Hey Becky, all Cherry asked for was a brief description of the Good Doctor’s discovery…

You don’t have to get all… well… raven-haired and bedroom-eyes sultry about it…   And as far as female assistants go, you certainly leave Carina in the dust…  Oh man, remember the months spent in the bioluminescent cave?  Ahhh! No!!!!!

And speaking of temples, Mark finds them all the time!  What’s the big deal here??

Hey- hold on on a darn minute here… I just noticed something… What’s Mark got in his right hand?  Is that a small pitcher of coffee creamer?  What Th-?! Mark has taken his coffee black since time immemorial… What is going on here?!

As we listen in on the post-dinner prattle… with Mrs. Corday calling the play by play, as if no one else at the table saw what excited the youths…

…we find that Mara and Rusty have indeed stolen away…

…only to find that Mara is about a head taller than Rusty!  Poor lad!  Life is so cruel… He’ll crush on her hopefully, only to have his affections go unrequited…

Considering that Mark and Cherry are wearing the same shirt/top that they traveled in, one has to wonder whether they have multiple instances of the same ensemble, or if they truly didn’t think to pack any other clothes?  Not to mention that the resort has no air conditioning, Mark’s gotta be sweltering in that long-sleeve, chamois-cloth number!  And after the 90 minute cab ride (also probably without air conditioning) it’s bound to be a little ripe…

So… we meet Archaeologist and Assistant (A little May-December going on there??) as well as Mara’s mother (Father apparently in the loo or simply off Camera- maybe filming?)  We know it’s Mara’s mother since the hair color is a match… She recalls going gray at an early age too… and refuses to color it!

A second look at Assistant Becky suggests that there might be a relation to Kelly Welly, the erstwhile siren of Trail’s-past who wanted only to gain Mark’s respect by scooping him on a story, all the while placing Mark in compromising situations vis-a-vis Cherry…

As the stilted and unlikely dialogue continues, we find out the names of the other characters in this current story arc…  And it seems the birds in the second panel are going along with it.  I can’t for the life and Google in me figure out what they are, though… a little help??

No, not the dreaded  Jim (for reasons unknown**) but rather Becky…  And so far Dr. Carter doesn’t have a first name…  (**oh, wait- a reference to Marlin Creed’s assistant!)

Do we know Marlin Creed?  Oh, yea… How soon we forget… the dude from the Zoo!  Cherry was clearly NOT IMPRESSED with Marlin’s tactics…

Thirty years?!  Mark, you are 35 years old…  Did you meet him when you were in kindergarten?  And for that matter, what is the Mark Trail backstory?  We know shockingly little about the Young Mark Trail, where he was spawned and what landed him in his current life…  I can see it now… a new strip- Young Mark Trail– Wouldn’t that be ripping?

As the camera pans back to feature a struggle between a mutated Scorpion and a juvenile Komodo Dragon (Indigenous or Invasive??) we see Mark, alone with Cherry, continuing to share “who’s coming to dinner…”

And are we to assume that Doctor Carter (PhD) is the Archaeologist that Rusty referred to on the plane when speaking to Mara?  And speaking of Rusty and Mara, where the heck did they toddle off to?? Not to mention everyone else?  Back to their Mai Tai’s and revelry now that the whale has been saved?

Whoa… Cherry… Do you have a past?  Was Jim a Jilted Lover?  Is the world really that small?

Cherry, why do you put up with this?

‘All-seeing’ and ‘all-knowing’ Mark is a tired schtick…  From the Airport gate scene to now this: withholding knowledge that there will be dinner guests… that has to test Cherry’s patience…  Notice how we don’t get to see her reaction to Mark’s “surprise…”

Let’s make up our minds, here!!

Mark has the BLUE highlights!! Please!

I am absolutely fascinated by all the different expressions that Rusty has been allowed to show through this story!  A regular Jim Carrey!

OK… I know!  too much Rusty!!  From eager to suave to perplexed to mind blown…

…it’s only natural to be mortified by your parents’ actions… it’s part of the plan- the plan that will get you to leave the nest at some point.  Except that you are locked in a world where no one actually ages… what hell… OK if you are perpetually in your mid thirties, but what if you are forever twelve years old?  Ick.  Awkward.  Voice cracking.  Confused.

And I will say it one more time… What’s with the mane of silver hair on Mara?  She’s of course drawn to be fetching, but the gray mop continues to be confusing, at least to me…

Or perhaps she is spinning in place, wanting to display her bikini-ready form in what her mother has covered with a sensible tankini…

Or maybe she’s blind? We certainly didn’t get that impression on the plane… And where are her parents?  Hopefully just off camera.  I wouldn’t want my daughter roaming the beaches all by herself…

So as Rusty and Cherry have a conversation about Mara, (like she’s not within earshot of them talking,) Rusty ponders the imponderable and Cherry strongly encourages him to “go say hello…”  So go on, boy… time to make a friend!

