So we are all passed out and sometime in the middle of the night we were awakened suddenly by screaming. And it was very clear to what this person was screaming, “Bear!” It was up the hill not too far from us. After the first scream Mark and I sat right up. I said, “Tell me what to do?” Mark said, “stay here but get ready to grab the kids and get to the van, I’m taking the hatchet and going out there.” He got his pants on and started out the tent. I’m thinking I can’t let him go out there alone…what if something happens? If the bear eats him, then it's up to me to protect the kids...and GO HOME! So I came out close behind. Not a second after I stand up and start flashing my light does this GIGANTIC Mule deer jump out from behind this big tree in our site. I didn’t know what it was, I’d never in my life seen a deer as big as this one. And I’ve never in my life felt like I was going to puke from fear until this moment. Mark jumped almost as much as I did. That stupid thing froliced on through when we shined our lights on it, but holy sacredness!!
At this point we heard the screaming again and Mark said in his I’m super serious tone, "Get the kids and get to the car we’ll just take a drive." I grab Grissom, telling Ella to get up, I also grabbed Keegan’s arm to try to stir him…nothing, he was dead weight. So I did the thing that ALL mothers protecting their young would have done. I dragged him to the door ran out of the tent without him and yelled for Mark to get Keegan! Ha!! What a great mother, I know! Hey I had 2 out of the 3…I knew Keeg would be close behind so really everyone was covered.
We are all in the car except Mark. The screaming is still happening here and there. Mark’s still hanging out around out tent trying to look for any movement. My thoughts were totally racing. Mark had super tented all the back windows of the van so really we could see nothing at all through them so I naturally envisioned this bear coming up and breaking one of them and we have no clue until after it takes place…see we DID skip a step when following all the directions on the bear box rules…oops…and that SO was stuck in my mind at this point in time. The rule we skipped was taking out all infant seats from the car so there was no food smells to lead the bears to the cars…we felt that because the kids had shared the food/snacks with the van floor as well as their seats that there was really no reason to take the seat out…cause there would still be food smells in the van.
But this step was hunting me.
Mark finally came to the van and said, “We’re just going to drive around for a few minutes even thought I think we are all clear. I haven’t heard any more yelling in awhile so I bet the bear was scared back into the woods.” I think he knew that wasn’t calming enough for me so we drove around the sight and thankfully saw nothing. I was amazed though at the amount of people and campers who paid NO attention to the bear steps/rules!! Didn’t they know they were putting MY family in Bear harms way?!? Stupid people!
Anyway, I have to tell you my fear really got the best of me, I had so much adrenalin running through my body I couldn't even hold a flashlight steady…and to add to all the fuss I HAD to go to the bathroom again! I could tell Mark was worried too because he pulled up as close to the bathroom door as he could possibly get the van and told me to go in and right out…RUN! So…I obeyed!
We came back to our tent and saw another family had done the same thing and was in their car. So My Protecting Muscle man went to talk to the man of this group and they did a walk around together as well. That family freaked out when they saw that mule deer run past – except they didn’t know it was a deer they’d assumed it was the bear! They saw the shadow and heard us moving to our van so they moved too! Better safe then sorry!
Anyway, we’d finally gotten the, “it’s clear to come out” and we all trudged back to bed. I’m SO proud of my children because they fell right back asleep. I didn’t take much longer, but Mark…my sweet hubby wasn’t satisfied at the time to let everyone go back to sleep so he made a fire and sat outside by the fire for awhile just to make sure his family was safe. I think he was trying to show Bear (from the show) up a little!
Night was quite until morning! Thank YOU Jesus!!
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