Sunday, July 20, 2008

A camping story

So this week I was at girl's camp. It was intense. It was in tents. :)

Actually, it wasn't intense. It was pretty low key. The girls didn't really have much to do, so they just hung out. Which was fine by me. Especially since is poured rain practically the whole time we were there. Lovley. One tent flooded (not mine, luckily) and we had to take sleeping bags and pillows to the laundromat to dry. Our only really good meal was beef stew. I was looking forward to some pretty tasty camp grub, but was disappointed. I did get a couple s'mores, though, so all is well.

We kept our food hidden pretty well in coolers and cars at night, to discourage any racoons that might try and ravage our site. We even had a screened in gazebo where we kept everything. We did pretty well. Until the last night....

Someone left a bag out that had a granola bar in it. Naturally, I was sleeping with my trusty earplugs in, but one had fallen out. I woke up to the sounds of footsteps outside our tent. And I had to pee really bad. I pop out the lone earplug and hear more rustling and racoons "talking" to each other. It was a funny noise--I guess I've never heard them do that before. Well, I had to pee, but truth be told, I was scared, so I wasn't about to go out alone. Yes, scared of racoons. I've seen enough camping movies to know they will attack your face, a la Buddy the Elf on his trip into the city. Not even Over the Hedge could help my stereotype. I could just imagine myself getting mauled by a pack of angry racoons. So I wake up my tentmate and tell her there are racoons outside. We both go out and shine our flashlights on them and those buggers just look at us from inside the gazebo and keep on munching. Jerks. Well, she unzips the gazebo and gets in. I look at her like a crazy person. No way in hell I was getting in there with those racoons!! She starts to shoo them, and I hop up on the picnic table. We scare them away, and I notice it's a big fat mama and four little babies. Even though I was terrified of them, they were pretty cute. I hissed at them to go away and leave me alone, and they scampered away and up a tree (which I thought was pretty cool--and then they started to slide back down the tree, which I thought was pretty funny), and I could finally pee. We found the culprit granolas and packed them away and climbed back into our tent. I still can't find the missing earplug so I give up on them. Then I hear the racoons again. Back in the gazebo. I sit straight up, fear running through me once again, as I remember the granola bar in my purse at the foot of my sleeping bag. I freak out. I shove it into the bottom of my duffle bag and pile clothes on top of it and pray they can't sniff it out. Then I hear two of the racoons fighting like right next to my head--it sounded like cats fighting. I can just imagine them chewing through the tent in search of my dark chocolate and cherry Kashi bar. Well, after the fight they leave, and I lay awake, too scared to sleep. Scared of forest rodents, a fraction of my size.

Am I a wimp or what????? Please tell me I'm not the only one.

5 comments:

vanessa said...

Last summer we went camping with Merrick's extended family and we used a borrowed old Scout tent that had a hole in the floor. One day I was taking a nap with baby Avery and a chipmunk comes in the hole and I am totally freaked out, trying to get it out. Still gives me the shivers. And it was teeny!

Lara said...

Bless your heart, my dear, but yeah, you're kind of a wimp.

;-)

Just like ME...

Maria said...

All those sounds would freak me out too! I am afraid of the dark and not afraid to admit it.

Antony said...

you are the only one :)

Leslie said...

Oh I'm totally a wimp too. Even if raccoons are fairly harmless-- it's just scary to know that a sort-of-medium-large animal is running around in the middle of the night. When you have to pee, nontheless.

I too went to Girls Camp last summer, when I was pregnant, and luckily my bunkmate was a senior sister missionary (yeah, that's another story) who was like, "Oh if you have to go to the bathroom. Wake me up. I'll go with you." It was awesome. I never had to go alone and be afraid in the dark. Cause let's be honest. Pregnant and camping and peeing all the time? Not so much fun.