The Way West

Heading out on the road is a feeling like no other.  With no destination in mind and all the time in the world to kill, it is pretty easy to get lost in the beauty of this country.  Keeping this in mind, Courtney and I hugged our mom goodbye and headed out on our trip, making our way west.

Our first stop was in Ohio at Cuyahoga National Park, and for both me and Courtney it was our first experience camping by ourselves, and also ever.  It might sound a bit ridiculous for two young girls who have never been camping before (and know almost nothing about it) to just grab a tent and head out for the road, but I firmly believe that's the best way to learn something new, and have a kick-ass adventure along the way.  So our first night in the campground was a strange and glorious experience; we couldn't start a fire, though it was one of the more hilarious times of the trip.  (Note: chips make good kindling if you dare to sacrifice it)

 

The next day after we left Ohio, we headed out for Wisconsin, this was the longest day we spent in the car, 12 hours!  However painful it was, that night was probably definitely worse.  During the car ride we researched campgrounds in the middle of Wisconsin to stay at and found one called Blackhawk.  When we arrived it was very clear that unlike the night before, when we were surrounded by colorful RV's with Christmas lights, we were now the only people in the grounds.

We drove around a bit and found a spot next to, I shit you not, Bloody Lake.  After a three second deliberation we conclusively thought not to put ourselves in a scene from a horror movie, thus we moved to the other side of the camp onto a different lake where the sun was setting.

  

Once we picked our spot, Courtney tried again at making a fire, while I set up the tent and took a few photos.  We bought Jiffy Pop to enjoy over the fire, but again it was in vain.  It was pretty clear from then on that making a fire was unlikely to happen on this trip, but it didn't stop us from trying.

For a moment, it was lovely having a colorful sunset to watch dip beyond a foggy lake, but soon as the sun set it was pretty much panic all night.  Maybe it was the fact that we've never been that alone before, or maybe we smoked too much of something, but we both agreed that we were going to wake up either inside a bear's mouth or under the knife of Micheal Myers.  Every branch cracking, every leaf falling, every time the wind blew, I was positive it would the beginning to a bloodbath. Call it paranoia.

Least to say that we left the nanosecond day broke.  Have you ever had a scary camping experience? I'd love to hear I'm not the only crazy one!