I can’t tell you how difficult it is to get nine plastic 12oz bottles of Pepsi (OK, two were Mountain Dew) into the Boundary Waters without Pops noticing.  It’s hard.  Plus they’re heavy.  Joey and I flew into Minneapolis on Sunday and our friends Jake and Autumn spent a few hours with us.  A portion of one of those hours was dedicated to the purchase of said Pepsi and Mountain Dews.

Once the contraband was purchased, we had to hide it in our luggage and hope that Pops didn’t decide to get curious and go poking around in our packs and bags. He didn’t.

We arrived at Duane’s quite a bit later on Sunday evening, contraband still hidden in our bags. The original plan had been for each person to pack their own Pepsi in, but Pops was just too all over the place.  There was no way to get the Pepsis around without him getting wise to us, so we had to come up with Plan B. Brother, because he is strong like an ox, volunteered to put all the sodas in one of his extra stuff sacks and carry them in his pack.  ALL OF THEM.  It was like an extra seven pounds.

The next day, when we arrived at camp, Joey and I put the stuff sack of Pepsis from Andrew (because his tent was right next to Pops’, and Pops had been poking around in there for something earlier – ACK!) and buried them in one of our packs.  One thing we could be certain of was that Pops would not touch the packs Joey and I had brought in.  So we were safe.

The next day when we were swimming we began to ponder how e to get our Pepsis cold.  Brother was working on a plan that involved rope, a heavy rock, and the Pepsis.  The idea was to submerge them in the middle of the lake, maximizing the water’s cooling potential and giving us ice-cold Pepsi to drink with our pizza (which Pops and I traditionally make when I’m along).  We had somehow convinced the parents that it was a good idea to have our main meal at lunch, the thought of caffeine after 5:00 was making us kids nervous about our chances of sleeping that night.

The parents were none the wiser.

So, about 8:00 on Wednesday morning, Joey, Brother and I went out “to get water from around the Sister Islands”.  Really what we were doing was submerging the Pepsi, but we didn’t want Pops to see what we were doing.

Once the Pepsis were tied to a very heavy rock and the rope was fastened to a floating log, we got our water and went back to camp.

Four hours later, Pops and I began making pizza.  I totally screwed up the first pizza, but it somehow turned out OK.  We always forget how we did it last year and so the first attempt is kind of the sacrificial lamb, but it all winds up working out OK in the end.

First you spread the dough on the camp stove, attempting to not burn your fingers.  Like so.

Then you have to flip it so the other side gets done also.  Toppings are added to the side that’s cooked and it’s best to throw a cookie sheet over top to melt the cheeses.

Voila!  Perfect pizza.

But, despite our activity and attempts at distraction, Pops noticed some people were missing.

“Where are Joey and Andrew?” Dad asked.

“Oh…around,” I said.  I could see them just paddling back up in the canoe. They had retrieved the Pepsi!

Then…

“How does everybody feel about PEPSI FOR LUNCH!” Joey yelled, coming up the hill, holding a dripping wet sack full of Pepsi and Mountain Dew.

Brother began snapping pictures with the camera he had brought along for the occasion.

A cheer arose from the ranks.

“What?!” Mom gasped, cute as a button.

“HEY!” Pops’ jaw dropped really far and he looked very surprised.  “How did you get those in here?”

We related our adventures to Dad, who laughed at our antics and was kind of surprised we managed to pull a fast one on him, I think.  Everyone’s morale was raised about 20% by the appearance and subsequent consumption of the Pepsi.  Much pizza was also eaten, because it was tasty.

(I like this one because Mom is actually drinking Pepsi in it.  She usually refuses except for two occasions: late night drives where she has to stay awake, and when she eats pizza.)

This picture is golden.  I’m probably in trouble when Pops sees it, too.

And then, several hours later, Joey fell on a saw trying to cut the log we had used to mark where the Pepsi was in the lake.  I kind of blame it on caffeine.