I hate to admit it, but I just wasted 15 minutes reliving this “storyline” to try to figure out who the hell “Pablo” is…

Pablo must be the guy who was watching Rusty and Mara in the temple as they were witnessing the “drop.”  I suppose now he’s of no use as the kids could ID him?  Seriously.  I need a Playbill.  And a life.

Pretty bike, but that’s a pretty bad hombre sitting on it…

Difficult not to notice the stereotypes being portrayed here…  Are all bikers bad?  I don’t think so.  But here we are.  In Mexico.  So the bad guys are Mexican.  Call me crazy, but where the heck is this going?  I doubt that James Allen even knows…

As Rusty gets caught in another male-dominated, misogynistic snare, Mara, offers up another withering look…

…and of course Joe can see everything unfolding!

Pablo doesn’t work here anymore, Joe, and neither will you if you don’t do something about those pesky kids!!

…or perhaps she watches too much television.

Let’s see whether any of Mara’s assumptions are correct, though.  Will “Backpack Guy” (love that name) succumb to cultural norms and let his guard down, simply because a female happens to be prostrate at his feet?   And what is the plan other than knowing where he is?  And I love how “wildlife” is represented in panel three- a lovely Mexican Rat!  Let’s hope they don’t mistake that for a dog and want to bring it home!

The lesson continues…

Friends?  What are those?  Rusty hasn’t had a friend for as long as he’s been alive, from what we know…  poor little guy.  His head is about to explode.  This much (teen) cultural assimilation is probably more than he can take…

What’re we doin’ again?

Oh, yea… following the guy with the backpack containing the contraband antiquity…

Rusty was given this phone when they arrived in Mexico… he literally doesn’t know what it’s used for…  But just imagine for a moment a time without smartphones.  It wasn’t that long ago.  People would literally walk around with their heads up and eyes forward, seeing what was in front of them.  Imagine you time-traveled from, say, the year 2000 to the present, and you saw all these people staring at these devices… literally everywhere… what a strange sight that would be.  Dana Carvey does a bit about John Lennon checking in with Paul McCartney about this phenomenon…

Game on, boys and girls!

This looks like a well paved, urban setting…  Might as well be in Rapid City, SD…

As the Howler is about to bite into a live fish (wow, what a way to go, huh?) Joe gives a final round of “parental” advice to the tweens…

But what is their plan, anyway?  To find and follow this unknown guy and see who he gives the artifact to?  Then what?  Surprise?!  We got you!?  We aren’t playing freeze tag, you know…  or maybe grab some footage on their “cameras?”

The raptor did NOT come up empty-taloned!  But now has to face a howling monkey, which are never as “nice” as we want them to be…

Because cell phones create a force field around otherwise vulnerable youth?  I think that’s a great and grave misconception, if ever there was one…  cue the kidnappers.  Two kids are about to go missing!

Looks like the Mexican Raptor came up empty-taloned below…  and squawks his disappointment…

I’m guessing that Joe knows the “Shady Areas of Santa Poco” all to well…  That sounds like a new fall series on NBC…  harkening back to the town that the Three Amigos saved…

As doe-eyed, opossum-tailed Mara considers the reality that Joe is in on the bad stuff they are witnessing, Joe is clearly wondering what the heck these crazy kids are up to…

So, as we are witnessing the very opposite of Speed, we are reminded that Rusty and Mara would like to be “dropped off” behind the bus for no apparent reason…

…other than to test boundaries and see what trouble they can muster in a foreign land without the rule of law…

…and I am sure that Joe’s wheels are turning…  knowing that he will have to neutralize the building threat… I remind us all that this is a totally self-inflicted wound… the fact that he drove Rusty and Mara right to the scene of the crime and allowed them to witness the drop…

Of course it’s Mara who is keeping them from showing their hand… but I keep wondering when that mane of hers is going to come to life.  It looks like a/an opossum strapped to the back of her head!

Rusty… Rusty?  Are you making a move?  A hotel room?  Really?  Is Mara in on this with you?

Wouldn’t have thought you had it in you, boy…

…with the stolen artifact being ferried on public transportation, and the Up in Smoke-mobile hot on it’s Trail (ha!) there’s no telling how long we might have to witness this ‘chase scene…’

Careful with all the questions, (Rusty?) you’ll give yourself away…

I’ll give credit where it’s due, though… James Allen sure can draw a bus.  Even one that appears to be floating on a cloud.  I guess it has rained a while in the rainforest…

…yea… That’s the ticket!

Boy, these kids are being really cagey, aren’t they?  I guess in today’s rough and tumble world, you really don’t know who to trust!   Certainly not a Grant Wood American Gothic look alike driver of a ridiculously modified van with a sleeping disorder!  Calling Dagwood Bumstead?  I thought he had the market cornered on sleeping his life away…

…and saw his soul…

I don’t know what creeps me out more…  the little dots of india ink that are Joe’s eyes, or the fact that none of the men in the Trailverse have any pigment in their lips…

But who is the guy that was watching them in the temple? 

About the same size as the creepy doll, I’d say… 

As our friendly Toucan in the foreground displays its omnivorous traits (No more nuts… I need me a lizard!) Rusty (who has grown to be 6 feet tall) informs Joe that he (they?) want to go see Santa Poco (because they saw the guy with the stolen mask get on a bus headed that way?) before it gets “too dark.”

Didn’t see that one one coming, huh?  Well, Joe, you can easily underestimate Rusty, as I did yesterday, so I guess we’ll have to see where this all goes…

Lesson from the current story… never judge a book by its cover, or a sleeping man by his apparent ennui…

…and apparently there is a subspecies of Rattlesnake that is indigenous to the Yucatan…  the Crotalus simus tzabcan… above asking Mr. Rat if he wouldn’t be so kind as to check him for gum disease…

That’s right, Joe… because we saw something we were counting on and have bring to your attention!  Oh Rusty, trusting Rusty…  How can you possibly know who is and isn’t in on the caper at this point??  Better to bring this to Mark’s attention and let him start to meddle… which is a Natural State for him…

Credit where it’s due:  This kind of made me chuckle this morning…

…and further evidence that Mark still earns some kind of paycheck… (I know I get fixated on that…) by writing articles for “Field and Forest” or “Woods and Streams” or “Woods and Wildlife” whatever the heck that magazine is called…But it would seem that both Joe and the voice on the radio are readers of said periodical… as Joe corrects and reminds the disembodied voice about a feature of a certain cave adventure that was an early example of the kind of pacing we’d have to endure in the James Allen era…

And the Owl says, “What?”

What complicates things is the fact that you knew that there was a “drop” going down at the temple and yet you brought Rusty and Mara right to it?  Besides sleepy, how dumb are you?

Sleepy Joe continues to prattle on and hold forth like he’s the brains of the outfit… use the kids?  Get them out of the way?  Mark Trail’s reputation?  For what?  Sponging off friends and family?  Never working an honest day in his life?  Being obtuse and not self-aware?