I slept really well last night once I let some air out of the air bed. I have a double decker air bed that can be split into two if necessary. It’s nice, but I found out that if you put too much air into both mattresses, you rock around on top like a ship on a stormy sea and capsizing is all too real a possibility. I made both mattresses a little gooshier and all was well. Harley didn’t sleep very well, though. He is afraid of the dark and he lay on my legs and shivered from cold and nerves, staring out over the pond. It’s funny, when we camped in the woods of Pennsylvania the frogs were so loud it made your ears bleed but camping here next to the pond, the frogs made very little noise. I had a small battery-operated fan that I bought yesterday at Walmart and it masked some of the night noises so that Harley could sleep. They don’t bother me, but he’s a wuss. I woke up a couple of times in the night to add a blanket to the bed, and at one point I turned the fan off but Harley got so agitated that I turned it back on and pointed it towards the ceiling. No, he’s not spoiled!
We got up about seven this morning and while I puttered around, Harley found the tracks of some small animal that had wandered across our campsite. I had a heck of a time keeping him from waking all of our neighbors with his barking. We are the only ones here in a tent, so I didn’t worry about it overly much. Before breakfast we went for a bike ride. When I first got Harley I thought about buying a bike trailer so that he could ride behind me while I biked. Now I’m thinking about getting him a harness so he can pull me up hills! For a small dog, he’s about 15 pounds, this dog is fast and strong. We only went a mile or so because I didn’t want him to overdo it, but he was having fun. Even wearing his collar there were times he was pulling me because he thought I was going too slowly. I let him for a few minutes, just to see if he could, but then I discouraged it because it’s bad manners. Speaking of bad manners, he had to challenge everyone we met on our ride… other bikers, dogs, squirrels, birds… I have got to get this dog obedience trained!
After the bike ride we came back to camp and I lit a fire with some charcoal and a couple of remaining logs from last night. It’s been burning for over an hour now and shows no sign of running out of fuel. Harley and I shared a couple of marshmallows, but it’s too early for hot dogs. We’ll save those for dinner, I think. I need to get ice and clean up the campsite a little, but otherwise the rest of my day is free. The campground is doing some kind of “clean up” party today because this is the first weekend of the year in which they are open. I declined to volunteer. I don’t mind a little work, but I have a lot of mindless activity planned for this weekend… biking, napping, reading, napping, sketching, napping, writing, napping, and maybe even some sleeping. I don’t mean to be a party pooper but I’m not here to work as free labor for the campground.
Harley is sleeping on his blanket on the ground next to me. I’m sitting in the screenhouse on a folding chair while I type on the laptop. The weather is beautiful. They predicted thunderstorms for this weekend but yesterday was clear and sunny and not too warm. This morning started out sunny and looked like it was going to be hot, but now the clouds are coming in. If it rains, we’ll either hole up in the tent or go for a car ride. We are only a couple of miles from George Washington’s birthplace and I think Robert E. Lee’s birthplace is nearby, too. I wanted to find some fun shops to find a present for my mom for Mother’s Day, but I don’t think that’s likely to happen. There’s a big antiques barn down the road, but I don’t think they’d allow me to take Harley in and it didn’t look very promising anyway. Honestly, I just want to hang out at the camp today, but it’s good to have an alternate plan. I just hope the clean up crew doesn’t make too much noise. Already there is a camp employee raking leaves at the campsite next door. At least she isn’t using the leaf blower like the guys were yesterday. I need some ear plugs. Maybe I’ll get out the iPod. I wonder if I have any nature sounds I could listen to. More later.
