Spinning Yarns and Ghost Stories Around the Campfire

I spent Saturday evening sitting on that log around a blazing fire in the fire pit pictured below with two good friends, a married couple, their enormous Golden Retriever and their male friend who became a new friend to me.

When my Northern Virginia friends called to invite me to share their rented cabin, I was thrilled. I love the mountains and boy, were they really tucked in deep in the woods. After a few wrong turns, I finally found them.

As soon as I arrived, the grilling began--hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken thighs and the best baked beans ever which reminds me that I need that recipe. Well, after our delicious meal, it was time to sit around the campfire which our host had dug out earlier that afternoon.

We each had a log to sit on around the blazing fire and the conversation and laughs continued under a starry, starry night. Around 10 pm, the subject of ghosts and spirits came up as it ALWAYS does around a campfire! Here we are, forty and fifty year olds, sitting around the campfire spinning yarns about ghostly apparitions, telling ghost stories about unexplained phenomena, and urban legends from around the world. We four were clearly storytellers and nothing had changed--we four seemed to go back in time and became kids again.

As the stories continued and I told my story about the ghost in my house (true), all of the sudden, the cabin seemed far away and the woods around us seemed to circle in closer. I honestly was a bit afraid and kept looking over my shoulder into the woods imagining all sorts of things! Bears, bobcats and rogue West Virginian mountain men! My girlfriend's husband is a real jokester and loves pranking people, so I was alert and watched him like a hawk. My friend doesn't mind being his accomplice, so I was watching her, too. I just knew that he was up to no good. Every time he excused him to either get a beer or use the facilities, I stood up and kept a good eye on the path from the house to the fire pit. No one was going to sneak up on me!

At one point, our hosts went inside for more drinks, leaving me with my new friend, a former police officer. We'd just discovered that we shared a love of travel and adventure and he was telling me about a recent trip to Brazil. We were so engrossed in conversation that I'd neglected to keep an eye out for our hosts. I told him that I was a little spooked about how dark it was and how I didn't trust our host when all of the sudden, I felt a furry paw on my arm. Well, I screamed what was most definitely a blood-curdling scream. I jumped up and grabbed the man's arm and he yelled, too! This big, burly guy and I whipped around the see our host's Golden Retriever wagging his tail and 'smiling' a goofy smile like only a Golden can. The 'monster' dog  quiet had been quiet as a mouse and as stealthy as a thief as he approached us, we hadn't heard a thing until his paw landed on my arm.

Of course, my (our!) scream brought out our hosts and soon we were laughing our heads off. What a night :)

I hope you had a super weekend. I sure did.

Peace and love,
Ellie