Where do I even begin? Last night we camped at Bonny Lake State Park, barely over the state line in Colorado. It was about 9:30 p.m. before we arrived, and we were tired. We hadn’t eaten since lunch, but no one realized that until this morning.

We pulled into the park in the pitch-black darkness with one heckofa thunderstorm visible in the distance behind us. We had been watching the lightning on the highway for several miles already.

The dark county road we followed to get to the entrance of the park was a little creepy and covered in frogs. We couldn’t see anything beyond the beams of our headlights and bugs were hitting our windshield at such a high frequency it sounded like it was raining. At one point, we saw some kind of animal sitting in the road, then it spread its huge grey wings and flew away. It was an owl — the first one I’ve seen outside the zoo. I have video, but of course I can’t post it until I get to Wi-Fi tonight.

All the way into the park we kept questioning our decision to stay there. The creepy blackness coupled with a few beer cans dropped along the road like breadcrumbs leading us to the campground had us all a little uneasy. We found the source of the noise easily enough. Set up right at the entrance was a couple groups of rowdy guys enjoying their Saturday night. Fortunately for us, a park ranger stopped to help us find a spot.

He said, “I’ve already had to get on those guys once tonight, and I’ll have to again later. You don’t want to stay by them. If you want, you can follow me and I’ll take you to a nice spot.”

The park ranger appeared middle-aged and seemed like a genuinely nice person. He took us around to another loop in a quieter area. And then the real fun began.

I must say, putting up a tent in the dark wasn’t nearly as difficult as I expected it to be. It helped that we had a superbright lantern. The worst part was the bugs. They were in swarms and biting. There was an all you can eat buffet above my elbow on the back of my arm. I have my own rendition of the Rockies made from welts formed from bug bites.

It rained all night, but the sound of rain hitting the tent was kind of relaxing. The wind whipping was a little unnerving at times, but that’s only because we only had the corners of the tent staked down. We thought we had left the tent stakes at home, but it turned out we just lost them on the ground in the darkness. We found them this morning as we were packing up.

We’re almost to Rocky Mountain National Park. 🙂 I’m absolutely thrilled, even if I will be using a cheapie camera from Wal-mart. (Why did my camera have to die now?)

I’m expecting to have Wi-Fi tonight, so I should be able to get the long-promised photos and video posted late this evening. 🙂