I have said it before, and I’ll say it again… Hell, I have probably even used this title before…  but really?  Look at the three pictures of Mark Trail.  It could be three different people, but for the annoying and always-available pink chamois-cloth shirt…

I don’t know that I ever particularly cared about Mark and his family, but now I have generated actual disdain… I know… Lighten up, Francis…

Who if Geoff talking to in the left hand frame?  And Rusty, best ever?  Greatest of All Time?  (That’s what GOAT stands for, you know, when you see it- took me a while figure that one out…)  Mr. Wizard, get me out of here…

Now that we are all focused on the Crowleys and their growing family, while also enduring another close-up of Dopey McDope-face…

Little Kevin’s dream just came true!

But wait, little guy… I am sure there is paperwork to fill out!!  But then I am sure that this isn’t the Crowley’s first rodeo with adoption.  I’m sure it will all work out fine…

Now can we just get the hell out of here?  And can we find someone who can draw??  That final panel doesn’t even look like Mark!!

Here’s an idea- just start running old Dodd-Elrod strips on a daily basis.  The sense of relief would be palpable across the Trailverse.  This latest story has everyone a little twitchy…

Eric begins his long confession and ultimate redemption:  3 days worth!  But why is Kevin looking so guilty?

Eric continues:

“Decided to come back?”  I think it was the fire, ma’am, that made Rusty and Kevin decide to come back…  And do you really think you wouldn’t have noticed a falling, flaming tree on your own?

Because that’s what kids do these days… shake hands!  I think a friendly shoulder punch or back slap might have been more typical…

Good thing that the ‘Rona hasn’t invaded the Trailverse, otherwise the whole camping trip would have been called off…  Now there’s an  idea… Mark Trail, Sheltering In Place, Day 100…

As we enter the long “Minnesota Good-bye” portion of our story, we are, unfortunately, treated to full frames worth of our story-specific characters…

I always though it was Rusty that would make the most seasoned of us cringe and turn away, but Mr. Crowley’s face is hideous!  Not to mention Mrs. Crowley’s grammar!  How about “Saved our lives?”  “Our and Eric’s?”  Really?

And what exactly is covering Kevin’s head?  Is that hair?  Hard to believe that Mr. Crowley would tousle it, Heaven knows what is growing in there…

Perhaps it’s just me, but I believe we were to have the impression that the lighting strike combined with a drought produced forest fire of epic proportion…

…but no, apparently not…

…it was brought under control by four dudes from the Forest service…  So, given the relative lack of severity, what exactly did they all “make it out of” anyway?

Or Zombie Apocalypse??  The first frame looks a little foreboding if you ask me… 

…And of course it’s ALL_ABOUT_KEVIN… Good Lord.

Is this where we get off?  The end of the story?  I’d say “yes!” except that means we have to warm to the notion that there is another, and another after that…  Funny how I used to feel anticipation at the end of a story arc… now I just feel dread.

As we return to our story, we are really picking up some steam!

OK,  maybe not.

Everyone seems to be well versed in the various directions found on a compass face…  How about, “Let’s get back to the car, away from the fire??”  But I don’t see Mark in the last panel…

Well, I guess everyone knows everyone else, at least by their last names…  And buddy, don’t make promises you can’t keep!  Fires and Pandemics are hard to “control,” as we have learned of late!

It’s called an airplane, dumb-ass…  Yea, heaven forbid you should suit up and meet the fire head-on…

By the looks of it, the stream can be hopped over by even a child… Is Mark suggesting that it’s going to stop a raging forest fire??

I am tired of Kevin, the freckle-faced Opey wanna-be…  now fawning in supplication to Mark…  and his supposed expertise…

It’s only when one considers this strip in groupings that we realize just how tired and lazy the dialogue is…

“We had better get back…”

Oh thank goodness, we are all about to be accounted for…

“Need to head back…”  Really?  Gee, that would never have occurred to me…

As Rusty &  Kevin make their way through the hellscape that has become our daily encounter with the Trailverse, they happen upon the Asshole in  Training (Eric) and his reluctant mom…

… who of course have to be menaced by a falling, flaming tree…

But even as Eric and the Missus dive in a full layout to avoid being crushed, we have to wonder what has become of Mister and Mark…

Thank goodness for Rusty… there’s time for reconciling later, people, we’ve got to get a move on!!

