During the last weekend of August we ventured out to the campground at Lopez Lake for a two-day, fun-filled outdoor cousin adventure. “Lake” Lopez is a bit of a misnomer. The drought has reduced it down to a brush-filled canyon. Jake and Nate know quite a bit about droughts and water conservation and native plantings given we really haven’t had much rain in their entire lifetimes.
Needless to say, the first night in the campground was rough. We ended-up tent camping at Blue Jay, which is primarily for recreational vehicles. Friday night is party night. All of our neighbors had a rip-roaring good time till the wee hours, playing corn hole, proudly putting up their Trump signs, and flying their Confederate flags (OK, to be fair, flag, but really?)… Let’s not forget I have not been interested in going anywhere near tent camping since the Great Bear Debacle of two-thousand-and-ten.
Devon and Bryan came Saturday, after we’d spent several hours braving the frigid waterslides of Mustang Water Park. There were hours of tent wrestling and tag and throwing flammable dishware in the fire. An adventurous weekend of s’mores and potato chips and Scruffy. A few pitfalls, as little unsuspecting boys appear to be drawn to RV sewer hook-ups, but all and all, a great success.
One of the most memorable parts of Lopez Lake was the plentiful wildlife. We saw hundreds of dear, flocks of turkeys, woodpeckers and even a little family of raccoons— the mom and her five babies lined-up along a tree as though posing for a calendar.
On Saturday morning Nate and I were quietly enjoying our breakfast when a young buck came into our campsite. He took a look directly into the boys’ yellow tent and then proceeded to make his way over to our picnic table. He came closer and closer, until he was looking directly at Nate and me from the opposite side of the table. That’s when I decide this young buck is gettin’ a little too big for his britches and I give him a good, “Go’on, go’on!”
He scampers out of our site and then, I’m not making this up, sways his rear-end from side to side in a very deliberate, exaggerated way.
I turn to Nate and Nate turns to me and I say, “What just happened?”
And Nate says, giggling in disbelief, “I think he just shook his bum bum at us!”
“Just shook his bum bum at us,” I repeat. “That’s exactly what he just did.”