Best Adventures

“I`m sorry I didn`t get back to this until now.

Please forgive my rudeness, but I`ve been camping and just haven`t gotten back until today.

Hiya Chili,..I miss our talks and reading your thoughts. Hiya Mike, I muss your adventures as well and the great outlook you have on life and the kindness you express to other hikes. Hiya Phil, I hope all`s well with you and your`s and I miss reading your cookin` hints and seeing the great work you do for everyone here with posting their photos and trips. Hiya Artex, you`re a funny fooker and dance better than the hog, I hope we get to know eachother better. Hiya Pathman, I hope you don`t get lost.

Just `cause you asked for it, here`s a short poem.....


Good times were had here, I met so many nice folks and made friends
here`s to each one of you that helps make it special, I hope it never ends
I`m sorry I don`t get to visit, or talk like we use to
but hardly a day passes by that I don`t think of you
I hope your trails are many and each footstep is light
I hope you have many good friends to share, keep doin` it right
and should you share a fire, a cup of coffee, or some home-brew
think kindly of me if you will, `cause I`ll be thinking of you”

“I woke up to the sounds of my campfire hissing to me, it seemed to be calling me from my slumber, "wake up, wake up!!", it said to me.

My eyes opened a tiny bit as I just lay there tryin` to figure out what it was that had called me back from dreamland. A soft voice of yesterday it seemed like, or an old friend`s voice whispering to me. I wasn`t startled a bit by the sounds of it, but rather I woke up in hopes of finding out who it was that needed my attention.

Moments passed as I lay there in semi-darkness listening for another sound to fix my ears and attention on to. It seemed like a long time passed before I heard it again and right off I knew it`s voice. It was my old friend fire calling me awake to share an unexpected snowfall that had just happened along and caught us by surprise.

I opened up the fly on my tent and sure enough, there highlighted by the small glow of bedded embers I could make out big fluffy flakes of snow setteling down to warm themselves, or so it seemed. I undid the screen on the tent and stuck my head out and as I did so a few flakes of snow stung my ears and face. What a lovely kiss hello and I knew it for that as I eased out of the tent and got my tiny fire back to glowin` bright.

Just the start of a soft blanket of snow had gathered, not enough by the looks of it yet to tell if it`d still be there when the sun would come up and kiss away the frost that seemed to be clinging onto everything. It looked like tiny diamonds on a soft white cloth, the frozen dew-drops reflectin` back the light from the fire, like they were puttin` on a show, each one tryin` to out-do the others.

My breath hung in the almost still air and seemed to just hover there for a moment before it floated away with the tiny bit of wind that was blowin`. The snowflakes were commin` streight down, one pushing the other infront of it, looked like to me.

I just stood there and took in the beauty of it all and wondered why the small things like this seemed so much larger when I found myself off all alone and with no one around to share `em with.

I gathered up the making`s for some coffee and put the water on to boil and as it went about it`s own thing I lit a smoke and brushed off a spot on an old rotted stump for a chair and I just watched it snow over the glow of my cigarette.

That`s when the hairs on the back of my neck stood out and I knew I wasn`t alone like I`d thought I was. I felt eyes on me and knew I was being watched.

Maybe it was a tiny bit of movement, or something, but there wasn`t a whisper of a sound to it, but something changed and right off I could feel it, something was there, just out of the glow of my tiny fire, but there just the same and off to my left.


Moments ticked on as I waited and waited for something, not even knowing what I waited for, but I froze like a rock and I just watched my cigarette burn down to nothing unattended and I watched outa the corner of my eye as the ashes grew and grew, threatening to fall off the end.

Just like that the moments of waiting were over and I was rewarded for my efforts as a bobcat lept over a log and partally into view. I could make out it`s form and knew what it was, but it still lingered in the shadows and only it`s green eyes reflected back to me the glow of my fire.

I let go of the stubb of my smoke and watched to see if the bobcat noticed it, he sure did, head up it perred at me and seemed to bore holes through me with those cold steely green eyes of his.

All of a sudden there was that and then a hiss that made me and the bobcat jump and it broke the spell that we`d woven around ourselves, we were no longer locked eye to eye, the noise was commin` from the coffee-pot boiling over.

The bobcat lit a shuck for parts unknown and I let out a roar of laughter to send him on his merry way. Dang I woulda liked it if it coulda just lasted a bit more, it was even lonelyer when he departed, somehow he stole the magic of the moment we were sharing and the cup of hot coffee did little to warm my heart back up. But, the second cup did the trick and I doused the remains of embers with the last of the coffee and fell back into my tent to sleep a few more hours before the sun could catch me nappin`.”

“Dang, it cut the last of that story off.

Guess it`s tryin` to tell me something?LOL

Later!

Bill”

“When I saw the length of this I immediately hoped it would be a Big Foot story. I'll read it in a bit.”

“Thank You DayHiker!
Good to see you`re still around.
I figured I better write something on this thread before it got gone.

Take care of you!

Bill”

“Thank You DayHiker!
Good to see you`re still around.
I figured I better write something on this thread before it got gone.

Take care of you!

