Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for May 29, 2019

I don’t think Luann’s chair will do no good for video bingeing on THIS camping trip; no Wi-Fi for kilometers upon kilometers away.

Bernice would drive me crazy the entire trip.

I’m waiting to see Luann try to carry all that in a backpack.

The realist is also device centered it would appear.

None of them will be speaking to each other by the end of the trip.

This will be a disaster trip!!!!

The most important part of planning any group trip is finding compatible fellow travelers!

Entry number three: realist now using old fashioned note pad and silent ball point pen to record findings.

I wonder if that is stinging nettle for the tea?

The most important thing that will happen (as if any kind of “will” can be predictable for Luannverse) is that these three will encounter nature in all its glory, including animals,like bears or skunks, among others, weather, being lost, and a host of other in nature events. Will it amount to more than the usual HI? Will they learn about themselves? Ultimately will they have fun, and get a lot out of the trip? Only the arc knows right now.

Group Camping Entry 3: Spiritualist is centered on almost nothing. Consumer is centered on being a shop ’till you drop stereotype, while missing the whole point of a camping trip. “Realist” is centered on being a hypocritical, hypercritical, drive-everybody-nuts drag.

Tiffany would bring a folding vanity with temperature controlled applicator chest.

It’s like Bernice wakes up every morning and asks herself “Just how obnoxious of a buzzkill can I be today?” and then finds a way to outdo herself.

Dez is working on “ambiance coordinates.” If they could only perfect that for inmates in prison, the guards would have a much easier job.

Camping is not binary nor digital, and forest trees are not cell towers. Leave the microchips and lithium batteries at home (except for the ones that may be in your flashlights).

Ooo, I know! Luann will twist her ankle on this trip, and some guy (from a trio of camping guys just as mismatched as hers) will rescue her, just like the prince in her dreams. Haha, maybe it’ll be Jack, Gunther, and Les out together (arranged by uncle/step-dad)!

@ SJhapamama: If they are in bear territory, they can smear a salmon on Les’ sleeping bag.

Three went into the woods. How many came back out?

When I was in Boy Scouts, our scoutmaster was not happy with the assistant scoutmaster and put a little peanut butter at the bottom of his sleeping bag. He had a couple of little critters stopping by that night. The next day, the scoutmaster’s sleeping bag was turned inside – out, and was filled to the top with sand – standing straight up.

I had learned to cook many things in Spain before I was 11 years old. In our scout troop, we had a “buddy cooking” system for a while. My cooking buddy and I would make a nice pasta with chicken breast and toasted garlic bread and dine like kings, and others were eating cold sandwiches, then bi+c# to the scoutmaster that the garlic and pasta smell was mortally wounding them. After that, the scoutmaster built patrol boxes to house all the communal food, and everyone ate the same thing from then on. I grew disinterested in the cooking process, as instead of bringing everyone up to a higher standard of food to eat, we all went down to a level of eating cold sandwiches and other tasteless crap. I bowed out of the meal planning process and I remember on last morning of one campout, all that was left in the patrol box to eat were just a few items – two loaves of bread, several packages of dry Kool – Aid powder, and a huge bag of puffed oats. The scoutmaster came over to where our patrol was at and blew his stack because everyone was having grape Kool – Aid powder sprinkled on bread for breakfast, and half of the fools were running around camp blowing mouthfulls of puffed oats at each other like gattling guns. The pancakes he made for our patrol that morning were great…

And no one is checking the weather report?

‘What happens in the tent, stays in the tent’ ….

The one who bears the appellation of “REALIST” ought to be called a narcissist. It’s far more accurate.

I am really getting to dislike Bernice.

Bernice is often unpleasant, but in a childish way that can make you smile. I think she actually knows how much she’s unbearable and suffers for that and want to change. Maybe this campsite will help her to improve.

And They’re OFF, Ladies and Gentlemen!

“Oooooooooh, give them a home,”

“Where Mike Ruffalo ROAMS!”

“And the Beer (Hic) And the cantaloupes, Plaaaaay!”

“Where Mord, WILL be HEARD!”

“Is THAT some kind of Bird?”

“Singing cries of “Boy Howdy!” All daaaaaaaaay!” – “Home on the Brain”. – Traditional

Shannon, Fay, even the returned-to-obnoxious Tiffany, good grief, maybe even Les (gasp, choke, and puke) would be better than this.

What happens when their devices need recharged?

Now that’s funny!

Nettle tea in the wilderness? Badda Book Badda Boom?

Let’s see… the “highlights” of Luann’s and Bern’s trip to New York City were that they rode in a taxi, they took the subway (all by themselves!!!), they checked into a tiny hotel room in which they went to bed every night at 9:30, and they spent almost 5 minutes in a night club. I suspect the highlights of this camping trip will therefore be that they pitch a tiny tent in which they will go to sleep every night at 8:00, they will have the exciting adventure of using a bush as a toilet, and they will see a chipmunk.

Bernice. Just STOP.

Not that Bernice isn’t using her device and will need the charger Luann is contemplating.

Haven’t they covered not treating people like unwilling lab rats in your classes yet Bern?

Oh shut up, Bernice!

this trip may be all mental.

Bernice is supposedly the “realist” among these “campers”? That is like saying that the President and the Democrats in Congress are getting along.

