Early autumn is the perfect time to trek it to the woods with friends for fun around the fire, warm boozy beverages and becoming one with nature, peeing amongst the trees. As I've said before, MR' high school pals are such a great group of people and they always invite me to join in their adventures, especially on weekends like this when I haven't seen him for a month - it's nice to be with other people who miss him and get it, too.
On Saturday afternoon we drove about 45 minutes northwest to Hueston Woods State Park, right past Miami University in Oxford. Gorgeous day - turning leaves and cool breeze, sunshine. We set up our site, had a beer or two and headed to the beach on the lake for some sand volleyball. The water was blue, the leaves were all changing colors across the way and sailboats were out... very picturesque - too bad I left my iPhone in the car! After an hour of intense competition and dancing in the sand to Angie's portland iPod speakers, we headed back to the campsite to grub. I hadn't camped there since my freshman year of high school and the site was quite different than I recalled. I sort of felt like we were in a trailer park... gobs of children, RVs, loose dogs and camo-clad adults, each site just 20 feet from the next, with cars lined up inbetween. So much for the quiet, great outdoors! (Note: I would highly recommend the drive to Athens to camp at Hocking Hills. You do have to hike your stuff a long way from the car to the site but it's much more secluded.) We really made the most of it... The boys bought weinie roasting sticks - so much better than an untrusty long twig dug up from under a log. We also had loads of snacks, coolers of beer, cider to heat over the fire and Knob Creek to make it all feel alright.
The boys started playing
French Darts and most of us girls decided to take a walk in the dark to the "Haunted Trail." We never made it there... As we climbed the hill, we came to an RV park decorated like the Nightmare Before Christmas - for reals. It was like The Griswold's haunted hood. And there was a big shelter with great music blaring - so we put down our drinks and went to explore. We entered a massive family fun party with a hell of a DJ. Naturally, we joined the dance party and stayed for an hour, dancing with kids and going wild, having a great time. Everyone back at camp didn't know what they were missing!! There were two people dressed like... well, either swamp things, Captain Caveman or Cousin Its - literally, just furry creatures head to toe with nothing showing - ahh! Afterwards we walked past the haunted scenes and I SCREAMED when a witch figure started talking to me - then I turned and saw a man with a microphone and remote control - yikes - these people are intense about their holiday decor. And then most importantly, we found a toilet with a flusher.
When we returned to the camp site, not to anyone's surprise, there had been an accident with the boys. Dave is the most accident-prone person I've ever met. While playing French Darts, Sanker's frisbee hit Dave's pole which is good - except the glass Corona bottle came crashing down right into his mouth, busting open his lip and knocking out his front tooth. He looked like he got jumped. This is why we girls can't leave the scene ha. The rest of the night was long, fun, safe and the weather was wonderful. We heated the cider over the fire, chatted and had some interesting conversations between trips to the woods.
The next morning we gorged ourselves at Bob Evans and spent the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing. Fabulous weekend, if you ask me.