Bill”

“Dang! Big Foot is still alive!!!”

“Hiya Limpy!

LOL,.. looks like I studder when I sent that other one twice, or a hick-up:(

Take care!

Bill”

“I miss Yall!

Add me to you Im if you wanna
bigfoot0177@hotmail.com

Bill”

“liz is still around”

“And just where in the nine hells have you been young man?”

“Hi Y`all;)

Been off in writer`s rooms and poetry rooms, I don`t get back here often, but it`s good to see those like you two still haunt the pages and keep folks honest!

Take care!

Bill”

“"Baby-Ray" Goodson bought an old jobber truck that Jack Chesshir used to drive delivering peanuts and such to all the stores in town and the nearby towns as well. It was just an old pannel van but it made a fantastic camper and a bunch of us country boys hauled it off down next to the bayou and set in campin` out of it like we was born to it.

Of course it was right next to our favorite swimmin` hole and it had Rector Pate`s mountains behind it and some of the best huntin` and kid stompin` woods any boys could ever dream to get lost off up in and we did too from time to time, it was a hoot and a howl away from any houses, or any grown folks, our slice of Heaven. Ol` Doc Hopkins owned the land that bordered it on the north and "Cap" Murry`s land joined it on the east side and my daddy`s place joined it to the south. We could see anyone that came up over any of the ridges in there to us and we had just enough warning like that to clean up our acts before they could ever bust us and brother let me tell you, they did try to.

We had the perfect place to go off hog wild and we never were long puttin` it off either, we stayed there as much and some times more than we were allowed to. We got real good at bein` bad and had a fantastic time just thinkin` up more chit we could try out.

Most of us that hung out there was Johnny, his dad had the land leased and it was their camper, Scotty, Stan, he ended up bein` my brother in law, Joe Paul, Larry "Tuff Boy", Buddy, my younger brother Jim and myself. Oh, the land itself we camped on belonged to the Chandler family James Earnest and Bobby Lynn, fantastic folks each and every one of `em, well except for maybe the exception of me, I was a bit of a trouble maker.

But this time it wasn`t me that started it, or maybe it was, but it`s not how I remember it and it doesn`t have much to do with this story in any case so just forget I took that long tryin` to explane it all.

Back then there was such a thing as (good neighbor`s gates) and they were always to be closed, `cause it`s what good neighbors do, but never locked and us boys made good use of `em and ran wild as we pleased, as often as we dared to.

Johnny`s dad had a smoke house and Johnny made a raid on it and nicked us some bacon and sausages, Larry came up with some potatos, brother and I scampered off with jars of can goods and a few fat chickens that weren`t fast enough to outrun us, the other guys hauled in eggs and milk and you name it, we ate like kings, or lil` pigs rather and yup at times we`d make off with a whole pig too to cook up.

It turned off cold as hell that first winter we set in campin` out of that peanut wagon, but by then we were all in to it way to much to let the cold stop us, or dampen our spirits much if any so, there we were all havin` a large time together and just bein` boys and doing a lot we might not shouldda done, but it was just to damn much fun.

Some how we got it in our heads to do some industural strength drinkin`, maybe thinkin` it would help fight off the cold a bit, but none of us had anything to drink and most of our folks were God-fearing-folks, wouldn`t you know it. But where there`s a will there`s a way and we all knew someone who drank and where they kept some who-shot-john, or hooch, snake bite meds, or whatever you wanna call it so, we set in to get our hands on as much of it as we could get, we`d worry about gettin` caught later.

Did and done and we all meet back up and we did get enough to do some serious damage, but hell none of us had ever drank before and didn`t have a clue as to how much it`d take to get it done, but we had almost enough to float a boat in, it turns out.

It`s already after dark so we set in gettin` a fire up and glowin` good and we start tryin` out that industural strength drinkin` chit. Gosh a mighty that tastes like cow pee, but it didn`t stop `em so I wasn`t gonna let it stop me. Oh I was real sick of it long before my tummy got to knowin` it and got word to me about it all. My head felt like it was commin` off and like a hammer mill was pounding outta control, what the hell was that noise?

I look up and oh chit no it`s lights comin` up over the ridge from our place and more from Doc Hopkin`s place too, it was our folks comin` to check up on us, I guess someone figured out we pinched their booze.

Damn the fat`s in the fire now someone yells and we all go to tryin` to hide the booze and sober up a bit before they roll up on us, silly us, but we tried anyway. I remember stuffin` cookies into my mouth and biting a raw patato because someone said it`d mask the smell of the booze, I wouldda eaten an onion like and apple if we had had one, we didn`t.

Poor Buddy was in a bad way, he was falling down, slobberin` on himself, snockered to the max, fried and wasted away. We being the brain surgons we thought we were then and there decide we gotta sober him up and quick so we toss his silly ass off in the bayou, that wakes him up, well it almost drown his silly ass, but you know, we`re kids, we didn`t know what to do with him. We did threaten his life if he got out of there though, I do remember that part of it and he stayed in there too, but he wasn`t quiet about it, but drunk kids can`t hear good it turns out so we didn`t notice stuff we might shouldda paid more attention to stuff like that.

