Entries this day: Intro Spring_Break_Science_Trip

Intro

(transcribed from my diary 5:36pm CST Monday 20 January 2003)

(this entry written 29 March 1987)

Hello! This is my new diary. I've had this book lying around in my closet for a long time. It's been waiting for a good use. So now it's Robert "Ted" (RoberTed) Nugen's Diary. I'll need a name for it later. I need to tell about me. No telling who may find this thing. I was born March 25, 1970, in Fort Knox, Kentucky. I lived there in a trailer for about a year. Then we moved to Columbia, Missouri. We lived there for about 8? years. Then between 2nd and 3rd grades we moved to a 2 story house in Spring, Texas. There were railroad tracks behind that house. Then between 7th and 8th grades, we moved to Tomball, Texas. I'm still here. I'll relate stories about the past in all of those places and vacations I've taken and other stuff later. I'm debating as to wether I should scatter throughout here as they come or put them in a separate book.(*) Right now I'm in 11th grade at Tomball high School. I'm taking English III with Miss Carter, World History with Mrs. Roach, Chemistry Honors with Mr. Hamm, Lunch, Spanish II with Mrs. Sherman, Typing I with Mrs. Benefield, and Algebra II with Mr Reagh. They are all good classes. Spanish and History are the hardest. I should be failing Alg. II, but I solved the "carpet problem" and he is giving me a 90 for the year. I need to earn it, because next year I won't have carpet problems to fall back on. I'll describe the "carpet prob." later. Typing is incredibally (sp) easy. I'm averaging about 25 words per minute, and I don't even have good style. Next year I'm taking all honors classes except Art I.

I started this diary for myself, mostly. I often go on trips and rallies and come back with lots of memories. But, I can't get them all in order, and that bugs me. Most recently, was my Spring Break Science Trip. I have that about halfway in order. I told a tape recorder about it. That is my "rough draft" I think from now on, I will try to write down the days' events in here each evening. Each morning, I will write down my dreams. For about 3 days, I've been trying to have lucid dreams. It may be a phase. I hope not. If I'm on a trip, I don't want to take this with me. I will have a smaller note book to record dreams and events. Even at home I think I will write down dreams in a smaller book each morning and copy them into here at night, just before bed. Well, I guess that's all. I'll put guidelines about how to write in here. Hey! new idea! this has page numbers.

(*) I will scatter things throughout the book as I think of them. Anything not written in chronological order will be listed on the page after this one. How much should I put in here? Do I care if anyone reads it? I don't know. I'll think about it. It would be fun to write everything so that I may get in trouble if anyone else reads it. Well, skip that problem for now. On to writing.

Spring Break Science Trip

(transcribed 5:50pm CST Monday 20 January 2003 - 11:ish Wednesday 22 January 2003)

Mr. Hamm
Mr. Cowan
Beth Ahlborn
Renae Ahlborn
Pam Tacquard
Julia Eckhardt
Trace' Dutson
David Osborne
Kevin Hollenshead
Wade Johnson
Barry Nelson
Robert Nugen
David Osborne
Gary Picou
Eric Shafer
Brian Thigpen
Allen Torgesen
Carl Torgesen
Charles
Mike Hurt
Glen Wilson
Eric Likins
John
Tim Oestrich
Doug

                   ITINERARY
                  Spring Trip

Sunday-March 22:
     11:00 AM-leave Tomball
     2:00 PM-snack-roadside park near Bastrop
     4:00 PM-supper in Austin
     5:30 PM-arrive Inks Lake State Park. (205mi)

Monday-March 23:
     7:00 AM breakfast
     8:00 AM leave Inks Lake for canoe trip on Colorado River
     12:00 PM-lunch on river
     5:00 PM-return to Inks Lake S.P.
     6:00 PM-supper in Burnet
     8:00 PM-return Inks Lake S.P.

