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starry night

Our destination in driving through Vermont was Hanover, NH. We arrived late afternoon and decided to head to our campsite first off and unload the bikes before heading to dinner to celebrate Kate's birthday. En route to the campground, we stopped to visit some of Jeremy's friends, the Parkers, from whom Jeremy borrowed a pillow and sleeping pad, having neglected to bring his own. It turned out to be Nancy's birthday as well and they invited us to join them for dinner, but as we already had reservations, we declined.

We set up camp at Storr's Pond, site D, which the man taking my reservation had assured me was the most picturesque tent site they had available. It was, however, quite a hike from the bath house and so Kate and I opted for the closer port-a-john. Unfortunately, it was not set up on level ground and we both had quite the undulating experience, as if on a boat.

We headed to dinner at Murphy's on the Green where Kate opened many cards sent via Jeremy from friends in Atlanta. After dinner, we strolled down Main St and walked through Barnes and Noble which was setting up for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows. It was cruel and unusual punishment for me. By then, it had grown cool enough to put on jeans and grab jackets, which we did in the parking lot behind the store and headed off for some golf course on the other side of Dartmouth's campus to gaze at the stars. It was a clear, beautiful evening and the best night of star-gazing we had this trip.

It was pretty late when we headed back to our campsite. Before Kate and I cracked open Peace Like a River for our bedtime reading, we whipped out the whoopie cushion we had picked up while in Windham, hoping to prove to Jeremy that camping with girls really isn't all that different from camping with guys. Of course, using it only sent us into fits of giggles and we learned the next morning that Jeremy had not even the slightest clue about what we were trying to accomplish, but were just being weird. Which we were.

It was less than a peaceful night's sleep. In the middle of the night, we were awakened by a rowdy group of boys pulling into their campsite, screaming and cursing at each other and provoking the screams and curses of other nearby campers as well. They then proceeded to play a CD at full volume, the entire way through. This invited further cursing from nearby campers. The music, a female voice, was vaguely familiar to me and reminded me of my grandmother, but I could not place it. Kate, who can sleep through anything, apparently fell back to sleep and Jeremy put in ear plugs, while I suffered. And then I suffered through the second CD, a male, they blasted full volume all the way through.

Shortly after the second CD ended, I realized they were not going to play a third and I could relax and try to sleep, but I began to suffer great thirst. Normally, I keep a full Nalgene outside the tent for such nocturnal thirsts, but not this night. I tried to fall back to sleep in spite of my thirst, but in my anxious, exhausted state, I convinced myself that all of my bodily functions were shutting down as a result of dehydration and I had to have something to drink or I would die. So I grabbed the car keys and stumbled to the car. I was afraid to use the key fob to open the door lest I hit the panic button instead of the unlock button. So I used the key to open the door instead. Which set the car alarm off anyway.

But, I got my drink of water and fell back to sleep without my bodily functions shutting down completely and got a few hours of sleep at least. A week or so later, in Maine, we walked into a restaurant where the same offensive CD was playing over the loudspeakers. The guy behind the counter confirmed for me that it was Patsy Kline. I shall have nightmares from here on out whenever I hear her.

Labels: travel

posted by CP @ 3:43 PM 0 thoughts