Skip to main content

Buff. Buff.

 
While we were camping at Custer State Park, a buffalo decided to wander through our campground on three separate occasions. 

I guess he just liked the grass in our neck of the woods.

The park rangers would wander along with him, warning everyone not to get close.  Not only can buffalo jump six feet straight up (yes, you read that right - we attended a lecture while we were there, I know everything now) they can run 30-40 miles an hour.  Which is assuredly faster than I can go.  

The first time the buffalo wandered through our camp, I ran to get my camera from the tent where Emily was napping.

I flew into the tent excitedly telling Emily to wake up and come see the buffalo while snatching up the camera and simultaneously stepping on and breaking Emily's glasses.  We've had a running argument ever since over whose fault it was - mine for stepping on them, or hers for leaving them on the floor in the first place. 

(It was her fault.)

Anyway, Mr Buffalo had meandered over to our friend Lia's cabin and decided to just hang out for a bit rather than continuing on.  Shortly before, Lia had decided to go take a nap in her cabin and had no idea that big honkin' buffalo was standing by her front porch.  Everyone in our group was concerned that she would wake up, walk innocently onto her porch and be ground into hamburger by a startled two-ton buffalo.   Plus, Lia's a red-head and who knows if buffalo react to the color red the way bulls do?  

It wasn't covered in the lecture.

So we all tried calling Lia's cell phone.  But she didn't answer.  Turns out she didn't have service or a battery or something.  Once the vacation was over and we left the park I'm sure she had a dozen loud messages screeching something about a buffalo and red hair.  

So, when we couldn't reach her by phone, all the kids started yelling, trying to get her attention to tell her not to come out of her cabin.  Because letting her sleep inside her cabin is never as good of an option as making her come outside to find out why everyone is yelling only to be told they are yelling for you not to come outside.

Fortunately, Lia heard the yelling, couldn't understand what anyone was saying and thought, "I wish they'd quit yelling, I'm trying to nap."

Fortunately, the buffalo decided to move on down the road before any harm was done but he did come back twice more just to visit.

And Emily's glasses were held together by some very stylish duct tape from that point on.

(And it still wasn't my fault)


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Luau, Luau

This week we attended our first luau! We went to the luau at the Hale Koa hotel. The grounds were just incredible. There were men playing soft Hawaiian music, the plants and flowers were glorious. There were people in native costumes making headbands out of palm fronds, chopping up fresh coconut for us to taste, handing out flowers for us to put behind our ears and handing out seashell leis to each guest. It was very relaxed and peaceful. This was a Samoan man who kept us entertained during the cocktail hour. He was very funny! Check out those tattoos. He said the tattoos were part of a rite of passage that he had to go through. He said it took fourteen days to complete the tattoo and, yes, it hurt. And yes, everything was tattooed. He demonstrated how to climb a coconut tree using only a bandanna around his feet. They picked people out of the audience and gave them a quick hula lesson. Katie was thrilled to be one of the people chosen and of course it irritated Ben because he thi...

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...