Somehow, Cherry blew through six days of comic strip panels just getting the members of the Black Rose Garden Club to agree to help her save the bees from the Sunny Soleil Society’s more fatal plans. Somewhere along the line, the members’ preoccupation with pancakes melted away. Well, Cherry never did get around to stating what her plan was (if she had one), as we will almost certainly put Cherry’s story aside for two weeks while we return to Mark’s adventure. Nevertheless, some progress was made. At least they got out of their tool shed meeting room and started walking to the bee statue.

Now, I give Rivera a lot of credit for trying to give other Trail family members more time in front of the comic strip camera. Running two parallel story lines is not a simple thing, especially in a comic strip. And Rivera has sometimes found ways to link their stories together, even if indirectly. Do you like the fact that Rivera runs parallel storylines? Do you think Cherry and Mark should participate together in the same storyline once in awhile? While you ponder your responses, we’ll move on to the Sunday nature talk!

Well, it’s Hallowe’en, so I suppose bats are an obvious subject. But bats don’t go “bump” in the night, do they, Mark? After all, you told us about their echolocation capabilities, too! Anyway, for old Trailheads who might still be around, it would have been cool to see Professor Gabriel Chavira (the bat researcher from a few years ago) make a cameo appearance in the last panel.

Okay, Mark. It’s all very well to tell us to work together to save the bats. Exactly how do we do that, Mark? Blast more caves in hills? Gabriel would have had something practical to suggest, rather than stand around a smoke-free campfire and sing “Kumbaya”. At least there are no Dracula jokes.