Camp Story
By Robert Mariner, East Sierra Branch
I occasionally go camping up in the Panamints. There are some interesting Jeep trails there, some are almost good enough for a full-sized 4-wheel-drive truck if you really know how to use it. Occasionally you’ll come across people camping up there.
I have this camping structure that resembles an oversized soccer ball. It’s made out of thick foam panels, painted glossy white on the outside, baby blue inside, and takes about an hour to set up. Inside it’s quite pleasant, there’s a solar-powered swamp cooler to keep it cool during the day, with top-mounted louvers and a little battery-powered fan to move enough air to keep it bearable at night. Nice hammock, a place to hang a lantern, a place to set up my laptop, even space for a small chemical toilet if necessary. Water is provided from a pair of 55-gallon barrels in the back of the truck. Once you’re inside at night with the door closed you can’t hear much going on outside. Anyway, here I opened the door this one morning and there was this oversized bus just a hundred feet away that hadn’t been there the night before.
I’d gone up to this camping spot to have some time to write without interruption, but curiosity got the better of me. So I left the door open with the bug screen in place, and when I heard sounds of human activity from their camp I climbed out of my little soccer ball, wandered over to their camp and introduced myself.
Seemed like nice people – two families, it seemed. Guys were big, about my size, and the ladies were quite attractive. The guys were curious about my camping sphere, and I was curious about their camper, so we kind of toured each other’s camp. Damn but that bus was HUGE – I could never have maneuvered it up there; one of those folks must be an awfully good driver! I didn’t think that thing was even highway-legal, but there it was. There were no windows along the sides, but some of the nicest high-def monitors I’ve ever seen at each chair – four to a side. Galley aft, tiny full bath. Chairs – four per side –were power recliners, with privacy screens one could pull. Nice rig.
Didn’t get any writing done that day. Since it was a fairly cool day, I set up a barbecue, we all seemed to have plenty of food to cook, and I set up a sun shade from the truck. We swapped stories, traded camp-food recipes and site information – the usual stuff.
Came nightfall, they said they were sorry but had to get underway. We all cleaned up the camp, they got in the bus and closed the door, and I backed off to watch how they were going to drive it down the trail.
They didn’t.
Damned bus just lifted off without a sound and flew away, climbing into an azure western sky.