Camping Stories

Inspired by my blog pal Lyn over at Duck and Wheel with String thought I'd share a camping story or two with you.

Over the years Hubby and I, then later with the kids have camped a fair bit.  The easy camping trips where nothing goes wrong seem to fade away in our memories but the ones where misery strikes stick with us for years.  Like a bad vacation I suppose.

Back in September of this year the Cub Scout pack got adventurous and decide to organize a campout for the entire pack (around 30 kids and their adult and sometimes siblings)  I had planned on a tent with the group, until the weather turned and the lows at night were going to be somewhere in the 30's.  Frankly sleeping cold in a tent when I have a camper in the driveway seemed crazy.  I therefore packed up the camper and drove it to the nearby state park where we were having the campout and purchased the last electric site for the weekend.  Oh, one little fact that my husband was in France this week didn't really deter me.  The campout was officially for Saturday night but I took the camper out on Friday evening to get set up and have a little quiet time before the cub scout stuff began.  The day went pretty much as planned and with some shuffling around with Sonny Boy who had football games and such it was going well. 

After the scout activities ended around 9:00 pm I hustled the kids back to our campsite and tucked them into bed, watching the two of them fall deep asleep faster than you could humanly think possible.  I lie there dozing and listening to the drunks a campsite or two over wishing they would settle down but they weren't too bad.   Soon I heard a guy start yelling across the campground, "Shut-up"  and assorted other demands to be quite.  I was glad of this because the drunks were getting a little annoying.  Less than five minutes later the guys starts yelling again " I said shut the F--- up!" and the rowdy campers start exchanging words with him - loudly.  By this time I could tell it was escalating quickly and start calling the park number to try and get the ranger.  After a lifetime of menus I still couldn't get a person so I hung up and called 911.  While I'm on the phone with the 911 operator I hear the guy yell "I'm a cop and you better believe I have I weapon"  I relay all the information to the operator as a now wide awake Sonny Boy listens to obscenities fly and peeks out the tent ends of the camper.  When I hear the weapon remark I make Sonny Boy get into the floor of the camper to at least put a layer of fiberglass between him and anything that might go flying.  I remain peeking out the window and see officers approaching past my camper with weapons drawn sneaking up on the melee going on 2-3 campsites down.  Soon I could hear that they had the screaming "cop" handcuffed and they pulled a squad car up and loaded somebody into it and a few minutes later an ambulance comes into the campground and treats somebody as well.  Igor happily conked out like a comatose log slept through the whole thing.  (to be fair I didn't make him get out of bed as he was asleep on the dinette which was below window level.)

It's always an adventure camping let me tell you.  Thanks Lyn for giving me good fodder for the blog.