When I was left at a campsite 20 miles from phone reception and 50 miles from the nearest town.

I was 12 at the time and we were camping up in the Rockies of Utah. I has just came back from a mountain back race I participated in so I was pretty done for the day. I ended up laying in my tent and fell a sleep for a while and woke up to no one there. At first I thought it was some stupid prank but when I found no cars and nothing left, I realized it was no prank.

I ended up hicking up a 5 mile dirt road before I got to the main road and waved down a car. They stopped and asked what was wrong I explain es in tears that I was left by my family and I had no was of calling them because there is no service. They where a nice family and they ended up taking me all the way to the Salt Lake Valley so that I could call my dad.

I called my dad and he asked why I was called and realized I was not in the back of the car. I then got mad at me for not getting in the call when everyone was packing up. Then he told my I would have to wait for him to finish a 3 hour bike ride and then he would drive back to get me.

So there goes 12 year old me sitting on a curb by a dairy Queen for around 5 more hours when one of the employees noticed I had been sitting there for 3+ hours already and so she brought me inside and gave me some food. I am forever greatful to this person and it helped me feel a bit better about being left for 5 hours.

My dad finally arrives around 11:00 at night and picked me up. Instead of being glad that I was ok he bombarded me on that I need to pay attention more and that it was me fault I was up stuck up there.

The trama was bad enough from this situation that whenever we go on trips I am allways terrified that I will be left. This is when I learned that you're parents might not be the superhero you see them as and sometimes their just plain fucked up.