We’d just gotten the new truck and got a little crazy and decided to go camping. We invited our next door neighbors, Skeeter and Winnie, to come with us since we had so much room. We dumped some of the kids off at my Moms and some off at Mildred’s Moms and the older ones we got to stay at friends houses. I sure am proud of having so many kids but they are a pain sometime.
Anyways, we loaded up the truck with the dogs and Skeeter and Winnie and left town early Saturday morning about 10 and soon we were on our way to the mountains to a campground near the Indian Peaks. The truck ran great, we were able to do 75 and 80 miles an hour up the hills and I was glad it had that big 8 cylinder engine.
We were disappointed though when we got there because they had this stupid rule that you had to have a permit to camp there. The campground was full anyways. We were gonna head back to town but a fellow there told us to head north past rocky mountain national park and we could camp there without a permit if we wanted. I was getting kinda set on watching wrestling after all but everyone else said what the heck so we drove on.
We finally came to places that looked pretty good way out in the boonies but no one was around so we weren’t sure we could camp there. So we kept going until we saw a place next to where someone else was camped. We figured it must be okay even though there wasn’t any tables or toilets around but we guessed that it would do. The people there must have been sleeping in their tent or something because they weren’t around.
First thing we did was get a big fire going. There was lots of wood around but Skeeter had brought his chainsaw and wanted to use it so we soon had a big pile of fresh firewood. Making the fire wasn’t easy. It took a little gas to get it started but soon we had a huge blaze. Even then we still had to put more gas on it from time to time. Those aspen we cut down didn’t burn worth a damn at all.
It was getting towards dinner time so the gals started fixing dinner while Skeeter and I fixed up the camp some more. We cut down some more of the trees around there so we could sit on the logs and make the place just like home.
We never saw the people next door. They just up and drove off kind of fast like they was in a hurry or something. They even left this little raincoat behind. It had a hood and lots of pockets and was called a north face gortex or something like that. I didn’t need it so I gave it to Skeeter since he wanted something to wear when he works on his car.
Dinner was great. Steak and hamburgers and hot dogs with potato chips and beer. Can’t beat a meal like that with a stick. It was even better because it was cooked outdoors. While the girls cleaned up we sat around drinking beer and listening to Guns’n’Roses on the tape deck. Skeeter and I agreed that this was about as good as it gets.
It got dark and we stood around the campfire for a while talking about all the great TV shows we were missing. That’s when Skeeter, that scoundrel, pulls out a little portable TV. We plugged it right into the lighter hole on the dash and then we had it all. Sitting there in the wilderness next to the fire while being able to watch TV is really special. We finally got sleepy so we all crawled in the truck even though we had a tent because we were worried about bears.
The next morning after breakfast while the girls were washing the dishes Skeeter and I played with our guns. I had that Dirty Harry Special that I had never shot before. Its a great gun, loud with a strong kick. We soon had shot up all our beer bottles and cans from the night before. We shot at a lot of birds and squirrels but never hit anything except I did accidentally shoot the truck. But it won’t be nothing to fix.
We decided to see what kind of four wheeling my new truck could do. It was real impressive. We could go just about anywhere we wanted. It didn’t matter if there was a road there or not, this baby would do it. It would run over little trees like they weren’t even there. By having Skeeter lead the way with his chainsaw we were able to make it all the way to the top of the little hill next to camp. We drove it all over the place for hours and we didn’t have to use the road hardly none at all!
We left for home after that since it was past noon and I didn’t want to miss the football game. We had a great time though and Skeeter and I want to do it again next year. We’re gonna buy some trail bikes when we get some money so we can get way back into the woods next time.
--Delburt "just call me Burt" Dimwiddy
Bigger guns, more beer!
Return to David Herberg’s 4wd page
Send comments and suggestions to
This page last modified on 14-Feb-2004