Cabin Camping in Cripple Creek

Wolf, Led, and I decided to go camping this weekend, so we looked online at campgrounds. No close tent sites had open reservations, so we started checking out cabins at KOAs. We found one campground near Cripple Creek, about an hour west of the Springs. It's the highest campground in the world!*

We shoved all our things into the car and drive south. We were going to meet Jam in Manitou Springs, hang out with her for the night at the site, but she called it off, as she was feeling mega sick. So, on we drove through the night, along the bendy, narrow roads, until we saw among the darkness, a small grove of lights on the hillside in the distance. It was our site. We arrived plenty late, and our cabin was the most secluded of them all. It was fenced off the rest of the site and was next to the storage containers that the campground used for lawnmowers and such, but it was good. We began to unpack our things from the car.

Wolf brought his mega-noculars and set it up on its tripod.  He adjusted the lenses and focus until he could see the moon, its craters and maria, clear and neat. Earth's moon is quite beautiful, truth. Led and I went up to the forest edge and peered into the darkness. We made our beds got comfy, and told toast stories. Led is mega easy to scare, and I kinda feel bad at how much we scared him. But it was amusing! My story of the Sempiternal Silhouette was kinda weird, but I like the antagonist enough to want to draw concept sketches of him. Wolf had a timer set on his phone to play some creepy demonic chanting childish hell-voice in the middle of the night. That was freaky, for sure. I kinda wonder how things would have played out if he set it to the young children who say, "Mommy? I'm scared. I'm scared, Daddy." just out of the blue, in the middle of the night. We talked a lot about Wolf's idea for a new LARP, and I'm excited for this much. I am stoked about setting up an in-game, country-wide postal system, for sure, and I think it will be great to play around in one of Wolf's worlds. At something like 4: in the morning, I heard Led and Wolf talking and getting out of bed, heard something about stars, and so I got out of bed, donned my pants and hoody, and went outside. The sky was amazing and bright. Not so bright that the Milky Way was just a cloud of light in the sky, illuminating the otherwise pitch black of the world. Not that bright, but still plenty breathtaking. The celestial sphere had turned from where I had learned a good chunk of the constellations, so I was a little bit lost. Vega was no longer above me. Everythings were sideways. Shooting stars streaked across the sky. Eventually, clouds rolled across the ceiling, and we went inside and crashed again.

The next day, we drove looking for breakfast in Cripple Creek, but there was a huge bike rally in town for the weekend, and the streets were packed. Instead, we found our way to another, smaller town, and had lunch there. At a small dollar store, we picked up water guns. We went back to the campground and showered. The facilities were nice, to be sure. Led and I loaded up the water guns and went again to the forest's edge, this time intent on finding a trail. We were armed and ready for anything. We sprayed a giant anthill at the edge of the forest, then went back to camp to drop off the empty guns, then back to the forest to hike. We went up the slope toward Trachyte Knob for quite a ways, getting maybe two-thirds of the way up before heading back before the sun set. The view from almost-the-top was very pretty. We saw the ugly mountains to the southwest that were stripped for mining, and the gorgeous valley below us with the lake and stream, and the tiny campground we were staying at, and the mountains off to the northwest.

We arrived back at camp, and Wolf was still there. He started a fire, and it was the best perfect fire. The coals were hot and the logs burning just fine, and the steaks he cooked up over them were tremendously delicious. Wolf and I were using our own pocket knives, and Led was using a plastic flatware knife. He was so adamant on finishing his steak with his own flimsy knife. I brought out the peach/ Disaronno/ raspberry honey jars I had mixed up. I poured some cups for Wolf and I, and we mixed it with cranberry juice. Quite tasty. We broke out the smores ingredients and roasted some desert. The outside of the mallow peels off and the inside is like pudding. Maybe it was that the marshmallows were so big, but, mmmm, I forgot how good they are. Later, as we sat around the campfire, Wolf led us through a sort of ritual. Three slices of paper, various things listed on each. The slice on which we listed things we disliked about ourselves, we burned in the campfire, to destroy. On the piece we listed areas we want to improve, we buried in the ground, to grow. On the last piece, we listed things we never want to forget, memories that would bring comfort in the hardest of times; that piece we each hid in our wallets.

