Dad story

     I'm Correys Dad, I have many, many stories about Correy, I guess I haven't written until now because I was hoping to create more memories of him, my realization won't let me grasp that he's gone! I keep waiting to wake up in the morning & just see the Montero keys thrown on the kitchen table, this is where everyone leaves their keys, so when I'd see everyones keys on the table, I thanked God for my sons all coming home. I guess you never really get over losing a son or daughter, hopefully it gets easier because right now there isn't a day goes by without me breaking down at some point, usually more than once! I know everyone grieves in their own way, I just wake up sick to my stomach everyday. Correys girlfriend Rachel is a doll, Correy definitely picked a winner!! A lot of his friends stop by, Matt, Mike, his wife & Trish, our neighbor Kevin stops in daily, all are such great friends & family of ours.We THANK You ALL for your memories & stories.

   

One story about Correy I love is last fall, around the middle of October we went up for a 3 day camping trip, we went to one of our favorite campsites, Eureka Valley Campground. We got there early in the AM, we set up camp, tent, stove & unloaded all the gear from the van. Correy said he was going to the bathroom & he'd be right back, he came back in less than 5 seconds & said, Dad, there are no bathrooms! I just laughed at him & said Correy, I seen you go into the bathroom, it's right there. He said, the building is there but the actual toilet fixture is gone! There is only an open 4' oval hole where the toilet should be. Within this camp site there are 3-4 sets of toilets, or glorified outhouses, we went to each one & sure enough, there were no toilets. Each campground has an assigned campground host, it seems our camp host left for the season the week before. He was told when he started the job, this being his first season; that he is responsible for all the toilets in the campsite. He definitely took it literally, as when he left he pulled all the toilet fixtures from the buildings & locked them up in a storage cabinet in the campground. Not only did he remove the toilets, he left the 4 foot round gaping hole uncovered in each toilet! These are pit or vault toilets, so the pit is no less than 10-12 feet deep, anyone can now fall in. We roped all the toilet buildings closed, then I raced down to the phone & called Forest Service to tell them of the toilets & dangerous situation, they just said the guy in charge is off until the next day, they really didn't seem to care! We went back to camp, we camped in a front corner of the camp near a lot of bushes & a mountain of solid rock, back behind our camp I built a shale rock toilet, pretty cool, it was back in the bushes out of view, I dug a hole to use & piled the dirt up so after each use we could just kick some dirt over our deposits. I didn't make a toilet lid for the toilet because, HEY, WE ARE MEN, WE DON'T NEED A LID!!!

  

     Towards evening Correy & I went fishing to another camp, just below our, Pidgeon Flat. After fishing we used those bathrooms, yes they still had toilets! While using the restroom I felt how comfy the toilet was to our cold, hard, rock toilet I build for us, I decided I didn't want to squat over rocks for 3 days. Correy was in one bathroom & I was in the other next to his. I decided right there this toilet was going with me! The toilets are wedged in VERY securely inside an oval hole in the floor, so I had to rock the toilet back & forth, all the while kicking it like crazy & spouting obscenities at it, yelling for it to come out already! Like I said, Correy was in the toilet right next to me & he yelled, Dad, What did you have for dinner???? As Correy finished, he was standing outside as I kicked open the outhouse door with my foot & with the entire aluminum/plastic toilet over my head, I told Correy, open the back of the van! Correy shook his head no & said, YOU ARE NOT PUTTING THAT IN THE VAN! I said do you want to crap in a rock toilet for 3 days, Correy quickly opened the back of the van & covered his mouth & nose as I put the toilet in back. It was less than a mile back to our camp & it was getting pretty cold out, it was now about 7 PM, Correy rolled his window down & had half his body out the side window all the way to camp. Once in camp the van hadn't come to a stop yet, but Correy bailed out & ran. In our campground there were at least 8 other campsites with people in them, all in full view of the toilets. we decided to wait for dark to put our new found toilet in the outhouse nearest us. It was after 10 PM, when it seemed dark enough to do our mission impossible of carrying the toilet to the outhouse & installing it. It was very dark, I told Correy to go over & hold the outhouse door open & I'll bring over the toilet, place it inside & set it. As OUR PLANS usually go, I put the toilet over my head & was running with it, a bout 5 feet from the building, I didn't see the low hanging branch of a cedar tree & it whipped the toilet from my grasp & sent it rolling & making a loud noise, it was made of aluminum with a plastic clattering toilet seat. All the campers were now startled by this racket by the bathroom. Soon there were no less than 3-4 flashlights & spotlights on me chasing this toilet through the center of camp! Oh, Correy managed to make his way back to our camp & hid out! I tried to be as graceful as one can be with a toilet, I walked to the outhouse & installed it, while in the there I felt I should be the 1st to use it.

     Within the next half hour every camper there was blessing our toilet, no one asked how or where it came from. Early the next morning Forest Service showed up with 2 trucks, they unlocked the Host storage locker & began re-installing the toilets, when they got to ours, they just looked, scratched their heads, lokked around, did a recount, shrugged their shoulders as to why they had one extra toilet. We never told & no one else did either! Whooooo, I'm POOPED!

Joe Fedor