Centipede Garf I made for my beloved friend’s birthday

This is Pymatuning State Park, on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.

When I left you, we were driving around the lake, and had already done the spillway, the fish hatchery, and the train museum. There was also a canal museum, dedicated to the Erie Canal Extension that at one time went through the area, but I didn't take any pictures there.

The rest of the pictures from the drive around the lake are mostly various views of the lake. This one shows the causeway, that cuts across the lake, connecting the Pennsylvania and Ohio sides. It's really neat to drive on!

And here's another map of the lake, since it's been a while since I posted the one at the beginning. This is the Ohio park's map, but it has some of the Pennsylvania landmarks on it, too. The PA/OH border is the vertical line that goes up from the A in Pymatuning (at the bottom); the causeway is the one obvious horizontal line, and my cabin is the campground/cabin icons just under the Ohio state seal.

Pavillion on the Ohio side. With all the stops that I made, it took me about 7 hours to drive around the lake. If you just drove, it would probably take a little under an hour.

This is the lake's biggest island, Clark Island, that I wanted to take Willow-boat out to, but I didn't get to, because of Events to Be Described later.

The day after the drive 'round the lake, I made a foray into deepest Ohio to buy wine and cider at Trader Joe's and Aldi. (Pennsylvania ones don't sell alcohol, for reasons having to do with our unusually strict liquor laws.) After those stops, the rain was wrapping up, so we zipped up to Lake Erie for a quick look at the inland sea (which we planned to explore in more depth later).

There was an Ohio state park nearby, but all of the beaches had these signs. (If you can't embigged to see, it says, "NO PETS ON BEACH.")

There was one walking path that ran parallel to the beach, where dogs were allowed, so we walked along that. At one point there was a probably-unofficial trail to the beach that did not have the sign, so we popped in for a quick look:

Then Teddy was kind enough to wait in the car for a bit while I hiked out to the nesting ground of the endangered Great Lakes Piping Plover.

Due to a signage error, it was a lot farther than I thought it would be.

But it was pretty cool!

The next day was supposed to be Lake Adventures Day. We got up, and I started inflating my paddleboard, Dragonfly, for an explore around the beach area with Ted.

However, after I had finished inflating the paddleboard, my car wouldn't start. I called around, and found a place nearby that could look at it. This guy:

Sold me a bill of goods about how my car takes a very special kind of battery that's hard to find; his parts guy had one that would work, but it was a high-end one and kind of expensive...long story short, he charged me $500 to put a new battery in my car. Supposedly it was $450 for the part, and he was giving me a deal on the labor at $50. Which I figured was pretty high, and he must be getting a kickback from the parts guy, but I didn't want to waste any more of my. vacation than I had to screwing around with this, so I chalked it up to a convenience fee.

Late afternoon, the car was dealt with, and Teddy and I finally got out on the water.

Foggy photo because my phone was in the waterproof case.

Teddy got on the paddleboard for a bit, and also learned to enjoy his DFD (Dog Flotation Device). He likes to swim, but he doesn't like getting his ears wet, so it's perfect for him! (He was actually swimming mere moments before this photo was taken, but it took me a while to get the phone out.)

So I didn't have time to take Willow out to Clark island, but we had some nice campfire stew,

And another frog sighting

And the next day (Wednesday) we were up bright and early and headed to Erie. Our first planned stop was the smaller of Pennsylvania's two Lake Erie parks, Erie Bluffs. It's a small, mostly-undeveloped park with some hiking trails and a boat launch.

As soon as we got there my car died again.

While waiting for the tow truck, we took a quick walk to the nearest overlook and had a quick look at the big lake, in case that was all we were going to get. Then the tow truck driver had to pick Teddy up and put him in the cab, so he could take us & the van to another shop. Luckily, I'd been able to find one that was nearby and thought they could probably take a look at it after lunch.

As soon as they opened the hood, they saw that the battery was not correctly installed. The clamp that's supposed to hold it in place wasn't bolted down, and the red connector was loose and arcing. The battery was completely dead, and the alternator was fried.

When I first arrived, the office manager had been making noises about how they might not get to it after all, and I might need to find a motel, but when they discovered this, and I told them that I had, just yesterday, paid $500 for that battery, she took me under her wing and made sure the shop guys prioritized getting me going again.

She also looked up the part number on the battery. It was a low-end store-brand battery from a place that had a store 17 miles from where I got it put in; they had plenty of them in stock, and other options besides.