Afterwards, we cleaned up the site and head inside the cabin to crash. We talked more about the game, then crashed. The next morning, we hit the showers, and I discovered that the KOA office sold coffee. Ah, delicious, rich coffee. It was delightful. I bought a postcard for Kail, and returned to the camp. It was time to pack up the site. We all cleared off our beds, put our clothes in our bags, returned food to the coolers, packed up the camp supplies, put all of it into the car, and swept the floors. Soon we were on the road again. We decided to drive the long way home, in favor of the beautiful scenery in the mountains. We stopped for lunch at a small-town coffee shop, called Costello Street Coffee House. The prices were really steep; half a sandwich (a small half, at that) was 5-6 bucks. Whole sandwich was 10 or 11. But the sammies were so fantastically delicious. They were completely worth the price. And the chai tea was good, too. It would be nice if they were closer to home. We left as it started to rain. Led was quiet in the back of the car for a while, but he started to poke my elbow from the back seat. After I bit, I tried smacking his hand as he tried to poke and dodge. It was fun. He drew a knotted cock on my arm. That rising artist, that Led. We drove from the mountains onto a large, open plateau, then down through a valley, following a creek downstream. We stopped to get jerky at a roadside stand. I bought cajun-spiced alligator jerky; it was expensive, but delicious. We also ate rice crispy treats in the car.

On the way back, close to almost out of the mountains, we passed by a Christian summer camp that I attended for a few years. With quite a bit of resentment welling up, I flipped it off. That's one thing on the paper I burnt this weekend; it's going to be hard to burn it out of me, for all the damage it's caused me. But I'm starting. For another post, maybe.

Back in town, we unpacked at Wolf's, hung around a bit, then went our separate ways. Oh, you know what we forgot to do? We didn't play Never Have I Ever!

Every Iteration of Myself

Sincerity
Serenity
   Once past the mold pressed around you
   to see clearly who you are and
   why you're not.
Betray all you are pretending to be;
to find no truth greater than your own pride
look no farther than those you've failed to protect
(but with averted eyes)
        to walk the Roaming Plains alone
find solace or lacking in all you have learned
                                    Reminded
                                     as you carry the
                                         weight of broken shield
but sun will always rise                ahead
and                band of hatch and stud will
hold close your solace and your    greatest
                                                                truth again.

RMFC - August 2013

Rocky Mountain Fur Con 2013

I stopped by the hotel on Thursday to confirm my pre-registration and get my con badge, then I went back home. On Friday after work, I came back for festivities. Over the past several cons, things have happened between friends and I, and I generally had a bummer of a weekend. And while this time, there was still remnants of my recent bastardism, I didn't let that ruin my con via depression or shame; and I gave people space I'm sure they needed. I kind of feel bad about dinner on the last day, I feel like me being there caused others to skip out on it. :/ There were plenty of other friends there to socialize with, plenty of other people to meet. The first table I ran into in the Dealer's Den was Blacklight Fusion.  Bones and Stray were helping Lawnface (autocorrect inside joke) with her table, and I talked with the two of them. Bones was watching Digimon on Netflix, neat. I gave the African wild dog plush from Kail to Stray, then I gave the pink hyena purse to Laken. I didn't get the reaction I expected, I guess that's good. She stayed professional. At first she looked confused, almost -trying- to be angry, but then she laughed and wore a sincere smile. So that threw me off. She took it, and I walked away. I half expected her to sell it, but I heard she gave it to one of her friends. Hmm. I met up with a few other artists I knew, like Franki and Spikes, and caught up with them before heading elsewhere around the con.

