The Great Camping Adventure of 2007

[alwaysamy]

I say "great" with just a hint of irony. Stephen took the kids out to the backyard.

Didn't diminish their excitement, though, especially Sara. At three, the idea of sleeping OUTSIDE in a TENT at NIGHT was, to be blunt, the bomb. Even Ben was keyed up.

It was perfect weather, too. High of about 72 yesterday, no humidity, not a cloud in the sky. So Stephen and the kids got the tent out yesterday afternoon and set it up in the flattest part of the yard. They gathered flashlights and marshmallows and the makings of a small fire in an old hibachi, and unrolled the sleeping bags in preparation. After dinner, Stephen waited until about 9 p.m. to take them outside, and they trooped out, dressed in long sleeves and pajama pants, with their pillows (and Sara's bear).

Sara wanted to know why I wasn't camping with them. The tent's not big enough, for one (it's 7' by 7'), but there's my ironclad rule: If a bed is available, INDOORS, there's no sleeping on the ground, inside a tent or not. I went to Girl Scout camp in 1977 for a week, and even the raised platform tent and cots were too rough for me. I don't like dirt, I don't like bugs, and I am, I'm sure, distantly related to the Princess of "And the Pea" fame. Flat or not, there's no part of that yard that would even approximate my mattress.

And secretly, I wasn't convinced that the three people who trooped out to the tent would say there all night. Wrong. According to Stephen, who came in to use the bathroom sometime around eleven, Sara fell asleep within minutes, and Ben dropped off not long after. Which left my poor husband lying on the lumpy ground, staring at the ceiling of the tent, trying to sleep.

There was no fishing or hiking, no gathering firewood or ... well, whatever else it is you do when camping, but it was a hit. Up till about five a.m., that is, when Stephen said all three of them were shivering (I think the temperature dropped down to 50 last night), and the birds and the dogs across the street were making a godawful racket.

Now we'll see how often Sara, who latches onto ideas like a pit bull, wants to "camp".

Comments

[cindywrites.livejournal.com]

I don't camp for all the reasons you state, including the Princess and the Pea. No thanks. I'll camp when there are no houses, apartments, and motels left to be found, and then only if my car is gone and I can't sleep in it.