Case Study on Time with the Newlywed
Couple
The electronics’
warehouse that was Manny’s primary job was having a slow down in production and
inventory. Manny had accumulated a weeks
worth of paid time off and Raffi, Manny’s best
friend, convinced him that they should do something special like take their
wives camping for that week. Ysebel’s
was very skeptical about Raffi’s idea. She had never camped out in nature before and
wasn’t sure how safe it would be. But
Manny reassured her that people do stuff like this all the time, and he
promised her that it would be wonderful fun, so she went along, against her
better judgment.
Manny went out and
bought tents, back packs, sleeping bags, canteens, and camping tools at the
sporting goods store. He wasn’t quite
sure of everything he needed so he and Raffi got
together and brainstormed what they thought would come in handy. Their bare necessities included matches, axes
and saws for cutting wood, iron skillets and an oven rack to cook on. They planned cooking pancakes each morning
and they could grill potatoes and hot dogs for their suppers. For snacks they would have marshmallows,
graham crackers and candy bars. They
studied a map and found a state park up in the mountains about a six hour drive
outside of town. It had a lake and
backpacking trails, it looked perfect.
They had gathered everything they needed and they were ready to go.
They arrived early
Sunday morning at the ranger station.
Manny and Raffi were excited about the tall
green trees, the birds singing and the fresh clean air. Ysebel and Maria were discussing what kind of
wild animals might be hiding behind every bush and rock. The ranger told them it was a seven mile hike
to the campsite by the lake and the rules were that they had to stay on the
trails and could only camp and build a fire in designated camp sites. Manny and Raffi
studied the trail map and figured that they could make it to the lake in about
five hours. They filled their backpacks
and off they went. They didn’t get very
far before they realized that their backpacks were extremely heavy and they
needed to take multiple breaks to sit and rest and remove their packs to relax
their backs.
The other thing they
discovered was walking up hill in sneakers on stony dusty trails did not
provide a lot of traction and they were often slipping and sliding down the
hill faster than they were climbing up.
Getting up the trail proved to take much longer than they had
anticipated, it was late afternoon and they were starving and according to the
trail map it looked as if they had only traveled a couple of miles. Ysebel and Maria were no longer worried about
wild animals attacking them. As a matter
of fact a bear or a mountain lion would have been a welcome site to put them
out of their misery.
They could not cook any food
unless they were at an official camp site but then Raffi
remembered the candy bars they had packed and he passed them around to his
famished fellow adventurers. The candy bars seemed to make matters worse, they
provided a quick burst of energy but then they bottomed out and felt more
drained and light headed than they had been before. Going to the bathroom was another
problem. Ysebel asked Manny if the trail
map indicated where the port-a-potties were located. But Manny said that there must be some at the
camp sites because he didn’t see any identified along the trails. When Maria told Ysebel that they didn’t put
port-a-potties in the mountains, “you go behind a tree.” Ysebel nearly freaked out. It took them nearly thirteen hours to get
half way to the lake. But fortunately at
about the half way point there was an official camping area.
They looked around to
find a good spot to set up their tents.
It was already dark and nobody remembered to bring flashlights. Manny and Raffi
muddled around with the tents but they were unable to figure out the directions
in the dark. The girls went out and
looked for firewood it was difficult in the dark but eventually they gathered a
nice pile. But no matter how hard they
tried they couldn’t get the matches to start the wood for a fire. In exhaustion and desperation the four
campers huddled in a little circle and ate cold hotdogs till they were full
then fell asleep still huddled there together to stay warm under the cool
starry sky. During the night the cool
air got very chilly. Nobody had brought
any jackets and all of them were wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts. Their sleeping bags were still tied up to
their backpacks. So to avoid freezing
Ysebel found her backpack in the dark and unzipped it all around like a
blanket. Rejoining the other three, the
four of them cuddled together under the one blanket until morning.
At sunrise they awoke to
one another’s moans and groans, they were so achy that they could hardly
budge. But they were so hungry that they
forced themselves to get moving. They
made a breakfast of graham cracker and hot dog sandwiches. Each found their own private locations to
use the bathroom, and no one thought to bring toilet paper. They tried to clean up as best they could
under the current circumstances and started heading toward the lake once
again. This time through teamwork and
determination they managed to push one another much faster up the hills with
much fewer rest stops. Eight hours
later they reached the lake. It was nice
but everyone agreed it was probably not worth the effort it took to get
there. Raffi’s
muscles were so achy and sore he couldn’t wait to swim out in the water and
ease his weary body. He slipped into his
swimming trunks and dove into a beautiful pool of water at the edge of the ice
cold spring fed lake. He was so shocked
by the frigid temperature of the water that he couldn’t breathe and ran out of
the water so franticly that he slipped on the rocks near the bank. Feet flying in the air he landed on his back
on some jagged rocks leaving a nasty gash his back. After that everyone else was afraid to get in
the water.
They set up their tents
and tried again to start a fire without any luck. It was heading toward dusk and they were being
eaten alive by mosquitoes. Unwilling to
eat cold hotdogs again they tried every imaginable trick to get the fire
started. Maria came across another group
of campers and told them about their difficulties. Wanting to be supportive they came over to
see if they could help get the fire started.
Mark and Tim, the more experienced campers explained that the wood they
were trying to start the fire with was too large. Tim went out and found some dried reeds, moss
and some tree bark and in a few minutes they had a roaring fire going. To the shock of Mark and Tim, Ysebel and
Maria got out their cast iron skillet and a ten pound bag of potatoes and
started cooking. Mark asked, “What in
the world are you doing with that stuff way up here?” “Cooking supper.” Maria innocently replied. “Aren’t we allowed to bring potatoes up
here?” Ysebel asked, thinking that the potato skins
might be environmentally unfriendly or something. “No, you are allowed.” Tim answered, “But most people don’t, because
they wouldn’t want to carry such heavy things up the mountain on their
backs.” “Ah, that makes sense,” everyone
agreed. “So what do you eat up here,”
Manny asked. “We catch trout,” Mark
said. “None of us know anything about
catching fish, so we brought our own food.” Raffi said, trying
to legitimize his camping ignorance.
Then Maria suggested, “Say, we have been eating nothing but cold hot
dogs and chocolate bars for the last two days, and it sounds like you have had
nothing but trout. I’ll bet trout would
go great with potatoes, if you would like to join us.” Everyone thought that was a great idea, and
Mark and Tim thought they had better keep an eye on these city slickers for the
rest of the week to help them out because who could know what other wild ideas
they might try next.
Amazingly everyone
survived the rest of the week. And Manny
and Ysebel eventually had great fun and considered it the most memorable
experience of their lives. But once they
got back home, they never took for granted how much they appreciated their hot
shower and soft warm bed again.
Discussion Questions: