As we stood there looking at a log trying to determine if it was an old tree or something a bit more sinister, we started to hear rustling in the woods on the other side of the road. Having watched one too many Nat Geo shows on how alligators can sneak up on you, we all jumped at the sound and stepped closer to one another.
We looked intently as we tried to see what animal was making all that noise in the dense growth of the forest. While I wanted to see what was in those woods behind us, I also couldn't take my eyes off the swamp. With as much as I kept looking back and forth, my son said it looked like my head was on a swivel. My husband as I mused that we might as well have chickens dangling from our necks with how it felt like we were being sized up as dinner from both sides of the road.
We heard more rustling accompanied by the tell-tale snorting of wild hogs foraging for food. I laughed at myself for having thought it was a gator coming to eat us. And then, without any warning whatsoever, my husband tried out the Arkansas Razorback yell he'd been forced to learn as a right of passage when we'd moved to Little Rock some years back. "Woo Pig Sooiee!!!". We all jumped out of our skin as he yelled loud enough so every hog in a 100 mile radius could hear him.
Those faint pig noises instantly turned to very loud, and very ticked off, snorts and squeals of a wild boar who was not happy at having another wild boar in his territory. We froze in fear. In the next instant, the sound of a herd of pigs stampeding toward us broke us out of our trance.
"GET IN THE CAR!!" I yelled. I tossed the kids through the open door of the minivan, while my parents jumped in quickly behind them. I leapt into the driver's seat before my husband had even gotten the passenger side door open. I turned on the car and slammed the gear shift into "drive" while pushing the gas pedal to the floorboard as my husband was still trying to close his car door.
As we left the danger behind us faster than a speeding bullet, my mother said with that age old motherly you-know-you're-in-trouble tone in her voice "Michael..........". No other words were necessary, the tone said it all. He replied "I know......".
A couple of weeks ago when we were in Florida on vacation, we reminded our kids of this little escapade and asked them if they'd like to drive through the same state park this year. They quickly and emphatically declined the offer. I guess some things you only need to experience once in a lifetime.
Written by Christie Bielss
Now did you even get to see the pigs?
ReplyDeleteI did not see them as my focus was to get the heck out of Dodge, but my Dad swears he saw a pretty good sized boar with 5-6 other hogs as we left the area with undue haste. With the way the brush was moving, and being able to hear the stomping of their hooves as they ran toward us, I believe he probably did see them - especially since he was the one sitting in the very back of the minivan. ;)
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