Tuesday-March 24:
     7:00 AM-breakfast
     11:00 AM-Vanishing Texas River Cruise
     4:30 PM-return Inks Lakes S.P.
     6:00 PM-supper in Burnet

Wednesday-March 25:
     7:00 AM-breakfast
     8:30 AM-leave Inks for Enchanted Rock
     10:30 AM-spelunking
     12:00 lunch
     1:30 PM-rappelling
     6:00 PM-supper in Frederickburg

Thursday-March 26:
     7:00 AM-breakfast
     8:30 AM-leave Enchanted Rock for Waco
     11:30 AM-archeological dig site
     4:00 PM-leave for Mother Neff S.P.
     6:00 PM-supper

Friday-March 27:
     7:00 AM-breakfast
     8:00 AM-leave Mother Neff S.P. for Tomball
     3:30 PM-arrive Tomball

My trip to Ink's Lake - Mar. 22 - Mar. 27, 1987

It was to be a fun trip. We were going to go to Ink's lake, go spelunking, canoing, rappelling, climbing, and a whole bunch of fun stuff. It was pretty fun. Now it is March 29, and I just relayed the whole trip to a tape recorder. Here's how it went:

We left Tomball, A little late, but we left. All our stuff was cram-packed in the back of the bus. I was in the furthest seat back with Wade Johnson. We were talkin' and listening to tapes and stuff.. just messing around. Then 3 of the girls decided to take a nap on our stuff. Throughout the trip, it got more crowded back there every day. It was Pam, Renae, and Beth who went back. I'm going to go through the trip faster than this.

We rented canoes along the way; while we were there, we chunked a little pink cloth frisbee around. We stopped for a snack near Bastrop, and had supper at McDonalds in Austin. I called Christy Deans from there, well, I tried. She wasn't there. We weren't too wild. We got to Inks Lake at 7:30. It was a perfect night. No clouds, No wind, nice temperature. We unloaded and put our stuff under a tree on a tarp where we were going to sleep. We went into a cabin a messed around. Mike Hurt and I were sitting with our legs straight, then using our arms to press up into handstands. We all tried some stuff with a broom - put it behind your back, bring it over your head, put one leg around your arm and back over the broom, bring it back over your head and then step across with your other leg. Wow! We wold hold it and jump over it. We did fingertip pullups... just showin' off. We did that thing where you take three foot length steps back from a wall, put your head against it, pick up something then straighten up. keeping our legs straight. I could do it. Only girls are supposed to be able to. Beth went over to a tree and started climbing. Everyone followed. We had like a line of people climbing up and jumping off a branch. Eventualy we all got tired and everyone but a few people lay down under that tree. We watched shooting stars, told stories, and jokes, we sang some. I played mercy with Mike Hurt. We were perfectly matched. We slept at about 2:30am.

At 3:00 it started raining. We all jumped up and went to a cabin. It started raining hard, then. Wind was blowin' it right in the screen. We were totally crammed against the wall under the screen. Barry then got up and got a tarp to put on the windows outside. The wind kept it smacked up there all nigth. I slept O.K. - woke up at about 8:00 & took a shower (all the hot water was gone) I froze! The wind was still blowing making it worse. My voice was a little hoarse. I went into the breakfast cabin, and helped cook. Then we played frisbee, frisbee football, we tossed washers, we did some double stunts - stand on someones shoulders -, played on some see-saws, a slide, and swings. I learned how to flip out of a swing. Not from my back, but sitting. The trick is to hold on to the chains until you are rightside up. Mike and Renae taught me how. I did double stunts with Pam.

We went on the canoe trip. I was with Mike Hamm and Wade. We jumped in and were cruisin'. Wade was humming the theme from Hawaii 5-0. The wind was blowin' so hard that Pam, Beth, Renae got dumped over. Wade and I helped them. Then came some rapids. Mr. Hamm told us to go through them a certain way so we wouldn't tip. We said fine. No problem. Oh- before the rapids we had taken our shirts off and tied them to the cross bars on the canoe. So we went through the first part of the rapids real easily. Then we turned to go down the next section, and the wind took the chance and blew us sideways. We took in about 6 inches of water at first, and we were trying to keep cool (ha ha) and say no prob. Then we had to hit a wave and ended up about half full of water. We were still saying' it's cool - we can do it. Then one last time and we sank. Wade immediately jumped out a swam for shore. The canoe turned over and Mike crawled on top. I was hanging on to the side, telling Mike it was O.K. and trying to get used to the water. Then I pulled our conoe to a dock Wade had run to. We got there, dumped it out, and were freezin'. There was an old dude watching us. It was his dock. Then we went across the river to where the Torgesens and Glen were. We tied up and waited for the others. I lay out on a rock gettin' a tan during that time.