I made a couple of irate phone calls to the original guy, but nothing came of it. We ended up having to spend pretty much the whole day in the shop; Teddy didn't mind, because people kept coming in and petting him, but I was less than thrilled about losing a second day of my vacation to this shit, and I definitely wasn't going to have enough daylight left to make it worth going to the big Lake Erie park, Presque Isle.

Luckily, my dad felt bad for me, and decided to send me some money to help with the unexpected expenses. With that in hand, I decided to extend my vacation a couple of days. The park cabins run Friday to Friday in the summers, and I wasn't expected back at work until Tuesday, so I found a motel up by Presque Isle for Friday and Saturday nights. That ended up being really good, so it all worked out okay I guess; more about that in Part 4.

By the time we got out of the shop, it was about 5, so we had enough daylight to go back to Erie Bluffs again. We did some more hiking,

And explored the little piece of beach that that park has,

And Teddy got to sniff a lot of stuff.

This is a little sandbar that sticks out where Elk Creek flows into, or possibly out of, Lake Erie.

As we walked back to the parking lot on a trail above Elk Creek, I began to hatch a plan.

I decided that the Willow was going to visit Lake Erie.

It was about a 15-minute paddle from the boat launch back out to the sandbar.

A view of the inland sea from the deck of the Willow!

Then we turned around and paddled back. (Unbeknownst to me, my dad was kind of freaking out while I was doing this, because I'd texted him and my sister my float plan, and apparently he wasn't quite convinced that I had correctly judged this as a reasonable thing to do in my folding boat. But really, the creek was barely moving; it just felt like an adventure because there was a Great Lake at the end of it.)

*I'm 47kg 157cm

5th trip (450 mg) mid 3-plateau

I took 15 gel caps and 1 allergy pill at about 1am, I started scrolling on my phone waiting for the effects, nothing special happened.

About 4am i started to feel dizzy, kind of a drunk feeling, my body felt heavy but my pupils were normal and I could speak well.

Then I layed on my bed and I dont remember how much time exactly happened but I closed my eyes and I started seeing things going very fast, some kind of fractals. That's when I knew the trip started, I was conscious that i was on drugs and I was listening to music, my body felt every beat and it felt as if I was on a trampoline and every beat made me jump. My jaw was shaking a little bit kind of a chewing movement, it hurt a bit.

Everytime I opened my eyes I saw double, but I didn't saw any visuals, so I kept my eyes closed and I turned off the music cause it was too much for me, imagine Ruprecht 4500 was playing throughout all of this. It was cool ngl.

Then I opened my eyes and saw myself in the mirror to see how everything was going, my pupils were BIG and I was smiling. My phone was heavy and when I opened Instagram I saw my chats with "TV static".

When all of this had happened it was about 6am, but for me it felt like it had been more than that.

I thought about sleeping cause it was already clearing up, I really dont know if I even slept or not, I couldn't distinguish time.

I woke up at 9am and my pupils were still big, I saw everything kinda blurry but I could speak well.

I just fell asleep again till 11am, my pupils were normal, i felt normal, I knew it was over.

So yeah overall rating 9/10 i like it, I would do it again, only thing I dont like about dxm is that it ruins ur brain if u use it too much, but thats pretty much all drugs if u abuse. I do feel a little bit foggy and my short term memory isnt good but I dont know if its placebo.

1st "trip" (90 mg) low 1-plateau

I took 90mg gel caps and it didnt do anything but dilate my pupils a little bit. Also these caps had ambroxol so I wouldn't recommend it.

2nd trip (540 mg) mid high 3-plateau

Took 540mg of syrup, I waited for about 4 hours but i didn't took allergy pill and it just made me very itchy and it left me with rashes all over my body.

But then I suddenly threw up all over me, i couldn't see or move well and that made me do that, I kind of blacked out and it was as if I were in 3rd person, I couldnt do any kind of movement.

I did trip a little after I threw up, I saw fractals in my bathroom wall and i had sound hallucinations, I heard as if I was on the forest i heard flying bugs very very loud, and I kind of saw black after, it lasted very little.. but that was awful. I think it was the fact that I felt so bad that I couldn't let go and that ruined my trip.

Not to mention i had to change my pjs and clean my mess fully tripped out.

3rd "trip" (150 mg) low 2-plateau

It was at my friends house, I had gel caps, i waited like 4 hours for the effects and i just felt a little drunk when walking. My pupils were normal, I think.

No photos.

I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE

main side effects, expected and so-far observed, are tachycardia and hypertension

disclaimer: don't try at home if you don't have adequate medical and chemical expertise. this combination presents notable cardiovascular danger