PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

And parked next to my truck!

 

Nice, looks like you were in good company

 

@PennSilverTaco How about a Hellcat Minivan?

 

I've heard of those; Better than an electric Corvette...

 

I'm going to be within an hour and a half of the Canadian border this summer when I visit my cousin in Rochester after the car show in Europe; Insurance on the Tacoma is valid in Canada, there are no more COVID restrictions, and I could probably eaisly renew my passport by mid-July. Should I do it? Take an extra day and go exploring Niagara falls?

 

Meme i found

 

Yeah, I've seen that one...

 

My number at the deli...

 

Pretty sure I qualify, but what this is saying is that I can't just drive up to the border, show them my passport and proof of vaccination, and drive into Ontario?

 

I was just on the US Department of State website yesterday and it said no proof of vaccination was required, nor did it say anything about travel restrictions due to COVID; I'm vaccinated. Why do bureaucrats have to make everything so complicated?!?!

 

Mandatory random testing even for fully vaccinated travelers too; Good thing I talked it over with my dad yesterday and decided not try this until next year!

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Plain Jane Taco
@Red Alert
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

Who wants to hear something really fucked up...?!?!

In the spring of 2001 (About April or May if I remember correctly), probably a month or two after my 12th birthday, the entire 6th grade populace at my middle school was given the option of spending a week at camp; Almost all the 6th graders, including myself, went. My dad came along as a chaperone because I'd never gone camping before and was afraid of getting bullied by other kids. Several parents came along as chaperones, both moms and dads.

On a side note, my dad was stationed at NAS Whidbey Island from July 2000 to July 2002; We lived in Oak Harbor, Washington and I went to 6th and 7th grade at Oak Harbor Middle School.

My dad was one of two parents assigned to my cabin who actually slept in the cabin with me and the six or so other boys. One of these other boys was my best friend Doug (who now lives like half an hour from my house here in PA), and the other parents was one Ronald Asplund; Ronald Asplund was the father of a girl named Chelsea Asplund, and obviously he couldn't be in his daughter's cabin. Ron probably didn't mind this arrangement too much, and I will get to this momentarily.

We lived on Whidbey Island, and the camp was Camp Moran on Orcas Island. For some reason, I remember my mom being away for that entire week, which would mean our dog Molly was at the kennel; My dad left our van in the parking lot of my school, and we took school buses to the ferry, which took us to Orcas Island where we boarded another fleet of school buses.

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Plain Jane Taco
@Red Alert
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

So, what happened?!?! During the week I spent at Camp Moran with my dad and classmates, nothing...

Hell, I never saw Chelsea Asplund's dad Ron again after that trip, though Chelsea ended up sitting behind me in English in 7th grade; I didn't have a crush on her or anything, but I remember her being very nice, and after what I am about to tell you I pray that she is doing okay.

So, one of my other cabinmates at Camp Moran was a kid named Shane, who thanks to social media I have reconnected with. He is an OTR trucker, still lives in Washington, and is presently hauling a load from Salt Lake City to Halifax, PA; Along with Doug, we are all going to meet up before he drives back across the country...

I talked on the phone with Shane today, we happened to reminisce about Camp Moran, and he's like "Do you remember Ron Asplund?"

At first I thought he was talking about another kid from our middle school days, as the name sounded very familiar. He told me that Ron was one of the chaperones in our cabin, and then I remembered him perfectly; I was like "Chelsea's dad..."

 

@6 gearT444E
@ABA180
@ColoradoTJ
@Plain Jane Taco
@Red Alert
@shakerhood
@Squatting Pigeon
@Taco critter
@TnShooter
@wilcam47

So, what the fuck happened? Again, luckily, nothing happened to us...

However, imagine my absolute shock when Shane told me that we spend the better part of a week in a cabin with a pedophile. Shane told me that he died of colon cancer while he was in prison, and as far as I'm concerned the son of a bitch got off easy in that respect.

Yup! Just over a decade after that week at Camp Moran, one Ronald Asplund was arrested for raping two teenage boys who were part of some church group he helped run! He was arrested in 2012, and apparently died in custody in 2013. I read up on it, and from what I can tell, he only spent a year in jail and ended up dying before he could be convicted.

Nothing inappropriate happened during our time at Camp Moran, but Shane tells me that he and Doug were by themselves talking about girls and sex when Ron walked up to them. Rather than scold them for talking about sex, he joined the conversation and started talking about vaginas and whatnot. Doug and Shane thought absolutely nothing of it at the time, but looking back on it Shane believes he was trying groom them.

I remember Ron as being very nice to all of us, and I never once got a bad vibe from him. His obituary says he was born in 1954, so that puts him at age 46 when we were at camp. He had this relatively cheap but very fancy-looking digital watch, with a silverish chrome finish. I was remember being obsessed with this watch of his; Keep in mind that I was a 12-year old autistic kid with an innocent interest in a shiny watch...

I cannot help but wonder if that sick of son of a bitch was attracted to me, and if the watch was part of his game plan for luring potential victims...


But yeah, I spent the better part of a week in a one-room cabin with a child molester, and I didn't know he was a child molester until 21 years after the fact!

 

Also, this isn't the first time there was a child molester in my midst...

My dad was stationed Moffett Field in Mountain View, California from 1996 to 1998. We lived government-owned military housing just off the base from September 1996 to March 1997, and then on base from March 1997 to June of 1998 when my dad was transferred to NAS Norfolk in Virginia.

There an older gentleman in the area who drove a two-tone reddish orange and white 1970s International pickup truck with dual rear wheels; I saw the truck around town fairly often when we were off base, and I thought that it was the coolest thing ever.

Sometime in 1997, a flyer was issued among parents on the Navy base that this man with the distinctive International dually was suspected of touching children inappropriately. This guy may have been a veteran, but I don't think I ever saw him on base; The flyers just got distributed to military parents to make sure everybody knew.

So, I was undiagnosed (with autism) back then (this was mid-1997 and I didn't formally diagnosed with Aspergers until November 1998), I was a naive 8-year old who loved cars and trucks. I believe this was the very first time I ever got the talk from my parents about what is considered inappropriate touching, and if anybody except my doctor tried to touch me in certain areas I was to leave and tell them immediately. I was obviously told not to approach the man with the cool truck, and I honestly have no idea what ended up happening. I'm sure if I scoured the internet deeply enough I could find something, but I don't think there were any arrests or convictions.

 

Months before I found out about the late Ron Asplund being a pervert, I was discussing pedophilia with another friend of mine and neither one of us could understand why anybody could be attracted to children; My friend made the very good point that preteen and teenage boys often tend to be attracted to much older women, specifically ones who are not only attractive but strong-minded and good role models. He's right! When I was 11, I had a crush on my 26-year old English teacher, Mrs. Freeman, in 6th grade (who was on the Camp Moran trip). A certain Van Halen song comes to mind here...