One time when my husband and I took our three kids on a backpacking trip in the Adirondack Mountains, we were camped at a leanto close to the trail. There was an outhouse about twenty feet away from the trail, to be used not only by the leanto guests but hikers going along the trail.

At that time I had a bad phobia of spiders, having been bitten by a recluse as a young teen and suffering severely from it. Anyway, I was in the outhouse, when suddenly this huge spider dropped down in front of me. I jumped up and tore out of there screaming, with my shorts and undies down around my knees.

Of all things, the spider got knocked into my panties on the way out the door. I pulled off my shorts and panties and started beating them against a tree trying to get the darned thing out of there. Just as I started to put them back on, I regained my senses (somewhat) and discovered that not only had my whole family witnessed this event, but a man, woman, two little girls and a boy had come down the trail and were talking to my hubby.

The man put his hands over his little boys eyes, but Dad was standing there grinning from ear to ear. Mom noticed his look and smacked him in the head real hard with her hiking stick. I took off running into the woods, shorts in hand, and hid until they were well down the trail!

The next day, we took the kids on a hike up Hough Mountain, a trailess peak. We were beating our way back down the hill, when we spotted a bunch of people coming uphill near a brook. It was that same family, Dad sporting a bandage on his head. I kind of panicked at first and ran off into the woods again and tripped over a downed log and fell flat on my face in the mud.

I figured with all that mud on me, they'd never recognize me from the day before, so I got up and went back to rejoin my family, because I didn't want to get lost. When we met them face-to-face near the brook, the woman said to me, "I see your still having trouble handling outdoor life." I wanted to run away, but instead I said, "No, not really; I'm just getting close to nature, besides I hear that mud is good at keeping mosquitoes off of you, and it makes a wonderful facial treatment."

One thing I have learned over the years is never to take myself or life too seriously. We have to learn to laugh at ourselves in order not to be laughed "AT".