Glad the Wainwrights are back! I hope you'll keep going with them after they return from Granite Falls.
I could. The file I sent them camping in is saved on the night they returned from their camping trip. If I did, I'd make it a separate follow-up story, since it would be an alternate universe to their Sims 3 versions, and I wanted to keep this one as being able to be read as either being in that universe or not. In game, both Boyd and Susan kept getting whims to try for baby, and now alien abductions are a thing, too. I have been itching to do a proper active scientist career story, though.
I have a feeling the Wainwrights will be back in Granite Falls not too long after, they seem to have developed some love for nature - then again, maybe the temptation of technology will through all that out the window 
I love sending sims camping, so, it's entirely possible. If one or both got a whim for a vacation, I probably would, although in Susan's case, that might be a case of "Be careful what you wish for." I think I'd let them have their cabin that time, though. (But the Watcher might have enough mischief skill to have it be that cabin with no stove and the outdoor shower, which Susan would not be pleased with.)
Chapter 8
While Boyd and Blair were fishing, Susan had an animated discussion with the ranger on duty, and made sure as she went over the check-out procedure that she had a full list of the charges that would be made to their card at check-out time. Boyd’s text came through while she was in the middle of it, so she did not see it right away.
The picture of Blair proudly holding up her minnow made Susan smile, but despite that, she did not feel like walking all the way over to the creek to join them. Fishing was not something Susan was all that interested in, and it surprised her that Boyd enjoyed it enough to try it a second time. She saw no appeal in standing for hours on a muddy embankment by the water, just to try and catch something that smelled the way fish did, to be left with the choice of throwing it back or getting filthy cleaning it. But she supposed that aspect would not bother her husband, whose neatness habits were near nonexistent unless it involved some kind of hazard.
While Susan was at the ranger station, she impulse-bought a book, The Man Behind the Falls. She decided to relax at one of the empty picnic and fire pits and read until Blair and Boyd were done fishing. She had just started the second chapter when a small group of campers consisting of two men and a woman approached. “Hey, mind if we light a fire here? The other pits are all full.”
Susan looked up and saw that the surrounding pits all had families or groups at them. “Oh, sure. Go ahead.”
“Thanks,” one of the men replied, while the woman with them lit a fire. “We’re ready for a break. We’ve been hiking all morning.”
“This place is great, isn’t it?” the other man remarked. “The lake view is just spectacular.”
“Oh, isn’t it?” Susan agreed. “I took a picture of it on my phone, but the camera doesn’t do it justice.”
“Are you here by yourself?” the woman asked.
Susan shook her head. “No. My husband and daughter are camping with me. They’re out fishing, but it’s not really my thing.”
“Mine neither,” one of the men said. “I leave that to Wendell and Roxana here. I’m lucky if I catch a minnow when I try.”
Roxana laughed. “Well, my luck wasn’t so great this morning. So… marshmallows, anyone?” She looked at Susan. “You’re welcome to grab some, too. What’s your name?”
“Susan.” She set her book down, accepting the offer. “Nice to meet you, Roxana, Wendell, and?” She turned to the other man.
“Wayne,” he replied. “Nice to meet you, too, Susan.”
Wendell stood up and glanced in Susan and Wayne’s direction. “Um, I hate to say this, but I think we’ve got someone else who’d like one.”
“What do you…?” Susan’s voice trailed off as she followed his gaze and saw a bear approaching. “Oh.”
“Maybe he’s just hungry,” Wayne said nervously.
“Do you really think you can appease it with a marshmallow?” asked Wendell.
“He can have the bag!” Roxana said with panic in her voice. She got ready to throw it, which in turn made Susan panic.
“No! Wild animals don’t like sudden moves like that. They find them threatening.” She was suddenly thankful for all of those Discover-It Channel nature shows she had watched. “Although I thought they didn’t like fire, either.”
The bear let out a little grumble and stared at them, while Roxana rolled two marshmallows in its direction in a gentle and non-threatening way. “Here you go, Mr. Bear. Have a couple.”
The bear seemed to appreciate her generosity, and gobbled them right up. Wayne tossed him a few more. Their ursine companion scooped them up greedily in his paws, and then sat down on the log where Susan had been seated just a short while before.
