Larry's 34th Post: Back from Mexico & Camping Trip

Hi guys, it’s Larry here again after being gone for a long time.

I have missed being away from our home in California for so long and our blog more than I thought I would. Not that I didn’t like what we were doing and why we were doing it at all. I was checking the blog stats the other day and was surprised and happy to know that “BGR” is still out there being read by so many guys from around the world. Maybe some of them are new readers for us, but with so many chapters to read, maybe some are still catching up on the old stories. Anyway, I’m writing this chapter without letting Marcus know I was gonna do it. I wanted to make sure I could finish it first.

If you haven’t read our older stories yet, or you are a new reader, you might get confused with the names we use in it. The guys that know us, you can skip this paragraph if you want. Sometime ago we let you know what our real names are, I’m the Larry guy in the stories, but my real first name is Mark with a “K”. When Marcus started writing the blog five years ago, I didn’t know that I was in it with a different name to protect me. He was afraid that I might not like how he was writing about me, he wasn’t too far off on that. But later, when I really got into the chapters, I kinda liked the sexy way he wrote about me, especially when he gave me a fake name to protect me in case our wives ever got hold of the stories. Marcus finally let you guys know his real first name is Al, but Marcus is his real middle name which no one of his friends knew. I should add that after a we came out to each other, I really liked being called Larry and now I use it more than Mark. Around here at home, Marcus is known by everyone as Al, but when we travel or visit Mexico, he is always Marcus and I like that name for him. I hope that helps any of the new guys reading this stuff. Oh ya, we talk about Pops a lot, he cared for Al when he lost his parents, Pops is his God Father but now we both consider him as our dad. Enough old stuff, gotta move on.

I guess I’m not done with the old stuff, I should tell you some more to know, we both retired from our jobs before we got married, but that’s kinda changing lately. Marc wanted to start teaching business classes, he has two master’s degrees, one in art and one in business and he was Pops main man, Operation Officer, in his corporation. He’s teaching at two online universities, with something like Project Management I think. What I do know is it takes up so much of his time, our time together, and I’m not a big fan of that! Maybe he could just do one class next semester. I didn’t go back to my former work though; I found myself liking volunteer work. I’m not gonna sit around and wait for Marc to get unbusy from work. I think I’d like to volunteer at a place where they feed hungry people. I also work sometimes at a thrift store to keep myself busy, I don’t need the pay, so I donate most of it. Marc has more retirement income to donate than me, so he does, there’s a long name for being a person that does that, but I haven’t a fucking clue how to spell it. Anyway, you probably know what that is called. Marc needs the tax breaks he gets from making big donations every year. Me not so much, I can live on my retirement income. I did make money from the sale of my old house, and I let Pops handle how it’s invested. He’s the money expert here. Anyway, that’s enough about that stuff, I guess. Except, I am the worlds worst speller, and I hate that MS Word is always trying to correct what I writing, it wants me to sound like a robot I think!

Now that I’m writing a chapter again, I had some ideas to talk about but there were too many things, and the page was getting super long. I might write another chapter one day to use that stuff. One thing was to explain why we haven’t written for a while. Marcus has been writing this blog for five years and now that he’s back to teaching again, there just isn’t enough time to do both. I have helped him with my chapters after you guys thought I could write pretty good myself. After getting married over a year ago we both knew we had to get away from here and just be the guys we wanted to become, with no commitment to work or the blog. Pops was the one who convinced the both of us to go on a really long honeymoon, far the fuck away from here and what was a big problem for Marcus. Mexico was just far enough for us.

For you guys that have read our stories and know lots about us, you gotta know that between the two of us, nobody around here knows much about me. I haven’t been a very outgoing guy, I’m more of an introvert, okay, that was me before now. Not so much anymore. Al is the opposite of me; because of his job with Pops, he’s had to deal with so many business and state political people for years. In fact, some of those people who know him well have been trying to get him into politics, running for some kind of office that he’s qualified for. I don’t know if you know that Al is now 63 years old, and maybe he should learn to love retirement. I begged him to not listen to those guys, because if he does run for something and wins, I’ll never see him, or I’ll see him working and telling me to hold off until he’s off the clock. Ya, that’s gonna happen with him, talk about workaholics.

