This was inspired by a writing prompt in my Facebook group. The prompt was I told you this was a bad idea.

Hutch made vacation plans for him and Starsky and, as usual, those plans do not go as planned.

I Told You This Was a Bad Idea

"Relax, Starsk, it'll be fun."

"I don't know about this, Hutch. The last time I agreed to one of your harebrained ideas, it didn't turn out so well. It never does. It's a bad idea."

"I wouldn't say that. What about the time we went camping?"

"Camping! Did you forget about those Satan worshipers?"

"Outside of that it was fun. Forget about all that, it was a fun trip and you're going and you'll love this. Now let's go."

Hutch picked up Starsky's back pack and was about to toss it in his car when Starsky grabbed it and said, "No way. If we gotta do this, we're not taking that junk heap car of yours." He snatched the bag from Hutch and threw in the backseat of his car. "You'd better get your bag." Hutch had packed sleeping bags, a two-man tent, and basic supplies for the two-day trip. His backpack was much heavier than Starsky's and when he picked it up one of the straps came loose and some of the supplies fell out. "That my dear partner is an onmen."

"It's omen, not onmen, Starsk, and no it's not," Hutch informed Starsky as he picked up

"Onmen, omen whatever, I still think this is a bad idea," he mumbled.

Starsky put the car in drive and drove away, he didn't look happy about it, not one bit. He didn't say a word all the way there. "Turn in right there," Hutch told him.

"I'm turning, I'm turning." Starsky turned and parked in front of the office.

Hutch tripped over the threshold going into the office. He wasn't hurt but Starsky laughed at him. Hutch returned a few minutes later. "I saw you trip. Hutch I'm telling ya, I don't think this is a good idea."

"Starsky, will you quit saying that? Everything will be fine. You're going to have fun if it kills us."

"I'm sure I'll be fine, you're the one that's having all the bad luck."

"Here's your key. We're in cabin four." Hutch tossed the key at Starsky ignoring his remark. "The man said it's just down the road."

Starsky chucked his bag on his bed. It was dinner time and they drove into the town and found a small hamburger stand. "This place is great," Starsky said when the waitress brought him the biggest sloppiest burger he'd ever had and a huge order of fries. He took a bite of his burger the ketchup trickled onto his shirt. "Oh, Hutch, this is better than Huggy's. You shoulda ordered the burger. Look, it even has bacon on it." He opened his burger to reveal the bacon along with two patties, lettuce, double onions, ketchup and mustard dripping down the side.

The sight of it made Hutch nauseous. "Starsk, I don't wanna see that. You know eating that stuff is gonna kill you someday."

"I figure you gotta go sometime; may as well enjoy things while I can. Besides it's better than," he pointed at Hutch's plate, "whatever you call that."

"Well, I can't eat that heart attack on a bun you're eating. This is a salad, and not a very good one at that."

Hutch stopped at the store on the way back to the cabin and picked up some beer for the two of them. "I still don't wanna go in the morning and I still think it's a bad idea."

"Starsk, quit your whining. I promise you will love it." He patted Starsky's shoulder, "Trust me."

Hutch woke bright and early and knocked on Starsky's door, "Come on, Sunshine, it's time."

Starsky rolled over onto his stomach and covered his head with the pillow. Hutch knocked again, then again. "Okay, okay, I'm up." Starsky came out of the room wearing a plaid long sleeved shirt with a leather vest and a cowboy hat. He had bought cowboy boots and new jeans for the occasion. Hutch wore a short sleeved green t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes.

Hutch laughed at him when he stepped out of the room. "Starsk, you're going on a horseback ride, not a cattle drive."

"This is a bad idea but, I wanna look the part."

"Okay, let's go John Wayne."

They had breakfast at the same place they had dinner the night before. Starsky ordered eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and hash browns. Hutch cringed at all the grease. He ordered pancakes. Starsky told him that was bland and boring. While Starsky enjoyed his breakfast, Hutch's was awful. The pancakes were only half cooked and the water he ordered was just as bad.

