Monday Memories: Camping in Ludington with Racoons

As the weather starts to turn a little cooler here, I am reminded of my many camping trips. I love to be out in the woods in late summer and early fall.  The days are warm, but the nights are made for camp fires, and drinking beer. My friends and I often went North to camp when I was a teenager(way back in the 1980’s).  North for us being anything further north than say, Big Rapids, Michigan.  Although, there is much discussion among Michiganders as to what really constitutes being North.  Many will argue, that you must cross the Bridge (The Mackinaw Bridge) in order to truly be North.  We weren’t picky as long as we were in the woods and we were north of our homes in Grand Rapids.

Ok, this isn’t in Michigan (it’s here in Germany) and it isn’t from 1987.  But, it is a lake and being there does remind me of being in Michigan

On one such occasion, we headed to Val Du Lakes to see a concert( Back in the day, this was an amazing venue to see outdoor shows), and then planned to camp in Ludington State Park after the show.

We stopped by the campsite to set up the tent and get the site ready, then drove the 30 or so miles to Val Du Lakes for the show.  I actually can’t remember who we went to see, but we meet up with some other friends who also decided to stay in Ludington too.

By the time we made it back to camp, we were hammered drunk, as we often were after concerts.  Drinking beer in the sun tends to do that to you.  So, when we got back to the site, we were ready to crash.  We ended up with an extra person for our tent, as the rest of our friends were still partying and one of their people was all partied out.  It was a warm evening, so we made room by leaving the door to the tent unzipped and let our feet hang out.  That way we all fit without any problems, or so we thought.

I woke to the sounds of my tent mate talking to someone.  Slowly, my drunk brain realized she was saying, “Here kitty kitty.  Come here.” which seemed odd, we did not have a cat with us, obviously.  At first, I assumed she was talking in her sleep.  But she continued, and was speaking quite clearly, unlike someone sleep talking.

When I rolled over to find out what the hell she was going on about, I saw the biggest racoon I have ever seen sitting on her legs, eating Funyuns. (Funyuns are a snack food, like Doritos, or Frito’s, only they are shaped like onion rings and have an onion flavor.  Often eaten by drunk/high people and teenagers.)

Our extra guest had brought a bag of snack chips into the tent without me knowing, clearly not an experienced camper!  You never put food in your tent!  I may have freaked out a bit at that point.

I screamed, “Kelly, that is NOT a cat!!  Get it out, get it out of here!”  I quickly grabbed the opened bag of Funyuns and threw them out of the tent, only to see that the entire campsite was looking back at me with weird, glowing eyes.  There must have been 10 or more raccoons covering the site, waiting to get at the bag of Funyuns.  The giant racoon slowly made his way to the chip bag and grabbed it.

We all scrambled to get the spilled Funyuns out of the tent and zip of the door, a difficult task for three sleepy, drunks.

The last thing I saw before the tent was finally zipped, was the giant racoon, sitting on his haunches holding the bag of Funyuns, and eating them like he was watching a crazy movie, with all of his friends moving closer and closer to him, trying to get a few for themselves.