Venison Steaks and a Stinky Visitor
by Denise Janus

Today Joe Wallace and Chris Jurczak left and the rest of us canoed around Catawba Island.  Because it’s Memorial Day weekend and Put-in-Bay is closed, there are a lot of boaters out and the water is really choppy and wavy, and we have to make sure that we keep a good distance from shore so as not to let the waves push us into rocks or cliffs.  Mike does a fantastic job steering us the through the waves!  Everywhere we go people love our canoe and wave to us, no matter how big a boat people are in.  We get all sorts of compliments!

Today we did 13 miles and got off the water, looking forward to Mike’s dad and brother bringing down some venison from a deer Mike shot last season. We feasted on venison steaks Joe Heddy grilled, and corn on the cob Mr. Means cooked in the husk over charcoal on the ground. A few of us played a really rowdy game of Uno. We kept trying to sit by the campfire but it would rain on and off. We all were pretty whipped from the canoeing, so tonight was an early night, with the last person retiring at 12:30 a.m.  I was in one of those modes of just wanting to hang out by the fire so since the rain finally held off, I stayed up pretty late by myself watching the fire.  At about 1:30 a.m. I heard a rustling close to our garbage bag by the picnic table and after staring through the dark I realized that not 5 feet in front of me was a big ol' skunk!  I scared him off and he lazily scampered off into the woods, probably thinking “this lady is crazy and not worth my spray!”  I’m sure he went off to make his rounds to the other sites. I think these animals have their routes down and know how to work the campground.