Off The Trail

CHAPTER THREE: **And Now It Starts**

Connie woke up early that friday morning adrenaline rushing from the excitement of remembering that she was going to go camping. She got up got dressed in a t-shirt, jeans, hiking boots, and a red baseball cap. She rushed out the door and to the drive way where Mr. Ilwaco had started to pack the car. Connie dropped her duffelbag among the pile of stuff that still had to be put in the car. "Anything you need me to help with dad?" Connie asked

"Yeah can you hand me your moms bag, careful it's pretty heavy," answerd Mr. Ilwaco.

Connie bent down to pick up the bag, "What is in here, her whole wardrobe?" she exclaimed.

"I don't know sweetie," chuckled Mr. Ilwaco.

Once Mr. Ilwaco had put the last of the stuff in the back of the car, Connie and her parents loaded in the car and headed over to the Walters house. At the house Jeane was outside helping her mom load up there car. "Hey guys," said Mrs. Walters, "Doug made a pot of coffee in the kitchen if you want some."

"Sounds great," said Mrs. Ilwaco as she and Mr. Ilwaco made there way into the house.

Connie walked up to Jeane and asked, "Are you pumped for our trip?"

"Yup, we bought two big bags of marshmellows for roasting over our fire. Man I love smores," answerd Jeane, "Mom said we can leave once she's finished putting all our stiff in the car, looks like she is almost done."

Once the adults had their coffee and went over the directions to camp together all the kids and their parents got into their mini vans and headed south into more pacific northwest wilderness and trees. The drive took a little while but Connie was ok with that. She got out her wilderness survival book and started reading about the differnet wild plants that are edible. The book had tips on what to do if you ever get stuck in a storm with no shelter, but Connie wasn't too worried about that, she thought she would always have her tent and her parents. She loved the section about the stars and how to navigate with them. Connie was always intersted by space and how big and mysterious it all is. When the Ilwaco's car finally pulled into their camp cite, they were pleasently surprised with how good of a spot they had gotten. In the past few years they had gone to a differnt camp ground so this one was new to them and they were not really sure what to expect. Their cite was pretty secluded, one of the worst things that can happen when camping is that you get a cite right next to a bunch of people. Over crowding kind of takes the fun out of nature.

When Jeanes families car pulled in all the kids spilled out the doors yelling at each other. The Walters familiy was quite large with nine kids and the two parents making a family of eleven. Lisa was the oldest followed by Reed, Ted, Jeane, Anne, Danny, Mikey, Nora, and the youngest Trey. The Walters were not a quiet family, the kids didn't always get along and there were fights but at the end of the day all still loved each other and were glad to be a family. When all the kids came out of the car Danny and Mikey were in an arguement over who was the better baseball player. This fight led to the boys westling each other on the ground and Reed pulling Danny off of Mikey to keep them from getting to hurt. Connie just laughed about all this, she had one older sibling who was off at college and couldn't come to the camping trip this year. "Alice and I used to get into fights but not like that," she comented to Jeane

Jeane laughed, "Yeah Mikey and Danny can be a bit rough but its kinda fun to watch sometimes so I can't complain. If they didn't get in fights would they even be considered brothers?"

"Do Reed and Ted fight like that too?"

"Not so much anymore, but when they were little they would wrestle over problems like who would get the TV remote and stuff. They get along pretty well though, being twins and all they understand each other a little bit better than the rest of us can I think."

They unloaded the cars and set up the four tents. Connie and her parents had one tent, Mrs. and Mr. Walters had a tent and they had Trey and Nora stay with them because they are the youngest. Jeane, Lisa, and Anne shared another tent, and Reed, Ted, Danny, and Mikey all shared the other tents. They also set up all their cooking supplies and a place to eat meals. Connie was excited to eat the food Mr. Walters made, he was the best cook Connie knew. She liked her moms cooking but not nearly as much as Mr. Walters. After eveything was set up and all the kids got settled, Lisa and Ted decided they wanted to go on a short walk so they asked the other kids if they wanted to come. Nora, Anne, and Mikey wanted to stay and play monopolie, so the rest of the kids got on their walking shoes and headed down one of the many trails on the camp ground. The path they chose was pretty straight so it was easy, even for little Trey. Connie liked to look at all the plants they encounterd and try and remember if she had seen them in her survival book on the drive down. "Next time we go on a hike remind me to bring my nature book Jeane," she said while looking at a small shrubb she was sure she had seen in the book but couldn't recall what it was called.

"Yeah I'll do that," said Jeane kind of absent mindedly as she walked. Connie enjoyed the walk and she thought Jeane did too, the woods were just beautiful and the trees were all so tall and green with sap runing out of the bark. Birds chirped their little songs from their nest and bumble bees buzzed onto flowers collecting pollen and bringing it to other plants. The group made it back to camp safley where a lunch of burgers and salad was waiting for them. At that moment all was peaceful and perfect, but disater was coming their way.