"Okay, we've had breakfast, let's go." Hutch was eager to get going. He was really hoping Starsky would like what he had planned, even if he said he didn't want to go.

"This is our gentlest horse, Mr. Starsky. I think you'll like her," the owner of the stable, Jake, said as one of his employees brought out an older solid black horse. "Mr. Hutchinson said you'd never ridden before. Old Nellie here is a sweet gentle horse. She's the one we use for little kids; never threw anyone. You're in for a nice easy ride."

Starsky looked skeptical and if he was honest with himself, he was scared but he couldn't let Jake know he was afraid to ride a kid's horse. The owner showed him how to mount Nellie and he was on in no time. Jake also gave him some pointers about riding her. "Hey, Hutch, look I got on her no problem." He looked around and had to admit to himself that he felt good sitting on a horse.

He watched as Hutch went to mount his horse. "Hutch, you're doing it…" Starsky was about to say 'wrong' when Hutch fell off.

Hutch grinned and chuckled. "It's been awhile. I forgot you have to get on on the left side," he told Jake. He got up and dusted himself off. He remounted his horse, Midnight, and the partners rode off down the trail.

Hutch had arranged for them to spend the day riding out to a nice waterfall, camping out for the night then returning the next morning. They stopped to eat the lunch that Hutch had packed. After about an hour, they picked up their trash and put it in the backpack that Hutch was carrying. It was a long ride to the waterfall and although Starsky was enjoying himself, Hutch was having problems. Midnight was a fine horse but he was large and Hutch kept getting hit in the face by low-lying branches. Starsky was riding behind him and saw every time Hutch was hit and was able to duck and miss the branches.

They made it to the falls and started setting up camp. Starsky had to admit the falls were every bit as beautiful as Hutch said they were. Hutch told Starsky that he would set up the two-man tent if he would gather firewood. Starsky had no problem finding firewood. There were branches of different sizes around the camp. He returned with an armful of wood and set it down next to the fire pit. He laughed aloud when he saw Hutch. The tent fell on top of him and he was crawling out from under it. "Hey, you want help with that, Buddy?" He asked still laughing.

"No, I do not want or need help. I know how to pitch a tent. The pole just fell, I got this. Start the fire."

Starsky shook his head and started the fire. It was a large roaring fire by the time Hutch had the tent up. Hutch promised to do all the cooking and he planned on a simple dinner with hot dogs and baked beans. He handed Starsky his plate and when he dished up his beans he burned his hand on the handle of the pan. "Ouch," he yelled.

"You okay, Hutch?"

"I'm fine," Hutch replied as he poured cold water on his hand. There was no blister but it burned like hell. The sun was setting by the time they finished dinner. Starsky actually enjoyed roasting marshmallows and drinking warm beer as they sat on a large rock on a cliff watching one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, sunsets either of them had ever seen. They sat in silence as the sun set. After dark, they sat around the campfire and played cards. They played spades and Hutch lost, they played poker using candy and Hutch lost. Hutch lost two more games of spades then he decided to call it a night. "I keep tellin' ya, this was a bad idea Hutch.

"Yeah, that's what you keep saying but you saw how beautiful those falls are. And that sunset, have you ever seen a better one?"

Starsky sat quietly a few moments then said, "Hutch, I wanna thank you for this. I don't like the outdoors, but this place my just changed my mind."

"No matter how bad an idea you think it is?"

"No matter how bad an idea I think it is."

They turned in for the night and a few minutes later Hutch started yelling. He scrambled as quickly as he could to unzip his sleeping and get out of the tent. "Hutch, what's wrong?" Before he could answer Hutch was outside the tent undressing himself and threw all his clothes in the fire.

Starsky picked up Hutch's sleeping bag and saw the fire ants crawling all over it. He threw it out of the tent. "How could you put the tent on a mound of fire ants?" He asked as he saw Hutch jumping around bare naked brushing ants off his legs.

"Obviously, I didn't see them when I pitched the tent." Hutch winced from the pain of the ant bites.

