RV Rampage - Day 3
So we woke up on Day 3 and finally really saw the glory and beauty of Long Meadow. Also the glory and beauty of black bear poop. BLACK BEAR POOP IS APPROXIMATELY THE WIDTH OF A MEDIUM PIZZA AND THE HEIGHT OF 2 SODA CANS STACKED UP. See, I had looked up plenty of websites in doing research on black bear safety, but they never ever mentioned that BLACK BEAR POOP IS BIGGER THAN MY HEAD. Hopefully if anyone ever tries to do research on black bears, they'll google and come across my site and be warned about the horrors one might find deep in the woods.
Anyway, we had breakfast - I tried to cook scrambled eggs in foil and failed. So much for my camping cooking show. Thode however, managed to make a medium-"foiled" (haha I'm so clever) egg so next time I'll try that instead. We had already resolved to return the RV late so it was a pretty relaxed morning. However we couldn't dally too long so we soon packed up and headed back.
Max took the first shift again, through the windy roads. It's funny how the trees and mountainside looked so intimidating and awful at night, but so beautiful and scenic in the morning. He drove until we reached a gas station that served fried chicken and fried chicken gizzards. We all passed on the gizzards but a few of us (me, of course) decided to try the fried chicken. Not bad. Not good either. But not bad. Jake, Kate and Plumb fed the gas station stray dog (weird looking little thing) our food. Surprisingly (or maybe not) even the hungry skinny stray dog didn't want to eat the soy burger they threw at him.
I took the next shift and took us all the way back to Los Angeles. Things got crazy towards the end because we discovered that the RV rental company would only be open until 3:30 p.m., so there was a good chance we wouldn't make it in time so we had to haul ass - fast. Everyone pitched in to unload the RV as quickly as possible, and Max drove super fast to Montclair, while I cleaned the inside of the RV. That was pretty tricky since I get carsick and kept getting jostled around while trying to clean. I managed to do a decent enough job, but I'm sure we're going to get billed for not washing the outside of the RV ($150) , not emptying the two tanks ($90 altogether), and not cleaning the carpeted area of the slide out (we couldn't do it since the damn generator broke and we could get the damn slide out out to clean.
So, between the extra charges and the insurance deductible, the trip will be more expensive for everyone than I quoted. I feel bad about that. My fellow RV Rampagers have been really gracious and understanding about that and I think even felt bad for Max and me. When we got home we realized they had give us all the leftover food so now I have a gigantic bag of chips, cookies and 70 some sausages. Amol even called and said that he and Annie wanted to take us out to dinner.
The good thing is I'm pretty sure everyone had a fun time. It was a really terrific group of people and definitely an interesting trip, between the RV, the scenery, and just the general goofiness of putting that many people in a small area for hours.
My only regret? Not getting a pic of the big-ass black bear poop.
Anyway, we had breakfast - I tried to cook scrambled eggs in foil and failed. So much for my camping cooking show. Thode however, managed to make a medium-"foiled" (haha I'm so clever) egg so next time I'll try that instead. We had already resolved to return the RV late so it was a pretty relaxed morning. However we couldn't dally too long so we soon packed up and headed back.
Max took the first shift again, through the windy roads. It's funny how the trees and mountainside looked so intimidating and awful at night, but so beautiful and scenic in the morning. He drove until we reached a gas station that served fried chicken and fried chicken gizzards. We all passed on the gizzards but a few of us (me, of course) decided to try the fried chicken. Not bad. Not good either. But not bad. Jake, Kate and Plumb fed the gas station stray dog (weird looking little thing) our food. Surprisingly (or maybe not) even the hungry skinny stray dog didn't want to eat the soy burger they threw at him.
I took the next shift and took us all the way back to Los Angeles. Things got crazy towards the end because we discovered that the RV rental company would only be open until 3:30 p.m., so there was a good chance we wouldn't make it in time so we had to haul ass - fast. Everyone pitched in to unload the RV as quickly as possible, and Max drove super fast to Montclair, while I cleaned the inside of the RV. That was pretty tricky since I get carsick and kept getting jostled around while trying to clean. I managed to do a decent enough job, but I'm sure we're going to get billed for not washing the outside of the RV ($150) , not emptying the two tanks ($90 altogether), and not cleaning the carpeted area of the slide out (we couldn't do it since the damn generator broke and we could get the damn slide out out to clean.
So, between the extra charges and the insurance deductible, the trip will be more expensive for everyone than I quoted. I feel bad about that. My fellow RV Rampagers have been really gracious and understanding about that and I think even felt bad for Max and me. When we got home we realized they had give us all the leftover food so now I have a gigantic bag of chips, cookies and 70 some sausages. Amol even called and said that he and Annie wanted to take us out to dinner.
The good thing is I'm pretty sure everyone had a fun time. It was a really terrific group of people and definitely an interesting trip, between the RV, the scenery, and just the general goofiness of putting that many people in a small area for hours.
My only regret? Not getting a pic of the big-ass black bear poop.
posted by S at 4:20 PM
2 Comments:
When I went out west, I was advised about bears. One of the rangers told us that black bears weren't mean, and would avoid humans if you made any noise- clapping, whistling, whatever. He said there weren't really grizzlies in the area, but that you could run into brown bears, which can be pretty aggressive. He said when you hike, you should wear little bells on your shoes to make noise, and carry a whistle- usually that will scare away a brown bear also. He said you should carry mase in case making noise failed- you can mase the bear's eyes, and then it won't be able to catch you.
He said most important was determining what you were dealing with in a particular area where you were hiking, and that you could always tell by the scat (wildlife for PooP) you found. He said that black bears have berries and seeds, sometimes a twig or bark in their scat.
and he said that when you find brown bear poo, you will know, because it will have whistles and little bells in it, and it will smell like mase.
Glad you liked the foil thing ok!
As one who has little problem with bodily fluids except for the scatological kind, I was abhored to learn of the bear...um, waste. I didn't even want to look at it.
But yes, we had a great time! Many, many thanks to Sareet & Max for everything.
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