Standard disclaimer: The following post contains somewhat sexual content that some readers might find offensive. The characters and events described are all a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons or places, real or fake, are merely a coincidence. Except for Santa. He's real and depicted with his consent!
Reader discretion is advised.
The Accidental Nudists - Part 1: The Bare/Bear mistake.
It is said that a man's mother is his first true love. That's certainly true for me.
Hi! My name is pure_romance. But today, you can call me "James".
Growing up with my Mom was awesome! I didn't have a dad to speak of, but I didn't miss out on the typical father/son adventures. Mom took the role of raising a strong and rugged man seriously. She taught me how to ride a bike and throw a ball. She introduced me to hunting and fishing. She taught me how to catch squirrels (and let them go, of course). She taught me the best places to pitch a tent, and how to make a proper bed roll. She taught me how to use a knife and how to safely build a campfire. Above all else, she instilled in me a deep respect for nature.
Some of my best memories were formed on dirt trails high up some random hillside in the mountains of Appalachia. Having grown up like that, I guess you could say, Mom and I were built from the same ores, and tumble polished in the same rivers and streams. We were nature lovers, through and through.
A lot of people like to point out the Oedipus complex and somehow that means I was always physically attracted to my Mother. That wasn't actually the case for us. Although I have always loved my mother more than the common mother/son relationship, it was never in the inappropriate way. For us, it was a very healthy and strong, platonic kind of love. I think it would have been like that forever, had a certain far north inhabitant not given us the perfect opportunity!
Our story begins in the early summer of 2018. I was the textbook definition of the stereotypical basement dweller. I wasn't exactly your typical 'failure to launch' story, but I
was
living in my mother's basement! No friends. No girls. No hobbies. Mild porn addiction. But that's where the description of a basement dweller stopped applying. From my perspective, Mom and I were basically roommates. It felt like the perfect arrangement. But that didn't mean Mom wasn't worried about me.
You see, my Mother is a psychologist, and she's very good at what she does. I know she tried very hard
not
to psychoanalyze me on a regular basis, but when that's your go-to state of mind for more than two decades, it's not easy to just switch it off.
I had my college degree by then and was working a good job with an engineering firm, although I was still pretty low in the company roster. Even so, I had great hours at work, and I was making good money. Good enough most people would call me a "professional". But a profession is not a life.
I was essentially a zombie after graduation. I didn't have any friends (other than Mom) and it had been years since my last girlfriend. My days were little more than a depressing survival routine: Wake up. Get dressed. Go to work. Watch the clock. Go home. Shower. Shorts. Vidia. Bed. Repeat.
I have to hand it to her, Mom was doing everything she could to pull me out of survival mode. But nothing was working. I guess I was depressed. But I don't know why. I get the feeling she was just about to give up and push me out of the house once and for all!
Then we got the most interesting advertising brochure in the mail.
I'll never forget that wasted Saturday afternoon. Mom was running some errands and asked me to get the mail. As I was heading back inside, with a handful of junk mail and magazines, I noticed the brochure. It was a hotel advertisement, but this was no ordinary hotel. This was an advertisement for the "Bear River Nature Resort and Lodge", in the Sawtooth Mountain range of Idaho.
IDAHO!
I don't know why, but that little pamphlet had my complete attention. As I slowly read it, every single word jumped out at me. "Rustic lodge." "Cabins." "Natural lazy river." "Panoramic vistas." "Extensive hiking trails." "
TWELVE HOUR, CAMP STYLE, BARBECUE BUFFET.
" "Cabin suites." "Fireside sunsets." "Off-grid." and "No WiFi or mobile internet." And those were just the
words
! You should have seen the pictures! A Rustic lodge. Ramshackle cabins. A crystal clear stream with rolling water. A massive panoramic scroll of rolling hills and numerous hidden valleys at sunset. And then there was the tall grass shots. Lots of tall grass shots. It was like someone broke the bush hog and took up photography.
The more I read and explored that brochure, the better it all looked. I felt this longing to go. Mom and I hadn't so much as gone for a long walk in years by that point, and I was starting to forget what pine trees smelled like! Nothing was so interesting to me as that brochure.
Then I spotted the final print on the back of the brochure. UNDER the fine print and legal BS, there was a short, final offer that simply read, "Free two week stay for first time campers. Call for details."
That was simply all I needed to read! Without any thought in my head, I spent the next twenty minutes on the phone with a lovely old woman, making a first time reservation for two. Why a reservation for two, you might be asking? Well, I figured if
I
needed a two-week getaway to the most remote place in North America, Mom definitely needed it, just for putting up with me!
And that was where the
real
strangeness began.
While setting up reservations, there were certain restrictions imposed for the "first time campers" package. For a start, we couldn't bring an RV (we didn't have one), we couldn't use the tent spaces (weird, but no tent either), and we were limited to a single cabin for the two of us (kind of makes sense, it's FREE). The cabin they had available had one, king-sized bed, but there was a couch (well, shucks. But again, it's FREE). One of the finer points she kept asking was if we were both "legally adults", or "twenty-one and up" (probably for drinking... right?).
I wasn't really hearing anything that would push me away, and I was just about to tell that nice old lady to shut up and take my money! But it was the last restriction that really
should
have put my guard up. The nice old woman on the phone explained that, First time campers were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
My initial reaction was one of confusion. Since when do camp lodges come with NDAs? She explained it was because the lodge was very exclusive, and they depend on targeted advertising to keep their camp from being overrun. It sounded a little fishy to me, but for some reason, I just set it aside and gave her my email address to send me the forms.
I probably should have asked some more questions. Especially when she said "targeted advertising"... What the hell put a bullseye on my sorry butt for
that
particular campaign?? Then again, we wouldn't have a story to tell if I'd questioned it. So I didn't! And here we are!
When Mom got home, I took my time building up the reveal about what I'd found. I was actually convinced she wouldn't be interested, for any of a dozen reasons. I was wrong. All I ever had to do was show her the brochure and tell her I got us a two-week stay. I don't think I've ever seen her that excited to go camping before. She just about tackled me with glee!
And just like that: the vacation of a lifetime was born!
Mom and I left for Idaho on a beautiful Saturday morning. There wasn't a cloud in sight for the entire, flight, and the drive into the Sawtooth mountains was amazing. Mom and I spent just about every mile talking and reminiscing about camping trips of the past. Laughing about mistakes made, and of course, lamenting the missed opportunities. It was a deeply personal journey down memory lane, and we weren't even on the right mountain yet!
Twelve hours, two airports, one Walmart, two gas stations, and a breath-taking scenic overlook later: after miles of winding dirt roads, through an endless pine forest, we finally came up over the top of the last ridge where we were suddenly stopped in our tracks by an imposing, concrete wall.