I attended a lot of panels, truth, but I left early from pretty much all of them. Furoticon Basics, Poi Fundamentals, Therian Meet, Feline Meet*, the Improv Group, the Boffer LARP group, the Saturday night dance, the fursuit parade, Casino Night, the Voice Auction. I wanted to hit up the Parkour Meet, 2 Gryphon's comedy routine, and Kyell Gold's writing and editing panels, but I missed them due to food or socializing. I found a tail for Bones, who was stuck behind a dealer's table all weekend, and she was excited. I talked with some furs I haven't seen in such a long time, like Leon, from Arizona, Coda and Shorty from Lakewood, I think, Megan, and Connor, among others! Wolf introduced me to Bri, aka Magpie Bones. She is neat. I brought my Nintendo 3DS, which has a function in sleep mode, it will tag other local 3DS' that you walk past and swap system and game information. So now, after the con, in Animal Crossing, I am checking out a lot of their houses, and trading puzzle pieces in the Mii Plaza. Pretty neat. Kail showed up a few times at the con, though he wasn't attending, and we met up and smoked a few times and talked. Wolf and I got some grub in the hotel restaurant. I ordered a tomato and arugula flatbread, which was megatasty, and Wolf ordered a Mediterranean pita plate. I ran into Jam a few times around the con, both in and out of her sloth fursuit. She was so entertaining in suit, and she made me smile so much.

(*Ah, the feline meet. There was so much exaggerated energy. I felt so out of place.)

At one point during the weekend, I walked to a Goodwill a few blocks away. Kail and I were in there earlier that week, and I ran into a cute employee. I didn't get his number, though, and I was kinda bummed about that. But I walked there over the con, and ran into him on his lunch break, and we decided to get lunch the next day. But it didn't happen, so we planned on dinner, and that didn't happen. So, famished as I was from skipping meals, Wolf and Spikes and I went to get barbecue after the con on Sunday. Well, on my way back from Goodwill, there was a heavy rainstorm, and I got soaked. My hoody was drenched, so Led let me borrow one he brought. It is small and purple, but it fit my chest and shoulders right. It was only short in the sleeves, so I rolled them up. I liked it.

I didn't get many things there. I donated some money to the charity we sponsored, and got a few ribbons for that, for my conbadge. I bought a book of short stories, a deck of neat playing cards, some glow sticks at the dance. I also ordered a wide leather bracelet from Lagarto; it will have those Xs all across it, just like the ones in all those lion pictures. My main money sink this weekend went to the charity auction. All auction pieces started out in a silent auction, but once they hit 5 bids, they went to a voice auction held on the last day of the con. The piece I bid on went to voice auction, so. I bought it at a high price. This is what I bought, actually: Mata Emas, by Idess. It's in a beautiful matte and frame, too; I will post a pictograph once it's hung on the wall.

For dinner on Saturday, I picked up some fast food at Sonic, and washed it down with an energy drink. Immediately afterwards, I went to the dance with Led, where all the bouncing and jumping and shuffling and dancing and waving churned all the goodness in my stomach, and made me sick. So after a while, I left the dance to cool off and not be sick anymore, when I heard drums down the hall. I walked toward the sound, and found three people with different kinds of drums sitting against the wall in the secondary lobby. I sat across from them, and lost myself in the beat. There was something beautiful in the earthy percussion. Up to this point, this whole weekend, I was mostly p. shifted, but now, completely relaxed, full mental and p. shift in the meditation. It was beautiful, such a long drought beforehand, ended by a trio of drummers.

I met a girl there in the lobby and in the Therianthropy panel, and who sat down with us and the drummers, who I wanted to talk to more. The whole reason I went to the panel was to meet more therians, but I never did get her contact info. She goes by Taiga. Can't seem to find her online.

Anyway, overall I had a fantastic time! Sure there were downers ("All the other furries are stealing my extremely common name! WAAAH!" and "OMFG This place is like totally such a total bore. There's totally like no energy vibe like in all the like clubs like around and HAVE I TOTALLY TOLD YOU IM LIKE SODRUNK RIHGTN OW?!") But I stood and walked away from them midconversation before they could saturate my good times with their drama. I met new people, talked with old friends, got some shiny new things and stuff, gave so many gifts, and made so many memories! I am excited to go net year! :D