"Not long at all, we asked when you asked," Phil replied.

"I’m impressed, let’s all have a fun time then," Frank replied, running his hand through his thick brown hair.

"What’s wrong Frank?" Joe asked, his seventeen-year old brother asked. Knowing that Frank only ran his hand through his hair when he felt uneasy or was upset.

"Nothing, I just have this weird feeling that his isn’t going to be a normal weekend camping," he replied, looking intently at his brother with his intense brown eyes.

"Of course it isn’t going to be," Joe replied, looking at his brothers and friends with his blue eyes, once again running a comb through his wavy blond hair as it was being to through his hair. "We never attempted to camp this late in the year, and it’s Halloween weekend, what about, is it going to be normal?"

"You make is sound so spooky Joe," commented Chet.

"What’s spooky is that he’s volunteering to spend the weekend without Vanessa, Vanessa hasn’t had the chance to do the traditional Halloween get together with us yet," Biff replied.

"Well, it was Frank’s idea, she wanted to come, but Vanessa had to go with her mother, so she couldn’t come," Joe explained.

"So this wasn’t an exclusive all male camping trip?" Phil asked.

"No," Frank replied.

"Then why didn’t Callie, come?" Tony asked. "She had the weekend off from her newspaper job."

"She doesn’t like to go camping," Joe replied. "You guys know that, of course, she probably would, if it were only her and Frank."

"She’s just not the outdoorsy type," Frank replied. "Vanessa grew up doing it, she was in the Brownies and Girl Scouts, so they have had a lot of exposure to camping."

"Why wasn’t Callie exposed to it when she was younger," Biff wondered out loud.

"Her father was constantly transferred when she was growing up, Bayport is the longest she and her family have stayed anywhere," Frank explained.

"Too bad, you have to give her a course when you get a chance Frank, she might enjoy it," Joe told his brother.

"Now where is it that we’re camping?" Chet asked, for the thousandth time since they left early that morning.

"Well, since it’s going to be colder than normal, I arranged with Matt Vickers to stay at his cabin," Frank explained, Matt Vickers was a local fireman at the Bayport Fire Department, who had an old family cabin in the forests surrounding Harrisburg, Penn, where he was originally from. "He even set up extra cots, so that is why we only had to provide plenty of blankets, instead of sleeping bags."

"So that means, we’ll have a real kitchen?" Chet asked, the others laughed, as Chet’s appetite was legendary around Bayport.

"And he also had some provisions provided, enough for two weeks, for ten people so that you would have plenty of food," Joe told him.

"Well, this should be a great weekend," Chet replied.

As they continued on their one-mile trip through the forest, they couldn’t help but notice the natural beauty of the area, despite it being cold and damp, although it was not raining, it had rained the previous evening, and they could still feel the dampness from the previous night.

Chet was the first to speak up, after the long silence, "Did Matt tell you if their were any strange occurrences that had ever occurred in the area?" he asked.

"No, why?" Joe asked, curious.

"I don’t know, tomorrow is Halloween, and this is generally the time they come out, you know," Chet commented.

"You always get this way, this time of year Chet. Why should a trip through the woods be any different," Biff said.

"Well, usually we’re in Bayport and I know what to expect," Chet replied.

"Don’t worry, we’re going to have plenty of food, time to hike and tell ghost stories in the middle of the woods, and you did bring all the supplies for s’mores, didn’t you?" Tony asked Chet.

"I wouldn’t forget them if my life depended on them," Chet said. "And I brought the best brand."

"S’mores are s’mores," Joe replied. "What difference is a particular brand."

"Believe me, I know, I tasted different brands, and no s’mores taste good without using Hershey’s chocolate most of all," Chet explained.

"Who cooked them all?" Phil asked, curious.

"I did," Chet told him. "What good is a taste test, if the cook isn’t consistent."

"Then, we’re looking forward to your cooking talents," Biff said. "How about you be the official s’mores cook, and the rest of us can split the cooking chores," Biff suggested.

The rest of the boys agreed, with one more suggestion from Frank, "Well, then when we get to the cabin we’ll decide who does what, and maybe we’ll have more time to enjoy our time together, because by the time this weekend is done, we would have had a memorable weekend."

Little did Frank know how right he was. For the Hardy boys and their friends would indeed remember this weekend.