Deer Butts, Meet-ups, Hard up in Madison

Talk about pressure. I just walked away from lunch with my blogging mentor, Mark (Mark My Words), who A) told me he’d be blogging about our meet-up in the next few days, which means I’d better get a decent post up in case any of his million followers check me out, and B) showed me how he keeps a list of possible blogging topics on his phone, which turns out not to work for me. For this post alone, I’ve generated these topics:

• Rushing from Mark’s to shower so I can meet Mark
• Campground showers I’ve hated
• Camping with the unhoused
• Deer butts in my campground
• Doug’s shingles
• Savior chiropractor with nose ring

This is just too much. I mean, I could write one post about each of these topics, easy peasy. Which, come to think of it, is probably not what Mark meant. While I’m on this roll though, let me try to cover all this. Think I can?

Time with Mark

About two hours from Madison, Wisconsin, I looked carefully at our route and realized we would drive right by Mark’s house. We’d already planned lunch together in a couple of days, but I’d heard so much about his wife Tara and their gardens that I texted him about a stopover. Team MarTar did not disappoint. I mean, who else will step outside on their busy Sunday to show off their yard to strangers at a moment’s notice? As I walked through their yard, I felt like I was getting the tour of a famous literary set. Instead of, “Here the lake that inspired Darcy’s being all wet in front of Elizabeth,” I was getting, “Here’s the pond where we discovered after a thaw that we had koi!” It was very cool. Tara hoisted off gave me some of her tomatoes, graciously, and I hurried Tracy and myself back on the road. Because, you know, I needed to get to the campground so I could take a shower so I could make a decent first impression later that week when I met my blogging friend, Mark. D’oh! Didn’t realize that silliness until we were at the campground. (Lunch with Mark was a fine experience, and I am proud to report I was clean for it.)

Campground Showers

Which leads me to the unfortunate showers here at our city park campground, which leads me to promising a later post about campground showers from the past five years. Turns out, when I do a search in my photos for “shower,” I’ve taken an unhealthy number of photos already. You can bet I’ve got that topic on my blogging topics list, now, Mark!

Campground Unhoused Population

I will say that the showers here have continuously running hot water, which it looks like a sizable portion of Madison’s homeless population comes here for, and stay here for. Now, clearly, people who don’t have a place to live need to sleep somewhere, and this place seems safe. The camphosts must have an understanding not to kick them out, since there are a couple of guys with tents only, no vehicle, no camping chairs. This one young man tries be inconspicuous walking the road near his campsite, but at night he’s on his phone in his cheap tent. I imagine him leaving home with nothing, and some shelter has given him the tent. This is all he’s got. Again, no vehicle. The other guy with just a tent seems okay with the situation and waves at me each time I walk by; once he mimed to throw me his football; I mimed back that I would drop it and lose it under a car. Truth.

What about the roving couple? When we first got here, they had their tent (and dogs and portable refrigerator) at the back of the campsite occupied by a seemingly unrelated family in a trailer at the front of the campsite. (Trailer family was Black with little kids; tent couple is white with large barking dogs. They did not mingle.) When the truck-camper guy next to us moved (he coughed so loudly each morning that I had to jack up NPR inside the trailer to cover up the sounds), tent family moved their stuff into the spot behind his empty site, right beside our screen tent. Seriously, like they were trying to stay under the radar here. I guess: what better way to camouflage yourself when you’re homeless than by setting up a tent in a campground near other people camping? Again, more power to the hosts for letting people stay in a safe place with hot showers.

Deer Butts

Still, folks here are weird. Their dogs are loud, their setups are strange. And, what is up with the three yard signs by someone’s odd campsite that are life-sized 2D prints of deer in awkward positions?

I think one of the deer posters/yard signs/cutouts has a real fur tail attached at the back. What even?

Time with Doug

A central joy of our annual trips to Madison is hanging with my high-school friend, Doug. You may remember that last year he was able to stop by the campsite for lunch every day, a casual familiarity that is rare in our life. Well, our timing sucks this year with his work: he’s had to be at the hospital each day pretending to have shingles for med students to diagnose. Oh, Doug. You’ve topped our eccentric connection once again. It’s gone from high-school literary magazine > after-prom Rocky Horror Picture Show > reunion through Live Journal > the best weekend ever during the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well tour > impromptu what-the-heck ukulele playing and singing from a safe social distance > three winters of trading Bob Dylan deep cuts > daily photo exchange > present-day missing you because of fake shingles. What’s in store for us next? I actually hope it’s just simple hanging out time. (Doug suggested I illustrate this section with the photo he sent me of his shingles prosthetic. Now that I look at it on a big screen, no way Jose. Ping me if you have a morbid or health-related curiosity, and I’ll send it to you.)

Doctors with Nose Rings

Which leads me to Doug’s most excellent reference for a chiropractor for my knee, who for legit reasons I thought was from China, but when he greeted me at the door with multiple tattoos and a pointy beard and a nose ring, I realized my assumption was wrong, and this would not be a what I imagined of a chiropractic visit. And it most certainly was not. For brevity’s sake I’ll report that my entire leg is now working better than anytime since knee surgery in January. (I also had a successful visit with a healthcare provider who may be addressing all that’s gone on during this medical mystery tour, but that for sure is for another post.)

Other than that, I covered them all!