…but when I do, I prefer the ones that are already rotting on the ground…

Rusty, Rusty, Rusty… Where have you been?  Where did you get that new… um… look?  You are the only person I know who sits on the ground in order to pick apples…  and has managed to gain the ripe old age of what?  10?  And not understand that the world is governed, really, by one thing- GRAVITY!  But we know that you have spent too much time in the Trailverse by uttering the time-honored, “Hungh!?”

I think James Allen dislikes drawing Rusty as much as most of us dislike seeking hi ever-morphing features!  Other that the always-slow-roll of the unfolding story line, what else would explain the fact that we hardly ever see him??

Ol’ Doc Davis has a crush on the local School Marm?  That’s creepy!  Depending on her age, I suppose… Are school teachers in the Lost Forest School District allowed to date??  Have adult relationships??  Until the second Word War, Teachers generally weren’t allowed to Marry, if they did they had to forfeit their job…  Assuming that Mark uses a cell phone now, let’s hope that the cultural norms in Northern Georgia have evolved to include Teachers marrying!

Apples on Pancakes?  Yum?  Maybe the kind that are baked and meant for pie?

Cherry is busy offering up her father in exchange for favorable treatment down at the Schoolhouse?  This disturbing on many, many levels!

And what’s with the disembodied laugh accompanying Mark in the enter panel?  The laughing certainly doesn’t match the look of shock and dismay on his face!!  But again, more new expressions to try out!  I hope he doesn’t hurt himself!!

No more Stonewall Mark it would seem.

While the head shot of Cherry is right out of clip-art central, the two shots of Mark have his face all screwed up and contorted…  expressing emotion, irony, intrigue.  How odd.

Pacing, as we see, is slow here… we’ll know what the Trails are up to in the next week or two, but certainly no sooner!

You’ll convince yourselves eventually.  Not that you have shown an ounce of concern over Rusty’s welfare, other than rescuing him from his abusive/ alcoholic father… from what we can tell, he’s kept locked in his room until it’s time for his appearances…

F

But anyway, off they go to Meh-Hee-Cho!  Let’s see what kind of trouble they can get into!!

Or vice versa…

Edumacational trip, huh?  That’s almost as good as saying you are going on a Cruise, or Disney World for that matter…

But I am having trouble remembering whether Mark made a promise… I think he did…  Yup!  Man of his word!!

Off to Mexico we go!  Won’t Dirty be disappointed when he arrives at Lost Forest only to see them gone!

Nurse Bambi?

Nope.

Read the damn paper and see the h*ll is going on this world…

I am surprised that a physical Newspaper can make its way to the stoop of Lost Forest.  Heck, Ol’ Doc might have to drive into town, or at least to the end of the long driveway…

Seriously.  I was afraid I’d have to go back to yesterday’s installment and make an update… Since I had glossed over the obvious cinematic reference…

What is that you wonder?  Well certainly that has to be “Rocket Raccoon” from the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise…  the brash yet vulnerable “product of genetic engineering on lower life forms” producing a brilliant character that adds quite a bit to the story lines!  Just watched the sequel last night… Very entertaining!

But yes, this is all filler… let’s get to the next story, please!!  I won’t know what to do with the next 6 months of my life otherwise!!

A piece of Bark??  Yummy!

But what do we know about Racoons?  Or Raccoons?  For one, we can spell it either way…  Also, according to fun facts, there has only been one recorded incident of a Raccoon passing on Rabies to a human…  It’s also well established that Raccoons are the “clever ones” in the animal kingdom, as evidenced by their dexterous forpaws, an repeated depictions of getting the best of humans and other animals…  Like this scene and this  scene from the John Candy Classic, “The Great Outdoors.”

Whether it’s Andy racing around with a blood-red tongue…

…or Mark (apparently) providing the voice over…

The plot instantly thickens- at least now we know where the (presumably now deceased) King Tut got the inspiration for his chin ornament… Not the Ring-tail Lemur, but rather the Racoon!  Spitting image!!

But seriously, Lost Forest Denizens, haven’t you gotten the memo about composting food scraps?  If you do that, then there’s nothing left for the Racoons to pick over…

Big, smelly dog, faithful and constant companion to Mark and Cherry?

