Gone Camping by Gail Sattler

Author:Gail Sattler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2012-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

Following a delicious supper of barbecued chicken and slightly burnt potatoes, Roberta, Molly, and Gwen tried to decide what to do until nightfall. Taking a vote with two for and one against, they decided to attend Garrett’s evening presentation at the amphitheater.

Grumbling all the way, Roberta tagged along, deliberately trying to slow them down, hoping if they arrived late, there wouldn’t be any empty seats, and they would be forced to turn back. Or, if they were late enough, it would be too awkward to enter once Garrett started, and they would leave.

They arrived with plenty of time. Gwen and Molly headed center front, again.

Roberta watched from her seat as Molly and Gwen chatted with Garrett while he prepared his materials and the slide projector. As darkness fell, he pointed to the empty seats beside Roberta, ordering Gwen and Molly to sit down, and he called the audience’s attention to begin his topic of the night, which was hiking.

Despite her bad intentions, Roberta found him fascinating, and she immensely enjoyed his presentation. Sparked with a touch of humor, he illustrated good and bad examples of a typical hiker, complete with volunteers from the audience, followed by an indepth description of the local trails and suggested difficulty levels.

Every once in a while their eyes met, and every time it happened, Roberta’s heartbeat quickened. At the conclusion of his presentation, a group of young women surrounded Garrett, vying for his attention. Rather than compete, the three of them returned to their campsite. Molly and Gwen complained about the women, but Roberta didn’t care.

Gwen used the last of the kindling to build the campfire for the night. Not long after that, she threw in the last log, as well. This time, Molly and Roberta used Gwen’s car, which still had the little utility trailer hooked on the back, to carry a huge pile of wood back from the stockpile.

Molly wiped her hands on the back of her jeans. “So, who gets the honors of chopping it up? Garrett cut it for you before, didn’t he?”

Roberta nodded. “Yes. And he made it look so easy. I learned otherwise, the hard way.”

Gwen grinned. “I know. It takes practice, and I’m probably better at it than you are, but Garrett slices through it effortlessly. Maybe next time he makes his rounds, we can sucker him into cutting us some more. I know he won’t have time tomorrow, because Sunday is a busy day for him. That’s when most campers leave, and all the sites have to be tidied up for the next batch. By tomorrow lunchtime, this place will be almost empty. We’ll have the whole place almost to ourselves.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Gwen replied, “the beach too. Usually all that’s left by Sunday afternoon are a few families with little kids.”

“Sounds like you know the routine. I guess you do a lot of camping.”

“Yes, we do. We’ve camped since we were little kids, and we all loved it, but especially Garrett. It’s no surprise that when he needed a job before he finishes college this is what he would choose to do.

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