Friday, August 10, 2007

Bears!

I'm going on a little camping trip this weekend with Reba and Anne and Ruth and Johnny. It's absolutely pissing down rain right now, and even though we're camping in Pennsylvania, I fear the ground might be soggy and muddy at best.

I haven't been camping in years, and my idea of roughing it is staying at a KOA, the Kampgrounds [sic] of America, where you get a kampsite, and not from the site, there's hot showers and clean bathrooms and maybe even a pool. You get the rustic perks of sleeping in a tent, and the hygienic perks of cleaning camp grit off of your body in the morning. Added plus - not having to pee behind a tree. (It's hard when you're a girl!) My high opinion of KOA comes from a trip I took years ago with my mom, called Dino Trek. It was arranged by the Lawrence Hall of Science, one of my favorite places in the world when I was a little girl.

On Dino Trek, 13 people went out in a 16 passenger van to see all the important dinosaur fossil sites in California, Arizona, Utah, Montana, and Nevada, over the course of two weeks. We spoke with paleontologists, and looked at loads of fossils. A plaster cast I made of a stegosaurus' tail spike still resides in the Lawrence Hall of Science, if I'm not mistaken.

Whilst on Dino Trek, we stayed exclusively in KOAs, hence my long and abiding love affair with camping that's not really camping, but you still get that good rustic feeling of sleeping on the ground and waking up to find your sleeping bag wet with dew.

Anne came over last night after she picked up the tent we're borrowing to sleep in for the weekend. I was asking her about the campground we're staying in, trying to gauge how close it would be to my precious KOAs. My subtext here was 'sure, but does it have showers?'

By the miracle of modern science and the birth control pill, I will have my period this weekend. So, apparently, will Anne. And so will Ruth. Not sure about Reba, but well all know that when a bunch of menstruating women get together . . .

So I was asking Anne about the showers because, well, when Aunt Flo comes to visit, you basically want to make sure a shower is in your daily schedule, for obvious reasons.

"They have showers? Hot showers?" I asked Anne. "Because I'll totally be riding the red pony."

"Sure," she said.

"That's good, because . . ."

"Why, are you worried about . . . ." she waved her hand, trying to figure out a way to complete the sentence delicately.

"Attracting bears?"

Yes. Yes I am afraid of attracting bears. Because then, this will happen:




Big ups to Stacey and Brandon, who composed and performed the music in this lovely video.

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