The Bad Back Hike

Cayuse Campground, page 29

6:15 PM.  I've got my blue poly-pro turtleneck shirt, vest, hat, gloves, long-sleeved poly-pro tee-shirt, and windbreaker on, and I'm still cold! 

Fully half the sites in this campground are now occupied. The most interesting party, and the latest to arrive, are three young kids who drove up in a battered Datsun pickup. They have an old funky canvas tent that they just can NOT get up!

After quite some time spent wrestling with the bulky canvas, the two boys finally threw down the poles in disgust and slung a rope between two trees, from which they are now in the process of suspending the limp, lifeless tent. Gee… It doesn't exactly look like the tent was designed as an A-Frame.

I must admit, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching my neighbors today. Like Art Linkletter once said, people really are pretty funny.

The kids have just given up on the rope idea and the tent is a heaped mass of fabric on the ground. I would offer to help, but I truly have no idea how to put it up either. If they were smart, they would just look around the campground to where a couple of other parties have erected similar tents and asked those people for advice.

Well, wouldn't you know it! After 45-minutes of valient effort the two boys were standing, hands-on-hips, staring proudly at a their "tent." It had nice headroom ... but unfortunaely waved in the breeze about 3-feet above the ground with no way to tie the corners down.

Finally, a young girl who'd watched the Boy Genius Brigade stepped forward. She looks to be about 16 or so and went to the truck and brought back a long green bundle. She has, in 15-minutes, erected a three-person dome tent. The younger boy came over sheepishly to help her, while the older boy refused to accept the futility of his project and continued to tug and pull at his sacred plastic tarp.

Oh, my God ... doesn't this image just resonate down the centuries?!?

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