Oh God !!! Not another day at the Duncan's !!!!
Mike and Bone woke early with raging headaches from too much bad food, beer, and company. Wanting to clear their heads and avoid the Duncan's the boys hiked up the road along Panther Creek.
A mile or two into the hike they came across the first of the seven identified landslides along Panther Creek. They saw boulders the size of small Volkwagen's, that had rolled down 1,500 foot hills, and had smashed through trees the size of your waist. Again, much of the road wasn't just washed away, it was gone! In fact, in several spots the landslides had completely changed the course of the river.
Heading back to the Duncan's Mike and Bone philosophized about their marriages, children, life, death, beer, and just how much they didn't like their situation.
Once back at the Duncan's, Mary offered them breakfast with the family again, however this time, starting to feel sorry for the boys and their predicament, she regaled them with sordid stories of mountain suicide/murders among the campers that winter at the Duncan's Trailer Park.
The Low Point of the Trip
After Breakfast, Mike and Bone, moped about their "Deluxe Luxury Trailer". Sitting on a picnic table by Panther Creek, the boys started to drown their sorrows with their rapidly depleting store of beer, to the point that they had they had to buy a 12 pack of canned Olympia from Mary, to both replenish the boys beer supply, and provide some sort of "compensation" to the Duncan's.
Mike and Bone sat on a picnic table drinking their Oly's and staring stonily into the Creek, while bemoaning their fate when Clark's Son-In-Law raced up on his motorcycle and ran in to see Clark.
Saved !!!!!!!
Clark came out and hurriedly told the boys, that the National Park Service had partially rebuilt the road and was allowing all the rafters, smoke jumpers and locals that had been trapped down river for the past two days out for a one-hour period starting at 1:00. Since it was already 12:20, the boys hurriedly packed their stuff, gave the Duncan's a check for $75.00 for the additional "meals" the boys incurred and jumped in Clarks beat up Pickup truck, all the while never looking back!
Déjà Vu All Over Again !! Now slumming with the Keating's
Clark and the boys made it out in the time window (unfortunately for Clark they closed the road for another 10 hours once they got out) and were dropped off at the party store that they were picked up from. They fidgeted around in the 90 degree heat behind the party store for an hour or so until Earl Keating and his wife finally show up with some more bad news............. It was too late in the day to start the camping trip on horseback. So with no discussion they took the boys back to their house in lovely Gibbonsville, population,,,,,, 900 (where the men are men, and the sheep are scared!) On the way to their home, the Keating's stopped to visit with some of their friends along the road, while Mike and Bone writhed in misery in the back seat.
Once at the house Earl's wife told the boys "Oh, you boys can stay with us tonight, I made you both a nice French Dip for lunch!!" Walking in the Keating's House, it was a filthy, semi-finished house, where the Keating lived in the basement (where they intended to stuff Mike and Bone in one room), while they built an upstairs. So the Kitchen, Bathroom, and Bedrooms were all in the basement where Mike, Bone, and the Keating's would stay !!!!
God Awful Gibbonsville
Earl's wife attempted to cram food down the boys while Earl and his son Cody tried to show the boys mountain lion hunting videos and sell them on coming back for a hunting trip in the winter. Mike and Bone started to have a déjà vu, feeling like they were still trapped with the Duncan's but instead of having fishing trips crammed down their throat, they now were having hunting videos, where the Keating's demonstrated mental superiority in inter-species combat on tape crammed down their throats, complete with scenes of large, dead cats. Completely disgusted, the boys decided to take their first showers since they got to Idaho, and then figure their next steps.
When Bone went into the showers, their was no one around, when he came out of the shower, there was Mike, Earl, and his Wife, and several neighbour women chatting in front of Bone, who was only wearing a towel, and a rapidly waning smile. Soon as he got dressed, he and Mike decided to walk up to the restaurant with cabins on the main road, drink a few beer, and consider murder/suicide, and add to Mary Duncan's sordid mountain story list.
We're Mad as Hell, and We Aren't Going to take it any More !!!!
You've gotta be kidding !!!! At the restaurant the boys ordered a few beers, glad to not be with some red neck family trying clumsily to sell the boys a trip they didn't want! In the middle of the second round, they decided to check out the cottages in a desperate attempt for some freedom and possibly fun. While checking out the rooms, the boys found something very interesting,,,, they were supposed to be spending the night there !!!!!
It turns out that a part of the boys "Trip Package" was spending a night in those very cabins !! It turned out that the Keating's decided to keep the boys at their house and pocket the money !!! Going back Mike and Bone were less than polite when they told the Keating that they were going to hold them to the contract and they would be spending the night at the cabin, not at the Keating's. Earl's Wife was visibly not happy (she obviously wanted the money), but Earl wisely assessing the situation and wanting to keep the peace, offered the boys his pickup truck so that the boys could get around for the evening.
The Mike and Bone Sleep Shack
Beers, Burgers, and B.S., It Don't Get No Better !!!
After getting settled into their cabin, they headed down to the only pub in the area, the Lewis and Clark Cafe, in an effort to finally have some fun on the trip.
Sitting outside on the deck of the restaurant, by a mountain creek, the food was good, and the room temperature porters were better. While the evening and the beers flowed, the outfitters who saddled Mike and Bone with Clark Duncan joined them and shared a few beers (and more than a few apologies for Clark!!)
One of the Guides, consoling Bone on being trapped with the Duncan's
Finally !!! Freedom from the Duncan's and Keating's While sucking suds at the Lewis and Clark Cafe !!
Lets Get the Heck Outta Gibbonsville !!!
As the evening wore on and the effects of the rapidly accumulating beers increased, the boys moved their base of operations indoors to dicker with the Bar Tender. As it turned out, he, his sister, and brother-in-law had recently purchased the Lewis and Clark Cafe. Moving to Gibbonsville from Reno the trio had experienced the extreme culture shock of moving to a very small town, that is mostly inbread, (where two-in-three divorces still result in the couple being brother and sister !!)
He regaled the boys with stories of locals who would work three part-time jobs, while starting to drinking at 7:30 in morning, essentially spending all their day's pay before noon. Thought of this dismal life style was so profound that it almost sobered Mike and Bone, which caused them to leave around midnight. Besides, the locals that the barkeep warned the boys about were getting creepier by the minute.
Getting back to the cabin, the boys were able to sleep for the first time in two nights in clean sheets with no redneck families !!!! Hopefully the next day the boys would finally have some fun riding on horseback across the Continental Divide !!!