Pepe Le Peu?

We had a few adventures while camping. The first night we had just finished dinner and I saw a little animal coming into our site. I shine my flashlight on it and say “Hey little fella…oh look it’s a badger.”. Kari said she didn't think we have badgers around here. Mau tossed it a piece of hot dog bun. We all know this is a bad idea as it will attract all his friends. Kali started freaking out, snarling and nearly choking herself on her tie out. The animal ran through the fence and Mau shined his flashlight just in time to see it lifting his tail to spray Kali. Yep, it was a skunk. A cute skunk but a skunk. We all started coughing and gagging from the stench. Kali rubbed her face on the ground for a half hour. I smelled her and realized she was just upset by the odor but didn’t get sprayed. It was terrible though. It reminded me of the tear gas from the Stratford Riots a few years back. You smell a skunk sometimes but it just smells like skunky weed. Concentrated is bad. It smelled like a chemical…I swore up and down it was the propane from the lantern for a good hour. We kept the skunk funk until the next day when it poured then it went away for the most part. Cute little bastard.

We didn’t have many neighbors so that was nice and I had the shower house to myself. Mau went on the mountain bike trails by himself last time we were there but this time we all went. I didn’t know what I was missing…they were a blast! The first day we got a little lost and things got tense as it got darker and darker and we kept going in circles. The kids kept saying “We gotta find freedom!”. Kinda funny. The 2^nd time we stepped it up to a harder trail but had some casualties…me, twice. It’s a super narrow trail and I put my foot down and slipped down a cliff toward the lake. I had to stop myself with my foot on a tree so I wouldn’t go all the way down. Scraped myself up a little and messed up my shoulder but I was alright so the kids laughed. I fell another time but the kids didn’t see me so I fed them a story of my awesome backflips off the cliff and they bought it.

We got rained out the second night. We had just gotten back from the waterfall where I was staying out of the water next to the rocks because of the snakes but thanks to the nature center, I found out the snakes are the Northern Water Snake not the Water Moccasin that random kids down there kept telling me. I figured poisonous snakes would warrant a sign but we don’t even have Water Moccasins in Ohio. They look alike so I see the confusion. We got poured on during dinner. It was very tricky to finish making it then we had the kids eat in their tent and we sat in the car with the dog. Our site turned into a huge mud puddle so we took a drive into town and found the Starbucks and waited it out. Unfortunately, even though we covered the wood and it stayed dry, the pit was wet underneath so Mau’s attempts to start a fire were futile. The camp stove must have gotten too wet because it wasn’t working so breakfast turned into Mau driving to a McDonalds. It all worked out and we busted ass to pack up the last day so we could get in one last bike ride. This 3^rd time was a little trickier due to puddles and muck but we got through covered with mud and only one fall. There are these cool, tight corners you can go way up on the sides of but poor Sky wiped out straight into the mud. I can’t wait to go back up to ride those trails.