“Um, well, I guess he’s ready to settle in,” Susan remarked, mentally placing “BEARS!!!” at the top of her list of reasons she never wanted to go camping again.
Everyone fell silent, and Roxana pushed the bag of marshmallows toward the bear, who grabbed and devoured them on the spot. It did not leave, though. Instead, it stayed on the log by the fire, watching them. After an uncomfortably long silence, Wayne finally spoke. “You know, there’s a joke here about our fuzzy friend causing unbearable tension.”
“And on that note, I think I’m going to see how my family is doing with their fishing exploits,” Susan said with a polite smile, walking slowly and carefully so as not to startle or inadvertently make the bear feel threatened. “It was nice meeting all of you. Thank you for the marshmallows.”
As she left, Susan texted Boyd to let him know she was on her way to the creek, but as it turned out, he and Blair were no longer fishing there. After catching nothing but a couple of small fry, Blair asked if they could try fishing down at the lake shore. She and Boyd headed down there, but Boyd was starting to dread the chore of packing up all of their camping gear as check-out time drew nearer. When Susan texted him, he asked Blair if she was ready to call it a day for fishing.
“Nope! I don’t want to leave until I catch a big fish.”
“All right. You can keep on fishing for a while, but I’m going to catch up with your mother. She’s in the main area of the campground up the trail. We’ll check back with you soon.”
Blair continued to fish for a while, and watched the sun sparkle on the water and the ducks swimming by the shore farther down.
About twenty minutes after her father left, she caught her biggest fish yet. It was a minnow, but it was much bigger than any of the others she’d seen. “Wow! That’s really cool!”
Blair was excited about her catch, and it made her feel like an accomplished fisherman. Or would that be fisher-girl? She was not sure. She also wished her parents were there to see it, because she didn’t want to keep it. She didn’t have a bowl for the fish, and it wasn’t really good for eating, not to mention that it would start to get stinky and spoil on the ride home. She ended up just setting her fish down long enough to take a picture of it, and then she put it back into the lake. Blair smiled as she watched it swim away. “Bye, fishy!”
Boyd and Susan caught up with each other and talked about what they’d done that afternoon. While walking, they passed by the fire pit Susan had been at earlier, although the bear, Wendell, and Wayne were gone now. Roxana still had the fire going, and after Susan introduced her to Boyd, she told them about how the bear got sleepy after eating all those marshmallows, and eventually wandered back into the woods. Wendell and Wayne had gone to tell the ranger on duty about the incident, while Roxana was keeping the fire going until they got back.
Susan and Roxana kept chatting, while Boyd went over by the fire to check out the book Susan bought earlier.
A few minutes later, Boyd got a message from Blair. “Hey, Susan! Blair just sent me a picture of a fish she caught all on her own. It’s a minnow, but… you know, I wouldn’t believe a minnow could get this big if I didn’t see it. Come check it out.”
Susan came over and took a look. “Wow. I think that’s bigger than the perch you got at the national park yesterday.”
“I know. Sad, isn’t it? My fishing skills, I mean. Not hers. Hers are obviously pretty good.” Boyd looked over at Susan. “Maybe we should enroll her in Sim Scouts.”
“I don’t know if I want to encourage vacations where we forego plumbing and electricity as a regular thing,” Susan replied. “I mean, these survival skills might be useful in a zombie apocalypse, but other than that…”
“Well, if she wanted to go camping again, we’d definitely get a cabin with cable, and get ourselves a mobile hotspot to use for internet service. Maybe a tablet so we don’t have to pack more than one computer. And if Blair wants to feel like she’s roughing it, we could always set up our new tent outside the cabin for her to play in.”
“Fortunately, for her next vacation we already promised her Llama World, and I’m fine with that. Llama World has wonderful resorts.”
Boyd nodded. “Llama World will be fun this summer.”
Shortly after that, they realized there were just a couple of hours left to get everything packed up and ready to go home. Susan and Boyd headed down to the lake and met up with Blair, returned her fishing pole, and the three of them went back to camp. Boyd and Susan did the heavier work of taking down the tent, while Blair helped pack up the things they needed to take to the car. Soon, the camp site was as empty as it was when they arrived, aside from the lantern, which Susan kept on hand now that dusk was approaching.
