This is my post for freewriters 2407 prompt a casual remark hosted by @mariannewest
My husband left yesterday to go on his camping trip, he drove 2 and a half hours to get to Highlands Hammock, a State Park in the middle of the state.
He set up his camp on site 49, he picked that one because it was the furthest from other people. He does not like to be around others, he is a loner. But found out that he did not like to be alone, it was the first time he camped by himself.
He called me to tell me about all the deer he saw near his camp, I could tell he was just wanting to talk to someone. I asked him why didn't he go meet some of the other campers, his reply was, I am not going to do that. We talked about nothing for a while and said goodbye.
A couple hours later he calls to tell me about the feral cat and coon he saw. He said he had cooked a hamburger and set the frying pan on the ground to cool, the cat was going for it so he picked it up and got some hamburger meat out of the cooler, and placed it on a paper plate for the cat and put it on the ground, it was eating it. Then the cat started staring at the woods and he knew the cat knew something was there. A coon came out of the woods and the cat ran up a tree. He said he was not going to let the coon eat the cat's food so he picked it up and put it in a sandwich bag to give to the cat after the coon left.
The coon did not leave when he picked up the meat, instead, it came toward him. It kept getting closer and closer so he picked up his fishing pole and tapped him on the head with it, it still came closer so he hit it a little harder and this time it ran up a tree next to the tree the cat was in and now the cat and coon were hissing at each other until the coon gave up and went back into the woods and he put the hamburger meat back down for the cat.
He was telling me how bored he was, there was no lake, river, pond, or even a ditch to fish in and nothing to do, he made a casual remark that he might be home tomorrow. I laughed and thought there was no way he was going to drive all that way, spend one night, and come home the next day.
He drove up at 3 o'clock today. Before he left he was happy that he was not going to have to pay the 23 dollars a night, I think that is what he said it cost. Anyway, he said since it was the off season and not many people there he did not need to make a reservation so he saved money on that, and being a senior citizen he would save money, he thought it was going to cost 11 dollars a night. When he checked out today they told him he had to pay 19 dollars, he asked why and they told him it was a reservation fee. He told them he did not make a reservation, they said it did not matter, the company that handles reservations charges a fee if you made one or not.
He took pictures with his phone but I can not get them to upload to my laptop, I have my phone synced to the cloud and could not get his to do anything. One picture showed all of the deer with a spotted fawn and one deer with her head and ears straight up, he said she was the guard.
The pictures of the squirrels were so cute, they sit up and beg like Rudy does. But one squirrel had a long cut down its side and front leg another one was missing a front leg. There is a picture of a black bug that looked like it had butterfly wings but the top edges were green and it had a long fluorescent green tail.
He bought this tent and used it once, but now he is talking about buying a van so we can go camping together and take the dogs and Rudy with us and he could take the quail to his sister to care for. I think he has had enough of camping by himself.
photos are mine
