camping... got coffee? Get comfy
the Pandora Shard
I'm back early from camping.
I was going to stay til the 21st but a number of things made me decide to go home.
Let me start by giving you the subjects in this story
Mom - my mother, she is arrainging this trip
bro - my brother and professional fire bug
Tim - There is no way to describe Tim, its just not possible
Dipstick - a friend, and general wuss
Burnout - just that, a burnout.. too much freon in the diet
Dee - my cousin, and overall good person
Anna - Daughter of Dee, only there for the day
Me - um, yeah
Not all subjects are in this story, but here goes
Day 1 - Arrival at Blood Mountain (I'm not making this up, thats the name)
1st off, there are 8 people total to start with in 3 cars and a truck.
We head out and an hour and a half later we arive at Helen then to the campsite.
We all start unloading the gear and looking for a good place.
This is not an easy task.
What should have been a great campsite for well over 10 fair sized tents, was completely trashed.
Among some of the items we see all over the place on the ground are, broken glass, bullet shells, garbage all over the place, trash in the stream. You cannot look anywhere without the mental image of Beavis and Butthead going camping.
Its apparent that some people just don't care.. not a good start.
So we clean up the site enough to place 5 tents... and find that 2 are worthless (one is rotten and the other had a lot of missing parts, like a roof) so reduced to 3 tents (2 in one, 2 in another and 3 in another... one person that went with us was only staying for the day, lucky her.
During that evening, I attempt to start a fire, and after getting it going well, 2 of our party decide its fun to play with fire and they end up smothering it... so I light it again only to have it demolished again... I threaten bodily harm and they slacken just a bit, but cannot keep from holding a stick or small bug in the fire.
So I say to hell with it and allow them to play.. of course it went out about 10 minutes later.
Well we roast hot dogs, make smores, amd pretty much all the stereotypical camping events that you can think of.
later, its late so we decide to go to bed...but alas in all the hurry to setup camp, I must have raked over an ant hill because my tent is covered.
I grab the ant spray and granuals, spray the tent and spread the granuals around the tent... it works
I didn't realize I had to share my tent (the dipstick only brought the clothes he was wearing, not one other item) so I redo everything so he could sleep (even though the entire trip to the mountain, he said he was fine outside.. I knew better).
We have a smoke, and head to bed... I couldnt sleep a wink.. I could never sleep in the same room with someone whom I didn't know well, and to top that off, the air matress leaked.
I didn't bring anything else to place under me, so the roots were my pillow and the ground was my bed (I did have a sleeping bag, at least it worked) in any case, I get up and walk around (yeah in the dark) and I sit and listen to the stream and the wide array of animal sounds coming from the darkness... flashlight in one hand, 6 foot long sharpened fire poker in the other (we have Razorback and Black bear in these woods, and it only takes being paranoid once to be worth it. While boring, it was an uneventfull night
Day 2 - the plot thickens
Its a day of gathering, exploring and for some of us, fishing.
Everyone goes off in their own direction and I stay to guard the camp from the not so uncommon species called "Campus Thievus" and I'm alone yet again, but hey, at least noone is messing with the fire.
I spoke with dipstick a bit about the upcoming weather and how if it does rain, we are screwed. Its common knowledge to those who camp, that you never touch the walls of a tent when its raining, or it will leak. Dipstick makes up an excuse about having to work that night and takes off (its bull, I know where he works and checked).
As everyone returned, burnout starts playing with the fire again. and of course floods it with wood, and it starts to die. I try to get it going, and he, thinking he is helping, roots around the fire with the poker... after which we all play the lovely game of "who can reach the hot ash before it hits a tent"
Thankfully we all are winners and our prize is the continued existance of our tents.
I threaten bodily harm again, and he laughs thinking I'm being funny... this time, I'm not.
I relent and decide to go to bed early. Everyone decides thats a pretty smart idea and decide to also go to bed.
It was just not meant to be. at about 1 AM, the thunder looms and rains start. we start getting some really nasty storms.
Now, we are all in tents under trees, and these are VERY tall trees, so we all have our own personal lightning rod to fry us should God decide that it is our time.
Thank God s/he didn't, but man some of them were close. All is not well however.
