Hi Met Grotto Folks! This is Vacation Gumby and here is my trip report of my excursion to the Maine Convention with my good friends Melanie, John, Jim and Alison. We usually go on trips together like the Bahamas and cruises and stuff, so when they asked me if I wanted to go to a Caving function I jumped at the chance, as long as I could invite my brother Plain Gumby and Pokey too.

Here we all are with the rental vehicle ready to take off. I even have my own helmet!

Here we all are at the top of Gorman Mountain in Acadia National Park. It was really hard having to drag this helmet and protective box with us, but John said a caver should always be prepared in case we should find a cave.

Note: if you’re ever driving in Maine, remember to give yourself extra time cuz Mainers drive REALLY SLOW!

John, AS USUAL, had to drag all his photo equipment along and forced us to pose for numerous photos.

After all that work, we decided to rest and sun ourselves for a while. Mel applied SPF15 so we wouldn’t melt and we were soon baking in the sun. Then, to cool off, we went wading in the nearby lake. Hang on guys! Don’t want to get swept away!

After all that we had to hurry back for the Howdy Party. OUT OF THE WAY, MAINERS!! Boy, was I hungry! Melanie said that Maine had the biggest and best-tasting lobsters in the country. BOY! She wasn’t kidding! Here I am with Clawd. I tried to butter him up, but Clawd said that if I wanted a taste, I’d have to bite him. When I did, he tried to crush me in his claw. What was that all about?!?

BURP!! Since Clawd was too big to handle, we had to settle for some of our friends’ food. After a wonderful meal of lobster and fixin‘s, we could hardly get up! Cavers sure know how to party!

Here I am at an off road ice cream stand. Plenty of ice creams, mini golfs and lobsters, but no Willys! Boy, was I disappointed!

Tonight, I met Ian Baren who invited me to a real Met Grotto party. Here I am with Skippy, a friend of Ian’s. Skippy’s a hard charging caver from China who can do really neat tricks with his eyes. After Skippy shared some of his Stoly with me, my eyes were doing neat tricks, too!

Melanie said that Ian Baren and Mike Taylor make really great dry martinis. She said a lot of other things, but they really didn’t make much sense.

Camping and caving in style!

I finally get to go caving! We found a sinkhole you could drive a semi into, right near Convention. This is definitely the biggest cave in Maine, quite a find! But if you think I’m going to tell where it is, you’re crazy! This cave is mine, all mine!!!! Bwa ha ha ha ha!

Here we are at the Banquet. I got tired of wearing the same old clothes so John let me wear his jacket.

Well, this is the end of my trip report. Here’s the whole crew (except for Mel, who’s taking the picture) saying good-bye to the Granite State. See y’all next year in California!