Little late, but I am reporting that we had a spectacular weekend. It was so good it was even worth getting a hard time from every single one of my co-workers for having a four-day weekend.

lonelydumptruck, Lori-o, some of her co-workers and I went to the 4th Ave. Block Party to hear Nervis Rex play. We used to go to their shows all the time. I'm not sure if it's because we got so busy doing theatre we never heard about the shows, or if they stopped playing, but it has been years since we've heard them. Enough years they put out a second CD 7 years ago and their first one is out of print, which just makes me double-pissed that it got lost somewhere on the way to the present.

We were going to head out early Friday morning to go to McCarthy for BMac's big party, Relentless BBQ 4, but I didn't get over to REI in time to pick up the re-bungied tent poles on Thursday night so we had to wait and get them when the store opened at 10:00. The guy who did the repair set us up right, though. He only charged for the cord, so we got tight like-new tent poles for just $9. Of course one errand just leads to another (and a wild goose chase all over town to find ripe avocados) and we didn't hit the road until almost 11:30.

It was a long trip but beautiful even in the rain. I drove from the turn off to McCarthy along the single-lane dirt road and over a bridge that looked so much like it should be in an Evil Dead movie that I squealed. We saw two black bears (my first!). They were crossing the road in front of us and one disappeared right away. I gently snuck the van forward while lonelydumptruck got out the camera and I managed to convince the other bear that he was curious enough to take a second look at us. A little look was all he needed, though, and we just got a picture of his ass.

A few miles later we saw something else come out on the road way far ahead of us. My first thought was that it was a very small deer (lonelydumptruck is always quick to point out that there are no deer in Alaska, a fact which vexes me) and while we were realizing it could be a dog, we got close enough to realize it was a lynx! And not only was it a lynx, it was a very handsome lynx who sat down on the edge of the road, right in front of a tree, and stared right at us. It was a National Geographic cover. They lynx just sat there, pretty as you please, right up until the very moment lonelydumptruck got the camera focused....and then we got a picture of his ass disappearing behind a tree too. We rounded out the Alaska Wildlife extravaganza with a shit-load of bunnies and a moose who looked startled as hell when we drove by. Country moose.

We drove all the way to the end of the road, the footbridge that actually leads in to McCarthy, without even the slightest clue of where to find the party. We asked about BMac at the visitors information booth with no luck, then lonelydumptruck got the idea of asking the guy running the parking lot next to the bridge since someone was bound to know who BMac was. We got directions of where to turn off, and luckily we ran into Lemons on the road and we gave him a ride and a Coke in exchange for leading us to the camp.

BMac and Dani's place is great. They have a little one-room house with a sleeping loft built out there and a big old bus. The Spenard Satans Old Timey Band drove in to perform for the party on Saturday and they had a gig at the bar in McCarthy (As the Spenard Satins since McCarthy is a very small place.) The actual town was a quick 1/2 mile walk from the footbridge. What we saw of the town, it was probably less than 20 buildings total. We got a pizza at the bar and waited an hour and a half for the band to get set up. Finally we decided that was plenty of time and started back. BMac offered to give us a ride from the parking lot to the turn off but he got a ride to the parking lot while we were walking. We saw the truck go splashing across the river. BMac said he looked every direction besides up at the bridge and then took off we we ended up walking the whole way back.

It was only a couple of miles, but we took a few wrong turns. The road was really rocky so I was constantly turning my ankles like I was at Fair again. I'm really starting to hate uneven ground. It was a great walk, though, and we made it back to the camp in about a hour.

We were up until about 3 chatting with BMac when he got back so I had a really nice sleep in Saturday morning. lonelydumptruck was up before 10 and helped with making breakfast. By the time I rolled in there was already bacon and my job became helping to organize all the stuff people brought in. It ws really hot and sunny most of the afternoon, which we didn't expect. A lot of people went down to a lagoon to swim and some others went up to see the mine. We were feeling unmotivated after Friday night's walk so we stayed in camp and I opted for a nap.

The actual party was Saturday night and it was all out. They had a couple generators hooked up so the bands had amps and lights. They even built a dancing cage on the side of the porch. The Satans were fun, but I think my favorite band was the 9-year old who got up there to play his metal song Robots (the lyrics entirely variations of 'He said I hate Robots!') He and his group limped through Blister in the Sun after that but we tried to get Robot for an encore.

It started to rain at some point after midnight and we finally crashed out around 3. The bands played until 4 or so. Sunday was a good day to sleep in. Which I did while lonelydumptruck got up to help in the kitchen. We had fajitas as the main course of breakfast and then hit the road home. lonelydumptruck drove the whole way back, so we made much better time.

Monday we just spent doing laundry and easing into the week. I spent pretty much the entire day in front of the computer and I don't feel bad about that at all.