Camping Trip: Part 9: I Made It Home On A Spare With A Smile

It was a fun motorcycle ride. I wish it could have gone on forever. Alas, all things are fleeting.

I wisely kept my enthusiasm on a leash. The oncoming storm sounded like the real deal. Hard to imagine it happening on the same planet as the blue sky playground where I happily rode along… but I know better than to get caught out there. I returned to camp long before it was due to hit.

Back at camp I packed all my stuff; including the wildly successful “shitbucket” and the supremely useful little electric chainsaw. I carefully put my shotgun in the back seat, hitched my trailer to the truck, tossed the flat tire in the truck, strapped down the bike, and rolled out.

A half mile out of camp. A gamebird was just standing there in the road!

I put the truck in park, grabbed my shotgun, and… dammit. All my ammo was still on the motorcycle! (You can’t have a loaded shotgun in the truck but I could have had the good sense to stick a few shells in my pocket!)

By the time I ran from the driver’s door to the mounted bike on the trailer, and then to the dirt road in front of my truck… the bird was long gone. Not that I minded. I hadn’t specifically been after birds, I’d been after peace; which I’d found. It had been a successful trip.

The spare tire held even though it was a very long drive home. In the middle of the night, the long delayed weather front hit. All hell broke loose. Even within my house I could barely sleep through the screaming winds.

So I end the story of my camping trip and the previous “glamping” that led up to it. I was happy, tired, spiritually at peace, rejected as a volunteer, and unconcerned about the rejection. I was mentally (if not physically) rested and already dreaming about my next trip. We are specks in the universe; hunkered down when we must and venturing forth to seek wisdom when we’ve the gumption. We progress in fits and starts. Through it all, irrational elements howl pointlessly outside, amounting to nothing.

I wonder what the future holds but I’m not overly concerned. I guess I’ll fix that tire and let the rest of the universe tend to itself.

What better thing could a man do?