After about another hour, everyone was there and we played some games and told jokes. I learned the 7 game then. Later, the camper got there and we chunked a football and 2 tennis balls around. We waited some more and then went back to camp. Mike Hurt and Mr. Hamm took the canoes back that afternoon. We had supper in Burnet. We went to Dairy Queen to eat. I bought a banana split and a shake and a glass of water. Nothing nutritious. Then we went to buy groceries. I drove Mike Hurt around in a shopping cart. We read magazines, and messed around. Mike juggled some things, like boxes of raisins, or cans of peas. We just had a good time. I slept in the crazy group. Not the Ahlborns' clan, but Glen, John, Brian, Dave, Eric (not Shafer), and Tim. We gambled and ate M&M and crackerjacks. We read Tim's National Enquirerer- all the STUPID things in it. We slept at about 12:00 and Brian and I woke at about 6:00 to get warm showers. It worked. By this time, I had lost a shirt, a pair of socks, shampoo, toothpaste, and my soap. Oh well. We went back to the breakfast cabin. Then we played in the field again - just messing around until the Vanishing Texas River Cruise. Each ticket was 10 bucks. We all just layed out on the top deck and got some sleep. Mike Hurt and I took everything off except shorts to get a tan. We saw some water falls, Spanish Daggers (that's what's in our front yard), some Spanish goats, and some double crested Camerons. Glen called them Double Breasted... whatever.

The narrator? of the cruise came up a few times to compliment our good behavior. The last time we were singing the theme from Giligan's Island. Then later in the afternoon, we went rappeling. That was scary! Getting over the edge was against all instincts. I was the first to go after Mike Hurt did. (He was a college councilor for the trip). We went swimming. The wind had slowed some so it wasn't too bad.

We had supper in Burnet again. this time at Mr. Gatti's. We were getting a little wild here, but not too bad. I had one piece of Eric Shafer's Pizza, and I bought some cinamon bread sticks. I was the last to order anything and Brian and I were the last people in there. We were talking to the girl working there. She had blonde hair and looked like that girl on "Heart of the City." She was really pretty. then we crusied back to the camp.

I was in the crazy group again. We were messin' around outside. We threw rocks at the Alhborns' group's cabin. Glen pissed in a can of Dr. Pepper and threw it on the roof. Then we played Gastapo until about 12:30. I slept outside with Eric Shafer, Gary Picou, Mike hurt, Mike Hamm, and me. I woke up, showered (warm) and went to the breakfast cabin. I asked Mr. Cowan what day it was, and he said "Wednesday the 25th." If he hadn't said "25th" I would not have remembered my B-day.

That day we went to West Cave and Enchanted rock. West Cave was neat. We went down into a canyon by a river. We followed a little creek upstream to a horseshoe shaped waterfall. You could walk under the horseshoe behind the waterfall. On one side of the HorseShoe, the water had fallen for so long (100,000 yrs.) that a curtain of rock was formed, creating a cave. It was truly awesome. Then we went to Enchanted Rock. On the way we stopped at another horseshoe shaped falls. This one was bigger, though, and much prettier. The water was _crystal_ blue. So beautiful!!!

We ate lunch there. I sat with Renae, Pam, Beth, Allan, and Wade. Renae dropped her apple into the water twice. I walked aroud behind the waterfall, where Carl was. Then we all went back and finished our trip to Enchanted Rock. Enchanted R. was great. I did a crack climb with Mr. Hamm, a friction climb with Mr. Cowan, and tried Ben's Climb. Mr. Hamms climb was easy when you figured out how to put your feet and hands to brace right. Mr. Cowan's was easy for me. I just kept clawing around for a grip with my hands. Ben's Climb was tough! Only Beth and Mike Hurt could do it. Barry couldn't ven. I tried hard though, and got some good scratches trying, but nope. I was unable to form a fist in a certain crack to pull myself up with, and Mike was not there to show me another way. But, it was a noble effort.

