And for the record, she’s no señorita… more likely a Señora…

… and for the lámpara.  <<sigh>> I just don’t get this.  Maybe there’s nothing to get.

Time Check:  April 26, 2018.  That’s when the Trails arrived at the airport… Coming up on 8 months of this shite.

A regimen high in glutens and refined sugar is sure to produce those lovely double chins… c’mon people, can’t you tell when you are poisoning yourselves?

It’s like this couple (or the lady at least) is so starved (ha, not likely) for human interaction that they take a desperado, who crashed through their skylight and admits to “chasing someone,” as a sign of sorts… welcoming him into their home and feeding him… “Here, take our ruined dinner and feed yourself, stranger… maybe you are… how you say, Hangry?”

As random overfed lady tries to peel back the layers of generational hurt that has led Raul to her cocina, I can only imagine she will begin to ply him with comestibles in an attempt to show him the love that he is missing…

But the more he talks, the colder the trail gets…

George, you must be getting advance looks at the next day’s strip… Except it looks like he’s handing over U.S. Green… And he’s likely either CIA or a drug runner to have all that on his person.

Huh?  What?  Because you have a thing against doors and staircases?  This is just stupid.

But it doesn’t explain why people are living in the urban center of Santa Poco… But hey, ok, I’ll go with it…  I guess this would constitute a “high-rise” in the outer rim of the Central American region…

…and one thing we have learned is that a “good joke” in James Allen’s Trailverse takes a good week to tell.  So we will still be reveling in this moment tomorrow I am sure…

It’s broad daylight, you ee-dee-ot!  Seriously.

Let’s study the two locals in panel two…  morbidly obese, no sense of style beyond a t-shirt and a top that drapes over their XXXXL and size 32 frames, respectively.  Raul is without a scratch and able to deliver a quick punchline.  Heh, heh… Enjoy your supper, mis amigos!  Sorry about all the plate glass shards… een your en-chee-la-thas…

Or perhaps more accurately, the skylight, and into the food court?

He will survive this.  We can’t lose desperados when the story relies on them being there to menace the children!

But it appears that the fall will not be to the street level, but to the rooftop of another building…  he should be able to survive that fall.

Talking to yourself in the third person?  Then calling out your situation to no one in particular?  Finally, letting go a scream?  I’m telling you, campers, this is riveting stuff.

I will say, however, that George pretty much nailed it with his comment yesterday:

Thankfully we are provided a little summary to open this installment… Otherwise we’d be asking the question, “What are we doing again?”

And what are we looking at in the middle frame?  Boot Bracelets?  Is that a thing?  In a world where Raul could just as easily climb down to the street level, this kind of “action” is reminiscent of a “Die Hard” movie…  Pick your poison- they are all extremely watchable, but clearly John McClane takes a beating every time just for beating’s sake…  to burnish his “hero” status.  This guy, Raul, is just an idiot.

Is the Professor playing dumb here??

Is he knowingly leading his “old friend” into a trap?  We really don’t know who to trust, do we?  We have to follow the money… that’s the only way we would know for sure… He or she who profiteth is he or she who, uhm… I don’t know… Stealeth?

As we move slowly through the conversation, Mark’s eyebrow continues to bely his concern over the strange events that are unfolding…

We let the children go into a strange foreign city with a narcoleptic stranger driving a chopped up conversion/panel truck, what could possibly go wrong??

Sounds more like a kidnapping to me…

As the camera zooms in for effect, we see Mark continuing to question Joe’s bona fides…

…and c’mon Professor!  how well do you really know these people?  Isn’t that your job?  The job of any leader?  Trust given without being earned?  It’s a nasty world out there, and we all have to be on guard to some degree…  but of course we will now spend the next week engaged in a blow by blow discussion between Mark and The Professor…  tick, tock…

Well, that’s a tip-off if ever there was one…

Did he go to evil medical school??

The look on Mark’s face in the second panel is classic!  The raised eyebrow… the clenched jaw…  you can almost see his fists tightening…

I have to say that the artifacts in the bookcase are fairly pedestrian…  especially the one in the top right hand corner- what is that anyway??

