Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Camping first night

Hello,

We were settled in by 10:00, but that does not mean that the rest of the world was prepared to sleep. First there was this fantastic symphony by the cicadas with a few crickets providing percussion. I suspect there were some participants who could not be named by me. It had a lot of repetition and much volume. At times I wondered if my ears were producing their own contribution that only I could hear.

In the meantime the humans around us seemed to be up for an extended talk or shout or laugh. Then there were the cars that kept coming through up until probably 2:00 am. I had thought there were rules written or unwritten that one stopped driving into campgrounds about 10 or maybe 10:30. It was something seeing the lights flash on the tent walls, with the wheels crunching on the ground and if pulling a camper, a bit of squeaking.

At probably about 11:00 the barred owls decided to have a conference about who was in what territory. At least they moved around quite a lot and loudly discussed different places. Then another owl whose call I could not name joined in, heating up emotions and opinions. This went on for several hours with breaks from time to time.

For the most part those children in our tent were quiet, but I think, awake as Leroy and I were for much of the time. The kids wanted to sleep between us. Do you think that was for a sense of safety? Each time I turned from side to side I was grateful for that camp pad, wondering why we had not purchased that long ago. The kids each slept on one of our older pads that are not as thick. I have no idea how much anyone slept, but I know that it was less that was desired although we handled the next day with aplomb.


Paula

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