideas are something straight out of a book on Chinese torture tactics. First, freeze them. Then work them so hard they can't feel their fingers. Who knows what's next. Oh yes, I know. Mental games.

So I talked everyone into posing for pictures in front of the Giant Cow at Aunt Sue's Restaurant.

Not a bad day for the world's worst son-in-law, where every adventure is a disaster waiting to happen.