Sunday, August 19, 2012

Thoughts On Camping

Crocheting by the light of a campfire might not be a good idea.  Unless, that is, you don't mind that the top half of your handcrafted market bag will be inside out...

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It might sound pretty to hear the rain drumming rhythmically on the roof of your tent trailer EVERY SINGLE NIGHT; but it sure does make for some muddy mornings.  In my opinion, drought conditions are underrated.

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At some point during an 8-day family camping trip, you might get the urge to sit alone in the car and eat a vanilla sandwich cookie (or two).  Go with that feeling.  You've earned it.

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Apparently, New York State does not have any insect population to speak of.  In 8 days of living in the great outdoors, I received one (count it, ONE) mosquito bite.  Meanwhile, back at home, I will be drained of blood by myriad biting insects merely by having the temerity to stand on my front stoop for 5 minutes. 

In other words, I'm moving.

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Be still, my heart!

At Glimmerglass State Park campground (our second stop), there can be found the Holy Grail of camping.  That's right - CLEAN BATHROOMS.  I could have wept with joy.

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You can take the girl out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the girl.  I'll have you know that I was NOT the only woman using a hair iron in the campground bathroom.

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Want to feel like Rip Van Winkle? Or, say, George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life - that scene where he is running madly through Pottersville, searching desperately for the town he knows and loves?  Take your kids to visit your alma mater, a place you haven't seen in 25 years.  Everything will be weirdly familiar, yet completely different -- particularly that middle-aged self you are dragging up the steep hills on campus.

A quarter of a century is a long time, folks - a very long time...



 [Cookie image: The Mommy-Files]
[George Bailey: treehugger]



13 comments:

  1. Never been camping, not interested in starting. You're a braver soul than I.

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    1. Not brave, just desperate to get the heck out of town...

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  2. Thank God for clean bathrooms and no bugs. It almost makes up for the other "amenities" you find while camping.

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  3. We took my kids to my college campus a few years ago. I know what you mean. When we left, I ended up just feeling weird and sort of sad.

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  4. I live 15 minutes away from my college campus. I drive through it to pick my kids (well, one kid, this year) up from school. So I see the changes as they happen (and the kids these days, they have MUCH nicer dorms), but I fully expect to meet my own depressed hung over 20yo self trudging up that hill some day as I drive by. It's a weird bit of business, some days.

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  5. 8 day camping trip?????

    I used to enjoy camping, years ago when I was a kid and I couldn't understand why my mom hated camping so much, until I became the mom and realized that I was responsible for getting everything and everyone ready to go camping.
    Now I get it.

    This weekend my husband will be taking our 3 boys on our church's annual fathers and sons campout.
    I will be taking my daughter out to dinner and shopping :0)

    And seriously, on any given day I feel the urge to go sit alone in the car and eat cookies.

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    1. It's either that or not go away for a summer vacation at all! This place is awful in August. I do hate camping, but I like getting away. And having the pop-up helps. That, and the cookies...

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  6. Clean bathrooms and no mosquitoes? You did indeed find the Holy Grail!

    I've been feeling the need to sit alone in the car and eat cookies, but I'm off sugar (again) and that picture of the vanilla cookies is torturing me. Please eat quickly and hide the picture! Thanks.

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  7. 8 days of camping? That's a LONG time. I've discovered I don't really like people all that much after 3 days of togetherness. I'd probably be in the fetal position eating the whole BAG of cookies!

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  8. So did your college tear down any buildings that you had a connection to, or renovate so completely as to remove any connection? Or did you look where they tore things down and say, oh my, that would have made the view much nicer 30 years ago.

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    1. Mostly added more buildings and additions in a bizarre way that totally ruined the look (and the view)...David decided that it must have been some sort of class prank by the Architecture school there.

      And the college town area was very different - lots of nice apartment buildings for students (whereas we used to all find flats in chopped-up Victorian houses), tall buildings that also ruined the view. And tons of Asian restaurants that weren't there before...and the basic bagel shop had turned itself into a bagel shop/coffee bar type thing...and there was a Starbucks...

      You don't know what you got 'til it's gone.

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    2. They paved my volleyball court and put up a parking lot. Same for my touch football in the snow field.

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  9. Eight days is a long camping trip--you're a rock star!

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