I would also like to here from other people's first time experiences of either thiers or others' first times.

Trip #1--Sat. 1st Week June, 1997: The first to go to the beach were all guys: My nephew, Arlen, who is 14, and 2 cousins, Paul {14} and Norton {17}. I had first mentioned the possibility of going to the beach all the way back on Halloween of the previous year. I figured they would chicken out and forget the conversation ever happened, but they were eager to go.

Now I should mention that now I was living in Pennsylvania which is a good 5 hour drive from the beach. We ended up leaving at 4am that Saturday. Now if you have teenagers, you know that there has to be something sspecial for them to want to get up this early...none of them could wait! My own son didn't come along because of other committments that had to be done that weekend. The parking situation was worse than I had encountered 3 years ago. The only parking was a lot that was about 1 1/2 miles up the road in the park. I dropped off the equipment and my crew and left to park. It's a lot of effort to get to here, but it was well worth it. I'm afraid that it took them a good long time for them to take the plunge. I felt that they were gawking at everyone and not really getting into it as much as I hoped they would until a momentary lapse of reason hit them all. I had been undressed for hours by now. They all got into the tent and went for it. I don't know what changed their mind. but out came Paul and brother Norton as nature intended. I also found that Paul, the younger one, was less inhibited and sat normally on his beach towel while his brother was stomach-down as soon as he left the tent. This led to another deal... Arlen, my nephew and thier cousin, would not jump over or step over Norton as he was blocking the tent. He could have stepped over him, but it was like that was bad luck or something. Reluctantly, he moved over and let Arlen out.

Oh yeah...I should mention the other thing that attracted my friends and family here. There was a movie out recently called Clerks that was filmed entirly in a conveinence store by former employee Kevin Smith. The film of course ended up being a cult classic by me and my lot. After we left the Sandy Hook regiment, we stopped at the quick stop conveince store in Leonardo, NJ. I had a hard time thinking how they filmed such a film in such a small space. The movie made the entire place look bigger. If you haven't seen it, try it!

Sat. 2nd week July, 1997: Most of the time, the most important parts of the trip may not always be just introducing someone to nudism. Sometimes, it's just getting out once in a while. That was ceertainly the case when I took Bob and RustedCrown on a Saturday. I refer to crown because he is the only other person I know who is on the web in my family (he's my other nephew) and my closest relative in terms of friendship outside of my immediate family. Bob is a friend of his and drummer for Rusted's band, Porcelin Doll. (See linx page)

From what I understand, Bob has never left the state in his life, so when this chance came up he jumped on it. Another long trip in my van and there we were again. Bob, however, chose not to be nude on this trip although Rusted and I were. I cannot understand why more don't take the advantage of swimming and sunning nude when it is presented to one. Sort of like being presented with a work of art that is expensive, but ugly. Your glad you have it, but what do you do with it? Rob and Rusted spent only about 30 min. in the buff compared to their equally neophyte cousins. I consider it a shame that this kind of behaviour has to be considered a secret to the outside world of where they live to all thier friends rather than being just another weekend.

Afterwards, it was the quik stop Market once again where they were allowed to take in a video camera and make their friends at home jealous. (No, they did not take the camera on to the beach!) The plan was they were going to redeux a scene from Clerks involving a man dying in the bathroom until they discovered there was none.

The balance of the day was spent at Liberty State Park getting a view of the great statue. There is so much to do in the area if you get through with the beach early. You gotta go yourself and check it out.

Sat. 2nd week August, 1997: This was the first trip to involve a woman along. Sara was a friend of Rusted's from the "Golden Arches" hamburger chain. It was good to have a woman go for a change just for the sake of change. Unfortunately, things could have turned out better...

It all started out ok...usually, my guests would come and stay overnight in the van since it was comfortable enough for the long ride, but they just showed up at 3:00am instead after alot of partying the earlier part of the night. This, of course, got the dog excited and barking. My son has started staying behind to take care of my wife who is in ill health, but insists I go and enjoy myself. Otherwise you would be looking at blank spaces right now. We started with a snack run at a 24hr supermarket and their falling asleep in the van until we arrived at the beach. Sara was nervouse being there, as all are when the first try it, i'm sure. She stayed fully dressed for 2 hours, was topless after 4 hours and fully nude after 6 hours. I can safely say I had never seen anyone enjoy themselves so much after a "conversion" to nudity. She was happy beyond all get out for the time being.

One of the great things about Gunnison Beach is the fact that one can pitch a tent on the beach we were all able to get out of the sun for a while. Of course, staying on the beach that long can lead to one problem in particular...heat exhaustion. Sara came down with it on the way out of the beach area. To top it off, the van we were driving home in was not ventilated too well. When she got home, she was sick from the whole thing. If she doesn't go back again, i'll understand.

We left my home at about 3am (yecch!!!), and I seemed to affect the outcome of the trip. All we could do is sleep and take in some swimming. Not much else went on. This time, it was The same group I took first time last year plus 3 more. Jake and Ary, 2 friends of Paul and Jerry, a friend and guitarist for my nephew's band. I guess it was because we were so hot was why we left early. For a day that was supposed to see rain, there was no sign of it, but it was muggy. 100% humidity! We left early as much as I hated to. We also found Jay and Silent Bob's secret stash in Red Bank, NJ. If you love the works of Kevin Smith as much as I do, you'll love the comic book store. I am afraid that I won't go back to the beach next month...come on back then!

