Real adventures in camping...and annoying ones

There were a lot of adventures in camping this time. It all began when driving there. We were a couple of exits away from the campground when I noticed my bike tire was up really high in relation to the trunk. Mau looks in his mirror and doesn’t see my other tire at all. Uh, we pulled over quickly and found the bike hanging by one clip around the frame. We fixed it and moved on.

It was very wet at the site but not raining. It did rain briefly during dinner on Saturday and during our sleep that night. It was, however, humid as fuck and that kind of sucked but it wasn’t too hot so it all worked out. Throughout most of my life, I have avoided at high costs using public restrooms and most importantly, going in the wilderness. It’s really not my thing…I would make a terrible hippy. I begged Mau to walk up to the restrooms with me but he convinced me (out of pure laziness) to “just go in the woods”. It was simple enough to just walk back on the trail behind our site and it was dark so I agreed. I repeatedly asked Mau to help me not pee on my clothes (I really can’t get this peeing in the wild down and I have tried periodically over my many years) so he puts a flashlight on me while I pee and laughs uncontrollably the whole time which makes my unusually lengthy piss almost hurt from my own laughter. I was very excited for myself overcoming a fear and not peeing on my clothes. I didn’t think anything more about it. In step the chiggers. I really think this is when they decided to attack me. I really didn’t go in the woods other than that time. Of course I didn’t know this. I didn’t even know what the fuck they were until I asked a pharmacist today what the hell was going on with my ankles. He took one look and said “Looks like chiggers.”. Huh? What the fuck are chiggers? I did some research on the trusty internet and found out they are quite a pain in the ass, uh, ankles. I have scratched them to the point of most likely bringing on an infection and my one ankle (in the photo) is swelled up. It freakin sucks ass. As far as I could tell, you just use some ointment (different than the 3 other things I had already used) and ride it out for possibly weeks.

Mau & I took the dog for a late night walk around the campground Friday night. I had the flashlight off because I could hear people coming. It was a crying girl and some guy consoling her. I saw him pulling her shirt back toward him and saying "I know I've only known you for an hour but...". Kali then jumps on the girl making her squeal "It's a dog!" and run away. We saw Mary Jo standing outside the bathrooms having just gotten done with her shower. She says a girl had just come into the bathrooms when she was in the shower and the girl was crying uncontrollably.

Crying girl: Hello?

Mary Jo: Yes?

Crying girl: Have you ever lost anyone really close to you?

Mary Jo: Well, yeah.

Crying girl: Can you turn off the shower?

Mary Jo: No, it's on a timer.

Crying girl: Well, then can you step away from the shower because I'm gonna flush the toilet and I don't want you to be cold cos it's raining outside and you'll be cold. (said while bawling her eyes out)

Eventually the psychotic girl left but it freaked Mary Jo out. I told her we had ran into a crying girl too and we both got to see what she looked like the next day after we guessed who it was.

The final adventure occurred when we were nearly home on a road with no shoulder. Mau sort of swerves and yells “Fuck!”. I ask what’s wrong and he says “Your bike just fell off the rack.”. “WHAT?” I screamed. I look back and sure enough, there’s a truck veering around my bike laying in the middle of the fucking road. Great. We stop, throw on the flashers and Mau runs back and gets it. It was pretty beat up. We find that both clips on the rack had broken. We had to just prop in on the rack and drive home really slow so it wouldn’t fall off again. Once home I see my seat took the brunt of the fall with a huge hole in it and my handlebars were knocked out of the clamp thingie that holds them and chewed up on the ends. My pedals are chewed up on the sides and the frame paint is chipped all over. The frame is not bent though nor are the wheels. The tires were in tact too. We took it to the bike doctor today to make sure it’s still aligned so I don’t have a surprise while riding one day. That bike rack had also chipped the paint on the trunk of the car, the new car…grrr. It went out in the trash last night. We are going to get a different rack.