Susan was finishing a yogurt, and Boyd and Blair were playing a final game of horseshoes when the ranger on duty, Ranger Krysta, came to their camp site. “Hi. I heard you had some issues with check in, so I wanted to stop by personally and make sure that if you needed anything before you left, we could assist.”
“Thank you,” Susan said, getting up from the table. “I appreciate that. I think we’re pretty much set, though.”
“I know your stay wasn’t exactly what you planned. I hope you had a nice vacation regardless.”
“We did!” Blair said with a grin on her face. “It was lots of fun sleeping out in the wild and hiking and fishing. We even got new pets, Marty and Drogon!” She pointed to the mantis and dragon dragonfly that she and her father had caught the previous day at the national park.
“Drogon?” Susan arched an eyebrow as she glanced over at Boyd.
“That’s from Game of Groans, isn’t it?” Ranger Krysta remarked.
“Yup!”
“Well, he’s pretty neat. Can I take a closer look at him?” Krysta asked Blair.
She nodded. “Sure!”
“Boyd,” Susan said in a hushed tone that Blair could not hear, “did you let her watch Game of Groans?!”
“No! Of course not. The other day I was playing a MeTube video from it, a montage of the dragons set to music, and she saw it on my screen, and asked me about it, and the dragons in it. But there was nothing objectionable for a kid her age in that.”
Susan breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, good.”
“Those are some very cool bugs you got there,” Krysta told Blair with a smile. “Take good care of them.”
“We will!” said Blair.
The ranger adjusted her hat. “Well, it looks like you’re all set, so I’ll let you finish packing up and not hold you up. Thanks for coming to the Granite Falls campgrounds, and for sticking it out with us despite the rocky start. We appreciate your business, and you’re welcome to come back anytime. Oh, and I was told to give you this.” She handed Susan a coupon. “10% off your next vacation, even on holiday and prime vacation slot rates. We hope you’ll stay with us again.”
“Oh. Thank you.”
Just what I never wanted, to go camping again, Susan thought.
“Yeah, thanks,” Boyd echoed, giving her a polite smile while his thoughts ran much along the same line as his wife’s. He turned to Blair. “You about ready to head back to the car? Don’t need the bathroom or anything? It’s a long drive.”
“I’m fine.”
“I can wait for the comforts of home,” Susan said, glad that she would no longer have to deal with the fly-filled public restroom. “Let’s go.”
“Sounds good to me.” Boyd picked up the car keys, Susan picked up the lantern, and Blair held Marty in one hand and Drogon in the other as they headed down the dirt path to the parking lot.
Two hours later, the Wainwrights were back at home, comfortably settled around a pizza on their dining table.
“This is like ambrosia,” Boyd remarked as he stuffed a hot and gooey slice of pepperoni and extra cheese pizza into his mouth. “And we didn’t even have to roast it over a fire first. Straight from the delivery guy, like technology intended.”
“You said it. Processed meat topping and all,” Susan agreed, taking a slice.
“It does taste good. I’m kind of tired of hot dogs and marshmallows,” Blair admitted. “And it’ll be nice to take a bubble bath tonight.”
“Yes, it will,” said Susan. “But you can go first. You have school bright and early tomorrow.”
“I know. I can’t wait to tell Kody all about our trip!” Blair finished her pizza. “His wasn’t as cool as ours.”
“I’m not sure ‘cool’ is the word I’d use, but it was definitely an, uh, unforgettable experience,” Boyd said.
Susan smiled at Blair. “We’re glad you had such a good time, sweetie.”
“I did. It was fun.” Blair picked up her plate and went to the sink. “I’m going to take my bath now.”
Susan nodded to Blair as she left, while Boyd set his pizza crust down on the plate. “So, what do you want to do first? TV or computer?”
“Computer until she’s done, and then I’ll take my bath. After that, maybe we’ll watch some TV after she goes to bed?”
Boyd closed up the box of pizza. “Want to catch up on the episode of Game of Groans we missed while we were away?”
“Sounds perfect.” Susan picked up the pizza box and gave Boyd a kiss on the cheek. “It’s good to be home, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely.” Boyd stretched and headed over to his computer desk to settle in.
End