Any way it`s to late now to do much more than get ready to greet the folks and us idiots thinkin` we can pull this off too. They pull up on us like storm-troopers and in just about the same sort of humor too now that I think back on it some, but oh well, where was I?,.. oh YES,.. My dad`s face was so red you couldda cooked on it, but thank God I didn`t say that out loud that time,... and the rest of the guy`s folks weren`t lookin` much better, maybe it was just the night and all the light they kept shinin` in our faces, but you know what? They kinda quit screaming at us and went off and put their heads together for a spell and came back at us and all of us expectin` to catch a lot more hell, but nope, they just told us to put out that damn fire and get our butts to bed, that daylight was gonna dawn early, or some chit and they left us there like that.

I laughed my ass off, I thought they must be drunker than us kids and I think I did say that out loud, `cause everyone started laughin` at it until we heard Buddy screamin` bloddy murder at us to come get him outta the water. He looked like a drowned rat, smelled like it too kindda, but all boys smell like wet critters till they discover girls and soap so, we get him hauled out and nope, no one has extra dry clothes for him to put on, it wasn`t like anyone planned to swim as stinkin` cold as it was anyway. So, we build up the fire again and set him close enough to it to have caught him on fire if he haddn`t been so wet and he mighta gone off like a rocket too if he wasn`t so snockerfaced drunk, but he still was, but he did catch fire and was lit up like a Christmas tree there for just a tiny bit, but with good friends like us, we stomp him out pretty fast so, he`s mostly just smokin` and some was steam maybe.

We decide we do got to get some sleep it`s late damn thirty and none of us brought a watch, but we`re done in so we turn in,.. Well remember wet Buddy? Yup, he`s still kinda soaked to the bone and shiverin` and to wet so no one will let him sleep with `em and he`s left to the floor, or he can go toast himself some more by the fire if he wants to.

We wake up it can`t be more than an hour later and it`s still dark kinda, well it would be if there wasn`t car lights streaming into every damn window on that camper, it`s the folks back and they`re layin` on the car horns wakin` us all up.

Remember Buddy??? We didn`t either and so most of us tripped on him there in the floor and he`s still whiney and pissy and wants to kill us all, but then we find out he`s frozen to the floor, yup, stuck like glue. Funny as hell, or would be later when my head didn`t hurt so much. We end up havin` to heat some water to pour over him to thaw his silly once more wet ass out, it just keeps gettin ` better,.. right? WRONG!!!,.. Now our mothers get a turn at us all and they suff us with oil soaked everything yucky kinda food that we`ll be seeing again soon as we hurl that up too. Oh guess what today is? Oh chit mom my head hurts to much for guessin` games, can`t`cha just tell me? It`s Sunday lil` sinners and you`re going to Church just as soon as you get your chores done so you hurry up and get back in here and cleaned up,.. DO YOU HEAR ME???? Yup I did and I suspected everyone in town heard her too and we lived 11 miles out.

So I get to Church and my brother and I am escorted to a seat with all my other friends settin` there already smirkin` at us, well between that look and green faced, I suspect their mothers were kind to them too and stuffed `em to the gills with yuckies.

The preacher makes everyone look at us boys and sets in to tellin` `em about our sins and short-comings, but my head is bustin` as Stan hands me a song book and tells me to say under the covers with any girl`s name after any song title and so I look at the guys and they`re doin` it too,. at least our heads are down like we`re sorry and chit. But then someone busts a gut laughin` and I can`t keep from laughin` too at how funny that was, or maybe I`m still drunk, who knows, but then this ol` Lady (Bless her heart) thumps me on the ear, `cause I`m laughin` and that made me see stars damn near it anyway and I was almost ready to collect myself and stop actin` a fool but she sets in and thumps a few of the other guys she can reach and one screams (hey, watch it you ol` bat) and I`m in the floor laughin`, or was till I got hauled outside and told off by my dad and a buncha angry men I can`t remember all their names now Thank God too, or I`d croke next time I see `em in town.

But Dad does get done with me after a fashion, or at least till he gets me home and no one can hear me screamin` my lungs out, but I get back in there and damn me I`m gonna hush and make it through this service or my dad`s gonna kill me and he seemed to mean it too, this time more than most.

Well, I was almost impressed with myself I was being so damn good, hell you would of thought I invented being good, or the conscept of it and I was all the time makin` improvements on being good and gonna apply for the damn patentent on it and chit too and I mightta `cept about then I see Buddy`s face and he has fostbite on his face from bein` frozen to the floor of the camper, or maybe it`s where he got to close to the fire, or it could have been all that hot water we dumped on him freein` him from the frozen floor, I don`t know, but hells bells he looked like droopy damn dog and I bust a gut again and smacko that lil` blue haired bitty popped me harder than a hornet can sink a stinger in ya and I let put a howl and all the guys bust up again laughin`, but oh chit, this time there`s no doublt it, it`s my fault and I`m gonna have to pay for it, but some things you just gotta be there,.. RIGHT???LOL Great Times!!!”