Saturday morning we packed up the car and took off to the beautiful Cle Elum lake for some (free) camping.

I still had a teeny bit of residual anxiety left over from the show, but it dissipated over the course of the car ride. Camping is one of my all-time favorite activities, and we don’t do it nearly often enough.

The Boy had a little of that annoying did-we-leave-anything-important-at-home? anxiety for the first 1/4 of the car ride, but he too got over it.

The only thing we forgot was a first aid kit…AND COFFEE. Hellish. Damn caffeine withdrawal headaches. I hate how dependent I am on you, coffee, but…I love you so much!

Maggie wasn’t anxious at all.

What a gorgeous day! Since we waited until after school started, there were considerably less people on the road, and hardly anyone around the lake and river once we finally arrived.

This is Lake Keechelus, where we took Corinne a loooong time ago for a day trip. Corinne and I were both painfully hungover that day, I recall. Lake Keechelus was our “back-up” camping lake in case things didn’t work out at Cle Elum.

We went through the tiny town of Rosyln on the way to the camping spot.

Roslyn is the town that the exterior shots of “Northern Exposure” were filmed at. I never got into that show.

Oooh! Oooooh! Coal miner days! Thrill.

Pretty pretty.

Leaving Rosyln, getting closer to Paradise.

Almost there! But what’s this?

MORMONS! I CAN’T ESCAPE THEM! The signs were old, however. No clusters of Mormons camped near us. Just rednecks. Rednecks that apparently didn’t know how to read…

…signs that clearly said NO SHOOTING, because on Sunday morning the assholes were doing a little “target practice” across the river from where we were camped and they shot into our camp.

As soon as the shooting started the dogs made for the tent. They were in the tent, freaked out, and I was in the tent with them putting in my contacts, when suddenly I heard a whiz-pop! sound that I had only ever heard in movies.

“HEY!” roared my husband.

My heart stopped. I stuck my head out of the tent and to my relief he was on his stomach on the grass, unhurt. The shooting immediately stopped, and about 10 seconds later we heard the sound of a truck starting up and taking off in a hurry.

As if what, we’d confront them? Never confront a redneck wielding a shotgun. Thank God no one was hurt! I HATE GUNS. Once more, with feeling: I HATE GUNS. Frankly I’m not too fond of rednecks, either. Mormons, rednecks, guns? Shit I moved to Seattle to get away from that garbage.

Surveying one side of the river. This is where the rednecks were camped.

We ended up driving further around the other side of the river, navigating slo-o-wly over a rock-covered dirt road. It’s amazing my poor VW could handle it.

Stay tuned for Part 2…we discover a lush green meadow! Go swimming! And some hooping as well!