NERV HQ

Two weeks ago, I went camping with my older brother and three friends. One of them has a very rich uncle and aunt who own a very large chunk of land. On it they have many different kinds of animals. Buffalo, cattle, etc., you know, the normal animals you would be used to seeing. However, they have a few other types as well, including Zebras, rams, and a cross-breed between a Zebra and a Donkey that they dubbed as Zonkies. Anyway, onto the summary!

So before driving up there, we of course gathered the essentials. Two tents (four guys, two per tent, and one in his car), a few fold-out chairs, and of course drinks and food. We had a decent amount of, well, stuff you need to be 21 to get with us (had mountain dew for the ones who didn't drink), as well as bacon, eggs, bread, cheese, hot dogs & buns, and some turkey. That was gathered and we went off. When we arrived, we borrowed two fishing poles from the uncle, and went off to the little spot. It was a rather beautiful little spot and I really wish I had taken a picture. As we drove up, a blue heron, startled by us, jumped out of the water and flew away. We got everything set up. Wood for the fire, chairs around the fire, and we were ready to get going. We swam for a little bit, which was pretty fun. The fish weren't biting so we went in after them I guess, haha. We got out and threw a Frisbee around for a little bit in the large fields (one of the kids had one in his car for some reason, haha).

We got a little tired and decided to play a little BP (most of you should know what this is =P). Those of us that didn't drink filled a cup up on the side with some mountain dew, and would drink that instead. The team of my older brother and this one kid seemed unstoppable. They won six games in a row, with the other three switching off in teams of two to take them on. When I was in, I had gotten it down to one cup each time and just couldn't sink it. Twas quite a tragedy, hehe. The unstoppable force was finally defeated though. It was getting a little dark so we started to build up the fire. In the meantime, we had my older brother's car with his two twelve inch sub-woofers in the back blasting music. Some fan favorites such as Jizz in my Pants, as well as some more mainstream hip-hop and rap. The fire hadn't yet been started whenever we realized it was dark. The car's headlights we were using were just turned off, and as we were walking over to where we'd start the fire I had hatched a plan. I timidly said "Guys, there were only five of us that came out here, right?.....then who is that?". We quickly started a fire and I got this one kid so paranoid he'd turn around to check if anyone was there every few minutes, haha.

We got out some hot dogs and roasted them over the fire. They were pretty tasty actually. We threw some hay onto the fire and got to see it rise to a pretty high level. Having an Eagle Scout with us, we of course knew how to build a fire and stuff, so don't worry about that. It got a bit later and some stuff happened, minor really. At 3:00 AM, we were having a debate about religious beliefs. Imagine, a handful of drunk kids picking apart each others' religions at such an hour. One kid even recorded part of the conversation for laughs, and it is now on facebook. We eventually got tired, and with us all having to work the next day we decided to hit the hay. The kid that was paranoid decided to sleep in his car, so I got to share a tent with someone who was probably about to pass out.

Unfortunately, this wasn't quite the case. Every twenty minutes or so he'd get up, go relieve himself, and come back in. I got about thirty minutes of sleep roughly, as I'd check my phone every ten minutes or so and I noticed a thirty minute gap once, so I guess I dozed off. At about 7 AM, I went outside and just sat down by the little creek. It was pretty peaceful actually. I felt like fishing, so I baited a hook with a left over hotdog and went to work. The hot dog was too easily knocked off the hook, so I knew I had to catch them quick. The Minnows at the top stopped biting, so I let the hook sink a little bit more. I felt a huge hit a few times, but both times I'd yank it and by the time I'd pull it up the bait was gone and there was no fish. I kept at it and eventually was able to hook him, but he spit the hook just as I could see him grow closer to the surface. Again it happened, this time I was able to take him out of the water but he spit it, with the bait still on the hook, and so I had lost him once more. I was determined to catch this sucker and boy did I. I tried again, this time, yanking with all my might. I got him and reeled him in. It was a small, flat-head catfish. About nine or ten inches long it seemed. I had hooked him in the head, not the mouth somehow. The hook went threw his forehead, and came out next to his left eye.



He was somehow still alive, flipping and flopping, fighting for his life. The hook wouldn't come out though. I went up to the guy who slept in his car (he was still asleep) and started shaking his vehicle. He woke up, acknowledged the fish, but was too tired and told me to get someone else to help me get the hook out. So I went over to the kid whose aunt and uncle own the land and he tried for about ten minutes, but just couldn't get it out. We already had food and couldn't be arsed to cook him, so we cut the line and threw him back in. He was still alive and swam back down, so he's probably still there.

Nothing really eventful happened that morning. My older brother had so bad of a hangover that I had to drive us back home, haha. Nobody else was that bad though. We cleaned up noticed we had some left over bread and hot dog buns. As we were leaving, we stopped to feed the Zebras, Donkeys, and Zonkies. They seemed to enjoy the bread, and I was able to snap a few pictures of them. They got close enough and I actually was able to pet a few.

The only pure-bred Zebra that came over seemed nice. Actually quite laid back and cool. As he came over though, so did a pure-bred Donkey. The donkey really was an arse, kicking the Zebra, Zonkies, and even the young zonkies whenever food was thrown. I felt like punching it really. The Zonkies seemed as laid back as the Zebra, but if something got close they would kick unfortunately. The rams just looked at us from up on a hill, haha. We gave them all of our left over bread and took off. I was able to snap a few pictures, four of the fish and the rest of the bread feeding with the zonkies, donkey, and zebra. You can check those guys out here. It was a very nice trip, and work that night wasn't that bad as well. :)