June 22-24, 2012
In the middle of the week, Carlos and I decided to take a short roadtrip together. Our destination was Cook Forest State Park near Sigel, Pa. We arrived late Friday night to one of the clearest skies I have ever seen. The picture below was not Photoshopped at all, so you can experience the Milky Way exactly as we did.
The next morning we decided to head to Clear Creek State Park to check out their "Disc Golf" courses. We were severely disappointed to find out that the makers of these courses have never played disc golf before. Look closely at the picture below.
Notice that tiny post in the background that says "1", well we thought at first that was the marker for the tee. We couldn't find a pin, though, and we came to find out that the post itself was the pin. You are just supposed to hit it with your disc.
To make it worse, the pars were waaaay too generous. 150 yards, no obstacles....let's make this a Par 4. No joke, Carlos aced it on his first throw. He won't ever count it as a true ace. So on to hole 2...
"So it's directly on the other side of that playground with all the kids? Oh well."
Seriously, don't ever play here. The best part about our game is that we found a snake and ended up chasing it around instead of playing. We each shot well under par on this one. Afterwards we went to a tourist trap that I have wanted to go to for years called the Mysterious Maze. Now let me preface this with the fact that we had very low expectations about this maze, but in the end it was totally awesome. They change it every year, so I would love to take all three of my blog readers back to it.
It's at this point that the weekend stopped being a trip, and became an adventure. I payed for my way into the Mysterious Maze, and the lady behind the counter said, "Good luck. You'll need it. Most people don't make it out of the maze alive..." "I made it" I exclaimed before she could finish her sentence. "That was a little easy" The owner then told me a story of a labyrinth that no man has ever survived. Only the ancient trees of the Black Forest knew of the entrance to this labyrinth. So once again, I set off for the Black Forest in search of adventure.
We went deep into the forest in search of the Tree of Wisdom. The closer we got, the more the trees stretched into the stratosphere.
We arrived to find the Tree of Wisdom cut down by some unknown force.
I heard a whispering voice nearby, and after moving a boulder, I found a woodland sprite who told me that the forest was being logged by a man they called The Butcher. If I were to defeat him, she would tell me where to find the Labyrinth.
I arrived at The Butchers cabin, which was filled with many torture devices:
The Butcher said he would leave the forest forever if we could figure out what was in the Mystery Box. Carlos said, "I'll do it, I love guessing games." "Beware, if you guess wrong..." the Butcher warned, but before the Butcher even ended the sentence, Carlos said "It's a turtle shell" The Butcher left the forest as promised.
When we returned to the sprite, she told us to seek out a stone monument and drink the water from it, and only then would we have the answer to our questions.
After drinking the water, I had a vision which showed me where to find the labyrinth, so we jumped in the car and headed to Bilgers Rocks.We arrived to find an endless maze of corridors below us.
We soon climbed down to the entrance to the labyrinth. At the entrance a dark voice beckoned us to enter.
"Maybe this isn't such a good idea afterall," said Carlos. "There's ice cream inside" the voice responded.
"OH BOY!" Carlos exclaimed before rushing into the labyrinth. I followed suit. Once inside, the entrance closed behind us. There was no turning back at this point.
The Voice let out a sinister laugh. "Nobody has escaped the labyrinth of..." "Hey, we can climb out here." Carlos interrupted. "DAMNIT!" screamed the voice.
"Don't worry, I will play your game." I replied. It was at this point that I sensed something was wrong. Something about the trees in this area seemed unnatural.
Suddenly the roots of the trees started moving.
They raced towards me at lightning speed and impaled me through the stomach...or so they thought. The image of me disappeared as the roots slammed into the rock wall, getting stuck in a crevice.
"Pfft, I can't believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book. I never leave home without my hologram."
As Carlos played around on top of the Labyrinth...
I continued down the dark corridors in search of the exit.
I walked endlessly in circles, baffled by the lack of exit. I thought that this time I may had been defeated, but then I came across a hole in the ground which led to the exit corridor. I started to climb down in and
I squeezed into the hole and made my way through the corridor.
The walls seemed to be closing in on me as I went, but I figured it was an optical illusion. I was wrong.
My arms were pinned so I could not use my Palm Strike to push the wall back. I only had one option left:
"Go Go Dixon boner!"
The walls pushed back by approximately 9 inches and I squeazed my way out of the Labyrinth. Maybe next time I will find a challenge. Until then...
SEEYA!
