Camping with Tarzan and the Boyz

This weekend I realized, that I do not just casually experience life. Rather, I see events. I see big happy occasions, and devastating sad occasions. I see happy things as more than passing moments, but stories to tell, stupid things as funny or irritating and story worthy. I also see the actions of others as great or even pitiful. With that said, let me tell you about fishing with Tarzan and the boyz.

I had a headache for three days last week and needed some true down time, when I didn’t think about (in alphabetical order) car trouble, children, church, cleaning house, dogs, etc., grandchildren, health, heat, money, redecorating, rental property, work.

Tarzan was going fishing with the boyz this weekend, so I asked if I could go. I said, “I either need to go away with you this weekend or I need to get a hotel and watch old movies while I eat ice cream and pizza.” He said I could go.

I went out to get in the truck after packing up a few things, putting together four meals to cook for the group and packing some kitchen items to cook with. He had put everything in the CAR not the PICKUP with no plan as to where we would sleep. I threw in two sleeping bags and an air mattress.

We started out at 6:00 p.m. and Shirley, his GPS system, told him we had 300 MILES to go. I thought we were going to Blythe, about 1 ½ hours away. First choice, get up tight because I have a five hour drive ahead and knowing we won’t get to the campsite before midnight? No problem, I have turned off the world, sit back and relax.

We do travel well together and when we arrived at Moreno Valley, he pulled right into a motel and got us a room so we could get some rest rather than trying to find the boyz in the dark. Good move, Tarzan. 4:00 a.m. wake up call, we took it and fell back to sleep. 6:00 a.m., up and at ‘em. We rushed around, jumped in the car and called Al to tell him we were about 15 minutes away from the lake and ask how to find him.

Al, was at home in bed.

They had not gone out the day before as planned.No rush now, a little Walmart shopping, they are the only store open at that hour, and we drove on out to the lake, got the best spot available in the camp ground and cooked breakfast. Here is my kitchen cupboard.

Here is breakfast, yes, that is a pound of bacon, we expected the boyz to show up before we finished breakfast. When they didn’t the two of us managed to eat the whole pound by ourselves. Oh, yes, and that is the pan that snagged Tarzan. He says he married me for love, but I saw his eyes light up when he say me great skillet.

The boyz showed up around 2:00 p.m. So, we just relaxed until they came. Here is Tarzan playing with his fishing gear.

Then the boyz showed up. Al and Lt.

Al asked if I was ready to fish, but I made it perfectly clear that I was not there to interfere. I was there to relax, I would not be getting on the boat today. They took off with a whirl of excitement while I settled into a day of doing NOTHING. It was so wonderful. Here is what I did all day. Sorry about the bird poop, see my Kindle, Armand is his name, I have actually given him a name label now so I will quit changing his name, see the iPod, see the crochet, see the snacks, you can almost see the lotion and the purple container is the nail clippers so I could cut and file my fingernails, awe, the joy of nothingness.

Oh, yes, and I napped--a lot.

It started to get dark and the boyz didn’t return, so I decided to cook. I really should have taken a picture of the beans. I had made a pot of chili beans for dinner before leaving home. It sat in the sun all day on the ground. I picked up the pot to begin heating it up and OH MY GOODNESS, it was full of ants doing the backstroke. I skimmed the ants out thinking a little protein never hurt anyone and I wouldn’t even tell the boyz, got the cook stove fired up and set the beans on the stove. When I took the lid off the thing was bubbling and it wasn’t from the heat of the fire – it had gone bad in the heat of the day, I guess that is what attracted the ants. Dumped the whole thing in the trash and began cooking the pork chops and potatoes. Everything was cooked and the boyz finally came back. It was completely dark, they had stayed until “the last dog died” to leave the lake. As they got out of the truck, Al said, “We would have been here sooner, but we had to wait for Lee to come back from wherever he went all day.” I said, “Hey, don’t get out of the truck making excuses when you have been out having fun.” Joking is part of being friends with the boyz. I can hold my own.

Had I not cooked dinner these three boyz would have gone to bed hungry, they were exhausted. They snarfed down the dinner I had cooked, and went straight to bed. We slept in the car, he on the reclining passenger side and me in the backseat. Thank goodness for Excedrin PM. At about 11:00 p.m. the spot next to us had a group of young adults move in. They set up bright lights, loud RAP music (mostly about rape and murder) and began to laugh, talk, play games (of questionable value), drink alcohol and laugh-loud. I asked them to turn the music down once, but it was soon back up as loud as ever and they didn’t stop until 3:00 a.m.

When we got up at 5:00 a.m., I turned on the Andrew’s Sisters mixed with Nat King Cole and a bunch of church songs. My music wasn’t near as loud as theirs, but I figured it was irritating enough. We then commenced to fix a breakfast feast of bluegill caught the day before. The boyz cooked the fish, I cooked eggs and hash browns and we had some of my good bottled peaches. We had a wonderful morning, even though I was eating the fish and saw a funny looking bone and threw it out into the field then suddenly realized it was the temporary cap from my tooth. Lt. did a wind direction and projectile velocity and walked right out into the field and found it. Isn't that amazing

I must say a word about the young adults. They were clean cut kids, obviously had money (or a lot of debt) and they had no clue what life is all about. There was inappropriate activity going on over there, inappropriate talk, inappropriate music and I could go on. The park has a strict rule of no alcohol anywhere in the park. These young folks were having beer for breakfast by the time we got ready to go and they were going to go out on the lake with their jet skis.

We packed up and jumped my car (that is another whole story I won’t bore you with about the day before). As we drove out of the campsite to go to the lake, Tarzan stopped at the park ranger booth and told them about our neighbors. He explained that since we are old folks, we just hunkered down and tried to ignore them, but it was a perfect setting for a serious confrontation. If we had been a young family with babies, he would have (he didn’t tell this to the ranger) taken his shot gun over and blown up the radio like Clint Eastwood and then gone back to bed. There was something about this group of kids that haunted Tarzan and I, we mentioned them several times over the next 24 hours, wondering how far astray they were and if they had a chance at happiness with the path they were obviously taking.

Then we fished.
Here come the boyz to get me.

Here we go.

Al at the helm.
Tarzan seriously fishing.

The first fish caught.
Lt. always catches fish. The fish see him coming and all get together and say, “Hey, Lt. is here, who wants to go first?”
Al caught a few, Lt. caught a few, but sadly, today Tarzan never caught one.
I napped and read. It was great.
We packed up our rods and left about 2:00 p.m. and headed home. What a fun, relaxing two days, I am completely rejuvenated. Come on world, I’m ready to take you on again.