If you are camping enthusiasts like me, you would likely agree that fall is the best season of all to go camping in this province called Ontario. There are no more mosquitoes, flies, bugs and the fall colour splendour is upon us all. But, the camping trip I did with Cecilia and Use-knee last week-end was the best of all the trips in my life. I will tell you why.
I have had a wonderful life. One of my missions in life or you can call it my destiny, is to go camping. I have been to so many wonderful and beautiful places in North America. You may have never heard about some of them. I have visted places like Big Sur in California, Boundary Waters in Minnesota, Waterton Park in Alberta, the Adirondacks in New York, the Cabbot Trail in Nova Scotia, and many more. If you have never been camping or don't intend to, I can understand why you don't believe I exist. You see, our creator made us for many different purposes. I can assure you with all my heart that when I was made by my creator I was told to go on a journey called camping.
I am not that young anymore. Wrinkles and skin spots from my old age, bruises from my many hazardous journey have left their marks on me. However, I still love life. The most desperate, terrible, heart breaking moment in my life happened about a month ago. I was really lucky cause I met a nice couple Cecilia and Use-knee. They saved my life. I was abandoned, discarded, left for dying. I was not. What I needed was TLC, Tender Loving Care. I was fortunate that those wonderful couple had it. They not only took me to their care, Use-knee also performed a life saving technique called LPR to my body. I was doubly lucky. It turned out that he was an expert in performing LPR back then when he was still living in Jakarta and had to do many LPRs. I survived. I am sure you can now understand why I said that this last camping trip with them was my happiest. I was smiling all the way since we started from Toronto on the Friday.
Algonquin fall colour was at its peak. The scenery along Highway 11, Yonge Street in Toronto, the longest street in the world, was also quite beautiful. I feel sorry sometimes for those city people who are stuck and can't afford to go out or to go to places like me. I could hear the oohs and the aahs coming from Cecilia's strong voice box when she saw the beauty of the trees. Indeed, the colours are everywhere including in people's hearts. Yes, thanks to her absent-mindedness, Cecilia forgot her belt-pouch containing all her wordly possesions including Queen Lilibeth pictures called the dollars. A nice lady found it in the woman's john and went looking after her. Cecilia found her campsite later on and happily retrieved the pouch. Indeed, paradise environment makes people so friendly and helpful to one another.
I can easily tell Cecilia and Use-knee love the outdoor. As soon as they settled in their campsite, they went to the lake, put their canoe down and started paddling. You probably have heard a hundred times that Use-knee broke his left collarbone a while ago. I overheard their conversation that it was the first time that the guy started to paddle with his left hand again. I was sure that unless he felt sore, they would have been paddling for hours. I have been together in trips with many other couples but I have never seen ones who are so addicted to playing scrabble. They played two times on Friday and three times on Saturday. What amazed me, in one of the games Cecilia started the first move using all her seven tiles and earned 74 points but Use-knee did not flinch at all. He just played as if nothing important happened and worked on his tiles. Eventually he caught up and he even won the game. That is what I called perseverance. I love people who don't easily give up especially on what they used to love before. No wonder because it happened to me. I had become THP, oops THL, The Hurting Lantern not People. Yes, my family name is Coleman and Lantern is indeed my first name. My previous owner who didn't love me anymore threw me to the dumpster. Boy, was I so scared. I shuddered to think how the park attendant would come by and pick me up, threw me then to the eternal hell of lantern. I am not that young but I am only 20 years old and I don't want to die yet. Today, I am shining again, alive and well. If you could only see how I glowed with happiness during all the nights with Cecilia and Use-knee, you would have believed me. I love camping, it is my destiny in my life, to give light to human-beings and to help them in their darkness.
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