At the end of a winter day-trip exploring Shenandoah National Park, I was
hiding in my car looking for the masked bandits to return, but I knew they would not be back. The big pink thing had
scared them away.
After my hikes, I arrived at Big Meadows around 4:00 PM. Even though
I was tired, I wanted to spend some time on the meadow before I headed home. You know, take pictures of the deer and
stuff. It was cold and windy, but I was dressed for it. There was snow in some places, not in others. I
walked over to the area around the site of the CCC camp.
Photo by Bob Kuhns
Winter at Big Meadows...
What's that flat shiny spot on the snow?
While there, I noticed a strange flat area on top of the snow. Looking
closer, I found a flat two inch thick piece of pink Styrofoam insulation that was about four feet long by 18 inches wide.
I remembered seeing such insulation on the one unfinished portion of the outside wall of the new restrooms at the visitor
center. The wind must have pulled this piece off and blown it way over here.
Since it did not belong on the meadow, and it was damaged, I decided to
put it in a trash can at the front of the visitor center. I tucked it under my left arm and carried my tripod with my
right hand. The big flat pink thing wanted to fly in the wind, but I held on. On my way back to the Visitor Center,
when I stopped to take pictures, I had to wrestle the big pink thing to the ground and stand on it while I set down the tripod
and camera. I went through that struggle, then wrangled it back under my arm to move on several times.
As I was walking down the Visitor Center parking lot toward the trash cans,
I suddenly noticed that the trash cans looked like they were wiggling. Then I realized that there were two
raccoons on top of them. What a great photo opportunity, and I had my telephoto lens attached to the camera on
the tripod. I just had to put down the big pink thing without scaring the raccoons away. As I moved the big pink
thing from under my arm to slip it under my foot, the wind caught it and twisted it in my hand to show broadside toward the
raccoons. They saw it, panicked and ran away.
Photo by Bob Kuhns
I waited in my car a distance away from the trash cans for half an hour
hoping the masked bandits would return. But I know they would not. They had been scared away by the big pink thing.
-- Bob Kuhns
