This might just go down in history as the most un-Dane like posting ever; the kind that people are going to read twice to see if I could have possibly meant the total opposite of what I type.

First lets start by saying that the name Dane seems to be gaining in popularity at a quick pace, today I ran into Dane from Coquitlam; this is the 3rd Dane I've met in person and about the 10th I've heard of - excluding anyone from Denmark of course.

So this weekend was one that will go down in my history book; teh auto-biography if you will; assuming one would be made this blog would be a large part of that book. So! Let me tell you the whole story... I know Andrew said he was going camping this week Wed-Sunday so I figured I would call some people to find out what’s going on... Byron told me that he was heading upto Harrison Friday night so I figured I would join them in the trek but our timing and space requirements were a little off. So at 6:05 I decided that I would indeed go camping this weekend. Now this is no small feat because I had sworn to myself after several failed camping trips with my family and other friends that I would no longer participate in such events but in a move that paralleled that of doing weed, going to the casino & drinking excessive amounts of alcohol this would be another step into the forbidden red zone. Luckily I didn't regret my decision - except for about 3 minutes Sunday morning.  So at about 7pm I was on the freeway heading east in my accustomed expedient nature. Someone near Chilliwack I was traveling at 135km/h and noticed a dark blue/black GMC pickup in the slow lane had some red & blue lights coming from his front grill - I can't hope to explain the feeling of my heart stopping when I looked at the speed and realized this would be an $250 fine, in the shock of realizing the situation unfolding I had managed to break significantly and dropped down to below 80km/h and the officer decided to deactivate his 'emergency equipment' (lights for the commoners) - I believe he continued to complete a plate check before taking a off ramp. So, going into a camping trip with the feeling of being $250 richer is the type of thing I needed to set my good mood.

I found the site a lot quicker then I expected thanks to some good directions from my dad and my familiarity with the roads to get to Harrison. At what must have been about 8:30 I arrived at the site and the first question out of the bastards' mouths was "Who invited you?" - I let it slide with a I invited myself which wasn't exactly true. So armed with 2 bottles of pop (which mysteriously went missing 1/2 way thru the 2nd night), some chips, a sleeping bag, a pillow and a car I would live on the 2005-Civic type of modern frontier. The first night I quickly realized that I would need some beverages of the intoxicating type so Grandville Island Honey Lager (went down like it wasn't even beer; almost delicious), and crown & coke to start the show. I enjoyed a rather soggy poco purchased Quiznos sandwich and I was ready for the evening. The group was large and happy because weather-wise it was a great time; more people had showed then expected. I suppose I was a bit of a buzz-killer, I mentioned that I was going to ask Paul a question - then said nevermind, but Paul dislikes the 'nevermind', so I said I was going to ask him to strangle me and wait to see if I resisted - he said he wouldn't have done it; I was only slightly surprised but with the realizations I made -- likely because this was an active thought later in the weekend it was pretty much irrelevant. But I did get annoyed at Nick's girlfriend for trying to be all psychologist on me - one of the important lessons people (and I need to take my own advice on this) is that sometimes people don't really want a solution - or they already know it - they just don't like the solution so they want to share their problems. [I know a few people get what I'm talking about - a few have even been mad at me for this. Apologizes]

Saturday was a pretty good day -- started off with a 40-minute hike up the side of Hick's Lake came back, took a shit, had a great breakfast prepared by Mike, enjoyed the morning with the exception of the excessive amount of camp fire smoke... Until the rains started - I can't say exactly how long it was raining but it felt like several hours but we retired to Byron's car to listen to some Ipod music - where I heard the first Tupac song I didn't have a gag-like reflex to shut off; and then I noticed a head beside my car, in utter shock I found my keys and caused the horn to go off - but it was Kyle - a friend of all and a buddy from my distant history; I'll go into details on Kyle later. So nobody else really noticed the horn peeping once so Kyle stayed down until it was calm again and continued to make his way 1/2 hidden over to the group that was under the tarp. Byron made an interesting comment about Kyle being like a 'Delta Force' op and then continued to say "Holy shit man, look at this, he's going in for the kill and we're not going to help them"; I was amused. So there was some confusion about who was with Kyle but it turned out to be a guy named Colin who as it happens has a cabin in the Shuswap area. That evening I was just pleased out of my gord to have a friend from my past there; I knew Kyle knew the group because Kyle showed up at some event at Mike's in the past but I was surprised to find he was good enough friends to be at the camp site - but I guess I'm the lease popular of everyone there... Moving along before I get caught in a rut. Kyle is fond of topics about philosophy, psychology, political science, sociology as I would like to think I am - and within a few minutes of driving with him into Harrison for more beer I realized this was going to be a superb - even if I doubted it the next morning. Another good comment - which Nick said was "Its always cheaper to jerk your own meat" - he was referring to making ones own beef jerky at the time but for excellent presentation it was a superb comment. That night I was in one of those moods I would only guarantee I've been in 2 times in my life - a feeling that I would summarize by saying "sentience", a self aware state when you just sit back and be aware of who and what is going on around you and a primitive and advanced state; understanding that everything being said has been set by experiences of the people around you, the history of the chair you're sitting on, pulling together all those interesting phrases people throw around... The feeling is pure joy that you exist just to be a part of the larger show - whether you play a major roll or are just an extra.

That evening I went to bed; awoke once at 5:30ish to the sound of the bird and a nauseous feeling - the crown had mixed the bubbly crude in my stomach to create a gasious mixture. I recovered without re-tasting anything - good thing because I'm sure the mix would be a purely horrible taste. That morning I slept well otherwise until I heard a few people talking. I got up and we began taking apart the set... Now for the only negative experience - I was walking back from the washroom and Kyle threw the football to me and I just didn't react fast enough - not being accustomed to projectiles being sent at me and all - but it just missed me - which I suppose I should've focused on but more I continued walking and I found myself being laughed at; I turned and picked up the ball but by this point I was done - that’s all I got to say. After that it was pretty much just dangling around until we packed up and drove home. After dropping Andrew off at home I just sat on my bed thinking about things that I had thought of while I was drunk, things about other people - but mostly things about myself.

For the record it takes 1hr 15mins to get from Poco to Harrison via Agassiz assuming the Port Mann bridge traffic is minimal.

This weekend is slightly below that night at the Seymour pub & hotel but both had extremely valuable lessons for me and I was 'sentient' after both; and for what could come out of being friends with Kyle again this might well surpass any individual day before this...