Last night, after work, I decided I just had to get away. The phone had rung all day until at one point I just unplugged the thing. It had driven me crazy. The person or persons trying to reach me would never leave a message. I had feared it was Uncle Bob wanting me to do something for him. I was just not in the mood to get caught in that tangled web of experiences that would be dealing with Uncle Bob.
One of the most aggravating aspects of my camping journeys is setting up my tent every time. It sometimes takes a good thirty minutes to erect the damn thing and is hard to do by only one person. (That is what I get for buying a cheap “throw-away” tent from Wal-Mart) Well, on my last camping trip, in a fit of laziness, I just left the damn thing in the woods and staked it down really well in case any bad weather arrived so it wouldn’t get blown away.
Once I got off work, I immediately loaded up my car with what I needed and headed for the country. It was already dark when I arrived and luckily, my tent was as I had left it. It would have been nigh impossible to set it up in the dark. I had gambled by leaving it erected and the gamble had paid off. I would never leave my expensive Kelty tent set up like that unattended.
Earlier in the day, I had split some of the oak “logs” stored under my basement into much smaller and easier to handle pieces so had plenty of dry and long burning wood. I carefully stacked those pieces to make a fire within a ring of large stones placed from my last camping trip. I then rummaged around in my big Kelty backpack with my flashlight and finally found those fire starting sticks I had bought several years ago and have never used. I finally got a fire going and it helped chase away the chill of the early evening. After a very warm day, Mother Nature had decided to precipitously drop the temperatures after sunset.
I sat cross-legged next to the fire as I started reading Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. Occasionally, I would place the book down on the ground next to me to enjoy my pipe and to take a stiff drink of Southern Comfort all the while mesmerized by the flickering glow of that fire. I must have read half of that book until I looked at my watch and saw it was well after midnight. I had gotten so lost in the comforts of moment that I had lost all sense of time. What a pleasurable way to pass an evening after such a horrendous day. I was also quite pleasantly buzzed by the effects of that liquor.
I had decided I had best get some sleep or I would sleep away my day tomorrow. I pulled my backpack into my tent and rolled out my sleeping bag. I have gotten in the habit of bringing my soft pillows from my bed to sleep with and was glad I had done so. It makes for much more luxurious sleeping arrangements while in the wild. I could never do this without my car.
I climbed into my bag and zipped up the mesh net to the door of my tent. The woods were spookily silent last night with the only sound being that of the wind in the trees. Not an animal or nocturnal bird was to be heard. A thousand stars twinkled in the sky beyond the mesh portal of my tent. I felt so alone laying there in the darkness it was almost disconcerting. I never feel that way when camping. I finally drifted off to sleep as a lone whip-o-will began his call; such a haunting, but strangely comforting sound. Haunting dreams followed as well.
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