Sorry to be catching up just now campers, but these last couple of strips haven’t exactly inspired me…

Judging by the scale, and applying some perspective, it looks like Raul has cleared a 10-foot span on his way to tracking down the Brats and the Mule…  Trackers tracking trackers…

Meanwhile, back a the dig site…

Saved your life?  Really?  How?  By drooling and snoring?

But clearly Mark’s Spidey-sense is tingling… He knows something is not quite right!  Not to mention the Lizardy-thing in the foreground stealing dinosaur sized eggs!

“Taking it to the rooftops” seemed a bit iffy, but Rusty and Mara, with their tell-tale silhouettes, are easily spotted in what appears to be a deserted section of the city…  I guess everyone has emigrated  north…

One thing that is interesting is the discipline that this strip maintains- despite the occurrence of Holidays and such- never a mention of special days like Thanksgiving or other opportunities to mark the calendar.  I suppose partly because there’s a fear that we’d lose the thread of the “story” unfolding in super slo-mo right before our eyes.  Really?  Not.

On this day, though, Thanksgiving 2018, I will take time to wish you all a very blessed day.  That I can sit here most mornings, free to to do pretty much whatever I want is a blessing in itself.  That I am still useful to society and have the opportunity to lead teams and help people live what might be their best lives brings me great joy.  I know that this Holiday is under fire as it pertains to its history and the story surrounding it…  And despite the valid points made in that realm, remember that as the earth grew more and more populated, and curiosities and desires drove behavior, we are probably more respectful and disciplined today that we were even a century ago.  We haven’t have a continent-sized attempt at a land-grab since WWII, and with the exception of the permanent war that we are promoting in the Middle East, we are pretty much at peace.  Let’s remember those that are not able to be together today, for that and other reasons.  But on that note, I am particularly thankful that this day will bring families together across the country, and to that point, I welcome my brother home for a visit that has occurred only infrequently over the past decades.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

What th…?!

Sorry, but unless he had those stashed in his chaps, I have no idea where Raul found his six-shooters…  I am suddenly reminded of of another scene where nature got the better of a guy with access to a gun…  My favorite movie:  My Cousin Vinny…

As Rusty and Mara are fixating on the Mule, and trying to figure out how to get Rusty’s phone back (talk about ‘splaining…) they are pondering recent decisions and choices that have left them wandering aimlessly in Santa Poco, Mexico!

And yes, Raul has taken to the rooftops to employ his (apparent) x-ray vision to locate Rusty and Mara!

Where he searches hopelessly for answers about the life he is leading and the bad choices that have led him to this crucial juncture…

Only to be tormented by a Toucan… Is this someone’s spirit animal that has been following this ‘storyline’ all the way from the resort to the dig site and now into the city?  It would seem so…

With all that, we are once again reminded that James Allen’s forte is one of arteest, not storyteller…  again, where is this going??

Just look at the bugle-mouth in the first installment:

That has to be the most unflattering look on a human being, and I am sure we all make that face depending on what we are saying.  It’s funny that in today’s world, catching that is increasingly easy as cameras advance in their capabilities and there are literally thousands of pictures from which to choose…  But for James Allen to purposely draw this mug says what?  I honestly don’t know.

Why are we trusting Juanito the mule?  And I had forgotten that Rusty sacrificed his smart phone to the cause…  That only happened (probably) a month ago…

Oh, worry not your little head, Master Trail, Papa’s on his way and he’s being set up!!

Is that the blue of his hair clashes with the pink of his chamois cloth shirt?  The fact that he has to wear chamois cloth in the tropics?  The fact that it wasn’t his idea to clog up his life with children?

And why is Professor Carter being dragged into this?  These aren’t his children.  Where are Mara’s folks?  Seriously.

We see a glimpse of the singing bush from The Three Amigos movie in the lower right corner of the second panel.  <<yawn…>>

I will not be posting again until Friday… hang in there Campers, I am sure that so much will happen… (sarcasm intended…)

Suddenly Mark is all lathered up at the thought of his bastard step son being in some kind of danger…  Not to mention the fact that Mara’s parents are nowhere to be found… having trusted the Trails to keep her somehow safe…

And as Jose tries to explain himself/ lure Mark into the fray, he slips in a bit of spanish for good measure…  Ju no how keeeds are… they sleeeped away… Eeet’s a Leeetle Compleeecated, but I’ll Es-plane…