Night 2: Heavy breathing

After more exploring, we made a meager fire, and a great dinner of hot dogs and smores. We were tired from almost being mugged so we settled in for the night. Since there was no chance of rain in the forecast, I quickly fell asleep.


"haasshh haa haa"

I woke up with a start to the sound of heavy breathing.

"Ben!" I said, shocked "just because we are in the middle of the woods doesn't mean I will...."

"Snore" - Ben was sound asleep.

"Oh, well" I thought to myself "I guess I was just dreaming."

"Haaaa hashhaa."

My heart started to pound - I wasn't dreaming. There was something right outside of our tent. Something big and scary!!!!!!!!

I hit Ben to wake him up quickly. "What!" He yelled at me, grumpy from being woken up.

"Shhhhhh" I cautioned.

"Do you hear that?" I asked him

"Haaaa hash hah"

Ben looked at me and said "What is that?"

"It's a bear" I squeaked.

" A bear!" he exclaimed "Cool!" Ben started to unzip the tent to get a closer look.

I hit him again, this time for being an idiot.

"Don't open the tent! Are you crazy!" I hissed "Oh my God, what are we going to do!"
"Get your gun!"

"I don't have a gun" Ben looked at me exasperatingly

"Ben, how can you come so unprepared to the wilderness" I said.

Ben answered "Look, a gun wasn't on the list of camping supplied that I pulled off of the internet."
"I'm sure it's not a bear" he whispered "It's too early for bears."

"Haaash haaa sha"

The breathing was getting louder, the animal was right in front of the tent door... our only exit.

"BEN!!!! You put the trash by the tent door!!!!" I hissed again.

There was no way out. We only had a small window on our other side and I didn't think I would fit through it. Curses for being fat!
I was going to get eaten by a bear. After he was done eating our left over hot dogs, I was going to be next. It will say on by gravestone "Here lies Chelsea - she was desert."

"I'll scare him off" said Ben "I'll just make a lot of noise."

Ben started yelling and clapping and I followed his lead by putting on my shoes and getting ready to run.

There was no more breathing. Everything was silent. Ben opened the tent door and everything looked normal. The only thing out of place was the trash bag which has been ripped open and it's contents spilled.

"I want to sleep in the car" I said

"It's gone!" Ben replied. "I'll move the trash bag, it won't come back"

"I want to sleep in the car" I repeated getting teary eyed. I had just had a near death experience.

"Baby, it's ok, the thing is gone it was probably just a raccoon" Ben tried to comfort me.

"I want to sleep in the car" I said once more

Ben sighed. "Ok let's go sleep in the car."

We grabbed our stuff and headed to the car for the second night in a row. Oh well, so much for tent camping.

Day two: Downtown Hot Springs.

Sorry it took so long to continue with our camping story – but I’ve been a little busy with getting engaged … *smile* Anyway here is an account of day two:

Ben and I woke up early to the birds singing outside our car window.

“Isn’t this great honey – nature right at our front door” said Ben, who was abnormally cheery for having just spent a night crammed into a car.

I glared at him menacingly “I need to take a shower” I growled. It was true, I did need a shower. If I had been a cartoon there would be green waves surrounding me.

“You do!” exclaimed Ben

Ben was exceedingly lucky that I was too tired to kill him. Not too tired to think it, just too tired to do it.

We dragged ourselves to the community showers to clean up. Afterwards I suggested that we take a trip to downtown Hot Springs to see all the touristy crap. Ben agreed and we were on our way. By the time we arrived, downtown was swarming with tourists. We pushed our way through the crowds and found very interesting shops to explore. My favorites were, the costume shop, the best fudge shop ever (it really was good) and the old toy’s toy store. As we were meandering about, a homeless person stopped me and asked me for money.

*cough* “you got any spare change” *cough*

“Sorry, don’t have anything.” I said truthfully

He glared at me

Ben and I carried on with our meandering but something was amiss… the homeless person was following us! I got completely freaked out and made a mad dash for the nearest store.

“What is wrong with you?” Ben asked

“That homeless dude was following us!” I explained

Ben looked at me like I was crazy.

He looked at me like I was even more crazy when I made us go to our car and leave the city of Hot Springs – without even looking at one hot spring. Ben was totally jipped. But because I am his girlfriend and also cute, he put up with me.

“Don’t blame me!” I said sweetly “Blame the crazy homeless guy.”

Ben said “of course I will honey, that’s the American way!”

And all was well in the land of Chelsea and Ben.

Guess what?

So I got engaged. How about that? And I didn't even have to pay anyone or get knocked up. We are so happy! The date, I think, is going to be around the second week of December. Tis the season to be married, right?

PS I am currently taking advice... with a grain of salt of course!