Hello everyone, I’m back again with Part 2 of our camping fun story from last week. Now, I had mentioned that the story would be continued “tomorrow”, meaning last Sunday. It should have said “next time”, meaning today. Why I said “tomorrow” I don’t know. My apologies for that mistake. If you missed last week, you can read it HERE.

Anyway, let’s continue with our camping fun. We had been out all day, on the lake, in a boat, with the sun shining and a temperature of 97F (36C). There was no wind at all, and it was hot. We drank a lot while out there attempting to fish. I would say we were fishing, but that would make everyone think we actually caught some fish, which we didn’t.

Dad was cooking us something to eat, oddly he didn’t want my brother or myself to help him in any way. Actually, he said to stay as far away as possible. I’m not sure why he would say that. I went exploring all around the island. When I came back Dad had our supper nearly ready. “What took so long?” I asked. “You forgot to bring the can opener,” said Dad.

I should mention here that since we didn’t catch any fish, we were having beans and bacon for supper. And biscuits. “The can opener was on your list,” I reminded him, “we changed lists, remember?” Dad pulled out his list again, then put it back in his pocket. “Did you even look at your list?” I asked. “Of course I did,” he said, “but then we traded lists, so I was remembering the first list of items.”

“I didn’t forget anything on my list,” I said. Dad did his sarcastic laugh again. That got me laughing again. Loud and long. That brought Doug over from where he had been trying to fish from shore. “What’s so funny?” he asked. I told him. For some reason he didn’t think it was funny. “Anyone seen my knife?” he asked. “Yeah, I used it to open the cans of beans,” said Dad, “it isn’t very sharp.”

“It was razor sharp,” said Doug. Dad handed it to him. “This wouldn’t cut string now,” he said. “That’s what I said,” Dad responded, “it’s dull.” “It was nice and sharp,” Doug muttered, “but it’s not meant to open cans.” It was the way Doug said it that got me laughing again. Loud and long. “Oh, I lost one of your lures,” Doug said to Dad. “Which one?” asked Dad. Doug described the one he had lost.

“That’s my favorite!” exclaimed Dad, “I could always catch fish with that one!” “You should have used it today,” I said. “I did,” he answered. “But you didn’t catch anything,” I reminded him. “Never mind,” he said. After supper, as the sun was setting, the mosquitoes started to come out. “Where’s the mosquito repellant?” asked Dad.

“I didn’t bring it,” said Doug, “it has been so hot and dry I didn’t think there would be any mosquitoes, so I left it behind. One less thing to carry.” Dad just looked at him. “We do have this can of Raid,” I said. “That’s not for spraying on us,” said Dad shaking his head, “but go spray the tent with it so there won’t be any mosquitoes in there tonight.” So I went and did that.

“Nothing could survive that,” I said. Doug went to check. He came right back. “We won’t even survive that,” he said. “The smell will disappear quickly,” said Dad. Right about then the mosquitoes arrived by the hundreds. And that is no exaggeration. We had never seen so many mosquitoes! We ran for the tent. The door flaps of the tent were wide open. “I wanted to air out the tent faster,” said Doug. Dad just sighed.

“Bonehead!” was all he said. We went inside and closed the tent door, which was all screen. There must have been a thousand mosquitoes in that tent. Dad sprayed the tent again, with us in it. “Aaaa!” I screamed, “that stuff is poison, we’ll all die!” It should also be noted here… Oh, wait, this is getting too long again, guess I will have to finish it next time. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.