I watched helplessly as my father continued to make a fool of himself.
“You sure you don’t want any help?” I asked. He grumbled as he reached for the bag of stakes. “I don’t think-” “I know what I’m doing Zach, I’ve been doing this for forty years!” He barked. I sighed and crossed my arms. I stared at a can of beans and spaced out.
Now, don’t get the impression that my dad is a grumpy man, oh no! He wasn’t the grumpy one in this situation, in fact, he seemed quite jovial. I was the grouch here. After hiking for six hours, and getting covered in mosquito bites, I was, needless to say, in a rather sour mood.
The air was getting cold, partly due to the fact we were in the Rocky Mountains in October, and partly because the sun was almost down. Even the pink and orange clouds seemed to be getting cold. I swatted a mosquito on my neck.”There!” My dad stood up triumphantly and looked upon his work. I stared silently. “THAT’S out tent?” My dad looked at me and smiled. “Sure is my boy!” He chortled. The ‘tent’ my poor, deranged father had raised was no more than six feet long and, at most, four and a half feet wide. Taking into consideration the fact that neither of us stood below six foot tall, my back had already started hurting. Before I could complain, my dad got a big goofy smile and announced we would be gathering firewood for the next half-hour. Aghast, I glared at him and said “Oh no no! No firewood tonight,” I raised a finger and puffed after him, tripping over a few loose rocks. “Let’s just get in the tent and sleep. It’s cold, almost dark, and I’m getting eaten alive out here!” Dad marched on, laughing.
“Come on! It’s an adventure!” He chuckled. Defeated, I slouched after him and grumbled something about a microwave and inhumane conditions. It didn’t take long before I began my spastic attack against the mosquitoes once again. I hadn’t seen any other bugs, not one, but somehow, SOME HOW, these blood-sucking pests still seemed to be perfectly happy in the cold.
I’ll never go camping without bug spray or stove again.
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