An’ a-one-a an’ a-two-a… into the water goes the whale.  Glad we didn’t drag that one out longer than it needed to be…

Now it’s time for some mea culpas…

What’s Mark doing in the first panel  The twist??  Working on his 7 minute abs?  Mr. Racing Stripes is feeling a bit sheepish about having doubted Mark, although he still hasn’t the foggiest idea who he’s dealing with…  I find it annoying anytime someone calls me “Buddy.”  I mean, how hard is it to introduce yourself and learn names??

If I am not mistaken, there was a relatively large gaggle of folks on the beach when Rusty (where’s Rusty?!) first pointed to them in the distance… Then there were six, not counting the Trails… and now there are only three, with Mark and Cherry making five??

Again with the beast reference… or in another context, “That’s what she said…”

And by the way, I didn’t know that whales could talk!!

Never daunted, or missing an opportunity to waggle his finger at someone, Mark lets Mr. Grumpy (off camera) know that he needn’t worry… that he’s an expert in matters pertaining to wildlife…

But what’s up with the lady in panel three?  Is this the angry panel?  She was just crying 30 seconds ago… Is she mad that Cherry’s swimsuit is from the same dye lot as hers?

But I repeat… can one hear the tide coming in?  And if tides are hours apart, wouldn’t that whale be suffocated under its own weight by now?  And I am sure that it didn’t occur to any of the other humans, before the Trails showed up, that they might work together to get the whale back in the ocean…  where it will probably lose its way again and get itself beached outside of the prying eyes and meddling hands of random (really) white folks on vacation…

But I guess I’d be angry too if I had to get my hair colored the way this guy’s is…  what’s with the blue racing stripes down each side?!  And why does every woman in the Trailverse have to have ginger highlights??

But how does one pronounce Minke?  Is it like the way that Inspector Clouseau pronounced Monkey in the Pink Panther Series?  Or is the ‘e’ silent?  Like the varmint we make fur coats out of?

Well, this vacation is off to a rousing start!!  Strap in, campers!

A Beached Whale, huh?  And how disappointing!  I thought that the resort was clothing optional!  Although it seems that Cherry has scared off a good chunk of the crowd with her killer profile…

Check out the punctuation in Cherry’s statement.  Shouldn’t there be an exclamation point after the word ‘whale?’  The way it is written, it seems like happening upon a whale high and dry on the beach is no big thing… the only surprising part is the fact that it’s still alive!!  Where’s a Marine Biologist when you need one??  I guess Mark will have to spring to action (again) and announce his presence…

Everyone’s settled in and in their trunks…  and displaying their rock-hard bodies, except for the still maturing Rusty…

But the look on Cherry’s face… I have seen that before… yup, right here…  At least she’s not wearing the same bikini…  And Mark, what view are you commenting on, exactly??

Never mind Cherry’s reaction to the sudden realization that they will be paying dearly for the privilege of camping…

…it’s Rusty’s hand in the third panel…  AHHHHHH!!! Put it down, son, PUT!  IT!!   DOWN!!!

Well, that trip went by in a blink!  Looks like everyone was crammed into the back seat!  I am sure it wasn’t hot, sticky, or at all uncomfortable…

Not to mention no screens…  no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine… I seriously wonder what a world like that would be like sometimes… Our current lives replete with oversharing and overreacting…

Rocky Bluffs…  Didn’t he play Middle Linebacker for the Chicago Bears back in the George Halas days??

Nice rendering of the Ring-tailed Lemur… at least that’s what it looks like to me.  Except this animal is native only to Madagascar…  which would make it invasive in this picture…  so perhaps not.  Could be Coati… Who knows…

Well, with the entire Trail clan somehow stuffed into this Studebaker-turned-taxi, here’s what automobile.mag has to say about it:

The 1950 bullet-nose lineup came in three sizes, Goldilocks-style. Baby Bear was the Champion, riding on a 113-inch wheelbase; the Commander was Mama Bear, with a 120-inch wheelbase; there were 124 inches between the wheels of Papa Bear, the Land Cruiser that could be ordered only as a four-door sedan. There was no wraparound, Starlight-like rear window on sedans and convertibles, but as a consolation, four-door sedans got rear-hinged suicide doors in the back.

As this is a two door, let’s hope it’s at least the Mid-sized Commander model… and you are sort of right (as usual) Mark…  the car being over 50 years old… more like close to 70 years old…

Interesting… we are no longer straddling time in the Trailverse… Mark declares that this would be taxi is over 50 years old… which clearly places us in the present day… not that we didn’t have hints of that earlier, what with cell phones and digital cameras… but there was always something about the styles and the sensibilities that made me wonder…

So off we go in a two-door taxi?  Really??  Never mind that it’s a 90 minute drive to tulum!

Nice planning, Mark!  Have fun, Trails!  Enjoy the experience!

No further chatter about maybe hooking up later?  Poor Rusty…  Here I thought he’d be the youngest member of the Mile-High Club…

The expressions on Mark & Cherry’s faces are curious- almost dreadful… expecting the worst?  Rusty continues to comment of relative size and congestion of airports…  While Mark continues to call out the obvious…  But Mark, isn’t there luggage to pick up?  Or are you going to spend the week in your faded-red, now-pink chamois cloth shirt?