Ah, now for Part Three. Again, this is Random Paul, with another guest post for Tony. Part One was about our adventures in Teribithia, Tennessee. Part Two was about our adventures in Teribithia, Colorado. Now, I’m writing Part Three, about our most recent adventures is Teribithia, Canada (Québec). There was a big hill leading to a stream with beautiful waterfalls right out the front door of our rental house. There was some flat ground before the stream in one place and we decided to start building there.
We gathered huge long fallen branches and leaned them up against a big tree facing the stream. We only had about five of the big ones but we didn’t need more. We gathered more smaller branches. There were some branches sticking out of the big ones we had already leaned up against the tree. We leaned some medium size sticks against the branches sticking out of the big ones and clustered many more around them, leaving the frame of a small hut that would be large enough for a 5 foot tall person to stand up straight comfortably. This took us kind of a long time because there were some many big sticks that we had to carry and organize.
Once we were done with that, we raked the fallen leaves and brush on the ground into a big pile. Then we started throwing it on. Every once in a while we would weave a stick or two in to keep the insulation from falling out. We kept adding it for quite a while because there was a lot of surface area to cover. Some fell through the roof so we had people with rakes raking it out and putting it back on the pile so we could throw it back on, hopefully successfully, again. We added some mud, just to keep it together. The palace was complete and was it awesome. I mean, you could stand up comfortably, you could fit 5 people in there comfortably, and it was comfortable. It was Awesome!!! (Yes, with a capitol “A”) We had gotten that done fairly quickly and still had time left in the week.
Oh wait, I forgot. So there happened to be a pool table in the basement of the house. We tried it out and learned that Me and Abbie were the best at it, with Tony and Will a little behind. It was Awesome!!! (Again with the capitol “A”) We played it a lot and got better at it.
So, back to the main story. There was not much else to do building because somehow, we had gotten bored and there wasn’t any more good building places in the area of the palace. Then three of the 8 year-olds there told us that they had started a shop. A little farther upstream they had marked an area that had moss, building sticks and other random stuff. It was actually quite cool.
Tony had gotten 175 little round pieces of wood and with a custom made stamp stamped all of them with the official seal of Teribithia and the value on the other side. We used those to pay for and get paid for selling goods or services. They were really cool things and were quite sturdy. Here’s a picture of both sides. The letters “Vincit Qui Se Vincit” mean “He Conquers Who Conquers Himself.” No idea really why its on there, ask Tony.
So that’s our money!! Yay!!!
Ok, time to really start getting into the fun part. Since we didn’t have anything else to do we decided to think up something else. Will was like,
“So lets race bottles in the stream!!!”
And we all thought that was a good idea, of course. We started with a pretty small course and got 4 bottles, A. Salsa, who was a salsa bottle, owned by Tony, and Fat Facer, a regular plastic water bottle, owned by Will, Hot and Spicy, another salsa bottle, owned by Caden, and Gatorade, a lost Gatorade bottle owned by Maggie, Emma, and Hanna. We started the race by lining up the racers behind a stick and pulling the stick away. The racers shot out, a strong current pushing them. There were rocks that made the water go faster but also could get in the way of the racers. It was awesome, until it got to the wwwwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeee, ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssslllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww part.
(There isn’t a swear word in this post don’t worry) They barely moved at all and the race officials and referees, me and Abbie, had to push them with sticks. Then they got to the part that we had made. We put a big stick diagonal in the water to funnel the water and the bottles to one single place where the water flowed really fast and there was only one spot the bottles could get through. It was really narrow and if the bottles didn’t hit it just right they could get stuck. Then they had to go through some other stick openings until they finally reached the end. They had to go over a big log that was part of a dam that was made before we got there from unknown causes. It was really cool because you could walk on the dam to grab the bottles when they fell in to the little pool the dam made. Super cool!!!
Then we decided we needed a bigger course. We looked upstream and saw the perfect place for the new starting line. We cleared out some sicks that were blocking the new part of the course an put some new ones in to guide the bottles. The new course was ready.
