Frog

We just got back from "Up North" (for all you out of staters, this means Northern MI, Leelanau County to be precise...). This is a must do for me every summer. There are great beaches, quaint little towns, dune climbs, and many many memories. The thing about "Up North" is that is it pretty expensive to stay anywhere decent. So we camp. And I love to camp, I really do. I love the chilly mornings in sweatshirts with a cup of coffee. I love the night time fires and star gazing. I love the outdoor cooking and picnic table dinners. Reading in lawn chairs, kids running around in the dirt finding treasures, playing games, using imaginations. I love that there is NO t.v., radio, luxuries that make us forget about each other.

But there is one thing about camping that I hate. The Shower. You pack up all your shower gear, towels, clean clothes and walk to the community bathroom. At this point there is usually a line to wait in before you enter the "stall" which is usually what is is; a small, skinny stall with muddy floors and a shower head that hits me about in the belly button.

Well, at Sleepy Bear Campground, Empire MI, the showers are worse than the typical. Let me share with you my experience.

A beautiful Saturday morning, I enter the neon yellow bathroom armed with my pile of shower gear. I find there is one open shower stall so I enter. There is a plastic white chair in which to put my stuff. There is a plastic white curtain to divide the shower "area" from the dressing "area" (the entire shower is as big a normal bathroom stall so I use the term "area" loosely). I squeeze my way past the chair to pull back the curtain. The floor is muddy. Really muddy. There are three or four hairballs that remind me of a family of ferrets on the floor. I manage to turn on the shower and spray the ferrets into corners and the mud gets a little watered down. I manage to stand on only one toe and start the washing process. I bend in half to wash my hair since the shower head hits me at lower back (this is very hard standing on one toe mind you) As I rush through the shower process, not even caring that the water temperature fluctuates between scalding and freezing, I make my critical mistake. I open my eyes. And what do I see, crawling up the shower curtain inches away from my soapy self? A Frog. An albino frog. Slowly wandering around the curtain, just waiting to make it's move...For I convinced this white slimy frog is going to take the leap from its shower curtain to my body.

There is a lot I can handle, bugs, spiders, blood, dirt, boogers, germs... but there are a few things on my list that I absolutely despise... Puke, snakes, fish and FROGS. I must cross this curtain to get to the safety of my towel and clothes. Back to the safety of the outdoors. I am so freaked out at this point that I allowed both of the soles of my feet to actually touch the floor of the shower! Those ferret hairballs could be coming dangerously near me, but I do not dare take my eyes off the frog.

Well, faithful readers, I did escape the shower with out contact from the frog. I of course did not use that shower again the remainder of the trip and, in fact, did not even use that bathroom, choosing instead to walk to the bathroom further away. I stalked the cleaning crew and showered only after they sprayed down and bleached the bathrooms.

I am already saving for one of the expensive cottages for next year.