S'mores, Carnies, and Ticks

We went camping last night. We had a lovely camp site on a local lake. There were lots of trees. There were lots of ticks. Scads and scads of ticks. I'm talkin' ticks crawling all over our tent as we were setting it up. Little itty bitty deer ticks. Smaller than a pin head. I promptly soaked the whole tent in insect repellent. I sprayed down all of us. The problem was, the tricks were dropping out of the trees onto our stuff... Yes, I appreciate the shudders of horror I know you are all having right now. Seriously, the only place I felt safe was on the water.

Remember our lovely campsite? Well, it was very entertaining. We had a very, shall I say, eclectic group of people at the next sight over. There was a gentleman who could juggle fire. He had a baton thingy with torches on either end that he would ignite and use two stick dealies to juggle it back and forth, throw it up in the air and occasionally nearly drop it on his foot. Also, he had a fascination with lighter fluid. It seems they forgot to bring fire wood. The group went around and gathered up sticks and branches off of the ground. The wood was too green to burn. Their fire kept nearly going out, but every time it did, fire starter dude would come up with his lighter fluid and squirt the flames until they were up to bonfire height. When his can of lighter fluid was nearly empty he held the can OVER the flames and squeezed it dry. No exaggeration, those flames were licking up around his can when he finally had it empty. I was praying, "Please God, keep him safe. Please God, don't let him get burned. Please God, I really don't want to deal with 3rd degree burns tonight." I literally said a prayer of thanks when God kept the idiot safe. The group (it was very large) was a family reunion. They had no conception of the quiet hours posted. They stayed up yelling and laughing until after 1 am, and they were back up, yelling and laughing some more by 5 am. I was ready to kill them.

Originally, we had planned on staying 2 nights. However, I'm driving the girls to meet a friend from South Texas on Monday. That group was still there this afternoon with no signs of slowing down. I wanted the girls to be rested up to go visit their friends next week. So, based on the loud hillbilly carnie folk next door and the ticks, we packed up and came home this afternoon.

I know it may not sound like it, but we had a great time. We fished and boated. It was too windy for skiing or tubing. We found a little cove to swim in, and we had the beach to ourselves for 2 hours solid before anyone even came near us. Then, we headed to the Nature Center where the girls got to learn about local animals and make plaster casts of animal tracks. Last night they spent forever chasing and catching lightning bugs...

Oh!

And who could forget.....

S'MORES!!!!!

Post Note: I realize that one may gather that I have something against people who work in carnivals...This is completely untrue...Unless they decide to camp next to me and party all night long with kids screaming and yelling, and shouting profanities...Well, in that case...I wish they would just shut up, and shut their little yapping dog up, and GO TO BED!!

The End.