Camping Adventures

So Husband and I decided to pack up last weekend and drive to Arkansas to go camping. We really had no idea where we were headed but printed off a few state park brochures and set out Friday afternoon. We decided to head towards Devil's Den near Fayetteville which was about 5 hours from our house. Let me tell you, Arkansas is a beautiful state, especially during this time of the year, but some of the people make Texans look high-society! We only stopped for a quick dinner at A&W/Long John Silver's (can I say yuck...that was quite possibly the worst meal I have eaten in a long time) and arrived to Devil's Den about 8:15. Much to our dismay, there was a "Campground Full" sign underneath the Welcome sign which we thought couldn't possibly be true so we pressed on around the winding roads. I mean, honestly, why would a campground be full on Friday night? Well...it was. We trucked on along some quasi-dirt road (apparently it had just been scraped or something like that so it was actually a somewhat smooth ride) and came across some random cars along the side of the road. What we didn't realize is that we had actually left the state park and entered a desolate and dark BFE. When we came across a flat area that had room for a tent and for the truck to pull off to the side without the worry that it would be hit, we mentally marked it down and kept on going just to make sure we didn't come across something even better. Should have known that we were pressing our luck and called it a night there. About a mile down the road, there was a little turnoff that Husband decided to check out. Have you ever had that feeling in the pit of your stomach that what comes next is not a good idea? Well, I did but I figured Husband can get through anything and only squeaked, "I hope we can get out of here" as the trail he was driving down was quite narrow. When we got down the trail a little further, we realized that it was an ATV trail and couldn't set up camp here. This is where the pit of my stomach was starting to yell "ABORT! ABORT". We tried to back up where we came from but there was a small stump on my side and we kept on hitting this, resulting in a loss of momentum leaving us spinning on the wet sand/dirt/rocks. We tried this several times, each one making Husband more and more frustrated. Finally, Husband made me jump out and proceeded to turn around (took about 18 turns) so that he could see where this blasted stump was and avoid it. We were finally out of the woods (no pun intended) and promptly went back to the flat site and set up camp. Keep in mind that we're in the middle of nowhere and there are not bathrooms/lights/people around us...kind of freaky if you let your mind wander. Skip forward a few hours. Husband has to take sleeping pills b/c he can't sleep at all & sometimes they make him do funny things. Point in case. He wakes up around 4:00, jumps up from the air mattress (yes, I know we're camping but there's no reason to forgo the simple amenities of sleep) which means that I am bouncing around, gets on all fours and peeks out of the top of the tent while telling me he hears voices. That.is.just.perfect. We are in the middle of the woods only protected by a thin piece of nylon, it's pitch black and Husband is hearing voices. Fantastic! I finally convince him that he must have been dreaming and to go back to sleep, which is intermittent as it has started to rain and it sounds like people are walking up to the tent. Around 6:00 am, we heard loud bangs going off around us and realized why the campground was full. This was the opening day for deer season for muzzle loaders and archery. Great...if we make it to the morning, we take the risk of being shot b/c this is public land.
Needless to say, we made it and actually found a terrific campground in the park for Saturday night and had a great time.