Our Second Camping Trip
Well Nancy and I went camping again. We stayed at a place called Misty Mountain. I found it on the Internet. It is located right outside the Skyline Drive here in Virginia. We knew we were going to get in late so we made reservations for a Thursday & Friday.
We loaded up the camper with the usual stuff, you know, blankets, sleeping bags, crackers, drink,
TV with a DVD player (a must have), kitchen sink, bathtub, and anything else we could empty out of the house into the trailer & SUV!
My god! How do people pack for a week? We were going for 2 days. I told the wife, why don’t we hire a moving van & they could deliver the stuff to our campsite. Then my wife informed me the grandbaby (5 months) Ava would be coming with us. I said “good, her first camping trip.” So when we stopped by to pick her up, her mom (our lovely college educated daughter) had packed Ava’s stuff like she was going away to college. (Why does a baby take so much equipment just to live from one poopy diaper to the next?)
So as my wife & her daughter acted like they hadn’t seen each other in years, I carried everything to the pack mule…err, I mean SUV. How I did it to this day I just don’t know. Why the windows didn’t blow out is a mystery to me.
I notified the chatting couple it was getting late & we had to hit the side roads to avoid the state police. (I know we had to be violating several states laws & a few SPCA laws too.)
Grammy sat in the back seat & played with Ava. I was just glad to be moving again without the tires blowing out.
We got to Misty Mountain about 10:30pm. I was tired, the wife was asleep & Ava was pooping for the 3rd time. The manager had a map & a lot number pined next to the office door. I thought wow this place is squared away. After driving up the mountain my thoughts turned sour when I saw the lot. Half the lot was level & the door side of the lot had a slope that worried me.
I stopped & walked the site & my flashlight couldn’t see the bottom. But I brushed bats away from my throat as they came out of the pit towards my flashlight. I hid my fear as I told the wife, “What a nice site. Can’t wait to see the sunrise from here.” She calmly asks “Are you sure we aren’t going to tip over or something?” I just shook my head no, worried my shaking voice would give me away as I drove us towards our death -I mean onto the lot.
I noticed we were next to a fifth wheel trailer. I thought that maybe he’d call 911 for me. I soon found out as I was hooking up & trying to be quiet (which you can’t be late at night), that he would not be calling 911 for me. As I was setting up, they kept flashing their lights off and on real fast like. I found out I could read light language.
It read “you are making too much noise you jerk, and I hope you fall down that abyss you are parked next to!” (Turned out he lived there.)
I had to use the level jacks on the door side of the trailer. They were cranked all the way up & the tire wasn’t touching the ground. (The tire was so high I was worried about an eagle making a nest in the trailer axle. That would be a whole different set of problems.)
As I got my lovely family out of the vehicle & walked them to the trailer, My wife asked “Is this safe and where did these bats come from?”
“Sure it’s safe just keep the baby’s throat covered.” I replied.
She couldn’t see the tears running down my cheeks because I was staying in the dark. (Of course the guy in the fifth wheel didn’t help either by flashing the lights off & on.) When we got in the trailer I immediately jumped into the bed & said “I’m tired, see ya in the morning.” As I covered my body with all the pillows and blankets to help me survive the disaster, I knew what was coming with each step my wife took.
She’d say as she was leaning towards the pit, “I feel like I have an ear infection & my balance is off.”
“Just don’t fall against the door. I’m not sure about the lock.” I mumbled between prayers. Every time I peeped out that night my wife would be sitting up with her feet braced against the wall. (The next morning she stated she kept sliding out of bed.)
At about 4:30 AM the guy in fifth wheel trailer must have had trouble with his truck. He kept gunning his engine real loud and honking his horn. I just ignored him because I was up to the letter “Z” praying to the god “Zeus”. (I was covering all the bases. I didn’t want my lovely wife in eternity with me saying, “I told you so!”)
The next morning the manager allowed us to move to a very nice secluded level lot, which I kissed as soon as I parked the trailer. (I think the nervous twitch & wild look gave me away, because he just looked at me & said, “Here, use lot U13 you’d like that better.” I grabbed the map and ran laughing all the way back to the death trap. (Had to go back and get my vehicle once my wife asked, “Where’s the SUV?”)
Let me tell you fellow campers. There is nothing like a level lot. If I had found a bottle and rubbed it until a Genie popped out and gave me 3 wishes, I would of yelled out “a Level lot” 3 times so fast your head would spin.
(I did keep looking out the window making sure the ground had not moved.)
The rest of the time was very enjoyable. We changed the grandbaby, walked the grandbaby, and changed her some more. We all had a peaceful stay.
As we were leaving I laughed madly to myself as a big diesel was trying to park next to the abyss.
Overall Misty Mountain is a very nice campground. Just ask for a level lot.
Jack & Nancy-Just a couple of TM owners
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