So a 5 hour trip that became 6 (with all the breaks — gas, potty and to change out the Disney videos), finally ends after the highway gave way to the hilly county roads and then finally to the unpaved ones. 

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These cottage roads are minimally maintained (read: very dusty, and riddled with pot holes and sometimes frogs – true story). My son giggled as his brains were being scrambled along the washboard road. So, I slowed down. A lot. Besides, you go too fast around those corners and you find your vehicle being bumped and jiggled off the road and into the “ditch” (read: soggy marsh that stinks like the final resting place of the bog people — no disrespect, some of the bog people are my Irish relatives). As we travel along we pass many well appointed cottages. Serious amounts of money. Like, mostly celebs and hockey stars own these babies. I would never have a chance of summering on this popular lake except by being a volunteer camp nurse! So…here I am!

The final turn and we enter camp. We have arrived on Saturday afternoon and we are all pretty excited! The previous session of girl campers all left this morning. The next session will not start until Sunday afternoon. So, we have a whole day to explore camp and get settled. After passing the beach front, the canoeing area, and the sail boats bobbing in the water, we pull up to the 3 story main building. The kids want to peel off their clothes and go swimming immediately! 

I park the van, hop out, and step onto a pair of little girl underpants and a sock that I believe used to be ?white? maybe? I look up to see that sitting on a picnic table on the main house deck are 3 young adults. They quickly hop to their feet.

“Hi. You must be our nurse for the boys session?” Says one of the guys.

“I am!” I reply trying to paste on a brave smile as I check out the welcoming crew.

The first young man holds out his hand to shake mine and introduces himself and his “collegues”. This dude, Will, is 6 feet tall, is sporting a Mohawk hair cut (think Mr. T) and a goatee. The second guy, Shawn, is about 5’5″, weighs about 200 lbs, and has long, curly black hair that cascades down to the middle of his back. He is sporting some sort of native Indian tattoo on his bicep (and this was 20 years ago in the days before tattoos were popular). The young lady, Caroline, is tiny and cute. But, it is hard to even take notice as your eyes are immediately drawn to her lip piercing and her red Mohawk that is completely spiked about 3 feet off the top of her head. 

I can feel that my smile must look very plastic right now as I am really wondering where I have arrived?! What the heck have I done? I have brought my 3 lovely, darling, little children, my most prized possessions in this world, the loves of my life… to this freak show!