I have come to believe now that as long as we are living here, and free to do whatever we want, he will always stay in the closet. That’s the fucking problem we have right now, like ever since we started living together, it’s not gonna change. I realize that it was easy for me, who the fuck do I know, who the fuck would even care if I was straight or gay? Nobody, that’s who. I don’t think Marc would agree with me, but I think he is embarrassed to admit that he is gay and not the straight guy everybody knows. He’d probably fight me with what I just said, but, you know, when we are away from here, he is so different. I love the guy he becomes away from people he knows so well. When we are out in a public place, we can hold hands on a walk or sometimes get a quick kiss, like not “get a room guys” kinda kiss of course. We look at each other at a table in a restaurant, and I can forget where we are, I’m sure he does too. Sometimes, he can make the whole world disappear with one look at me with his big brown eyes. He always has done that for me, even when we were just a couple of bros having coffee together. I shoulda known years ago we were gonna be like we are now, I don’t know why we both waited so long. 

I started writing some stuff about our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico our favorite place to hang out. We met other guys from the USA; some consider themselves Ex-Pats and don’t want to come back because of how stupid everything has become here. I don’t blame them; we are not fans of it either. Anyway, I’m sure now that you’ll need to wait for another chapter to read that because I kinda wrote a lot about my kid and his family that came for a long visit with us last summer. So, I’m gonna write about that next.

OUR FATHER AND SON CAMPING TRIP

It was last summer when my son Ryan and his family drove out to California for a nice long visit with us and some sightseeing for him and his wife while we watched the kids for them. But one thing was gonna happen for sure, that second camping trip just for me and my son. We kinda decided that a few years ago when we did get to know each other at the lake. One thing for sure was I had to buy another tent, not just a backpacking style that I owned.

I went online to find what was available, and I saw that there are lots of tents now that just use air instead of poles, cool! I never liked messing with poles anyway. I found a cool looking blow-up tent on WAYFAIR, and I bought it and two blow-up cots for sleeping since Ryan was having a tough time sleeping on the ground with a sleeping bag because his back can’t handle it. Not this time, I figured that I was gonna blow his mind once he saw what I’m bringing with us. One thing was different; it takes up a lot of space on my truck bed and it’s pretty heavy too. Another thing about this tent, I bet I can get Marc to go camping with me because it’s not so primitive.

We only expected to spend a few days camping because they wanted to do so much on this trip, but Ryan’s wife Ashley did want him to get some dad-time on the trip. There was no problem with that because Marcus and Pops got to spend their time with the kids and Ashley without Ryan and me in the way. 

I got everything packed in the back of my truck before they came out to California, I wanted it to be a big surprise for him. We headed back to the same campground and lake we used last time since it’s close to home and we don’t need to spend so much time on the road getting there. When we found our site, I went to unload the truck. That’s when Ryan actually said something about all the stuff we needed to unpack. He said that he was gonna say something about all the stuff he noticed in the truck at home, he thought maybe we should unpack the truck to keep it safe while we were camping, but he kept it to himself just in case I was up to something. He wasn’t wrong, I was up for blowing his mind and fixing the small tent we dealt with last time.

I asked him to help me unload the truck and he looked at me like I was stupid or something, of course he was gonna help me. But he said that whatever was in the big, covered bag was heavier than he thought. It didn’t take but a minute for him to realize that whatever tent I brought was gonna be a lot nicer and a lot bigger, so he didn’t say much while we were laying it out. He wondered where all the tent poles were, but I had to tell him, there weren’t any, just air will build it, well, hopefully since I never had a chance to blow it up before using it.

SENLEETO 13.5m 8--10 Person Inflatable Tent from Wayfair

I remember pretty good, what Ryan had to say once it was finally blown up and ready to go inside to set up the place, “Holy fucking shit! This isn’t a tent, it‘s a fucking cabin! Pardon my language.” I told him, if he didn’t say it, I was gonna say it myself, hahah. I knew what it was gonna look like from the picture I saw. The only thing I’m sorry about was that it wasn’t made in a camouflage print, which would have been really cool. My kid thought the same thing too. Anyway, I knew anyone who saw it would be blown away. Ryan stopped me before we headed inside to give me the biggest hug, and said, “You really did this for me, didn’t you, I don’t know what to say.” I told him there’s nothing to say, just help me get the rest of the shit out of the truck and inside the tent. And then I told him, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Once Ryan saw I had blow-up cots instead of just sleeping bags, he yelled out, “This is so fucking awesome dad, we are not sleeping on the hard ground this time.” And then apologized for his language. I said, “Really? That’s not a problem, being afraid to say what’s on your mind would be the problem.” But I did tell him that sleeping on the ground will never happen again, not ever!

