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It has been about a month since my last road trip. Like most trips, you start thinking about how much fun you had. That is why I decided to share it with you today.
My plan for this post is to remind you (and myself) how important time off is, where I went this time, and a crazy story that happened along the way.
If you have been reading for a while, you know what makes me happy, but I am constantly reminded of how important it is to take time off. I have started looking for small daily periods to sit and appreciate what I have.
Taking a few moments, or longer if you can, allows you to reflect on your life, recharge your batteries, and find something to be thankful for in these crazy times.
Speaking of the future, have you thought about your goals for 2021?
I’m sure we are all thinking about the same thing, “It has to be better than this year,” right?
Getting Away
Let’s start with my quick road trip to Oregon. I met up with a few friends while I was there, which is always nice to reconnect with people. Not only that, but I really like Oregon. The only downside was that all the camping spots were taken.
It’s great seeing people get out and explore their local areas.
But dang, for those of us that camping is normal, some people just don’t get it. I was sad to hear about Zion, Bryce, and the other National Parks being hit with vandalism and graffiti.
It’s unfortunate people even think about doing these acts. I have never been able to wrap my head around it.
With that said, and just a small plug to REI, remember to practice the leave no trace principles. Please click the previous link to find out more. Together we can keep these amazing locations around for future generations.
Okay, sorry about that. I’ll get off my tangent now.
Going back to my quick road trip. This was my first time going to Seaside, OR. If you have never been, there is a lot of history there, a cool Coast Guard Museum, beaches, great restaurants, and some awesome pubs.
Not only that, but the weather and my company were perfect!
During this trip, I stayed at a campground in a tiny cabin. It was super cool, and I will share one of the many stories with you soon.
Like most vacations and escapes, I would have loved to stay longer. And hindsight, I should have taken a long way home. If you ever have the option, I have done this a few times to drive along Highway 1 and 101. It’s pretty amazing.
Instead of driving along the coast, I headed inland and didn’t realize the weather was hotter. So as you know, I am not a fan of the heat.
The only good thing about going this way is that I got home fairly quickly. One of the fires in CA was closer to my home than I originally thought. I’m happy to report that nothing personal burned this time, but it was closer than I liked.
I think this is a good time to share the story I mentioned with you. This might not be a crazy story to some of you, but I’m the one writing, so enjoy!
The Fun & Crazy Story
Here is the setup, I was camping in a cabin with a good friend of mine. I drove straight to the location where I live, and it was a pretty long drive. After getting to the cabin and eating dinner, we went to sleep.
I was awakened the next morning, at about 3:30 am, by a strange chirping sound. It was close to a decibel that would hurt your head and was accompanied by vigorous flapping.
My friend apparently was hearing the same thing as I was. Then I heard, “Eric, are you awake,” he said. “Yes,” was my reply. “I think there is a bat in here.”
Once I thought about the word “BAT,” I realized I’d never been close to a bat in a tiny, nowhere to go cabin.
So I replied that I think he was right. The best part is my next reaction was to pull my blanket over my head, roll on my side, and attempt to go back to sleep.
Yep, you read that right, and I went back to sleep!
It was all good until I heard the loud wrestling of a sleeping bag from across the small cabin. “The bat just flew next to my head!”
This is around the time we started thinking about a game plan. I should mention that I was still half asleep, so I was not much help at this point.
Let’s talk about how this cabin is set up. It is small. From the outside, a few steps lead to the porch and doorway. Walking inside, the door leads you to the first room. Here you see a queen-size bed, a built-in desk, and a built-in chair. The second door leads to an even smaller room with two sets of bunk beds attached to two walls.
For context, we were both on the top bunks on each side of the room.
I mention this because there was also a small window in the bunk room. The screen was stapled to the wood logs, so taking the screen off was not wise. This also meant the only escape route for us, and the bat was the front door.
Yes, this was a small cabin, but when you have a bloodthirsty vampire bat flying around, it’s a long journey to freedom.
So the most logical decision (with two grown men who love the outdoors and backgrounds as first responders who have dealt with things in this life that many others haven’t experienced) was to call the staff to see if they could open the outside door for us. Therefore nobody would have to become a vampire, no, not today!
The only downside to this plan was the front desk phone number was in the other room. Dang, it!
I want to say that I was the first one up, but I wasn’t.
My buddy, being the military man he is, was able to shine his light around our room and quickly realized the bats, yep, there were two of them, were flying between the two rooms.
I am not sure how it happened, but he was able to shut the small door that separated the two rooms. This left the bloodthirsty vampires in the main room.
He then turned on the light in our bunkbed room. This was when I freaked out because I couldn’t see from the sun now in our room. I’m glad to report that it was just my eyes trying to adjust.
Now it was time for our next plan. The real plan.
This process only took a few seconds, minutes. Okay, it took a while.
But we had a plan.
One of us would be the spotter while the other went into the dangerous void of ravaged, bloodthirsty vampires. We were trying to decide who would be “the one” when I realized my glasses were also with our new ravage counterparts.
After all, being the spotter would be difficult when you can’t see anything. So you can guess who drew the short straw that had to venture into the void.
I’m glad we both have a connection and that I trust my now spotter with my life.
This was when I did what any man would do; I ran to the door as fast as I could and got the bats out of the cabin!
No, actually, that’s not what I did.
Instead, I put on some armor, my blanket, and crouched down as low as I could go.
I will mention that I did not do the army crawl across the floor. I was asked why when I originally shared this story, so I will address it here. I did not crawl because it was a cabin! I don’t know how clean the floors are. If you didn’t know, I’m also a bit of a germaphobe.
Okay, so I had my armor on, and I did my impersonation of a duck and slowly walked to the door.
With being blind, and no glasses, my trusted spotter told me where to go. He repeatedly shouted STOP, GO, STRAIGHT, and so forth until I succeeded in finding the door.
After opening the door, I flung it open as wide as it would go and quickly duck, walking backward to safety, where the safety door was slammed closed.
After we could not hear the flapping or strange chirping sounds, we became men again and slowly opened the door to ensure the bloodthirsty vampires were back in the dark of night.
Well, as I said, it’s been about a month since this trip, and I am not showing any signs of becoming a vampire. This is why I thought now was a good time to share this story with you.
There is never a dull moment in this life. You must find fun and joy in everything.
Wrapping It All Up
Thanks for reading my story. I would go more into what the trip was like, but honestly, stopping now seems right. I remember telling my mom about this, and we were both laughing. I hope you enjoyed it as well.
It’s times like these when I am reminded of how important it is to know there are people you can count on. Yes, the above story was fun and exciting, but knowing I have friends I can trust is extremely important.
Friends have a way of coming into your life and making it better.
Now it’s your turn. Let me know about YOUR fun or crazy camping story.
Feel free to email me or, better yet, leave a comment below so we can all read about it!
Oh man! What a story! I can visualize the two of you in that situation. Thanks for the laughs!
I also had a bat encounter in a cabin when I was younger. I was terrified to wake up because it was in my hair! My hero was my friends grandpa who attacked the bat with a flyswatter while running around the cabin in his boxers. That is a vision that will stay with me forever…
That’s a good one. It makes me think of the movie with John Candy, I think it’s called The Great Outdoors. There was a bat scene, and it was pretty funny too.
I hope this story will help get the other one out of your head.