Men in trucks, skunks, and low water crossings

Ahhh . . . Vacation.

Images of sleepy afternoons, napping in the hammock. Fun times swimming, playing ping-pong, or canoing on the river.

Nice.

We were again blessed with a great opportunity to go on a nice vacation. The stage is set: a sleepy small camp (which we have all to ourselves), ping-pong, pool, foosball, tetherball, basketball, volleyball, badminton, horseshoes, canoeing, paddle boat, fishing. Oh, did I mention it was on the Guadalupe river? Great facilities, great time, right?

Well of course we had a great time, but we also had some interesting events.

One sleepy afternoon we had the great mystery; who is in the white truck? Where we stayed all of the properties are gated. To get in you have to know the code. As we are enjoying our lazy afternoon, the mystery began; who came into the property in a white truck?

The property owners were in San Antonio and not expected. The truck had no markings, so who was it? We watched, waited and held our breath. The driver of the truck slowly made his way down the road and . . . checked the propane tanks. Mystery solved.

After he left, we were again outside enjoying the tree shaded grounds. We had been hearing a "scratching" sound from under the cabin and the source of the "scratching" soon became evident. A baby skunk (aww, how cute), waddled his way out from under the cabin through a hole that had been scratched under the covered porch.

We quickly and quietly removed ourselves from the area and the baby skunk (aww, how cute) waddled around to the other side of the cabin. After seeking refuge in the cabin, we were grateful to not be present for the spraying that soon occurred. We smelled it for hours, but we never did figure out why he sprayed. Either way, the baby skunk (aww, how cute), waddled on his way.

Just in case the baby skunk (aww, how cute) wasn't interesting enough, we had another exciting series of events. On Friday night we were awakened by a thunderstorm. It rained and thundered for hours.

No problem, right. Oh, did I say we were in a grove of enormous oak trees. A few *huge* limbs broke, one of which hit the roof of the cabin. It was loud, but I've lived through hurricanes, so I wasn't especially concerned.

Then the power went off. But it's the middle of the night, so who uses the light anyway? (We do! It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.) Thankfully, we had a couple of flashlights. Cell phones also work nicely.

Hours later the power eventually came back, thankfully. I wasn't looking forward to a day without air conditioning - or another night in the *dark*.

Late Saturday morning, we headed to the movies. To get to the camp, we had crossed four low water bridges. To get to town and the movie theatre, we had to cross them all again. The first and second ones were fine, but as we approached the third one, we joined a long line of stopped vehicles.

All the the menfolk dutifully got out of the car and walked around the bend to evaluate the chances of crossing. As we waited, I recalled all of the news stories of people who had attempted to cross just a few inches of rushing water and ended up needing to be rescued (or worse).

Some decided to turn around and return home (we heard the other direction was worse).

As the men returned to their vehicles, they reported that the Constable (how official, but also a man) had declared the bridge safe to cross. Since it was prudent to cross one lane at a time, we had the advantage of observing the vehicles from the other side of the bridge who had crossed. Several SUV's and a car crossed safely, so I felt good about crossing.

Then the question came, "Are you alright with crossing?" Why would he ask me that? I thought, well if the Constable (again, a man) said it was safe, then surely it was ok, right?

As we rounded the bend, I got my first glimpse of the bridge. Well, I couldn't really see the bridge. All I could see was water rushing over an expanse of about 30 feet. The water looked to be about 5 inches deep as it rushed over the concrete bridge. I'm glad I hadn't gotten a glimpse of the scene before I answered the question, my answer would decidedly have been different.

All of the horror stories again flashed through my mind as we slowly and steadily waded through the water. Not only did we make it safely, none of the other 15 or so cars were swept off the bridge either. Whew, what a relief.

So when the kids go back to school and sit down to write the obligatory "What did you do on your summer vacation?" they will definitely have something interesting to say.

God Bless!