Haunted Campground

Many, many years ago, when I first met my husband, I had a Volkswagen camper and we spent six weeks out west going to different National Parks and hiking.

One day we were looking for a campground to spend the night and came upon one at a First Nations reserve in the Bow River Valley in Alberta.

It was weird right away as the gates were wide open and no one was at the kiosk.  There are many campgrounds were you find a spot then walk back to pay for it so we looked for a good spot.

That was easy because there were no campers there at all. Every camp site was empty. We walked around a saw an old trailer at the back but no one came out as we walked by.

The whole place was eerie and silent; it didn’t have a good feel to it. Usually we liked being alone but this time I would’ve preferred others to be there.

Back at our campsite we started to get set up to make dinner but I had to pee first.  I figured since no one was there, I might as well pee in the woods behind us rather than walk to the outhouse.  While I was squatted and peeing, I heard a low, deep growl but so low I wasn’t sure if I heard it. I heard it again, stood up while still peeing and walked quickly to my van while pulling up my pants.  What was weird is that it sounded so close, as if it were whispering the growl just over my shoulder. I wasn’t sure if I really heard it and didn’t just imagine it.

I got in the van and started to prepare dinner. The pop-top had canvas sides with screened vents so it was like standing in a tent. I first heard dogs barking in the distance, then drumming,  then furious barking and the sounds of women screaming, drums beating faster and louder…….I stood frozen….. I was listening to a massacre. I was hearing the sounds of women and children screaming in horror.

Doug was lying back reading.  “Stand up!” I said, and he did. The sounds continued, we were looking at each other, aghast.

Then we threw all the dishes in the little sink, pulled down the pop-top and drove the hell out of there as fast as we could!

I will never forget it. It may have been the most intense ghostly encounter I’ve ever had but still, to this day, remember the old trailer. I think a ‘medicine-man’ lived there and scared us away.

The whole incident was certainly surreal.

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Whoa!.”   What’s the most surreal experience you’ve ever had?

Babbling Brook

Well, ‘I’ has got to be the easiest prompt of all!  Part of editing is going through and finding ways to take ‘I’ out .

I have a day off. I had someone visit me yesterday! I might just have a new friend that lives around here.

We sat on my deck in the sun yesterday, a hot spot, and talked about how we got here; how we ended up working at a grocery store late in life, living on our own.

She had a wonderful husband, “larger than life” she said, “everyone loved him”.  He was good to her and they loved each other. A year and half ago he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died within a few months.

When I met her at the store, I had just started and was not feeling very good or confident…. I felt sorry for myself.  She started within weeks of me; her husband had only been dead for six months. She would blank over and tear up.

This morning I found her on Facebook to send her a friend request and saw photos of her husband. He was very good-looking and had a big, genuine smile. There was a photo of them together with his arm around her. They were obviously happy and in love.

Life can really suck sometimes.  Another cashier I work with who is old and tired, too, owes $25,000 to the franchise she once owned. They say she owes it for past unpaid GST (tax). She works 8 hour shifts and pays every penny she can toward her debt.

Another, younger and more together than us, is in a family that lost two teenagers within two years; one to cancer another in a car accident. Trying to heal from the first, then experiencing another loss, the family has been in pain for years.

When you scratch beneath the surface a little, everyone has a story.

I am humbled by the pain some people have gone through then had the courage and strength to rise to what they must do even when they feel like curling up into a ball in bed.

We talked on my deck for a while but said she had to go to work. I said, “so do I!”

We were both working last night; she was closing seafood, I was closing the bakery. I had to pass her often to take garbage out, get a mop and bucket, etc.  She had to put away fishy stuff on display, shovel the ice into a large cart to be taken outside and dumped, then clean everything.

We stopped and talked a lot, joked around with the young guys. It made the night a lot less depressing!

aye……..

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