It seems (and remember this if ever you go camping) Bug spray will open the fibers of a tent just enough to turn it into a screen door, water fills my tent yet I sit there, I am holding my bag, so it doesnt get wet.. and yeah, I'm a little scared at this point, if lighting hits a tree close to me, I fry, if its not so close, it could fall on me, either way I buy a nice cozy farm.
At this point, I'm the only one awake... until the CRACK of a blast that hit not 100 feet away wakes everyone up.
After the blast, it starts to die down a little, so I scramble out of my tent and make my soggy way to Mom's tent (which also comntains a Dee) and ask for the keys to her truck (at this point I decided I should have brought my Caddy) I move my stuff to her truck and lay back the seat to hopefully catch some sleep.. but, have you ever ridden a long way in a car in which the seats were so uncomfortable your back starts to hurt? Well, imagine an 8 hour trip, no stopping, no food, no drink, and you're hungry and tired... obviously no sleep again.
Day 3 - screw this
well, everyone sleeps longer because they were up at 3 AM, so I'm alone for a bit longer this time. Alone, wet, hungry, tired. Finally Mom wakes up and I head down to the camp (which is at the bottom of a very large hill, in what used to be a river bed) I decided that it would be best if I were to go home, and recruit Tim to drive me there.
If I were to stay another night with no sleep, I'd likely have thrown burnout into the creek.. head first (its 3 inches deep)
Well, here I am.. I watched the weather, and called Mom to tell her of the nasty storms moving in. She will likely pack it all up tonight.
In any case it was not a wasted trip. I did actually enjoy myself. I was able to reflect on things and do a lot of thinking without distractions such as a computer. I got a great workout, something I rarely get anymore.
I used to go camping all the time, but not any more....
maybe next time we'll bring an RV.
the Paradox Portal
Blessed Be the souls that endure the tortures of life...
Merry Meet those souls that traverse the roads of life together...
Merry Part the souls that choose another path.
KillerBeeZ (aka Admin Yeshua, and Kenderseeker)
Copyright 2003
CTlinx.org
I'm back early from camping.
I was going to stay til the 21st but a number of things made me decide to go home.
Let me start by giving you the subjects in this story
Mom - my mother, she is arrainging this trip
bro - my brother and professional fire bug
Tim - There is no way to describe Tim, its just not possible
Dipstick - a friend, and general wuss
Burnout - just that, a burnout.. too much freon in the diet
Dee - my cousin, and overall good person
Anna - Daughter of Dee, only there for the day
Me - um, yeah
Not all subjects are in this story, but here goes
Day 1 - Arrival at Blood Mountain (I'm not making this up, thats the name)
1st off, there are 8 people total to start with in 3 cars and a truck.
We head out and an hour and a half later we arive at Helen then to the campsite.
We all start unloading the gear and looking for a good place.
This is not an easy task.
What should have been a great campsite for well over 10 fair sized tents, was completely trashed.
Among some of the items we see all over the place on the ground are, broken glass, bullet shells, garbage all over the place, trash in the stream. You cannot look anywhere without the mental image of Beavis and Butthead going camping.
Its apparent that some people just don't care.. not a good start.
So we clean up the site enough to place 5 tents... and find that 2 are worthless (one is rotten and the other had a lot of missing parts, like a roof) so reduced to 3 tents (2 in one, 2 in another and 3 in another... one person that went with us was only staying for the day, lucky her.
During that evening, I attempt to start a fire, and after getting it going well, 2 of our party decide its fun to play with fire and they end up smothering it... so I light it again only to have it demolished again... I threaten bodily harm and they slacken just a bit, but cannot keep from holding a stick or small bug in the fire.
So I say to hell with it and allow them to play.. of course it went out about 10 minutes later.
Well we roast hot dogs, make smores, amd pretty much all the stereotypical camping events that you can think of.
later, its late so we decide to go to bed...but alas in all the hurry to setup camp, I must have raked over an ant hill because my tent is covered.
I grab the ant spray and granuals, spray the tent and spread the granuals around the tent... it works
I didn't realize I had to share my tent (the dipstick only brought the clothes he was wearing, not one other item) so I redo everything so he could sleep (even though the entire trip to the mountain, he said he was fine outside.. I knew better).
