The Skunk Anniversary

The Man of the Place and I were both on camping holidays in August 1991 when we met at the Grand Canyon. He had just arrived at The Canyon and I had been there a couple of days. He just arrived that morning on the bus from Flagstaff and asked where he could find the office for camp sites. I just put my sister Kate on that same bus going back to Flagstaff where she lived and went to college. I was on the way back to the camp sites, I said that he should follow me and I'd show him the office.

To make a long story short, we hit it off right away. We kept bumping into each other that day.

The next evening I invited him over for dinner. He was backpacking and only had a bare minimum of supplies and I drove to Arizona. That meant that I had a camp stove, a big cooler for food, etc. That night after dinner we walked down to the edge of the Canyon. It was very romantic.

While we were sitting on a big rock admiring the canyon filled with moonlight, a skunk waddled in front of us. Henry had never seen a skunk before and was full of excitement and questions. I whispered that yes, it would spray us if it felt threatened and we should just sit still. The skunk ambled off without incident.

11 months later we were married.