Little Trip of Horrors: Cape Fear Edition

Venus Flytrap

I can’t help associating things with plays and movies I’ve seen in the past. Maybe it’s due to my being an only child for 15 years. My parents took me to a lot of theater productions & films. However, I digress. Let’s start at the beginning.
I had been pretty wrapped up at work with a project recently and when my part in it came to a close last week I looked at my upcoming schedule and noticed I had a string of days off prior to my working the July 4th holiday. Now that Don is once again gainfully employed I have lifted my self imposed restrictions on new travel plans. “Hey, how about we try to go camping for a few days?”
Bless his heart, Don is always up for an unplanned excursion so we hastily decided to throw some stuff in the car (OK, so “some stuff” pretty much involves us stopping just short of renting a U-Haul)
“Let’s try to find someplace near a beach!” A quick internet search ensues and we decide to head toward the Cape Fear River section of North Carolina to Carolina Beach State Park. A stone’s throw from the Wilmington area beaches and a new destination for us.

Bobby D in Cape Fear

I’ll admit that Cape Fear holds a different connotation for me. I start thinking about the Marty S. remake of the 1962 film. Bobby D. is a demented rapist set on getting some payback for the attorney that put him away. If you’ve never seen it, it’s some scary shit! Despite my gut feelings we venture on & arrive at the park after a pretty quick 6 hour drive (the qualifier here is that it’s pretty quick for a drive that is heading in the direction of any beach in the summer).

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Here’s Damian at the Marina of Carolina Beach State Park. (I don’t see any houseboats!). Looks pretty enough. We check in and locate our campsite. The park is heavily wooded and located on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Yes, there are gators in the NC intracoastal waterway.

Although humid as a sauna, there is plenty of shade and we start to unpack and set up camp. Did I mention that Carolina Beach State Park is also the home of carnivorous plants? Yup, the Venus Flytrap’s native environment is this park.

Feed me Seymour!

What self respecting theatre geek wouldn’t think of “Little Shop of Horrors”? C’mon people!

It’s late afternoon and we have lots of work to do before the sun sets. By the way, we have decided that any “vacation” that involves lots of work is no vacation. We set up Ranchette Russo, our huge tent and then I make the case for the car port sized canopy I insisted we bring with us. I have checked the weather forecasts and considering our history of never going camping without there being torrential rains I suggest that we set up the 20ft long x 7ft wide x 8ft high industrial car port to cover our tent and work area. Don pleads to do it in the morning since there isn’t a cloud in the sky but as usual I win and we start the tedious, sweat inducing task of hoisting this thing up.

Yes, I insisted we bring this with us.

Finally, with sweat pouring off of us in buckets we complete our tasks. Don now has to make a fire & cook while I slather Damian and myself in bug repellent. We eat, make s’mores and drink some of the prohibited wine that I have smuggled into the park. Damian succeeds in burning Don’s foot with his s’mores stick. The insect noise is deafening & the various dogs other campers just couldn’t imagine leaving at home are all barking at something in the surrounding woods. (I don’t even want to know)

Cujo

Finally, at about 11pm we decide to bed down so we can get an early start at the beach. It’s pretty hot but not unbearable and eventually Damian & I fall asleep. Don, however, can’t get comfortable on the slowly deflating air mattress. He wanders around for a while & decides to take a shower. He deems the men’s bath house “fit for a men’s restroom at a gas station”. He attempts to settle down again & finally dozes off when the thunder starts. A mad scramble ensues while Don tries to load the stuff we left outside into the car.

Fortunately, my relentless nagging has paid off and we remain snug and dry throughout the late night thunderstorm. We awake to a sunny morning & with our firewood now wet we decide to trek off to find some coffee, breakfast and the beach.

To be continued . . .

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