“Guess what I found?”

Coming from one of my grandsons, this statement would be frightening. Coming from my 64 year old husband, it was intriguing. My husband is a great planner of vacations and this one was no exception. He was researching a fun place to stay as we journeyed through Utah on our way to Montana. What he’d found was “glamping.”

“Glamping” is the same as camping, but without the roughage. We would be sleeping in actual beds with sheets and everything! Called the “Conestoga Ranch,” it was located in Bear Lake, Utah. There was a beautiful open air restaurant, horses, bikes, an amazing view of the mountains, tents with actual floors and rooms, and real Conestoga wagons; two rings of them, just like in a western movie!

The tents had their own bathrooms and could sleep a family of 10! We were only 6, but I didn’t mind the extra space. I had grown up camping and love evenings when the windows of the tent are rolled up and the sweet smelling fresh air invades and invigorates every inch of your lungs. The fact that I wouldn’t have to leave the tent for my evening excursion to the bathroom was also a comforting thought. Hold that thought…

“What? We’ll be sleeping in one of the wagons, you say? Without a bathroom? Where will the bathrooms be?”

They were here…about 50 yards from the wagon, not a bad walk during the day, but what about when it was dark? I wasn’t worried about lions and tigers, but bears, “Oh, My!”

Upon check-in, I requested the closest wagon to the bathrooms. The girl assured me that our wagon would be close; however, she was much younger than I and somehow our individual  interpretations of ‘close’ were not even. She assured me the area was ‘well lit’ and Cliff did provide me with a flashlight and a promise that he would go with me. All things considered, I decided I’d be fine.

The wagon was beautiful! Two sets of bunk beds for Eric, Kylene, and the boys and a small step up to a king size bed for Cliff and I!

What more could we want? There was an electrical cord, so we could charge our phones, and two old-fashioned looking electric lanterns on either side of the bed. There was even a small electric heater. Our only door was zippered canvas and there was a big beautiful window above our bed to let in all of the coolness of night.

I went to bed late for me, but early for most, trying to hold off for as long as possible the inevitable. It was to be a long, lonely walk. Long, because 50 yards in the dark is far, and lonely because, though he said he’d go  with me, I didn’t have the heart to wake my light-sleeping husband knowing he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. And so, when I could wait no more. I took up my flashlight, tripped down the small step from our king-size bed, and made my way to the bathrooms.

I walked across the grass to the small gravel path. Looking up, I could not have begun to count the multitude of glittering stars lighting my way…they were mesmerizing. I made it to the bathrooms, back to the gravel path, and walked across the grass to our wagon, very proud of myself and not realizing at all that I had come out of the bathrooms a slightly different way than I’d gone in.

I looked across the grass and was pleased to see that my sweet husband had turned on one of the lanterns for me. I climbed the first step and was reaching for the zipper of our door, when I saw it. A tandem bike parked outside my wagon. Realizing it wasn’t there a minute ago, I also realized this was not my wagon. (In my defense, the wagons do all look alike.) I quickly hopped off the step, wondering if I would remember which wagon I belonged in. Fortunately, I remembered I’d left the zipper partly undone and realized my wagon was the one next door. Disaster very gratefully avoided, I opened the zipper to my wagon, made sure I saw my grandsons in the bottom bunks, tripped back up the step, and went to sleep. The scary thought being that, had it not been for that tandem bike, I may not have noticed I was in the wrong wagon since the husband of that wagon was also Asian. But then again, his wife may have been a bit surprised!

Fortunately for all, it was really not that big a deal!