It was supposed to be Rustedcrwn, his new girlfriend and Tubulo {19}, but the former 2 dropped out. I asked Paul to go, but he couldn't get released either, so just Tubulo and I went. Actually, I wanted to take Tubulo last year, but he has some pressing issues last year and couldn't go.

So we left at 4am and got there at 8am. I was surprised to see that there were no toll collectors out. I blamed it on the unusually cool weather, but later found that Tolls were not to be collected until next week. I saved $10 just like that! That was especially good since I had little cash and my new micro-van was acting up. I had never seen anyone more enthused about being there before (except for me, of course). He was even undressed before me which is a real rarity. I stayed dressed because of the cool weather for another hour. He just ran all over the place. Up the beach and back, in the water which was also cooler than usual... He told me it was a long time since he was at the beach. 15 years or so!

We left early just because of the weather to move on. We did the rest of the stuff we said we would do. Jay and Silent Bob's secret stash in Red Bank and to a mall in Wayne, NJ to get an entry form for my son. I hope he gets picked. He wants to get in on an Erghiez tourney and is he ever good at it!

We shall return in July...I will write then.

7-3-1999-- A trip with my son...

I went with my son {16} to Gunnison Beach for the first time in a long time.

We left about 4:30 ( a little later than usual) and got there at 8:30. The tent was set up and we went right away to the water per his desire.

Although he never really admits it, he had a fun time in the water and on the beach. We built sand castles too and tried to keep water in the moat. Not an easy task on the shore.

I also had the chance to meet someone who visited my page IRL (In real life). That's a first for me outside of family and friends. Her link is in my links page and connects with her artwork. You probably saw her if you ever went there on a summer weekend.

Afterward, I took him to Jay and Bob's for a comic book (He loves Sonic the Hedgehog) and to White Castle for dinner.

That's all for now...later.

7/31/1999:

Ladies and Gentlemen of the nudist or would-be nudist persuasion, This is the final Gunnsion Beach Diary entry for the year/decade/century/millenium. Unless Y2K wipes out the human race, I shall have more adventures next year.

The cast of characters for this Saturday include myself, Tubulo, Paul{16} and special guest, Cleo{15}. That's right, a female! Not very often that happens. Cleo is a friend of Tubulo who happened to mention that she liked the idea of going to a nude beach.

Saturday morning came and we left at 5:00am which is later than I wanted to go, but it was hard getting awake. On the way Tubulo and Cleo were playing "Bigwood" which meant that every time one saw a car with wooden siding you shout "Bigwood" and hit the person you sat next to. Maybe silly, but it passed the time.

We also talked about greek mythology on the way as well since Tubulo was well read on the subject. Narcisus, Arachnid and Persephone among others. (Per-sef-o-nee)!!! Paul was unusually quiet through the whole trip which didn't bother me though I was hoping he didn't consider himself a 5th wheel. He assured me he didn't.

After breakfast at McDonalds and 300 miles later we arrived at Sandy Hook where we dumped off the stuff at the curb to save the walk from the parking lot to the beach access. We crossed the sands and found a nice spot to set up the tent. Cleo, Tubulo and I wasted no time in getting undressed. Paul took an extra hour but finally got comfortable with the surroundings once again.

When we got the shore we noticed something in the water that looked like clear gummy drops. Seems there were jellyfish eggs everywhere! Luckily, eggs were all that they were. They were not irratating to the skin, but they tended to stick to any and all body hair one has. The word I guess would be "Icky".

I tell ya, Cleo was like the "Belle of the Beach". She is only 15, but the most comfortable be a nudist than most anyone I had ever met. She and Tubulo were talking to people left and right about various things, especially body piercing.

They struck up a conversation with a couple of men who had some very mean looking tackle in parts of their bodies that I wouldn't want to treat with disrespect. Cleo, herself had a lip and nose ring as well as 2 tattoos she had friends do.

I also met a man who was starting a business in Manhattan with his son and a fan of my web page who followed these diarys with interest. (Thanx for the kind words in the guestbook, my friend).

As it turned out, we didn't leave the beach until about 2:30 as we were all having such a good time and the ocean tide was getting so that you could go out into the surf and past where the jellyfish eggs were floating and grouped.

We left about 3pm for the Quik Stop for Snapples, The Secret Stash for posters and comic books and McDonalds for supper. I ended up dropping everyone off about midnight back in Pennsylvania.

Let this trip be noted as my very favourite!!!

Year 2002:

Sorry it has been a while since I updated this bit but my life has been in turmoil lately. I work awful hours and have little money to go anywhere. Dragon and I took our stuff and got to the hook July 13, 2002. We took in the aftermath of 9/11 as we no longer can see the WTC towers in the distance like we used too. :( Otherwise, it was a great day to laze in the sun and watch the world go by. She collected massive amounts of stones and shells and struck up conversations with the other beachgoers.

Year 2003:

I didn't even get to the beach this year due to the awful weather and my going back to school for my accounting degree...wish me luck!