Restless, huh?  But, Mark, you’ve only been gone a couple of days!  In  fact, you re home early!!  Never mind that the Black footed ferret story played out for MONTHS… the elapsed time was only days!  What else might you have missed out on?  Maybe Rusty needs to be taught how to shave?  Naa… he’ll be 8 years old forever, just like Andy!

But who is doing the talking?  Some disembodied voice-over?  Clever and Alert?  With big question marks floating around his his head??

Let’s not get all mussed up in front of the kid, OK Honey??

Such awkwardness… Cherry gets all moon-faced and and wraps her arms around Mark.  And it would seem that Mark is either sick of driving after that long trip with Rusty or he’s actually thinking about the family budget- Airport parking rates can add up, especially when he’s likely to be in South Dakota for a couple of months…  Make sure you pack enough underwear, Mark!!

OK, enough with the prattle… besides, what on earth is that deer in the first panel doing, looking straight up??  Very strange behavior.  But then, I’m not a deer.

Well, have fun on your trip Mark.  I have a feeling this time we won’t be wondering what’s going on “back at the ranch…”  Oh, that’s right, Mark is going to a Ranch… and a Ghost Town.  Oooooooooo……

This is once again becoming excruciating.  It’s like James Allen has a “See and Say” pulls the cord, and watches as the arm spins… What kind of animal will I feature today?  Doesn’t matter what’s indigenous where…  tomorrow we will probably be blessed with Polar Bear!

Sure!  Let’s go to Mexico!  I’m sure no one will be mad at us there!  Let’s make sure we get a complete set of “Make America Great Again” hats… that will be awesome!!

Yeah… some gear.  I can see Rusty bobbing about above a reef when a large tide pulls him out to sea… careful Rusty- this is all an elaborate plan to take you out of the picture!

We’ve heard this one before… the promise of a “trip…” Just you and Rusty… Right, Mark?

What a lame-o excuse though, “sometimes my trips can get a little hectic.”  What the heck does that mean??  In the words of Obi Wan, Rusty, “Your destiny lies along a different path” than Mark’s.  You need to stay home and be marauded by Dirty Dyer… thought we forgot about him, huh?  Nope, Dirty’s coming to do a little hunting of his own…

…you know, like in one of those Wild West shows that used to travel about…  He’s really from Camden, NJ but grew tired of life in the shadows of tall buildings, so after he got his film degree, he moved to the Great Plains where he found his true identity with the First Nations People and they accepted him, not unlike Dustin Hoffman’s Character in Little Big Man, from which he found inspiration while learning to make films…

The comics-time continuum has snapped back to real time, as we are asked to endure the entire ride home from the fishing grounds… Maybe we get to see something different next week…

Poor Rusty.  Even from a distant, moving vehicle we can see that he is staring out his window, rapidly losing interest in the topic that he started… That’ll learn ya, boy!

So, you got that?  Nature just feeds on itself in one big, virtuous cycle…  How fitting that the raven is overlooking the proceedings today.  Perched expectantly in a Magnolia tree, a sign that may prairie dogs will soon meet their fate, if not Cherry at the hands of Dirty Dyer… remember him??

Prairie dogs exist to feed and house the rest of the animal kingdom?  Do they know this?  Why aren’t they doing something about it?  Nature sure can be cruel…

At least the vehicles that mark drives now have headrests and seatbelts… unlike the International SUV’s of yore- bench front seat, no head restraint, and no shoulder (or even seat) belts…

Ahh, poor Rusty lad… realizing that he will always come in second place to whatever Mark is doing, or about to do… that he will only ever fit in on the margin of what is Mark’s raison d’etre.

So, with that pouty face locked into and burned onto our retinas, let’s hope that Mark is on the plane to SD next.  But I suppose Rusty deserves an answer to his question, so we will have to endure the ride back to Lost Forest just a little longer, kids…

As we make the fishing trip last another day, we are witness to the riveting repartee between Mark and his adopted son…

And once again we are reminded that Mark leads a life that is utterly devoid of deadlines and real commitments, given that he continues to live rent free under the roof of one Doc Davis, father of Cherry Trail (nee Davis) which Mark expects to inherit, through his wife, in order that he never know what a mortgage payment looks like…  OK maybe I ride that note a little long and hard, but it’s always struck me that Mark has little visible means of support, yet never has to make the difficult choices that I’m sure many of us do…