We placed the blow-up cots on opposite sides of the tent’s sleeping area leaving lots of space between them to move around too. I figured one day, if it’s just me and Marcus using the tent, we can put them together like a big bed, but I don’t know if that will ever happen, Marc is more the hotel guy here.

I bought a couple of blow-up big chairs instead of bringing the folding kind we owned. Everything else we needed we had in the garage. I brought some folding tables, old propane cookstove, and some LED lanterns, even a string of lights to hang up inside in case Ryan was into that kind of thing; you bet he was. You know, it took longer than it should have to put everything together, but we were having fun laughing it off anyway, so who cares? It got done together.

OUR RELATIONSHIP GETS CLOSER

After our tent was set up and a cooking area was created, we had our dinner. I kept it really simple, stuff like frozen hamburgers and buns, hot dogs, bacon, eggs, mustard, peanut butter, and a box of pancake mix for breakfast. You know, like really simple stuff we needed to have available. I didn’t want food to be a problem figuring out what to have, I even packed some snack bars in case we got hungry or went on a hike together. I just wanted him to think of me as someone that always had his backside. I got this son, a piece of cake.

The weather could not have been better for us, since it was early summer, not that hot, and not cold at night, it was perfect for us. My kid expected it to be hotter than it was, but he is used to bigger extremes with Colorado weather, anyway. Once we got the place up good enough for the night, Ryan suggested maybe we could go on a short hike to scope out the area. Sure, why not? Too early for dinner and we’ve been snacking on some of the stuff I brought, so we weren’t hungry yet.

We did go for a walk around the place, and it gave us a chance to just get to talk about whatever was on our minds. My mind was on making sure, I don’t fuck up the time together so we can do it again someday. Ryan wanted to talk about the first camping trip we took three years ago, and it was kinda strange for us and a lot cooler than it was this time. He brought up how awful it was sleeping in our clothes to keep warm, and the sleeping bags made it worse. I really felt bad and he could see that, so he explained it better, so I didn’t feel like it was my fault. I didn’t want him to feel sorry that he went on the camping trip with me. That wasn’t a problem at all, it was the sleeping in clothes in a tight sleeping bag on the hard ground. I can’t blame him for that; I wasn’t too happy about that myself. It was on that walk that Ryan said he can’t wear clothes to bed, it drives him crazy and everything gets all bunched up and uncomfortable. I totally understand, I’m no different myself. It was too cold back then, I don’t think it had anything to do with being embarrassed at all. There was nothing much we could do about it back then, so we dealt with it. But not this time, no way!

On our walk, Ryan told me upfront, that he was gonna be stripping naked for bed and if I had a problem with that, it was too bad, just look the other way. I almost fucking spit out a laugh at that and told him maybe he’d like to give me a little strip show again like he did once at the pool with Marc and me. He said, “OMG, you still remember that?” Yup I did and the strip show we both gave him back later for fun. I reminded him that it was the first time that we all got naked together, no problem. If I remember it right, it was my idea and I asked Marc to follow my lead. We always swam naked at home, and I figured Ryan was a big boy now and he could handle seeing his two dads in their natural habitat. I know we wrote about that a few years ago. It worked out great thanks to how Ryan handled it with us.

When we got back to the campsite, Ryan built a small campfire for us for dinner, because that’s what you are supposed to do when you go camping, right? We cooked hotdogs on sticks over the campfire because maybe we forgot a few things to make cooking easier. Oh well, ya, and I forgot hot dog buns but didn’t forget the hamburger buns. We decided to eat the hot dogs right off the sticks with some mustard and it was more fun than you might think. We ate a lot of hot dogs that night, no reason to keep them, no buns. 

You know we didn’t need any heat from the campfire; it was perfect for the hot dogs and great to just watch the little fire dying down so we could go inside for the night. I know I had a great time with my kid, I’m sure he had a good time with me too. I have no real memory of what we talked about every time we talked, but the grandkids came up a lot. Especially about the FaceTime calls we make with them. Marcus is amazing with our grandsons Noah and Liam. He is PopPop with them and they adore him and he just gobbles it up. I get to talk to them too, or should I say first if I use my iPhone for the call before he calls them. It’s not a contest, really, it’s not. He is so invested in my son and his family because his own kids could care less about him. I’m so happy that he found what he needed with my son’s family.

