For all intensive purposes it was the loneliest night of my life. Friday I decided to drive up a day early for the annual cleanup day at camp. I somewhat expected others to be there. I arrived at 8pm to find the gate locked and no one else around.
Now it’s probably important to tell you that I’m used to living alone. I’ve been doing it for about 2 years now. And yet there are still street sounds and other sounds around to make me know that there are neighbors around.
This time, there was nothing. And somehow I was figuring there would be reinactment of Friday the 13th. I walked several hundred yards from the gate to the main cabin. Luckily it was open, with all the facilities, including a kitchen, shower and beds. It took two trips back to my car to get all of my stuff.
And the place was dark and abandoned. I now know that camp can seem so lonely and creepy without people around.
I wasn’t necessarily frightened, just somewhat apprehensive. I had heard stories about vagrants visiting the camp cabins in the off season to a temporary place to say. And yet, this camp has people up there all the time, seemingly. And I told myself that the gate was locked, so that no unauthorized people would hang around. Still, I’m not sure what I would done if I had encounters a visitor. Probably just ran. I had my cell phone on me. So at best I could find a weak signal while I was running away. 30 minutes for help to arrive. Yeah, I felt really safe.
I stayed in the basement with easy access to the nicer shower facilities across the hall. With only a David Shannon sermon mp3 on my thumbdrive playing on my laptop to keep me company, I settled down for the night. Each little drip or flow of water from the plumbing seemed to startle me.
I awoke at 5AM and decided to head on out to make a visit to the Lafayette Walmart. I figured the rest of the clean up crew would be arriving at around 7AM (many of whom I didn’t know). I thought it would probably be best to re-arrive after the gate was open, rather than try and explain myself to folks who might not know me. I did have permission to stay up there, I just wasn’t trying to have the appearance of doing something wrong.
Even the drive to Lafayette was unusual. In the twilight of dawn, it was still dark enough to make it necessary to use my headlights. And I did get lost, going instead toward Tompkinsville, instead of Lafayette (about 30 minutes out of my way).
If anything it showed me where the life of camp really was. This place, as great of a place it can be at times, is nothing without residents. It is people who bring life to the camp.