I am really excited about a contest I am running all winter long. I’ve asked my campers to send me photos and stories of their amazing camping trips from the 2016 season. If I choose your photos and stories to include in a blog post then you get a KOA gift card. It really is a simple way to get free camping.
I have a few submissions to peruse through but I would like some more. Please email me with any photos and stories of why your family had such a great time camping with us this past season.
To begin with I’m going to share one of my own favourite experiences of this season. And it all starts with a skunk.
We’d received a few complaints from campers that they had seen a skunk hanging around. One poor lady even shared with me that she was just out for a nice, relaxing, early evening stroll when bold Mr. Skunk decides to chase her down the wagon path and raise his tail at her. You can imagine her horror when she’s facing down the butt end of a skunk. I really did feel for her while trying not to burst into hysterical fits of laughter. I don’t think I would have been laughing nearly as much if she’d actually been sprayed but let’s face it. Skunks are funny.
Well, after someone told me they think the skunk is living under the deck of one of our Basic Camping Cabins I knew we had to do something. But what? I’m such an animal lover, and while I wouldn’t want to get cuddly cozy with a skunk, the thought of hurting it wasn’t at all pleasing to me. So, Sabrina told me she could bring me in a trap that belonged to her family. Marty to the rescue again!
Well, as luck would have it, a camper checked in for the weekend who just happened to be an exterminator. Chad got the lucky job of learning how to set a trap and catch a skunk! I had the lucky job of telling the next campers to check in to Kabin 2 that there was a skunk living under their cabin and we had a trap set. Honestly, one of the things I am truly grateful for is the quality of campers we get here. They were so chill about the whole thing. What amazing people. One camper volunteers to help us set a trap and the others, who are even more inconvenienced, were so amazing about the whole thing. How did I get to be so lucky?
Anyway, let’s make a long story short and skip ahead to the day that Sabrina and Chad are cleaning out the fire pits after everyone has checked out. Sabrina sees the trap and that it has a black and white animal moving around it in and screams and runs the other direction yelling ”SKUNK!” I wish someone had caught that on video.
Here’s where it gets hilarious. Jason had taken the kids to visit my parents for the weekend and to go to a birthday party so I didn’t have my truck. Hmmmmm where are we going to take this thing? My amazing cleaning woman Nancy – I hope you’ve all met her. She’s just incredible. And so brave. She throws a big cardboard box over the cage and grabs an end and drags the cage toward the black truck we use for garbage pick up at the campground. I’m acting fairly girly at the time to be honest (you can imagine it, running around squealing like a girl) but I do manage to grab the other end and we hoist it up onto the truck at which point I run away for fear of being sprayed. The campers watching this were probably wondering what I was doing.
Phew…. Okay. The hard part is done. Well, the first half of the hard part. The next step is to drive it somewhere and then take it out of the back of the truck and open the cage. Ahhhhhhh
Well, I hop in the drivers seat and Chad squeezes in between me and Sabrina who is in the passenger seat. We venture extremely slowly onto Telephone Road. And when I say slowly, I mean slow. The truck doesn’t shift out of first gear anymore so we are literally putting along the road. Here’s a short video of us driving – excuse the language but it’s definitely funnier with the sound ON.
We finally see a deserted road with a big field a ways down the road and I pull off Telephone. I park the truck and we all get out. The funniest part of the day was when me and Chad were trying to grab the trap to get off the truck and Chad’s finger gets rubbed by the skunk so he starts freaking out yelling “It touched me – it’s moving!” Me and Sabrina seriously couldn’t breathe we were laughing so hard. Keep in mind, laughing from way on the other side of the road.
After we all catch our breath Chad and I manage to get the trap onto the side of the road and brave Chad opens it. You can see in this video I wasn’t even willing to go near the trap so I threw a stick to him from the other side. And Sabrina couldn’t even stick around to get the whole thing recorded because she was running to the other side of the truck once it started to move out.
releasing-mr-skunk-in-to-the-wild
I love the staff I work with. Both because of their willingness to do every job I need them to, but more so, because what FUN we have doing them. That day was one of my favourites because of how much we laughed. And we were able to rid the KOA of Mr. Skunk.
So, that’s the first Camper Experience post, be sure to watch for more. And send me any photos and stories of your fun times at the Brighton KOA and I’ll have a KOA gift card waiting for you at your next camping trip if I choose to use yours.
And don’t forget to book your reservations soon for your favourite weekends in 2017. We are over half full for many of the ones in the Spring.