It's not that I don't know how to light a fire. I got the fire started. I had a good base of kindling that turned to hot coals and I could get flames to appear if I blew on the coals until I began to feel lightheaded. After exhaling every bit of oxygen in my body on the fire, the logs would catch, burst into triumphant flame, then sizzle out a few seconds later. The logs were just too wet.

As I cursed at the fire and swore about dinner, Michelle calmly got up and suggested we go for a walk. Lightheaded from blowing on the fire to keep it going for the past sixty minutes, I grumpily refused, muttered a few choice words about the moist condition of the state and took a huge swig from a jug of water.

Michelle was gone for no more than five minutes before she came strutting back down the trail to the campsite. I had been working on the fire while she was gone and managed to get a bit of a flame burning continuously with some damp kindling I had thrown into the fire.

In her right hand, she carried a pair of axes. "There are some women camped down from us and they have blazing fire going. They gave me these after I told them how much trouble you were having."

Great, I thought, now the entire campground thinks I'm an incompetant fire builder. But I didn't care. I knew the hatchet would help. "Cool," I thanked her, "I can use those."

I took the hatchet and began turning the logs into small bits of kindling. As I began adding the smaller pieces to the fire, it slowly began taking shape and burning hotter and continuously.

As I was getting the fire going really good, one of the neighboring women wandered up to our camp and offered the use of their fire if we couldn't get ours' started for dinner. We thanked her for the use of the hatchet and let her know we had the fire going now.

After the wood was thoroughly chopped, Michelle scooped up the axes and carried them back down the road. She returned laughing. "I told them a joke," she informed me.

When she handed the axes back to them, they mentioned that she must be hungry by now. "Oh, I'm ok," she replied, "I've already eaten a dinner of cheese and crackers. I came prepared." At this, the two women let out a burst of laughter. All in good fun.

Dinner, as it was, turned out great. And other than the wet wood, our days of camping in West Virginia happened to be a wonderful time.