I was surprised at Ryan’s request, once we were inside, he wanted to have all the windows covered up instead of how we had them during the afternoon. I kinda wondered why because there wasn’t another campsite that was close by us, I mean there were plenty of campers, just not too close. I told him, of course I’d cover them up if it made him more comfortable inside with me. He just said thanks, and nothing else. He started covering some of the windows himself and when it came to the huge A-Frame windows I asked him to give me a hand since he is so much taller than me. It didn’t take too long, and it did make it feel more private inside that way. We turned on the lanterns, and he helped me drape the string lights, again because he can reach up higher to anchor the lights for us. It really looks so cool inside, even with just a few things we brought with us. I bet Marcus would say a couple of area rugs would really dress up the place. I’m glad I bought the string lights; it really made the place look nice.

When everything was secure and looking awesome, Ryan said he was gonna go for a pee in the camp restroom not far away. But right after that, he giggled a bit and said, “Hey dad, remember those big blue fucking bottles we used on the boat last time for peeing, did you bring those too?” I told him, “You fucking bet I did! I hope you didn’t think I’d be leaving the tent in the middle of the night to go pee.” He said that he was pretty sure that I had that covered for myself, just not as sure if he was covered, and then he laughed about that. Before he headed to unzip the door to leave, he turned back towards me and suggested maybe it’s a good idea for me to get rid of my pee before I hit the sack too. I didn’t let him know I had planned on doing it, I just told him it was a good idea, thanks.

When we were back inside the tent all zipped up for the night, we set up the beds, I don’t know why we didn’t do that earlier. It was still pretty warm, so we will not need to sleep inside the sleeping bag. I brought two bed sheets and a couple of pillows; I might want to credit Marcus for reminding me about them. Thanks, pal. I told Ryan how I was planning on making my bed, maybe he might consider doing it the same way. I put the sleeping bag unopened on top of the air bed and then folded the sheet long way so I could slip inside. I really didn’t think we were gonna need any blankets if it got too cold. If so, we could just get inside the sleeping bag. He liked the idea and said that he was certainly not gonna sleep inside the bag for sure.

We had turned off some of the lanterns but left the one on the bed table between us on. The hanging strip lights were still on, and we were both too lazy to shut it off; if the batteries die, oh well. All that was left was strip down and get into bed, which we both did, exactly like Ryan said he would do. We said our good nights, and I love you to each other. It didn’t take my son long to start snoring softly. I had both of my arms folded behind my head to keep it elevated a bit so I could just watch him sleeping. It was like watching your little boy sleeping like an angel, only Ryan is my 37-year-old little boy. I had a tough time getting to sleep the first night, I don’t know why, however, I was enjoying watching my son sleeping so peacefully just a few feet away from me. 

If any of you are anything like me, one thing for sure happened before I fell asleep, that big blue bottle got its first deposit from me before I fell asleep. Now if I’m lucky, I’ll only need to use the bottle a couple more times before morning. You know what? I only needed it one more time, I guess that trip to the restroom wasn’t such a bad idea. I haven’t got a fucking clue if Ryan even used his bottle, he’s still young, he may have a few years left before he gets like me and Marcus.

It was kinda early when the sun came up and my tan colored tent got bright inside. I didn’t want to get up yet if possible. I realized that part of my body was kinda cold and part of it was not. I don’t think I wanted to open my eyes to find out why, I didn’t want to, but I had to because it was driving me crazy. What the fuck was my problem? I peeked outta one eye and saw what looked like my leg tied up in a sheet knot with little leftover to cover me. This is gonna take work to figure out how to fix it. And then I had the brilliant idea to check what might be going on downstairs with me, if it’s anything like normal, my dick is rock hard and pointing to my head but doing its best to stop the pee from wanting to flow outta me. So, I check it out with a free hand and I’m right, but my pee wants out now and not later. And as I’m really waking up, I’m thinking, was I ready for my kid to see his dad with his morning wood? You know, like naked is kinda basic with us now, boners not so much. Ya, now I knew I had to figure out how to get whatever was left of my sheet to cover me, and that was not going to be easy. Anyway, my pee was way more important to deal with right then. And then I look over at my kid’s bunk and he’s wide-awake sitting on his bed just looking over at me. Just great! I told him, “I gotta pee really bad, do you see my pee bottle anywhere, like this is a fucking emergency!” Wood no wood, whatever, no time to get weird about this, I only have seconds left! Ryan handed me the bottle and then said, “Dad, I don’t think your dick is going to fit in that bottle right now, it’s pretty impressive looking.” Okay, so I made that part up because it sounded so much better than what he actually did say to me. He just gave me the bottle and said, “Good luck with that!” I guess you might understand why I wrote that line instead. Anyhow, by the time I got hooked up with the bottle, I was mostly back to normal, and way less impressive, hahah. Best part of all, I didn’t have an accident, and the bottle wasn’t full; I don’t know how I would have cleaned it up, nothing like that was packed to go camping. Maybe I should think about that next time.

