It’s been the longest car trip I ever had. I swear if I had to sit in the car any longer I would scream. It was so cramped in the van; it was all hot and humid as the beginning of summer was right around the corner. Jessica my sister was sitting next to me. She had been sleeping and talking in her sleep. Clint was sitting back in his seat listening to music. Mom and dad were sitting up front looking for our campground. We were going on vacation for the summer; I didn’t want to be there. But I had to. I wanted to be at home not here. I guess I can try to enjoy a vacation for once.


We were in the mountains in West Virginia. My ears were popping as we stopped in front of our campsite. I looked out the window and it was the most incredible view. The sun was setting and the sunset was pink and purple, the sky was clear and the moon was just now coming into view. We all got out of the car. We were so glad that the trip was finally over. We started unpacking and collecting firewood so we could set up our tent.


While mom, dad, and Clint set up the tent, Jessica and I sat around the warm fire eating smores. We sat there watching the sparks fly up to the sky and out in the distance I heard a wolf howl. Mom, dad and Clint were now sitting down next to us and we were all sitting in silence. Then we all heard a bear roar. I didn’t think much about this cause I know there are bears up here. It wasn’t until the park sheriff came around telling everyone to go up front to the lobby when I figured something was wrong.

“Hey guys! yelled the sheriff. He was talking to my dad now,”
“I think you should go up to the lobby until the family of bears are done passing through.”
“Okay, I’ll just get us all together and we will be on our way.”
“Okay.” replied the sheriff


That was when I saw it. There was a mamma bear and a scared cub running up behind her. The mom was so big when she walked it felt like she shook the whole earth. As she got closer up on me I could see her devil looking black eyes and her rank breath I could smell a mile away. She was right up on me now and I was frozen. I couldn’t move. I was so scared I just stood there staring at the bear. My dad went and picked me up and brought me to the car. I looked back at the bear to see if it was going to follow us but it never did. It just sat there with its cub.

We headed up to the lobby where we played ping - pong for an hour before we went back to the campsite. When we got there nothing was really messed up. There was trash everywhere; chip bags, Hershey bars, bread and buns. They got into some of my moms favorite cookies and they ate all of our hamburgers and hotdogs, there was trash from all over the place. Trash that wasn’t even ours.


I sat up all night wondering if the bears would ever come back. They never did but I swear I heard them off in the distance somewhere roaring. Probably playing having fun. I wish that I could have fun camping but I just cant. Not now. I used to. A year ago we were camping at one of our local campgrounds for my other sister Christina, who was turning five. I was seven. She wanted to ride her bike that she just got for her birthday. She asked me if I wanted to go up the hill with her. I did. We were up on the hill ridding our bikes and playing at the playground and on the swings and the slides. I remember us laughing and playing around and getting hurt but we didn’t even care cause we were having so much fun. Then I heard my dad down the hill yell breakfast was ready.

“Race you down the hill,” I yelled behind me as I started down.
“Your on!” She yelled behind me.
I sat there ridding as fast as I could, hearing the wind in my ears and seeing my hair blow in the wind. I looked back to see if she was behind me. She wasn’t. Then I saw her lying on the ground there not moving. I had no time to think I just did what was right. I headed towards my parents yelling, crying, and wondering if she was going to be okay, she wasn’t. She died an hour later at the hospital. She needed brain surgery and they couldn’t give it to her fast enough. She had so much blood in her head it was pushing her brain to the left. It was entirly my fault. I didn’t deserve to live. I It should have been me not her. But it wasn’t.


I woke up with crusted dried tears over my eyes. I cried myself to sleep that night. It was early morning, maybe five, and my dad was already up. He was making coffee over the fire and getting ready to make us breakfast for our big day ahead of us. We were going to go on a big hike looking around the mountains and just being out in nature. Dad makes the best food over the fire. If only his food at home tasted this good. Even when dad made green eggs they were still better then his cooking at home. And yes, you can make green eggs. Believe me, I have tried them before. I was sitting there cracking the eggs as dad put the potatoes on the fire.

“ Dad, here are the eggs.”
“Thanks Al, you’re a big help!”
“Hey dad?” I asked.
“Yeah Alicia.
“Do you remember when Christina died?”
“Yeah, we did everything we possibly can to help. You need to stop blaming yourself that you’re the reason why she died we never should have bought her that bike she was to young.”
“Dad I wasn’t blaming myself,” I lied.
“Its just I was thinking about her last night and I was wondering what it would be like with her here.”
“Me too.”
“Yeah, okay dad well I’m going to go to bed again so wake me up when breakfast is ready.”
“ Will do.”

I woke up to the smell of bacon and dad yelling my name.
“ ALESHA!!!!!” he yelled.
I got up changed my clothes walked out of the tent and made my plate. I had potatoes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and fruit punch. It was the best breakfast I had ever had in my entire life.
When we all finished our breakfast we all got in the van and headed to where ever it was that we were going. We were in the car for a while then we pulled up in a parking lot and stopped. I got out and started climbing on the rocks next to the river while everyone else got whatever they needed. I couldn’t wait until we got on the hike. I wanted to see all the beautiful views and nature here. I was so energetic I was jumping off of rocks.

We finally started walking. We walked for what seemed like forever. We walked up hills, down hills, across bridges, and up more giant hill. The view up there was gorgeous. You could see all of the trees and the mountains in the background. I think this hike was worth seeing but if Christina were here it would have been better. We were all so hungry so we decided to start walking back to the van so we could go ahead and eat our lunch.

When we got back to the van we decided to eat some hamburgers and hotdogs with chips. It was so good. Dad and mom wanted some time to themselves so we all decided to go to this park that was next to us. It had slides and swings and the best part was the seesaw. We all loved the seesaw. Jessica and Clint got on first. It didn’t work so I decided to get on. We were all having fun. Clint and I were on the seesaw and Jessica playing in the sand. Then Jessica got this bright idea to put sand on the seesaw. It was almost to me when I just kicked off the ground. Clint wasn’t hanging on and he fell and hit his head on the metal bar in front of him. It looked like it hurt. That’s when he just started crying. He cried and cried and cried so much. He couldn’t see out of his eye. It was already swelling and it was blue and purple. It looked horrible.

We ended our hike a little early so we could go to the store and buy him medicine and ice for his eye. He was still crying. His eye was as purple as ever now. I wish that I hadn’t of done that. It was my entire fault that Clint got hurt just like it was my entire fault that Christina died. I hate this I shouldn’t have come.

We did a lot that week. It truly was the best week of my life sort of. We packed up the van and drove away from West Virginia. It was so cramped in the car. At least everyone was here and we had a good time. I fell asleep waiting to be back home again. It’s been the most fun week but also the slowest week, But also a week were I didn’t want to be anywhere but home.