Beware of Molten Marshmallows

A week and a half ago, I happened to get a three day weekend scheduled off from work and I decided that I had better take advantage of going camping one last time before the weather turned too cool for that. Of course, Friday of that weekend it was chilly and possibly supposed to snow in town so it was probably going to be even colder in the higher elevations where I like to camp. My favorite local camping spot is Rocky Mountain National Park (hereafter referred to as RMNP because I can't be bothered to type the whole thing out repeatedly).

In preparation for this camping trip I went to the store to buy hotdogs and large marshmallows because what else would you eat with a campfire? On Saturday morning, I woke up and packed my tent, sleeping bag and some firewood into my car. I took the scenic drive up through Boulder and into Estes Park before entering RMNP.

At the entrances to the park, they have signs posted stating whether or not the campgrounds are full and it said all of them had vacancies, so I paid the entrance fee (because my annual pass had expired) and headed in. The first campground I came to had a sign on the roadside stating that it was full. I was concerned and headed on to the next closest campground, which had a full sign up as well. I wasn't extremely disappointed at this point because I figured I could at least get out and take a hike in the nice, warm weather.

All of the parking lots near (and even the ones not so near) the hiking trails were full. At this point, I had two options: I could drive over Trail Ridge road (the park's main road that connects the east side and Estes Park to the west side and Grand Lake) and hope the campground on that side of the park had openings or I could just head home. I weighed my options over a picnic lunch and opted to head home. I really didn't feel like making another long drive (probably about 2 hours because I like to stop periodically to take pictures) and find the campground was full. Even if it had vacancies, there weren't really trails on that side of the park that I wanted to hike, so I'd have to wake up really early the next morning and drive back to the east side to find parking to hike.

All of this now brings us to why molten marshmallows are very dangerous. I was disappointed to not get to camp and to have basically wasted my park entrance fee, but I still wanted to have some roasted marshmallows. Cue the newly installed gas stove that I have at home and I figured I'd try roasting some marshmallows at home. Sure, it's not the same as roasting them over the fire, but I wanted some gooey marshmallows, dang it!

The good news is that the stove did a nice job of toasting the marshmallows and while it was not quite satisfying, things were going well. As I roasted my last marshmallow, I let it go a little longer than the previous few because I wanted it golden brown all the way around instead of just at the top where it would catch fire and blacken quickly. I let it cool off for what I thought was a reasonable amount of time, it was cool enough to the touch on the outside, but I quickly found out that it was still molten inside.

I've burnt my tongue on pizza that was a little too hot to eat before and that was painful, but I walked away with maybe a small blister. I suspect molten marshmallow goo is probably one of the worst things you can burn your mouth on. Not only was it hot, but it was stuck to my tongue! I was fortunately standing near the sink so I ran my tongue under cold water for a few minutes, but not before the damage was done. The whole tip of my tongue was burnt and I was quickly googling remedies for tongue burns.

It looks slightly more red in person, but you can see all that whitish discoloration at the tip that's burnt. Also, I'm sorry for making you look at a close up picture of my tongue, I feel like it's a little gross for some reason.

Today, my tongue feels like one gigantic blister basically. I am sucking on as many ice cubes as I can and using Orajel and pain killers to try and keep down the pain. I have to be really careful when I'm talking so that I don't accidentally scrape my tongue against my teeth. I'm also making sure not to eat food that's too hot (in both the warmth and spicy senses of the word). It will probably feel a lot better in the few days, but leave it to me to get hurt eating a marshmallow. I guess I was just not meant to have my roasted marshmallows.

And a quick appearance from Jonesy to update you on his nose progress. He's looking almost 100% again (still missing the fur, but his dark skin makes it look less obvious from a distance).