Tsarmina's Travels: Friday the 13th in Dunlow, West Virginia

Isabelle and me.

The curtain is pulled aside and the scene unfolds:

The day is Friday, September 13th, 2013. The location is the Cabwaylingo State Forest. A family unpacks their things in a rustic cabin by the creek late at night. Six children, all cousins, skip merrily out of the house and down the lane, lanterns bobbing in their hands. Oh, yeah, and there's a wildcat with them, too. They're off to their grandparents' cabin, a mile down the stretch of one-lane road. They are singing and laughing, innocent as to what is lurking behind a monstrous oak just ahead. A man waits with a chainsaw, his teeth bared in an evil smile. He revs up the chainsaw and jumps out from his hiding place. The children scream, standing there alone and unprotected--
Not really!

Looking out over the creek.

     But that was true up until the chainsaw part. Rebecca's mom's family had a reunion, and we stayed in cabins in the State Forest.
     The first thing I heard the next morning was pounding and screaming. I jumped up and fell out of bed.
     "Ruffians!" I cried. But no, it was Rebecca's cousins telling her and Isabelle that it was time for breakfast in the other cabin.
     "It's alright, Tsarmina," yawned Rebecca. They got up and the cousins dragged us the practically the whole way down the long road, which seemed much longer in the daylight.
     During the excruciating wait for more relatives to arrive, the cousins and I walked back and forth between the cabins. Good exercise. And then we had to wait even more for the food to cook. And then Rebecca was told to run back to the first cabin and fetch the forgotten pasta salad, so she waited even longer. But I told her not to worry. I guarded her plate. And then a cousin had to take it away and guard it from me. Hmph.
I also guarded the lemon cake:

There is NOT icing on my face! No, there's not!

The vegetables, however, sat cold and alone.

The adults sat and talked (boring!) We target shot toy arrows and BB guns-- although it was a little difficult for me to load the gun (not having fingers, and all). So Elijah did it for me.

Scary, right? I think I'd feel safer with the chainsaw murderer!

At some point, some of us got bored with playing militia and climbed on top of the wood shed.
These are some rare one-of-a-kind scenes that you will only see if you are a member of Rebecca's family, or a reader of this blog: