HO-HUM - ANOTHER DAY OF BREATHTAKING SCENERY

This is how it looked as night fell over our camp.

I know there are people who would find it boring sitting around a campfire eating steak and eggs at 7:00 a.m. while the sun came up, and people who would not find the intense pleasure I found at sitting at the picnic table in the "dining area" of our Vacation Lodge popping open Bud Lights with Lime while it poured outside and the wind whistled through the huge stands of Ponderosa pines, but just yawn and bear it.  :)  (I also know almost everyone in the world would love to experience what we experienced, so I was just being funny).  

The sun began to set and someone said the word "bears" to us, so it had quite an impact on how we stored and disposed of food at our little oasis of beauty and calmness.  If we were not putting everything away to protect it from a surprise lightning and wind storm, we were putting it back in The Camp Truck for storage to try to keep the larger critters of the night away from our tent, which, even though it was huge, and even though it withstood high winds, probably would not be much of a match for a seven-foot tall, four-hundred-fifty-pound brown bear.  

After eating, being a little paranoid about the bear situation, we would scrub every teensy little odor of hot dog from our fingers, the table outside, and burn every crumb of bread in the fire.  

Now, I know you want me to tell you a bear story here, but the only bear story I have is that they stayed in the forest and lived their own lives, leaving us to go home with our own.

I am going to just start with some photos here.

All we lacked at our little table was a mirror, which we vowed to take along next time.  Cheers!

We had to take containers and find a water spigot before nightfall, and one of us (I won't say who) left the flaps open on the tent.  See the Victoria's Secret bag sitting there?  Hairspray actually kills flies...Susan never ceased to amaze me.

There were two big bedrooms in the Vacation Lodge mega-tent, one at each end, but after we read about the bears, we decided it would be best to both sleep at the same end.  This is where we slept.  Quite comfy.  My bed is on the left, by the window, which got rained in by a surprise rain storm while we were somewhere else. 

Here is the scene out our front door.  Who wouldn't want to wake up to that??  We could lay in our beds and watch the night fall on this cliff face while we read "for three hours each night." 

This was the view across the wildflower meadow out our back window.  I know how boring this is getting.  :0)

This nice, cold mountain stream was behind our campsite, and this is where I took a bath.  Cross another thing off my bucket list!

More amazing Mother Nature and fun later!  It actually gets prettier as time marches on.  My brain felt like it was on the "sports mode" on a camera or one of those flip-books.  Sun down, night sounds, sun up, new flowers, new birds, new bugs, new creatures.  On and on and on it goes.

I really took to heart the words to this song by Susan Cowsill:  "It's what we do here that matters when we go."  

So everyone tread lightly on this earth and help her survive!