Always Remember Repellent

The other night we went exploring in the bush. It had rained in the afternoon, so everything was wet and the bugs were thick. Our plan was to find a nice place to make a fire and make s'mores. It was a good plan. But we forgot insect repellent.
We took both vehicles down the highway to a side road that Kendall's family often went down for their outings and hunting and blueberry-picking. Then we all piled (yes, piled) into the Blue Weasel. We drove down the gravel road for awhile then turned off onto something that I'm not sure would even be called a road. More like a path. A very overgrown path. There were branches growing over the path, but Kendall's faithful truck lived up to the name which I bestowed upon it and weaseled it's way through. After awhile we stopped at a stream. It was beautiful. (Other than the bugs, against which we had little defence- Canadian spelling there.) You can see a rainbow in the photos, the boys checking out the water, and the blackflies flocking to Eli's sweatshirt.
Well, that was worth the drive, wouldn't you think? Wouldn't you think that maybe we should head back home now? I mean, we don't even have mosquito repellent. But Kendall is a curious guy. He wanted to see what else lay ahead in the dense jungle. So we all piled back in and the Blue Weasel continued on through the bush. And by bush, I mean the Indiana meaning, not the Canadian meaning. You know, as in, it was so thick it was like driving through a bush. A prickly bush. Anyway, we got far enough and Kendall agreed to turn around. Only, like I mentioned earlier, it had just rained that afternoon. A lot. And we were on a very narrow, overgrown path through a bush. So Kendall turned the truck around. Well, partway. Because then we were stuck. By then we were a several-hour walk from the main road and remember, we didn't have insect repellent. And the bugs were bad. But I actually kept my mouth shut as Kendall figured out what to do. Thankfully, my dad had broke a paddle (or oar- after 3 1/2 weeks I should know the difference, if there is one) when he was here and it was still on the back of Kendall's truck. So my trusty and resourceful woodsman used the broken...thing...and got us out of there after a bit of work. And then, in another anticlimactic moment, we drove back home. (Is my life full of anticlimactic moments? Or maybe I just see all of the more exciting things that could have happened.)
We did have one more beautiful moment on the way home that was not captured so well on film. The scond-to-last photo is one that Kendall took of some wild roses in the rain and the sun.
When we got back to our house we finally broke out the marshmallows and made s'mores at our fire place. (That's our house in the background.)