I was kinda looking forward to this upcoming campout on July 18th, 5 days after I had come back to Ranger Creek. I didn't have any chance to go on any campout during my time at the ranch in 2000. So, I was excited. I had been on a lot of campouts in my life, but had never slept under the stars before. Later I had to find out that the stars couldn’t help me much that night. Oh well...

..Anyway. We did not have enough tents or sleeping bags for all of us, so the crew and a few brave guests gathered around the campfire, covered with blankets, sleeping on saddle pads. Emily was the only one who actually did have a sleeping bag, and it was Scott's! I’m sure she liked it, I would have too :-)

Before we tried to get some sleep, we all sat around the campfire and had a good time, laughing and telling stories. I enjoyed the evening. What I certainly did not enjoy was the following night. All thoughts of having a good time had to give way to a mere survival instinct...

I had felt warm before I fell asleep, knowing that the stars above would take care of me. About 20 minutes later, the long cold night began. It was freezing cold when I woke up, seeing the guys sleeping so peacefully. I moved the closer to the fire, I fell back asleep for about 5 minutes, only to wake up again in order to move closer to the fire once again. I looked for wood and started to keep it going, since I was wide awake now. Katie, one of our guests, who will work at the ranch in 2002, woke up too...

I moved closer and closer to the fire a couple of times during that night, taking naps in between and not caring about fire sparks that could get me. It was so cold and it didn’t help any to think about nice things to keep me warm. I was about to walk back to the ranch... I looked to the sky above and had to discover that the stars were covered by clouds...

That was when the rain came... Well, I’ll take the rain, I thought (it's actually an R.E.M song) and couldn’t believe what was happening. Scott woke up too at a certain point in time and moved closer to the fire as well. The rain stopped and I was happy! He fell back asleep and I was happy. Happy to only be freezing cold, but not getting soaken wet. I took another 5-10 minute nap, woke up again and was ready to move right into the fire. I had never been so cold before and wished I was in my warm bed, sound asleep and far away dreaming but...I was not.

I was still cold and wanted nothing more than go home and take a hot shower. That was my first night under the stars and certainly the last one without a sleeping bag. It was an experience though and a German saying says: Things that don't kill you make you harder :-) TRUE!

By the way, Emily, the only one of us with a sleeping bag outside a tent did not wake up once during that night, so we would have been better off using a slepping bag ;-) Just a piece of advice. NEXT TIME :-)