After the emergency was over, and with my kid trying to cover a laugh that wanted out as bad as my pee, said, “You know dad, there was no reason for you to feel you had to cover everything up for me, I’m no different than you or anyone else in the morning. Besides, I hardly knew you had one until I thought about trying to help you get untangled, but I didn’t want to wake you up too.” If you know me by now, I had to ask him what he meant about not knowing that I had an erection, it was up locked-loaded-and-ready. I guess part of me was still trying to cover being embarrassed a little bit, and part of me didn’t want to think that my kid wasn’t impressed with my boner. I know, stupid huh! I don’t want to be talking about this too long because I can feel my face getting red just writing about it.

Anyhow, Ryan let me know that I was pretty much not under the covers whenever he glanced over to my bed. When he got up to pee in his bottle, he said my body looked like one of those Italian marble sculptures of a man struggling to get out of the block of marble. He mentioned the artist, it was Mike something, something, like two first names together. I’m not into ancient stuff like that and I couldn’t figure out how to spell it; I think you know who he was talking about. Actually, I thought that was a super nice thing to say to me anyway, I looked like an old statue, hahah. Since I never know when to shut up, and the topic was my boner, which like I said, slams up against my belly when hard, I stupidly said, “At least my dick doesn’t make a big poking tent-pole like Marcus does. Ryan said, “Now I know something about my other dad I wasn’t expecting to know, cool, so, he’s just like me and your grandsons.” Okay, now who has given up more information? Of course, I asked him how he knew Noah and Liam had erections; they are so young. He laughed and realized I really didn’t have a fucking clue. He stopped his laugh and said, every time the boys are in the tub getting their bath, they both have erections by the time to dry off. He told me that Noah recently asked me if my pee-pee ever gets like that too. I asked Ryan what he told them, again maybe not the smartest question from me. He told them the truth, that yes, all boys and men can do that. And that was all he wanted to know at the time. And then my kid topped it all off with, “At least now I know when I get old like my dad’s, I might still get erections.” Then he added, “Do you think Pops can sport a boner now and then?” It was not a question that I needed to answer, because he started to laugh and said that he knew that older men could get erections, sometimes with a little help. Topic was now over, I think.

Maybe it was over, and maybe it wasn’t because Ryan said, “Don’t think we are through having the sex talk I never got from you yet; let get some coffee and we can deep-dive into it some more.”  Whatever, at least he doesn’t get embarrassed talking about this stuff, and I get to learn stuff too.

Ryan made the coffee, and we decided to have it inside the tent since it was more comfortable. He apologized if he made me too uncomfortable talking about erections. He wondered if I remembered something he told me about himself on the last camping trip three years ago. I said, “It depends, tell me and I’ll tell you if I do or not.” He said he and Ashley are a pansexual couple, now did I remember. I told him I did but he had better remind me what that means again. I figured if he wants to bring it up, he ought to help me remember it. 

Ryan said that he can be sexually attracted to someone of either sex, male or female or nonbinary. Okay, I understand at least two of those choices, whatever nonbinary means, he’s gonna need to fill me in on that choice. He admitted that he found himself attracted to me when we reconnected a few years ago. But it’s not a situation since I’m his father. He also told me that he was attracted to Marcus almost from the minute they started talking back then too. I don’t know if he was serious, or still pulling my leg when he said, “Don’t worry about that stuff.” Of course, I’m not worried, I think. He said that it was a good bet that me and Marcus were demisexuals, not just a couple of gay guys. I never got to say a word before he explained that demisexual people only feel sexual attraction towards someone once they have formed a strong emotional connection between each other. Well, that makes sense to me, it took a long time to build our strong emotional connection, like several years, and we still have it.