When I was a lad, my Dad, his brothers and I would load up his pickup and my uncle’s old station wagon with a bags of flour, corn meal, coffee, sugar, cane poles, fishing line and hooks, a couple of canvas ground sheets, and most important, my uncle’s cast iron Dutch oven. Sometimes we took an old twelve gauge shotgun with us, but the game we were after swam in the river where we would spend a week or more away from the “civilized” world. My cousins were all a lot older than me and were all either working or in the service, so I was the beneficiary of these men’s knowledge and tales of growing up with virtually nothing during the Depression and surviving the deprivations and horror of World War Two. We ate the fish we caught deep fried at supper time and had hot fire baked biscuits with “cowboy coffee” for breakfast before the sun came up and you could still plainly see the Milky Way through the trees. If you thought you were smelling too bad after a few days, or you got too hot in the summer heat, you jumped in the river for awhile. I truly regretted the time when we had to finally leave. I’m approaching my seventh decade now, but I still remember those trips.

Bernice would (does) drive me stark barking mad.

I know undergrads with Psych majors can be irritating for a while, but sheesh!

I see plant poisoning on this trip.

Bernice is not real, neither are the other 2

What happened to the newlyweds?

It’s a short trip but she would drive me crazy too. Luan’s devices would as well. It always bugs me to go camping and people bring the whole mess with them.

Why is the person who is studying to be a psychologist slapping labels on everybody?

I love Bernice

I’m starting to enjoy Bernice’s role in this arc. Greg has set up Dez and Luann as opposite ends of the ditzy spectrum. While Bernice plays the dispassionate observer. All three being clueless; in reality. So far, Dez appears more hippy-like than one attuned to nature, the other two have returned to early middle school behaviors.

Greg has a decent set-up here; a fertile field lies before him. It seems reasonable that we could see some few camping gags. He did do a similar treatment with the Gunther-Tiffany field trip. A few misadventures were followed up by post event recollections, maybe even flashbacks.

HI, as luann1212 now says.

My plan would be more in tune with “roughing it” and my husband would just insist on getting an RV until his pouting gets him his way. :0)

Bernice could just never appear in this strip again starting tomorrow and I would be thrilled.

still don’t think these three are going to actually go camping.

Funny that Bernice should consider herself a realist. She is one of the most delusional characters on this strip, but then that is the entire joke behind her self-proclamation of realism.

7

Hah! This was very funny to me today.

I truly like Bernice as a character…. even with all her flaws. She is (to me) pleasantly different enough to be very, very interesting. Luann and Tiffany seem to grow more and more to be enantiomeric reflections of each other in many ways. Do not get me wrong… both Luann and Tiffany are great…. but they do cover a lot of the same ground often so there is a lot of “their type” of story here.

With Bernice, I see someone who is more different in perspective, so her story is (to me) often very interesting and refreshing.

In my opinion, Bernice is being “semi-serious” in her actions. In part, she is being the self ascribed “realist” and scholarly documentarian. But…. I also feel that she is also being a bit “mocking” of herself too…. I think she is playing her “role” here to be silly and humorously aggravating to Luann.

I am hopeful that Bernice continues to be featured for a while. To me, her presence feels “fresh”.

If they are going out in the wilderness, their phones will be useless.

Dez knows both of these girls well enough to know they would be terrible at camping. Camping with them would be a disaster and no fun for Dez.

“Ambience Coordinates” … Translation: “This is a perfect camping spot; we need to remember where we are so we can find this place again.”

Luann was going to work two jobs so she could afford her car insurance. Now she is not only blowing off work, she is spending more money on camping items. She is paying for theses things … how?

…She ought to know that vocalizing her observations is going to influence the behavior of her unwilling “subjects”. Ugh, Bernice is an embarrassment to her alleged major.

No such thing as “ambience coordinates”. Very revealing. Shows Greg Evans doesn’t really know anything about the real world.

Oh this is horrible on both fronts. Make it stop, please.

I went on a 3 week trek in the Himalaya, and I brought a tape recorder, many batteries and many tapes. It’s one of the best things I ever did. Now, 34 years later, I have a vivid description of the entire trip in my own voice. I also have sounds that we encountered on the trip that are a joy to listen to. I had my tapes transcribed, and I have 58 pages of written material. The tapes plus the photos I took help me remember my trip in detail. Carrying the recorder and materials was no problem.

I hope Luann goggles “pack mule for rent” she’ll need one (maybe two?)

Type A meets Type B.

I’m thinking Luann and Bernice (when they do go on this trip) will find themselves in a place where they can’t use their devices, and the focus will be on how they adapt; three persons forced to interact face-to-face for days in some remote area. This feeds on Pru’s effort to get Luann off her phone. Maybe she will have time (undistracted by her phone) to think about what she wants to major in at college. but she may also have severe withdrawal symptoms.

If Bernice is using this as a study opportunity, she really needs to step back and observe from a distance without bringing biases into it. It probably doesn’t help that she knows both of the participants in the study.

Luann approaches every new experience as a new way or a new place to do the same things she always does. Why would you bother going camping if you’re just going to sit and watch videos all day? You can do that at home.

On the whole, I’d rather be almost anywhere rather than on this camping trip….

What makes Bern think she’s the realist in that group?

So will we be out in the wilds in tomorrow’s episode?

My experience is that people who call themselves “realists” are the ones who don’t live in the real world.

They’re in for some very rude awakenings.