Camping With “Guests”

I heard a group of people sitting across from me talking about going camping. They were excited about the adventure before them. Upon listening to this conversation, the file cabinets in my brain burst open and a memory washed over me. Even though I was in an Italian restaurant, my nostrils were filled with smells of wood burning, potatoes and onions frying in an iron skillet, and hamburgers and hotdogs sizzling on the grille. As these smells engulfed me, more memories flooded my mind.

I remembered the creek, and what a creek it was! It served me and my camping friend with many pleasurable times. In the heat of the hot summer days, it became a refuge. It was so cool, it begged for our lawn chairs to merge with its rushing water. Did we answer it’s call to us? We certainly did, plunging our chairs into its rolling water as deep as we could get them and still stay dry. With feet and legs dangling in the cool water, we talked about all the things teenagers talk about. We found many members of the opposite sex around the rocks and in the water, as well as something not so friendly, like water moccasin snakes. Most of the time, the snakes avoided our intrusion into their world, but on one occasion they forgot to stay away. That memory is very clear. We were taking a bath in the creek, it was much better than those nasty shower rooms. We took our soap and towels to the creek and sponged off. The water was cool and crisp, which made us feel squeaky clean. I was engaged in this activity, when I noticed my friend was no longer in the water. I looked around to determine where she had gone, when I spotted her way down the creek and on the ground, waving her arms frantically. I had no idea what was being said, but the body movements alerted me to look down. I did and was surprised to see a snake looking up at me through the water. Yes, water moccasins do have white mouths. At first, I froze, unbelieving and still. It did not take me long to decide this was not the right approach to my problem. You might say that was one of the fastest times I have ever moved.

Now, there was another time when the pace I ran was an important factor to survival. My friend and I would walk around the camp at night and often go into Gatlinburg to the dances. The dances produced a lot of fun for us but came with one drawback. Because of the late hour returning to the campground, the gates were locked forcing us to walk to our campsite. That was generally not a problem, until one dark, dark, night. We were merely walking to our campsite, talking about our night’s adventures when we heard an unusual noise. Both of us stopped at once. We had both heard the sound. Listening carefully, we could hear crackling noises as twigs and leaves were crunched under foot of something or someone. We decided to walk a little faster… and we did, hoping the sounds would go away. Did they? No, they only got louder and louder, and it was obvious that who or what was making the sounds was big. We walked faster… it walked faster. We slowed down… it slowed down. By now, we knew “it” was following us. We really tried to be cool, but when we got closer to the campsite, we ran, yes, ran, as fast as we could. We made it to the tent, ran in, and quickly zipped it up. By now, we were sure it was not human. We were also were pretty sure it was a bear. We became very quiet hoping the critter would leave. Did it leave? Eventually, but not before a lot of anxiety was expended in our small tent. The breathing and rustling around our tent lasted a good hour. The next morning we discovered that a bear had been in our campsite during the night and created havoc. And to think, we had invited that bear into our campsite! Thinking about what could have been with the bear, I decided to banish the memories and finish my meal!