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Fun Times!
Jun. 1st, 2003 10:27 pmYesterday's LAFF picnic seems to have been a great success. The turnout was lower than I had hoped for, but I understand that another furmeet was going on in Indianapolis at the same time. If I had know about that early on when I planned this event, I would have picked a different weekend. Oh well. Counting myself, we had 7 furs in attendance. I arrived at Starved Rock State Park around 8 am. Shortly thereafter, Kodiak (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hazardous_roo), showed up, followed by Peanuts (peanutsos). They helped me set stuff up and then went off on a grocery run. While this was going on, BJ Buttons (bjbuttons) called to make sure the picnic was still on, as the weather was not the best. Mid 50's and windy, and there had been bad thunderstorms come through the area the night before, but it seemed fair enough weather to me. Shortly after this, Tigerpaw and Drakeoth arrived from eastern Indiana, and a bit later, Nihaler arrived. We started grilling after Peanuts made shisk-kabobs. I called BJ and he arrived about 5 minutes later. Had lots of good food and great conversation. BJ and I did a bit of puppeteering to amuse the rest, and we all watched Peanuts climb a tree in a very squirrel-like manner. We then cleaned up and packed and drove a few miles south to Mattheisen State Park to do some hiking. Now, not a lot of people seem to know about this place. It has a canyon within that you can hike down into the very bottom and follow the creek that flows through, though you have to enter from each end, as there is a fairly deep waterfall dividing the upper dells from the lower dells. We hiked each end, with many up and down stairways and creek crossings. Peanuts discovered a hidden opening at the large cavernlike bottom of the falls, and seemed to disappear for a while. I went in search and found that this passage leads to an opening that I had no clue was there, looking out onto the pool at the base of the falls. So most of us went in and climbed around in there for a while. Nihaler and I took turns Yipping as loud as we could, making many funny echoes. He sadly had to leave for work at 3:30, so the rest of us came back to my place and watched the Furry Variety Show from MFF 2002. Then we decided to go to Peru for pizza. It was a fun meal. Afterwards, Peanuts had to head home. The rest of us stayed there for about 1/2 hour and talked more, then Kodiak and BJ had to go. Hugged them both goodbye, not wanting to say goodbye... but I understood they did need to go. Tigerpaw and Drakeoth stayed the night at my place, as they had to go to Tigerpaw's dad's today to pick up the rest of his things from when he moved east last year. They left this morning around 10am. I got online then and a while later, found that BJ had uploaded several pictures and some video clips from our picnic and hiking adventures. Watched the videos with great laughter. Then later today, Kodiak and I went back to Starved Rock and hiked about 5 miles, which was tiring but needed exercise for myself. I'm bound and determined to loose 60 or so pounds by the end of the year, and this form of exercise is something my body seems to handle with not too much wear and tear. Yes, I get a bit short of breath, but I'm also really working on quitting smoking again, and I'm down to about half the amount I smoked two weeks ago. Hoping by the end of the week I'll be done for good. Tommorrow holds in store the adventure of job hunting... wish me luck on that please. We all seemed to have a great time yesterday, and I'm going to do this again sometime this year if possible, maybe in September or so. So keep your eyes peeled for details. I hope next time more furs can attend, as it is so nice out there, as the furs who were there yesterday can attest. See some of you LAFF furs at the softball game in two weeks, and some more of you at AC in July, god willing.
hazardous_roo), showed up, followed by Peanuts (peanutsos). They helped me set stuff up and then went off on a grocery run. While this was going on, BJ Buttons (bjbuttons) called to make sure the picnic was still on, as the weather was not the best. Mid 50's and windy, and there had been bad thunderstorms come through the area the night before, but it seemed fair enough weather to me. Shortly after this, Tigerpaw and Drakeoth arrived from eastern Indiana, and a bit later, Nihaler arrived. We started grilling after Peanuts made shisk-kabobs. I called BJ and he arrived about 5 minutes later. Had lots of good food and great conversation. BJ and I did a bit of puppeteering to amuse the rest, and we all watched Peanuts climb a tree in a very squirrel-like manner. We then cleaned up and packed and drove a few miles south to Mattheisen State Park to do some hiking. Now, not a lot of people seem to know about this place. It has a canyon within that you can hike down into the very bottom and follow the creek that flows through, though you have to enter from each end, as there is a fairly deep waterfall dividing the upper dells from the lower dells. We hiked each end, with many up and down stairways and creek crossings. Peanuts discovered a hidden opening at the large cavernlike bottom of the falls, and seemed to disappear for a while. I went in search and found that this passage leads to an opening that I had no clue was there, looking out onto the pool at the base of the falls. So most of us went in and climbed around in there for a while. Nihaler and I took turns Yipping as loud as we could, making many funny echoes. He sadly had to leave for work at 3:30, so the rest of us came back to my place and watched the Furry Variety Show from MFF 2002. Then we decided to go to Peru for pizza. It was a fun meal. Afterwards, Peanuts had to head home. The rest of us stayed there for about 1/2 hour and talked more, then Kodiak and BJ had to go. Hugged them both goodbye, not wanting to say goodbye... but I understood they did need to go. Tigerpaw and Drakeoth stayed the night at my place, as they had to go to Tigerpaw's dad's today to pick up the rest of his things from when he moved east last year. They left this morning around 10am. I got online then and a while later, found that BJ had uploaded several pictures and some video clips from our picnic and hiking adventures. Watched the videos with great laughter. Then later today, Kodiak and I went back to Starved Rock and hiked about 5 miles, which was tiring but needed exercise for myself. I'm bound and determined to loose 60 or so pounds by the end of the year, and this form of exercise is something my body seems to handle with not too much wear and tear. Yes, I get a bit short of breath, but I'm also really working on quitting smoking again, and I'm down to about half the amount I smoked two weeks ago. Hoping by the end of the week I'll be done for good. Tommorrow holds in store the adventure of job hunting... wish me luck on that please. We all seemed to have a great time yesterday, and I'm going to do this again sometime this year if possible, maybe in September or so. So keep your eyes peeled for details. I hope next time more furs can attend, as it is so nice out there, as the furs who were there yesterday can attest. See some of you LAFF furs at the softball game in two weeks, and some more of you at AC in July, god willing.