Look!  A Campfire!  A Pretty Campfire!!   Ha!  That’s funny!

By these strips it’s not clear whether Mark and the Crowleys are together or not…  I guess they are?

But which way are you running Rusty?  Toward the fire or away?  Looks like you are surrounded.  Meanwhile, Papa Crowley makes a choice… and Mama Crowley doesn’t seem to like it…

Oh the suspense.  Oh the drama.  I can hardly stand it.

Oh the suspense!  I can hardly stand it…

At least Rusty has returned to his old self- no longer looking like a hipster.

But is the fire actually between them and camp?  I mean, how much ground could they have possibly covered?  Didn’t Rusty pull the old “We’ll walk in a big circle while pretending to be running away?”  OK, that’s giving him way too much credit…

Looks like they are just walking, albeit with a greater stride…  might want to pick up the pace, lads!

In a vision stolen from Walt Disney’s Bambi, the Woodland Creatures all scamper from a fire, started not by a careless camper, but rather by Mother herself…  She can be a heartless and cruel Bee-yotch…

But whither goest the young wards?  Have they met their end?  Has the entire camping trip been spoiled?  Stay tuned!

As we pick up the story, we see Eric’s parents assuming the best in their son…  and blaming themselves… while Mark is on the case!

Oh, guilt is a powerful motivator.  It can eat at you until you just have to spill it!

Am I getting used to this artwork?  Sure, I guess… It  has been suggested that we had to endure a whole host of would-be replacement artists… but it would seem that we landed on one.  No clip art, it all seems to be drawn from one hand in this recent trio of strips…

Ah, yes… the Ol’ Walkie-Talkie… those were the best… especially growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.  The technology was available to almost anyone with a few bucks and a couple of 9-volt batteries… Remember these?

The picture is starting to come into focus a bit more… as Eric continues to whine and wonder why all the attention isn’t on him… he’s here, after all, and hasn’t run away…

The look on Ellie’s face though…  She not happy…  Almost as if to say, why did I marry into this cause??

… bring on the special effects…

I’m sorry, but wasn’t that the tree that Rusty and Kevin were sitting under?  Are they now both a pile of cinders?  That would be an ignominious and untimely end…

Captain Obvious makes a prediction…

… meaning that there will be a deluge and a washout and everyone gets swept way…  We can only hope.  Glad that they had that roaring campfire going earlier in these “drought” conditions…

Even the guy who is supposedly Mark Trail in panel 3…

…he’s all wrong.  I get the rolled up shirt sleeves, but the cut-offs?  He was wearing long pants- jeans- when he climbed out of his tent…  Love the fact that Rusty had time to draw some stick figures… even label them ‘R’ and ‘k’ for big Rusty and little Kevin…

A classic “What the…?!” starts us off on this three-parter, although throughout the years, the final ‘e’ was typically left off, as in “What Th-…?!”

As Mark and Geoff emerge from their correctly proportioned (for once) tents…

It “sounded” like an alarm clock?  Don’t you know?  Didn’t you have to turn it off?  And who is the dude in the center panel?

…said the dick…  How does Eric know that Kevin “ran off?”  And not merely missing?  His words are incriminating if anyone is bothering to listen…  And the more we get a good look at Kevin’s father, the more it appears that the ugly stick was taken to him repeatedly!

Yea, when I went all diva and decided to stomp off into the woods alone, you showed an ounce of compassion and joined me…

I am still wondering why Rusty set his alarm to go off in an hour…

Oh, this is weird…  Not only are we going to be treated to the Rusty backstory (for the first time?  I think so…)  but we are continuing to be plagued by questionable renderings leaving characters practically unrecognizable.   Rusty looks like The Fonz, amiright?  Ehhhhhhh….  one can almost hear…

And what’s in panel three?  Mark and Cherry combing through the dog book, looking for a likely waif?