"What can I do to help?" Starsky would have laughed at the site but Hutch was in too much pain.

"Get one of the canteens and pour water on me."

Starsky retrieved the canteen and poured the water on Hutch's legs. The water helped and when the ants were off him he searched his backpack and found a clean pair of jeans and a shirt. Starsky made some coffee and handed a cup to Hutch. "I guess my sleeping bag is covered with them by now, isn't it?" Hutch nodded. "We were just staying one night anyway, it's okay."

Starsky tossed his sleeping bag into the fire. The backpacks had been left by the fire so they used them as pillows. It was a nice warm night and they slept by the fire. Hutch woke up first and was surprised he didn't suffer any ill effects from last night's ant bites. He looked at Midnight and Nellie, "I didn't forget you two." He pulled a couple of apples out of his backpack and held his palm out for Midnight then he gave one to Nellie. He put more wood on the fire. He had packed some eggs in a box and made scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Starsky woke to the smell, "That smells good." He saw the eggs and asked, "How'd you keep them from breaking?"

"You don't want me to tell you all my secrets, do ya?" Hutch finished his eggs and said, "I'll go to the waterfall and fill the canteens while you finish eating, sound good?"

"Sounds good to me."

"You still think this was a bad idea?"

"After everything that's happened to you on this trip, you don't think so?"

"No." He left to fill the canteens at the waterfall while Starsky finished breakfast. He dropped one of the canteens in the water and he fell in when he reached for it. He couldn't get the canteen and now he was soaking wet with no more clothes to change into. "Starsky, I'm beginning to think this whole trip was a bad idea," he muttered. He filled the other canteen and headed back to camp.

"What happ…"

"Don't even ask," Hutch cut him off. Hutch took three more trips to the falls to get enough water to douse the fire. It was a nice day and they were in no hurry to head back so they decided to take the horses for a ride. They had been riding for a couple hours when something spooked Midnight and threw Hutch off. He cried out in pain as he fell to the ground.

Starsky was instantly at his side, "Are you okay?"

Hutch tried to stand up and fell into Starsky's arms. "I think I broke my ankle."

"Let me look." Starsky started to remove Hutch's shoe and Hutch yelled for him to stop. "Okay, okay." He dug the pocket knife out of his pocket.

"These are my favorite shoes."

"It's either I cut it off or I pull it off and with the way that leg looks it's gonna hurt a whole lot more if I pull it." Hutch nodded for him to use the knife and winced as Starsky cut his shoe off. "Hutch, what about Midnight, where do you think he went?"

"I expect he went back to the stable."

Starsky looked around for a couple of sticks, "These will do."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm making a splint for your leg. It's pretty bad, Hutch." Starsky used his knife to cut a sleeve off his shirt and used it to tie the sticks to Hutch's leg. Then he helped Hutch to get on Nellie.

It was four by the time they made it back to the stables. Jake ran up to them when he saw them coming. "I was just about to go look for you boys. I figured something happened when Midnight came back without ya."

"Hutch broke his leg, can you call an ambulance?"

"Let's get him off Nellie and into the office. I'll call from there."

Captain Dobey and Huggy knocked on the door and Hutch yelled, "Come in."

Huggy walked around the bed and looked at Hutch's leg in traction "A horse did this? I thought you said you visited your grandfather's farm and knew all about horses. What happened?"

"That whole trip was awful," Hutch complained, "He was grumpy, dinner at the diner was awful, breakfast wasn't any better, I fell off the horse trying to get on. Then the horse got spooked and threw me off.

"Don't forget the parts where you kept getting hit in the face by the trees on the way to the fall and the fire ants. I mean he jumped out of his sleeping bag and was out of the tent so fast when I got out he was naked brushing the ants off him."

"Starsk, you didn't have to tell them that part."

"Sure I did, it was the best part of the whole trip." Everyone laughed. "I told you it was a bad idea."

Hutch pictured himself jumping out of the tent stripping and throwing his clothes in the fire. He had to laugh too.

The End