We have a smoke, and head to bed... I couldnt sleep a wink.. I could never sleep in the same room with someone whom I didn't know well, and to top that off, the air matress leaked.
I didn't bring anything else to place under me, so the roots were my pillow and the ground was my bed (I did have a sleeping bag, at least it worked) in any case, I get up and walk around (yeah in the dark) and I sit and listen to the stream and the wide array of animal sounds coming from the darkness... flashlight in one hand, 6 foot long sharpened fire poker in the other (we have Razorback and Black bear in these woods, and it only takes being paranoid once to be worth it. While boring, it was an uneventfull night
Day 2 - the plot thickens
Its a day of gathering, exploring and for some of us, fishing.
Everyone goes off in their own direction and I stay to guard the camp from the not so uncommon species called "Campus Thievus" and I'm alone yet again, but hey, at least noone is messing with the fire.
I spoke with dipstick a bit about the upcoming weather and how if it does rain, we are screwed. Its common knowledge to those who camp, that you never touch the walls of a tent when its raining, or it will leak. Dipstick makes up an excuse about having to work that night and takes off (its bull, I know where he works and checked).
As everyone returned, burnout starts playing with the fire again. and of course floods it with wood, and it starts to die. I try to get it going, and he, thinking he is helping, roots around the fire with the poker... after which we all play the lovely game of "who can reach the hot ash before it hits a tent"
Thankfully we all are winners and our prize is the continued existance of our tents.
I threaten bodily harm again, and he laughs thinking I'm being funny... this time, I'm not.
I relent and decide to go to bed early. Everyone decides thats a pretty smart idea and decide to also go to bed.
It was just not meant to be. at about 1 AM, the thunder looms and rains start. we start getting some really nasty storms.
Now, we are all in tents under trees, and these are VERY tall trees, so we all have our own personal lightning rod to fry us should God decide that it is our time.
Thank God s/he didn't, but man some of them were close. All is not well however.
It seems (and remember this if ever you go camping) Bug spray will open the fibers of a tent just enough to turn it into a screen door, water fills my tent yet I sit there, I am holding my bag, so it doesnt get wet.. and yeah, I'm a little scared at this point, if lighting hits a tree close to me, I fry, if its not so close, it could fall on me, either way I buy a nice cozy farm.
At this point, I'm the only one awake... until the CRACK of a blast that hit not 100 feet away wakes everyone up.
After the blast, it starts to die down a little, so I scramble out of my tent and make my soggy way to Mom's tent (which also comntains a Dee) and ask for the keys to her truck (at this point I decided I should have brought my Caddy) I move my stuff to her truck and lay back the seat to hopefully catch some sleep.. but, have you ever ridden a long way in a car in which the seats were so uncomfortable your back starts to hurt? Well, imagine an 8 hour trip, no stopping, no food, no drink, and you're hungry and tired... obviously no sleep again.
Day 3 - screw this
well, everyone sleeps longer because they were up at 3 AM, so I'm alone for a bit longer this time. Alone, wet, hungry, tired. Finally Mom wakes up and I head down to the camp (which is at the bottom of a very large hill, in what used to be a river bed) I decided that it would be best if I were to go home, and recruit Tim to drive me there.
If I were to stay another night with no sleep, I'd likely have thrown burnout into the creek.. head first (its 3 inches deep)
Well, here I am.. I watched the weather, and called Mom to tell her of the nasty storms moving in. She will likely pack it all up tonight.
In any case it was not a wasted trip. I did actually enjoy myself. I was able to reflect on things and do a lot of thinking without distractions such as a computer. I got a great workout, something I rarely get anymore.
I used to go camping all the time, but not any more....
maybe next time we'll bring an RV.
the Paradox Portal
Blessed Be the souls that endure the tortures of life...
Merry Meet those souls that traverse the roads of life together...
Merry Part the souls that choose another path.
KillerBeeZ (aka Admin Yeshua, and Kenderseeker)
Copyright 2003
CTlinx.org
posted by KillerBeeZ at 8:01 AM
5 comments
