BS Friday

Welcome once again to BS Friday. You know the score, I'll write it and you tell me if it's true of just plain old BS. Today's post is called: The Weirdest New Year's Eve Ever

This is a story about one of my weirdest New Year’s Eves. This one year in particular my friend and I decided that we would go on a vision quest. He was big into American Indian lore and stuff like that and I was big into adventure, so I told him I’d tag along.

He and his brother had built a little campground in the woods a few miles from where we lived. They had 2 tee-pees and a fire ring and it was a place they went to hang out on weekends. When he first started doing that stuff I was totally turned off by it. To me, wasting time with that was silly. There was Baseball to be played or Tennis to work on or Motocross rides to do. Anything else sounded like more fun. Building a camp sounded like work.

So this one particular New Year’s Eve we decided to pack up some stuff, sneak outside and head to this Indian camp facsimile and try to find some spirit guide to help us into the New Year. That was the plan.

Sneaking out wasn’t a problem. We did that a lot as teenagers. Stashing supplies wasn’t an issue either. We had a cool place we made under some bushes that easily hid anything we wanted. What we didn’t count on was the fact that it was Winter, it had rained a lot lately and we were totally being stupid. Of course that last part wasn’t realized until later.

The big night came and the beginning of the plan went like clockwork. We stashed our stuff, we waited until my Mom was asleep and we easily snuck outside. The first inclination that we were in trouble should have been easy to spot since the temperature when we got outside was a lot colder than we had anticipated. But hey, this was a quest. We had to suffer for our reward, right? (Those were his words, btw.)

So we got our stash and started off. We headed out of the neighborhood and across a big field. After walking a bit I wasn’t cold anymore. We chattered like schoolgirls as we walked, talking about what we hoped to see and all that hyped up, adrenaline talk. Then we hit our first major snag. We came to the creek.

We knew it well. We had planned to cross at the most shallow spot we knew. We had a few pieces of wood there for the crossing. What we forgot was all the rain that had been falling recently. When we got to that ‘shallow’ spot, it was 3 times its normal size and our wood had washed away. It was gone. We should have taken the hint and gave up, but naturally we didn’t. We decided that it still couldn’t be all that deep and we could stand a little water in our shoes. This was a quest. We had to suffer for our reward, right? (Those were his words again, btw.) So we proceeded into the water.

Somewhere about 1/3 of the way across the current had gotten really fast. Not only was it tough to keep our footing but it had washed away a lot of the bottom. One more step and we both went down into the water up to our waists. Now, if you aren’t a guy, you’ve never experienced what a shock that can be when you suddenly and without warning have icy cold water slammed into your private area. (I’m sure it sucks for women too but I can’t claim any experience there.) Our shrieks and surprised, shrill gasps had to be heard for a few miles. They had to be. That was damn cold! It was there that I was sure we needed to turn back. But we were on a quest and my friend would have no part of it. We had to suffer for our reward, right? Uh huh.

So we decided that we were already wet and we should press on. We moved slowly across the creek, holding our stash of goodies high over our heads. At one point the water got to the chest level. Talk about freezing! Then we marched on. We eventually got to the edge of the field and started to go out onto the road when we both suddenly found ourselves flat on our faces. The field was surrounded by barbed wire and we had walked right into it, both tripping and splattering on the ground. My chin really hurt after that. But we managed to get around that obstacle and keep moving toward the trail that would lead to his camp. That’s when we heard the sirens.

We shouldn’t have been startled by Police sirens. It was New Year’s Eve. But we were both close to hypothermia by this time and were feeling like we were doing something bad, so naturally we knew they were after us. We ran into a nearby front yard and hid in some bushes waiting for the Cops to go by. When they did, we started moving on but what we didn’t know was the house had themselves a big dog to protect it. That dog started barking and it sounded so loud that it seemed to echo forever. Then the lights came on in the house. That’s when we started running. I have to admit to a bit of a thrill at this point. It felt pretty cool, like we were fugitives or something.

Well, the running was short lived because we ran right up against a dead end cul de sac. There was no where to go. We had taken a wrong turn and my friend, the great Indian tracker, wasn’t sure where we were. We couldn’t turn back because that dog was still barking so we did the logical thing, we ran through some yards hoping to find a place that looked familiar.

Suddenlt I was running alone. I didn't notice for a few steps but when I looked around, there was my friend all sprawled out on the ground. He had run into a low-flying clothesline and it had hooked his chin an thrown him to the ground. Ouch! I got him up and we got moving again before someone noticed.

By now we were near frozen. We trudged on for another 15 minutes or so and somehow managed to find the entrance to the trail we were looking for. It was another half-hour walk in good weather to the camp from there. I was worried by this time that my toes would fall off or something. Apparently my friend was getting that way too because suddenly his plan changed. He decided to find out if ‘the spirits’ would allow us access to the trail. He sat down at the entrance to the trail and started acting like he was going into some kind of mind-trance. He was murmuring and humming and rocking back and forth and when I started laughing at him he started getting mad at me. I couldn’t help it. We both knew we were chickening out but he wouldn’t just admit to it. He had to ‘get guidance’.

Naturally after a few minutes of his mind searching, he was told by the Great Spirit that tonight was the wrong time for a vision quest. We were to return home. So we turned around and within a minute we were at the home of a friend of his family, begging for a ride back into town. We told them about our adventure and they took pity on us and gave us a ride home. Of course, they also told our parents about it all too. That sucked. We ended up bringing in the New Year alone, in bed and grounded for a month. Nice.

So there is the story of my weirdest New Year’s Eve.