Weird stuff that happened this weekend

The nap


It all started off innocently enough. I got to our campsite mid-morning and knew Meredith and Shaine were at least 12 hours behind me, so I figured I would make up for my 4:30 a.m. wake-up by taking a nap. It was too hot to nap in the tent so I opened the car doors on both sides and when it had cooled down a bit, I reclined the front passenger seat and dozed off. A while later, I was awakened by the sounds of classical music blaring. I checked repeatedly to make sure my car radio was off. It appeared to be.


Then I noticed there was a wife-beater-clad man in my campsite. He was rustling around, gathering up dead wood and so forth, and walking back and forth just a foot or two from the car without any acknowledgment of my presence. There is nothing like waking up from a nap all sweaty and disoriented, with music proceeding from an unknown source, and being confronted with a stranger just inches away. When I came to completely, I realized the guy was a park ranger who had parked his utility truck directly behind my car and was blasting classical music from his radio. He left a couple of minutes later, without ever speaking to me.


I dozed off again and was awakened this time by someone touching me on the arm. I looked down and there was a squirrel standing on the running board of the car with its paws on my arm. Of course it jumped down as soon as I moved, then hovered near the car until I made a move to get out, at which point it fled. I'm still not sure what lured it over. Did I smell enticing? Was a food odor emanating from the car? It seemed like a pretty bold move for a squirrel.


I dared to go to sleep for a third time and the rest of the nap was uneventful. I did notice, however, that while I was asleep someone took all my paper and plastic utensils out of the plastic bag I had left them in on the picnic table, and made off with the bag itself. It seemed too deliberate and organized for a squirrel, but maybe I'm not giving them enough credit.

The lady in the washroom

Throughout the trip, I'd say 75% of the times I went into the campground restroom, I ran into this particular lady. It seemed strange, considering there are hundreds of people at this site, coming and going in the restrooms. Maybe she was spending most of each day in there; who knows. I did notice that she talked to herself incessantly. I was washing my face and hands at the sink and she came in and went into a stall. The monologue started right away and continued for a couple of minutes: "Oh, yuck... Hm... Gosh. There's no soap here. OK. I need to remember to bring my own hand towel. Oh. No hot water. Hm. OK...." and on and on.

At one point I wondered if she was actually expecting me to respond in some fashion, so I looked at her and said, "I'm sorry -- what was that?" and she gave me a weird look as though I were the strange one. Another day I went in and found her washing a pair of small girls' pants in the sink. I hurried in and out before I could hear her talking about that incident. All very strange.

The musician

This was actually pretty cool. We were hiking along and Shaine said, "Hey, where are the bagpipes coming from?" I honestly thought she was imagining this (sorry, Shaine). We were on a burned-off trail a couple of miles from the canyon floor and I was wheezing to the point I couldn't hear a thing. Anyway, we reached the top of the trail, where there is a large pool of water rimmed by canyon walls. It's a nice little oasis in the middle of the desert, and we sat there for a while enjoying ourselves. There were maybe a dozen other people there and after awhile, a man showed up with what appeared to be -- you guessed it -- bagpipes. He sort of hollered out to the group, "Hey, would anyone object to me playing the bagpipes up here? I just want to see how it sounds." No one objected, and he climbed out on a rock outcropping and treated us to a very cool bagpipe number.

It was pretty awesome, being there in this remote outdoor location with a spectacular view, very interesting acoustics, and some great music. There was appreciative applause at the end of his performance, but unfortunately he didn't treat us to an encore.

The Drama Next Door

Actually, I feel that I am taking all the interesting stories from the trip, so I'll let the other girls tell you about this one. Trust me, it was great. One of the highlights of the trip in a weird way.