This is Deputy Digby Pancake. Have you ever had a day when you just…can’t? You can’t make yourself be in a good mood for anything or anyone. I mean, I haven’t had one of those days. But Sheriff Brickle pushed me to my limit, and I almost got there. Almost. All because of a bearded man, speed bumps, and green beans, in the worst campground on our Adventure Of A Lifetime.

It may come as a shock to you that even me and the Sheriff get a bit, well, irritable sometimes. We seem to pick up on the moods of the persons. If they are having a good day, generally, we are too. But when it is a bad day? Sometimes, even a home cooked dinner can’t make it all better. Not even sardines and green beans.

So on day five of our campground stay, as we were having dinner and wondering how many more days we had here, I was trying to focus. Dinner is always something you should focus on. And for me, dinner goes by way too fast. And Sheriff Brickle eats way too slow. Truth be told, he won’t even start eating until I am done so that he can taunt me with his. And after being with bad mood persons for a few days, I was a little tired of it. That is when a bearded man, which scared me, decided to walk by our campsite and I howled and jumped, and Sheriff Brickle thought that I was trying to steal his precious green beans. He jumped on me picking a fight, and although the last big brotherly fight we had was a year ago, I meant to make up for loss time. I did not want his green beans, I told him so, and we fought with the bearded man running away. Girl Person could not get us apart, and about this time, Boy Person ran outside and broke us up. We were all bark, and we were ok, but as another man walked by and asked Girl Person if she was having a good time at camp, all she could do was bend down to pick up the wasted green beans and call it a day.

You see, sometimes, things make no sense. And because they make no sense, you have to step back and appreciate that. At least, that is what I try to do. So the next morning as we were camping on a downward hill with a door that wouldn’t come open, and as Girl Person was outside washing dishes in the dirt, she took a moment to look around. Sheriff Brickle and I were content to sit outside and look as well, because there was plenty to look at.

We had forgotten about our fight long along. And you see, it doesn’t bother us much where we camp as long as we have a picnic table to sit by, and a comfy rug or grass. For the persons, I suspect they would like a little more. But at this point in the trip, we were here and we were happy to have somewhere to park. Well, not really. Because after six days of roughing it here, Girl Person had had it. She was trying to wash dishes with a faucet spewing water at her from all directions and getting muddy feet, while trying to keep the dishes clean. That is when she heard it. The sound of music blaring…so she looked up from her dirty pot of leftover chili beans.

There he was. A man in a chair with wheels on it. It looked as though he had probably been in a this chair with wheels on it for awhile, and he sure was making it a good day. I thought he must not know he was in the worst campground ever, according to the persons. As he was blaring his favorite song, Girl Person saw it. Clearly, this man in the chair with wheels was not about to see the speed bumps he was about to hit at a very high rate of speed, while he was blasting his music. Girl Person had no idea what to do as she dropped her pot in the dirt. There he went. Faster. And faster. I could not even bark in time, and Sheriff Brickle was occupied with arrests reports a mile long. There. He. Went. He hit it.

Girl Person held her breath and his music changed radio stations at the force of the hit.

Girl Person started running towards him, but as he hit the speed bumps, he jolted forward with the gracefulness of an Olympic gymnast and seamlessly propelled himself over those speed bumps, all while singing the songs of his radio. He had done this before. He liked it here. He liked the worst campground, according to the persons.

Girl Person knew it was probably a once in a lifetime experience to see such a feat. She thought about the events here at camp in the past week. Green bean fights, meeting people living in tents, showers with dirty drain water and scorpions…and the man in the chair with wheels. And she told me and Brickle that every single place, every single experience from this past year had taught us something, and often times, we were taught when we needed to hear it the most.

Girl Person said enough with the pity party. That we were getting on the road to Sacramento. In just over a week, we are going to be on our way to Sonoma…a place we have waited to come back to for over five years. So, as we always do when we are about to hit the road, Girl Person made us our road trip breakfast, scrambled eggs. We forgot about the fight, the green beans and ate our breakfast with joy. As much joy as blasting old rock music in a chair with wheels on it over a speed bump. We said goodbye to the worst campground on our trip, but thanked it too. Because now, more than ever, when so many things seem bad in our world, there are lessons to be learned. There are people to learn from when things seem at their worst.

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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