I brought beagle Joey to the LocoLibre hang, and we arrived about 6:30 pm. It was raining, so Joey stayed in the car while I set up my hammock and tarp. He was very patient.
Then we started visiting everyone. Joey got to eat smoked pork loin, sausage, beef stew and Lord knows what else. He really enjoyed himself. Ratdog came around at some point and said there was a tornado coming our way, but he didn't have many details, like when the tornado might arrive. In fact, he wasn't sure if the text he had received referred to a past event or a future event, since his cell coverage was spotty. Anyway, no tornado arrived.
Joey and I got to bed about 12:30 am, and Joey slept like a rock, as did I. It rained pretty hard, making for great sleeping weather. I had to get up and water the lillies around 5 am, and took Joey with me. It was still raining, so we sat under my HG Winter Palace cuben fiber tarp and listened to the rain for a few minutes. I told Joey it was time to go back to sleep, and for the first time in his life, he jumped right into the hammock and went to sleep again! It was unseasonably warm, 67 degrees at 5 am.
Around 7 am, njredneck stopped by, as I had requested, and said, "Coffee's ready." We headed over to njredneck's military surplus tent for fresh-ground Booskerdoo coffee, sausage gravy, and pancakes. Of course, Joey had a plate of sausage gravy - he would not be denied. The rain stopped, and the weather started changing, probably dropping 20 degrees between 5 and 8 am. I had to add a few layers to deal with it, and put on Joey's fleece jacket.
Jellyfish came by with Dutch oven-baked sticky buns - always a pleasure. Then I took Joey on a couple of walks in the woods - he can't believe all the strange new things there are to sniff in the Pine Barrens. Around lunchtime, we stopped by njredneck's tent, just in time for grilled Cuban sandwiches with pork loin, pickles and I don't know what else. It was delicious, and of course, beagle Joey got his share.
Around 5 pm, the raffle was held. I won a Sven saw and a pocket bellows. Some people found it funny I would pick those prizes, since I generally don't cut wood and spend even less time maintaining a fire. There were lots of nice prizes - four quilts from Loco Libre, and a cuben fiber Hex tarp from Dutch.
Dinner soon rolled around, lovingly prepared by njredneck. There was beef stew, chili, and chicken Jambalaya. I prepared a bowl of beef stew for beagle Joey, and left it on my car hood to cool. Then I went back and got an excellent bowl of chili to eat while waiting for Joey's beef stew to cool. Jellyfish made a couple of pots of Dutch-oven baked mac and cheese - I was lucky enough to get some. People inhaled that mac and cheese!
After dinner, we circulated around the campsite visiting people, and it seemed like everyone had something for Joey to eat. He really gorged himself. Several people brought their dogs so there was plenty of socializing, sniffing of butts, etc. As we gathered around the main campfire, Joey started humping my arm. I've never really given much thought to humping. Joey usually does it for about 15 seconds and gets bored. However, jellyfish told me that Joey was demonstrating his dominance over me, and highly disapproved of the humping. So no more humping for Joey - thanks Jellyfish! Joey's really mad at you.
We went to bed around midnight. The winds were pretty high - excellent sleeping weather. The temps got down to 27* F, and beagle Joey spent the entire night in the footbox of my topquilt. He doesn't like a cold nose. At around 7 am, some idiot set off the alarm on their car, and it took them at least 30 seconds to figure out how to turn it off. So that pretty much woke up the entire campsite.
I went over to the group campfire for my first cup of Booskerdoo coffee, because Joey wasn't going back to sleep after the car alarm. As soon as I got to the fire, PlusOne said, "Sorry about the alarm." So now we knew the culprit! If that alarm had gone on for another ten seconds, I think PlusOne would have become MinusOne, missing some appendage from a disgruntled hammocker who was not pleased at being roused from a deep sleep.
I packed up the hammock, tarp and quilts, then took beagle Joey on a walk to the Experimental Field. Why do they call it Experimental Field? Joey definitely likes Experimental Field. Then we made the last round of visiting campsites to say goodbye to dogs and campers. Joey got to eat some more pork, and a sausage, and chowed down on a couple of steak bones. As usual, Joey slept like a log on the ride home. He's always so excited when he knows he's going camping that he can't sleep at all, but on the way home, it's lights out.
Beagle Joey is definitely exhausted from the group hang. He's been sleeping all day, with just a couple of walks to relieve himself since he was bloated with all the food he had eaten. Thanks to GeorgeCarr and njredneck and everyone else for a wonderful hang.
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Originally Posted by Uphill
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