Ryan asked me if I ever wondered why he was so supportive of my relationship and now marriage with Al. Ya, of course, especially once I knew that his mom Ellen tried to throw me under the bus because of that relationship. She only made him want to get closer to me and restart our father son bonding. He agreed a little bit about that but wanted to tell me that he had a few relationships with men himself, and one very important one when he first met Ashley. She ultimately had the strongest bond with him. Anyhow, he started this, so I asked him if the relationship with these men was like mine with Al, like living and sleeping together. He said of course it was, and sex was very important, any kind except kinky. He also said that he and Ashley don’t really have an open relationship, but either one of them might develop a strong attraction to someone one day in the future, and they’ll deal with it when it happens. That is so not what me and Marc have, but I kept that to myself when he told me about it.

My kid knows just about everything he should know about my marriage to Marcus, what goes on in our bedroom is not really on the table for discussion, but at least he knows that something sexual is going on in there. We did talk about the divorce and some of the things that were not going well in the marriage. I did not hold back that sex was not where we both wanted it to be, and that I found what I was looking for with Al. Anyhow, I tried hard not to say negative things about Ellen, she’s his mom and I don’t want to screw up his relationship with either of us. Ellen has not been honest with him at all, and he knows it, and can see how she acts around Lisa, we all can see that. I’m okay with it, I’m no different acting around with Marcus. We both have found what we needed in our lives after so many years. Before this conversation was over, I made sure I was completely honest with Ryan about how I felt about my marriage at the end of it and how Marcus filled my life with what was missing for years. He will not be able to say I was not honest with him at all. Anyway, I’m sure that Marc’s ex-wife Lisa is filling Ellen’s life just the same for her.

We only camped out for a few days and nights, and I think I wrote about most of the stuff that might be good to put into the blog. The other stuff like talking about his teaching job, and private stuff about his kids, were left out on purpose. My grandkids are growing up so fast, and I really want to spend as much time as I can with them while they are here. I really love what me and Ryan have built together in the past three years, lots of FaceTime calls and some visits make me feel like I’m on cloud nine the whole time we are together. We have so much catching up to do yet. Ryan is a super guy, and a great dad; we can only praise his mom for that, I’m never gonna take that away from her. 

I remember one more thing that we talked about, maybe I didn’t want to write about it, but now it seems okay. Ryan asked me point blank, why didn’t I reach out to him and his sister once I got clean and sober so many years ago. He had every reason in the world to ask me about that. The only answer I could give him was, I was afraid. Afraid of going back to what I was, what if I really didn’t kick my drug addiction, and I hurt them again. The same goes if I was no longer an alcoholic, which was a little shaky in my mind. I could not put my kids through any of that again. After I knew I was okay, I found out that my daughter wanted nothing to do with me and was religiously opposed to my same sex marriage. I wonder how she will feel about her mom and Lisa if she ever finds out about it? I just couldn’t face my son if he felt the same. Ellen never gave me the feeling my kids were going to be on my side during those years. Anyway, that’s all I’m gonna say about the camping trip for now. Unless I think about something, I guess you know that about me by now.

BACK HOME FINALLY

On the way back home, Ryan asked me if we could build the tent once we get back because he thought the kids would have a ball playing inside such a large playroom. I told him of course we can, and I bet we can use the great room to build it inside so everyone can come and go inside the tent whenever they want. Anyhow, we did do that after I told Marcus about it, he was just as excited himself, and he would keep everyone busy and away from the great room while we set it up. Marcus helped get the kids excited to see what we brought back from the camping trip. Everything set up much faster once we knew what to expect. 

After we blew up the tent, beds, and chairs, we had everyone follow us to the great room for the amazing surprise. We opened the double doors to show them, Noah and Liam squealed so loudly that it almost hurt my ears. We told the kids that they could play inside the tent and at night they could sleep on the blow-up cots just like daddy and PapPap did. For that night’s dinner we ordered pizzas so we could play with the kids and make believe we were camping out in the great room, Pops was with us for that too, before he left for the night. I think we might have created a new thing to do when the kids come for a visit, camp out in the great room. At least the room is getting used that way. 

BTW, as I’m thinking about it right now, while I was playing with my grown ass little boy for a few days, Marcus, Ashley and Pops were having the time of their lives with the kids. They went to the Sacramento Zoo and a whole bunch of fun stuff that is too long to write about here. I was a little jealous, but the kids are not going anywhere soon, I’ll have my chance to have fun with them in the tent and for the following days they would be here with us.

I think I’m done with this chapter now, sorry if it wasn’t sexy enough, it was getting really long when I wrote about our time in Mexico, so I’ll stop for now and think about when I might post something about Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. That one is way sexier! Hahah.

Thanks for reading this guys, and Happy New Year 2026! I sure hope it will be a much better one too.