Chapter 1: Camping

What a life I've lived, what a life I've hated. Same thing everyday day - work on this, fix that. I loved electronics and engineering but, this same place, same thing is getting to me, I need a vacation! I need to get away from everything - especially the news and newspapers. Does anything good ever happen anymore? Everything nowadays is death related - who killed who, who tortured and raped who. Heck, there were over 3,000 murders and 10,000 rapes in California alone last year, who knows how many other offenses. Then there is the war we supposedly just won, well you couldn't tell with all the military around. I think someone would like this war to last forever, someone in charge definitely seems happy about it. Yep that's it! I'm going on vacation, so I arranged my vacation time with my boss and then this weekend I was gone.

I decided to go camping up near Fawnskin Valley outside of Big Bear; I figured it would be nice and quiet. I loaded up my gas hog of an SUV Friday night and loaded my Toy Hauler as well. I figured I might get in a bit of riding time as I had planned to stay for the entire two weeks I had off. I loaded enough supplies for a month; this trailer could hold everything in the house almost. I purchased the dumb thing a little more than a year ago and this is only the second time I have used it, what a waste! But it was home away from home, that was for sure.

I headed out the next morning after loading my Springfield M1A, My Bushmaster and my Glock into the back of the truck; yep, I never leave home without them. I also rounded up my two mutts - I was sure they wanted to go. It was a very nice drive; there was even a little snow in some places.

I made my way through Big Bear stopping for breakfast, and what a breakfast it was! It has been far too long since I have been away; people also seemed much nicer in the smaller towns. After breakfast I headed for the campground and was about half way to the campground when I pulled over for some distressed campers.

"Hi folks, need help?" I said.

"Yes please. We had a blowout on the trailer and it seems my better half didn't notice the jack was missing," she said.

There was a guy and another girl standing back at the trailer, the guy had a frown on his face. I was sure he was not happy with his wife, the other girl didn't seem too happy with either of them.

"Sure I have a jack, I'll get it and see what we can do," I said.

So I grabbed my jack and we raised the trailer, during that time we were all introduced. There was Jack and Melissa Rogers. Then there was Patricia who was a friend of Melissa's. Apparently they all decided to go camping and have some fun, but I could tell Patricia didn't want to be here. We finished up with the trailer and left for the campground. As it turned out they were camping at a campground less than a mile from mine. I arrived at my campsite just after lunch so the first thing I did was pull out my BBQ and start it up. Then I went about setting up camp. They didn't have electricity here but they did have well water, so I set up my battery unit and set up the solar cells on the trailer, which would handle my lighting needs. Then I returned to the grill to make hamburgers, even warmed up a can of chili. I sat down and had my first relaxing meal in a long time, thankful I didn't bother to bring my cell phone.

I did spend the rest of the day reading; luckily I have a good selection of books on my laptop. A good book always seems to help me relax.

That evening I started a campfire and just relaxed on the lounger but when it started to get a bit cold around 11:00 I went in and got some sleep.

The next morning I woke up and whipped up some oatmeal, yeah, I know - but I like it. I added all the toppings and sat down outside to eat. I was just eating and waving to a few early morning hikers, when I decided to go for a walk myself. Surprisingly there were quite a few people on the trail this early, all of us getting an early start I guess. I walked a few miles then turned and headed home.

After cleaning up from breakfast, I sat down to continue to read. It was a few hours later I noticed a girl walking up the path alone, yep it was Patricia.

"Good morning, Patricia" I yelled.

She walked over to me, smiled, then looked around. I jumped up and grabbed a folding chair from inside and set it out for her. I offered her something to drink and she asked for a coke. I sat back down and just looked at her.

"Rough night?" I said smiling.

She scowled at me and said "Let's just say I was not interested".

"Yep I could tell by looking at you yesterday. Why did you come along with them in the first place?" I asked.

"Melissa is my friend or was anyway, I had no idea what they had on their minds. I just wanted some fun time camping, it's been a long time," she said.

"Sorry about your friend, it seemed obvious what they had planned when I ran into you yesterday. I could tell then you weren't too happy. So - on to more interesting things. Tell me about you," I said.

"Well let's see ... I'm a student, currently studying Cybercrime. I'm 23 years old, very single and I love dogs, just like the 2 you have," she said.

"Well I'm sure they love you, all it takes is a little attention, their names are Levi & Butch, and Butch is the white one."

She played with the dogs for a bit and I decided I should start lunch; steak would be nice since I had company.

"I hope you like steak," I yelled to her.

"Oh sure I do but I'm not real hungry,".

"Oh well, I already put one on the grill, you can share with the dogs if you want," I said laughing.