We went to Dairy Queen that night for supper. the girl working there asked us for our name when we ordered to make it more personal. I said Ted for my name. I got a hamburger and water and a blizzard with M&M's in it. Brian got cold fajitas. That was funny. Later I went up there with Dave and ordered a blizzard. We went down the whole list, rejecting each item that was offered to put in it. Then I said, "How 'bout French Fries?" the girl sorta grossed out then said sure. I decided not, although everyone said Goforit! I just got M&Ms again.

We went to camp after that and slept, got up the next morning, took showers, and left for Waco. We at breakfast and McD's. We were fairly wild then. I got about 12 straws. We played outside some and then continued on. We got to Waco, stopped had lunch and then went to the palentelogical dig site. There were bones of 15 mammoths there. They all died right together. We were trying to figure out how they may have died. Flood, Smoke, hunters, Lightning. The Alhborn's thought of lightning. Actually I did too, but I didn't say anything because no one would have believed me. Lightning happened to be the guys' favorite theory too. Then he took us to a big pit where there were a whole bunch of fossils. Including shells, shark teeth, starfish parts, and other things. I found a ski rope for cave men, a broken Egyption compact disk, a skeleton of a Hobbit (I didn't touch it because it was a grave), solid gold coins (too heavy to carry), a complete shark skeleton (it was buried so I couldn't dig it up), and a pteredactyl (it flew away). So I didn't come back with much to show for my finds. Oh Yeah- a piece of the Rosetta Stone (it fell out of a hole in my pocket) Oh, well.

We went to Mother Neff that evening. We played the ABC game along the way. I helped cook ribs with Mike Hurt that night. I slept with the Alhborns' group again that night. I learned how to play murder and I got to talk to Beth some and got to know her which was nice. We heard some noises that sounded like thunder. It turned out to be a nearby military base going through a simulation. "Playing Gastapo" as I put it. We got to sleep-in the next morning. We were going home that day, and we didn't have to hurry. There was plenty of hot water for showers. There were only 2 showers though. Barry and I were in the shower part of the bathroom at the same time. We sang Lean On Me, and the national anthem. Wade and the Torgesens were bangin' on the door to tell us to hurry.

After that we ate breakfast and played washers. I took some pictures, and played frisbee. John, Glen and I got a frisbee triangle going. Then we left. We played the ABC game. Only Me Glen John and Tim made it all the way through. Our list was, Australo-Burilicus, Beer, Carmeron, Deoxyribonucleic acid, Elephantitis, Financial advisor, Ganglion, Hypogryph, Intestinal gas flareup, Jumping Jack, Kilomanjaro, Lopsa-apa, Mucus membranes, Nasal passages, Orthodontist, Pathalogical Rapist, Quackological speech therapist, Reggae, Supercalifragilisticexpialidoches, Thermo-molecular cumulo-rhumbic with a linear postulation in section four on the left hand side, Urinary passage, Vortices, Winnie the Pooh, Xenophobic nightmares, Yugoslavian barbaric eras of time, and Zambia. Pretty awesome, huh? We went crazy at McD's. We all ordered from one register, about $70. I got a Big Mac, a hamburger, ice water, ice cream cone, apple pie, and a medium Dr. Pepper. Then I went back for a shake and another pie. I made off with about 25 straws from there. Then it was sleep for me until I got home. I got everything back except toothpaste, which I had left at home. Dave got Mike Hurt's address. Mike said we should plan a trip to Enchanted Rock. He said he and a friend could take about 8 of us. I hope I can go. Tim's mom took me and Dave home, and that's it. It was fun. We got home Friday- of course. I told Fred some of my jokes. I think I'm going to reserve some pages in here for jokes and stories. They may be the first pages listed in my table of contents.