Part 2

After Syllamo I moseyed toward Louisiana, but my truck driver blood is thin so I stopped at Lake Catherine to spend the night. I rolled in well after dark, and the ranger barked, "Hey what are you doing?" while I was looking at a bulletin board. Then he saw my granny car and warmed up, escorting me to one of the few remaining campsites. He didn't even charge me because he did not want to start the computer, and they were going to be closed on Thanksgiving. I set up my tent and started cooking. I noticed my neighbors had a palm tree with lights around it. Who takes a palm tree camping? I forgot my pillow and towel, but granny car to the rescue: both were there to make me comfortable. My peaceful sleep was filled with dreams of the single track waiting me in the morning.

While making breakfast, I noticed that I was the only person in a tent. Everyone else had RV's or large pull-behinds with the extending sides, larger than most of my places of residence. My neighbors' full spread was now visible: lighted palm tree, satellite dish and large bronze pig to hold down their table cloth. I was the only person outside under the age of 20. Then it dawned on me that everyone was inside watching TV. They all had satellite dishes. There were some kids, but they were skateboarding and walking around playing guitar (playing is generous).
Finally an "adult" emerged for his home-away-from-home. To do what, you ask? Enjoy the beautiful lake? Hike the trails? Visit the waterfall? No, to use a leaf blower to clear the leaves that had fallen on around the camper over night. This was not an isolated incident. My other neighbor then emerged with a battery powered leaf blower and cleared his site. I was shocked. I cannot even remember to bring a towel, and these people are packing lighted palm trees and leaf blowers. I thought camping meant interacting and enjoying nature. Not sitting in your mobile home watching TV and only venturing outside to simulate lawn care. When did kids start take skateboards camping? I thought it was about climbing trees, skipping rocks and exploring. Then again, maybe this is exactly the recreation one might envision on the shores of a lake created for industrial cooling.But my favorite part was when a parent emerged out of an RV to tell their kid to stop skateboarding because it was dangerous and get their "butt" back in the RV. Did I mention the parent was smoking? I am sure sitting in an RV, inhaling secondhand smoke and watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on the idiot box is much safer than playing with a useless wooden toy.
Stunned, I headed out to explore the trails. It was nice single track with large climbs, a few technical sections to keep you honest, twisty sections weaving around trees and nice descents. The scenery was great with water falls, some hilltop views and a cool little bridge to ride over. The best part was that no one was on the trails, and the campground was nearly full. The only bad part was there are only 15 miles of trails.

After my ride, I wanted to find out more about my leaf-blowing, palm-tree-packing, satellite-TV- watching neighbor. Turns out he lives 10 miles from the park. Huh? People just confuse me.

Nothing else exciting happened on the trip other than my mom telling me if I was going to use the towels to at least put them back nice like I found them. She then swatted my bottom, and I threated to call DSS.