It had been on Margot's bucket list to visit every national park in the United States. So far, she had put a substantial dent in the list. Last year, she had visited Yellowstone and hit several other parks on the trip there and back. This year she left her home in Austin, TX, on a two-week adventure. She would head north through Oklahoma, Colorado, and Nebraska, ending with several nights of rustic camping at both Badlands and Black Hills National Parks in South Dakota.
She took the scenic route, in her restored 1967 Volkswagen Microbus, that her friends lovingly referred to as the Catmobile. Margot, a devoted cat lover, named the van Kitty and decorated it to look feline, complete with whiskers leading from the VW logo on the front, cat ears on the roof, and a tail that dangled from the rear. She painted the body to resemble the tawny fur of her favorite kitten, and the wheel wells and hubcaps to resemble paws.
Margot even went so far as to install a custom horn with a variety of cat sounds. She smiled every time she pressed the horn, and Kitty purred. The interior included spacious cages and climbing trees and towers for her cats. Cats hate riding in cars and traveling long distances, so Margot tried to make it as pleasant as possible.
For this trip, however, she'd removed the cat palace and replaced it with camping gear. It was to be a long trip, and she wouldn't be able to find campsites every night. When that happened, she would sleep in the van, so she had to be prepared.
Margot was also a vegan, so she had to pack enough food to make it through the trip when most of the places she visited were not overly vegan friendly.
She was keenly aware of the dangers of being an attractive woman, traveling, and camping alone. However, Margot was fiercely independent and a bit of a feminist. While she loved the company of men, especially naked men who did her bidding, she never wanted to feel that she needed a man around to do things she couldn't do or to protect her.
Her trip started in Austin on a Saturday morning. She headed northwest through Abilene, over to Lubbock, then north to Amarillo. It never ceased to amaze her how she could drive eight hours in one direction and still be in Texas, with another two hours to go, just to reach Oklahoma.
From Amarillo, the road became deserted, as she drove through isolated areas of the panhandle and into the Lake Meredith National park to camp for her first night. As she pulled up to the gate, a young park ranger greeted her, and she felt a twinge in her loins. Margot had a thing for park rangers. She never really understood it. Maybe it was the green and tan uniforms, or the fact that they tended by be either the rugged, outdoorsy type or socially awkward nerds, both of which turned her on. This one was young. She felt like a real cougar as she smiled sexily.
The ranger seemed bored as she pulled up. His first reaction was to grin at seeing the cat-like van approaching. Then, when Margot rolled down her window and leaned out, his jaw dropped open, and he perked up. One look at the green-eyed beauty behind the wheel, with her dark red hair in long, braided pigtails and loosely buttoned chambray shirt, which did little to hide her perfect b-cup breasts, was enough to trigger his asthma.
Margot enjoyed teasing men. Being skilled at it was an essential part of her job. Margot was a stripper and a damn good one. She was beautiful, highly intelligent, with a quick wit and deep understanding of the psychology of men. She had been in the business for almost twenty years and had succeeded without resorting to many of the things that her fellow strippers did.
Margot never altered her body with large tattoos, piercings, or breast implants. She was proud of her 34-B breasts, which remained perky and perfect. Not having children also helped keep her body looking great. Margot also avoided hard drugs, unlike many girls in her industry. She dodged the "stripper lifestyle" and turned off "stripper mode" when she left work. If you didn't know her profession, you would never guess it if you ran into her away from the club.
Margot never engaged in sex with her customers. She had a well-earned reputation for never doing extras. She also rarely dated her clients. It had happened a few times over the years, but it never worked out. Men had a hard time handling what she did for a living. Even if they claimed they were ok with it, sooner or later, the jealousy, mistrust, and doubt would creep into the relationship.
In her personal life, she enjoyed both men and women. Women were beautiful and sexy but could be aloof, crazy, and volatile—especially strippers. Margot tended to be a loner, living peacefully with her cats. She related to cats and fostered many of them over the years. She even started trapping feral cats to get them spayed or neutered.
To her, women were like cats, and men, for the most part, were dogs. They were easily trained, loved to please, and were so easy to befuddle. They could be charming and cute, but often craved attention and needed constant "petting" and reassuring. In her line of work, Margot had learned how to handle men, of all types.
Many men were assholes, the loud-mouthed, alpha male types, who liked to dominate women and were only looking for sex. Margot avoided those men as if they had the plague. She preferred the strong, silent types who were confident, stable, and gentle, while not being needy or egotistical. She also liked the nerdy, quirky guys who lacked confidence, but had great hearts and always seemed to worship women.
Margot could spot them quickly and knew exactly how to get them to worship her, without even trying. It was not something she did maliciously or to unfairly take advantage of the men. She could, if she wanted to, easily. She had a lot of co-workers who did. But, not Margot. She never asked for anything from her clients. She never needed to. It was amazing how willingly men would give without needing to be asked.
For Margot, it was quid pro quo. Give and take. Tit for tat. She would help the men feel cared for, give them feminine companionship, and stimulate them in ways other women never did. In return, the men respected her, revered her, and some even loved her. Margot considered herself part therapist, part coach, and part entertainer.
"I'm looking for a campsite for the night," Margot explained to the young ranger, who was already falling under her spell.
"By yourself?" he asked, swallowing hard.
"Yep, just me," Margot replied. "Do you have any open spots?"
"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "You can pretty much have your pick."
"Awww he called me ma'am," she thought. "That's so cute. Was he respectfully speaking because I'm a woman, or did he call me ma'am because I look old?"
She leaned more out the window, letting her blouse fall open a bit. "What kind of sites do you have and how much are they?" she asked him, smiling and tilting her head to the side, glancing at him at that perfect angle that made men melt.
The ranger stammered and gasped as he explained to her about the campsites. When he finished, he grinned, blushing, and handed her a hanger for her rearview mirror with the number 6 on it in a large font.
"You're all set, ma'am," he declared, "There's no charge for you."
"That's so sweet of you, Steve," she replied, getting his name from his name tag. Just out of curiosity, she asked, "How old are you?"
"Eight, uh, eighteen, ma'am," he replied, looking extremely flustered.
"Oh, so you're not a park ranger?" she asked, feeling a bit of a letdown. He was suddenly looking less attractive.
"No, ma'am, not yet," he explained. "I'm still in high school. I'm going to study Conservation and Wildlife Management at Texas Tech in the fall."
"Well, good luck with that," Margot said with a smile. "See you around."
She gave Kitty some gas and drove into the park to find spot #6.
"What were you thinking?" Margot said to herself. "He's a baby! Too bad he's not a park ranger."
Margot was forty-two years old. She'd had a great life so far. Her work was such that she had a lot of freedom to enjoy her life and made enough money to do the things she wanted to do. She wasn't driven by material needs, like most of her co-workers. As a result, her expenses were pretty minimal. She could save a substantial amount for her future while having enough disposable income to travel and enjoy the natural beauty of the world around her.
