Perpetual Ruminations

Camping Get-A-Way

My wife and I are back after taking a three day camping trip to get away from everything and spend some quiet time relaxing and reflecting on ten years of marriage. Camping for our anniversary has become a tradition for us, something we look forward to every year.

This year we both were looking forward to having a nice, quiet, and relaxing time away from work, from home, and from all the everyday hassles life brings. I was especially wanting to get a break from work; there have been numerous problems and I have had to put a lot of extra time into things lately.

The plan was simple enough, Rhonda would pack things up while I was at work on Monday, then pick me up and we would drive to the campground. We had picked on a few hours from home, since it would be late afternoon by the time I got off work. Things went well at first and we were soon heading out. Once at the campground, we jumped right into getting things set up. We had grabbed a pizza for supper so we could eat on the way, since there would be little time to cook anything once we arrived and got set up.

After setting up, it was getting dark, so I started a fire and Rhonda fixed us a couple of drinks. We set up chairs by the fire pit, staked out our dog, Hannah, and settled in to relax for the evening. Hannah is a bit high strung, but well behaved, so after a short time I took her off her lead and let her stretch out by my feet. That's when things began to deteriorate.

A skunk decided to come check out the campsite, looking for easy loot. Hannah spotted, or at least smelled the little critter before we realized we had a visitor. Before I could react, she was up and on top of the skunk with a death-hold on it's neck, shaking the last few wisps of life from it. Of course, she wasn't being bad, she was doing what instinct told her, to defend her pack. She did a great job and had the skunk killed before we could even get up and go after her.

With the dirty deed done, she returned looking for praise as we backed away from her. The smell was not as bad as we had expected, but she had gotten enough spray on her to make it difficult to be close to her. She also had the watering eyes and was salivating heavy from the stench, rubbing her face in the grass to try and remove the foul odor.

it was late and there was little we could do about the situation, so we tolerated the smell and made the most of the fire. Then, when we retired, things got a bit more intense. With Hannah in the tent with us, she would not have understood being put outside, not to mention another of Stinky's friends may come around, the smell became more intense.

I have to mention again, she did not get a direct spray from the critter, but must have caught a bit of the mist as she shook the animal. The area the skunk was in did not smell very bad, and it was even less noticeable after I had moved the corpse away from the camp site. But inside the confines of the tent, the smell was stronger. On top of that, Hannah is a snuggler and loves to cuddle with us. Of course, with her new cologne, snuggling with her was impossible.

We survived the night, but got little sleep. The next day we had her down to the lake and gave her a very good bath, lathering her up twice and then using conditioner on her. It did the trick, she still had just the slightest hint of skunk stink on her, but it was no possible to snuggle and cuddle, as well as to sleep in the same tent.

Tuesday evening, things were going well again. We had just enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked outdoors and were going to again relax by a fire. My phone went off, it was the Director of Operations from work. I had a guard who was threatening to walk off and leave the guardhouse empty.

We just got a new Director, and he has his hands full with a lot of things besides training in for his new position, but after explaining that Rhonda and I were out camping, he said he would handle the situation until today. Understand, please, that our home office is in Sioux City, Iowa, and the job site I supervise is in Watertown, South Dakota, so this was no small feat for him. But he took care of things for me so we could stay out and enjoy the entire three days before having to return and deal with the situation.

Oh, and that night, shortly after turning in, looking forward to a sound, restful nights sleep, our air mattress decided to go flat. But, within a few minutes we had it fully deflated and shoved aside. We spent the rest of that night, and the remainder sleeping on the hard floor of the tent, but with the bedding and sleeping bags, it wasn't all that uncomfortable. I actually slept pretty well.

We packed it in yesterday and left the site at three in the afternoon to return home. The heat had climbed Wednesday and Thursday, hitting just below 100 degrees on Wednesday and over 100 on Thursday. We did get a little hiking in, but stuck to the most shaded areas. Mostly, though we just relaxed and enjoyed the time together. I even managed to keep the problems at work pushed to the back burner until today.