[at-l] Trip Report: Searching for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker (LOOOONG!)

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

> Shane,
> This was like reading from a satirical novel I
> have about the south. Not to
> poke fun but I read it and chuckled the whole way
> through. Your character
> development made me think they was reel people. <VBG>

Thanks.  You aren't poking fun, that's how I write - with an
eye toward the humorous.  Both Slim and Mr. Fornier are both
'characters' of the worst kind.  (I am too, if you read some
of my friend's stuff...)  The South is FULL of colorful
people - but so is the rest of the country.  I am fortunate
to know Mr. Fornier, and fortunately his kind are NOT a
dying breed around here - you just have to know where to
look.  (Some would say, under which rocks...)

Slim approaches life like a kid in a candy store.  He'll
keep looking for the damned bird for a few more weeks, then
run charging up some other hill.  It's what makes him fun to
hike with.  I'm really glad he called me when he did.

Once we were in Arkansas and he suddenly faked a swoon and
claimed that he would never make it and that I should go on
to the next camp site without him.  In a dual fit of
melodrama, I told him that I loved him, and that I would
tell his wife and kids that he had never stopped trying.
(He doesn't have wife or kids.)  I left him 'dying' at the
side of the trail and hiked into the next camp site only to
find Slim waiting with cold beer and Pizza.  He knew that
area better than me and had taken a shortcut to a road and
hitched into town.

Damn.  Now I want to go again next weekend...

Shane