CHECK YOUR GUNS HERE--is that an invitaion?

Awoke to a nice cool morning, thank God!
I eat some bread and Peanut butter and pack and rock out.

The air is chilly, yet I can see its mainly because Iam buried in the trees.
I walk and when I get to Firetower road, I look over to some kids who are playing in a yard and ask them if the road I am on will lead me to Latham, as I have head tell of 'Thelmas Kitchen', a great local burger joint.

They say, yeah, so I go forward. AFter a long sweaty road walk, mainly up I get to the intersection with Latham road and take that one down to the small burg of Latham. Not much here other then the Fish Hatchery and gas station and Thelmas, where I had 2 cheeseburgers, a fries and a coke...all for under $6...hell yeah, I love small town dinners.

Then its off to keep rocking, yet, I read in the book something to the effect that the trails in this area are not blazed, hard to find, unmaintained, lots of blowdowns et al...so I road walk this stretch into sinking spring,and then onto the area of The Serpent Mound, Americas most famous and largets Snake Effigy.

Its late, so I cant really see a thing,soI decide to camp about a quarter mile away from the Serpent.

As the clear night sky shines down on my with stars and a half moon, fireworks begin going off.

Then I hear a band--a sorta weak version of "Hotel California" and "House Of The Rising Sun" waifs through the treetops. Cool! A party must be going on near here.

I thought back on Smoke Rise Cattle Ranch in Muray City and hearing the karoke and not getting up and not going to check it out and then being told the next morning that I should have come on over...so I decided to pack and go check it out.

I backtrack on the trail to a road and then follow the noise.
When I get closer I hear its definietly a small gathering, yet a loud band.
I walk up and the first thing that cathes my eye is a sign behind the three piece band:

"CHECK YOUR GUNS HERE"

If that aint a sign that Im probably in the right place I dont know what is.

I walk up behind some seated folks and they turn to stare me and my pack down...Hell, I put on a clean shirt and I was smiling, but still I guess it was odd for them to see somedude with a backpack walk up on their party at 10:30 at night.

"Hi, Im Mike and Im hiking the buckeye trail through here on the American Discovery Trail"

I offered to film the crowd and the party but a few of the folks there suggested I not film anything or anybody. So you know....I let that one go.

Before I knew it,I had a cold beer in my hand and a conversation going with a guy who does his own tattoos. On himself. His brother had just got married and he and his bride were having this family affair.   He welcomed me as did a few others...some seemed to worry about me, but thats cool.

The bride came up to me and demanded to see my ID, which I showed her..she yanked t out of my hand and went up to the microphone and read off all my personal info and stated in a drunken manner that I was in trouble and that I had better...well....it was drunken babble basically, but I had a fear that I may never see my ID again.

So, in less then five minutes of being there, I had a beer, lost my ID and now I was being called up to sing a song...great, I love singing.

So I get up and the one song I know that they know is "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seger, and before I get out the second verse, two Cop cars pull up along with a Shierff.

Super.

Im told to stop singing by one of the girls who was hosting the party as the band tore out their cords and dropped their instruments and adanboned the stage...and they kill the power on the band stage and people begin scrambling...oh boy, maybe I should have stayed in my tent...

They explained to the Law that it was a Wedding party and after being kinda annoying, they left.

But by this point I was thought to be an undercover cop by a bunch of people I had meet not 10 minutes before the cops showed up. I was informed by the one or two folks who would still talk tome that the cops never come out here, and it was really odd coincidence that I was there right before they showed, etc...so I packed it up and left.

About 20 minutes later I was back in my Hubba starring at the same beautiful sky I had abadoned not an hour before.

Life is funny.