“Racer’s on your mark!” I boomed, “Get set! Go!!!”
The stick was pulled away and the racers were off, bumping against the big rocks in their path.
Hint: Here comes the best part! We were super excited!!!
The bottles, one by one, shot off the biggest water fall of the whole stream. Gatorade, Fat Facer, A. Salsa, and Hot and Spicy. It wasn’t huge but was about 3 or 4 feet high. They landed in the pool below and raced with the current to the next part of the race, weaving around a twisty path. Then they leaped off a smaller waterfall and started going through the start of the rapids that started the smaller course. Then, of course, they slowed down in the wwwwwwwwwwwwwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeee, ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssslllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww part. Then they reached the part that we had worked on most. It was awesome, watching the bottles racing through the obstacle course, getting stuck for a little while and then the current freeing them again. Suddenly, A. Salsa passed all the other racers and zoomed right over the finish line, Fat Facer, Gatorade, and Hot and Spicy following closely behind. Will went crazy because Fat Facer had passed Gatorade close to the finish line and thought he was going to win for sure. Tony won!!!
One of the last things we did before we left was… what I’m about to tell you. After the first and highest waterfall that the bottles had jumped over there was a pretty big pool and it was the deepest place in the stream. Me, Abbie, Tony, and Will stood in that freezing cold pool as deep as we could get for 12 minutes straight. Then we slowly walked out and ran to the indoor pool that was connected to the rental house. Immediately we jumped in and it felt like the hot tub. After swimming around for a while we went to the hot tub and for a while it was so hot we couldn’t get in it. Once we did, it felt so amazingly warm we never wanted to get out. Capitol “A” AWESOME!!!!!!!!
So much awesome fun in Teribithia, Canada, I forgot to tell about the Teribithian flag. We have one for all of Teribithia together, and another one for each of the different places we’ve gone to. Our Canadian trip was the time we though of a separate flag for each of the places, and we made that one out of leaves. As you can imagine, it looked awesome but didn’t survive the trip home. We don’t have a picture for that one but we do have the original Teribithian flag.
The green squares stand for nature and each of the times we’ve gone places. Yes, I know, there is only two even though we’ve gone to three. Ask Tony why he hasn’t updated it. I like the flag, don’t you? The best part is that it’s durable cloth that we can bring everywhere we go.
Ok, even more awesome was our trips into town. We had rented a house close to a tourist ski town and walked there a few times. It was really colorful and looked awesome. A lot of the people spoke French. I learned a few French words like “merci” (it sounds like mercy), which means “thank you”, and “excusez-moi” (excuse-em-wa), which means “excuse me”. The ski resort town had an awesome ice cream shop that we went to almost every time we went into town. It was so good! The flavors were written in French so we had to figure them out by the pictures or the clues in the words. There was Bubblegum, S’more, regular vanilla, some various chocolate kinds, and other really good kinds I can’t remember. There was also a sky tram that went from the top of a really big hill to the bottom. It was a short ride but the sights and the colored trees were awesome! Here are some pictures from the tram and in the city, Mont-Tremblant. Sorry, pictures are coming soon.
I have been writing this for three days at least now, so we should wrap it up. In Canada, they have this awesome thing called poutine. It’s French fries with super good cheese curds, and a light gravy poured over top. It’s sooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Sometimes there is ground beef on top. It’s just the best!
When we were traveling home, we stopped at a Canadian restaurant and I learned that white vinegar on french fries (or poutine) is super awesome as well! You should try it! Even if you don’t like vinegar, it’s good great on your fries.
It’s my bedtime, so I need to finish this thing up. If you’ve read this far, great job! Thank you for reading about our Teribithian adventures so far! Part Four is coming soon! In the first or second week of May it could be out. We are going to Costa Rica from late April to early May so whenever we get back, it will be out! Thanks for reading and commenting!!! Please comment!!! Like really capitol “P” Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Random Paul, goodbye.
Join The Conversation