Friday, August 11, 2006

Camping Trip: 2006

Here is Son at the entrance to the campground where we stayed. It had all the requisite aspects necessary for the complete camping experience: stinky vault toilets (where a small animal had, no doubt, met its end. what else could account for the stench?), loud, screaming pre-teen girls who rode their scooters up the road every five minutes trying to gain the attention of the boys camped across the way, camp host with golf cart, large parties of scouts/church groups, enough RVs to pay for the war in Iraq (in gas, I mean).
Perhaps you can't tell from this photo, but our poor little Saturn is stuffed to the gills with necessary camping equipment like the thinnest of sleeping pads (woefully inadequate!) and the puffiest of sleeping bags (still not warm enough!) and snacks.
Did I mention the best camping invention since bagged ice? Yes, I could only be talking about pre-made (!!) margaritas in a bottle that you can buy at the liqour store. Did you hear me? Pre-made!! What do you need after a short drive in a cramped car, followed by a cursory perusal of every campsite in a five-mile radius? That's right, a pre-made margarita on ice. Thank you very much!
Okay. Here's the real reason we go camping. Blue, blue, blue sparkly lakes, hikes with Son, excuses to eat marshmellows, huddling together in the tent to keep warm, sitting around the fire drinking hot drinks, telling Son about the camping trips of our youth, trying to remember all the words to "Take Me Home, Country Roads."


Son proved himself to be an amazing hiker. He hiked without complaining, and led us on the uphill climb back to the car at a pace that would leave Floyd Landis breathless (Floyd without the dope, I mean). He also said he wanted to be a Ranger when he grew up, and he began his training by building several cairns (one pictured here) to help hikers when the trail "got confusing." Which way is it to Brooklyn? Yeah, it's thataway.

All in all, a wonderful trip. We did not freeze to death the first night (though we could have), and Middlebrow and Son discovered a few lakes that they have vowed to go back and fish in. And I achieved my goal: I relaxed and was fun. I had fun. I laughed. I forgot about the S word for a few days. I drank pre-made margaritas, ate Smores and sang songs. What else does a girl need?

6 comments:

Clint Gardner said...

Trial Lake! Very nice. I've never camped there as I am averse to most pre-set camping spots and tend to make my way off into the somewhat wilds. I disagree about premixed drinks purchased from the liquor store, but it is only a niggling detail. I tend to pack the whole fixings and make them in an unwatered-down state.

Excellent pictures and commentary. Did you find the anxiety level reduced?

Lisa B. said...

Doesn't this sound fun after the unpromising overview of the campground. Great pics, too. We're in our cabin up north, slothful and very, very relaxed. Cheers!

Clint Gardner said...

Hah lisa b commenting from a cabin. Isn't our modrun world just amazing?

Clint Gardner said...

Brooklyn?

Condiment said...

Camping! Will do this this summer, dammit! Last time camping was in Peru 2002, before that 1996 w/ JP (I remember because we started an epic poem contest drunk around the fire)...

My brother and I were talking about how much our parents took us camping when we were kids--every two or three weeks during the summer, egads!

We need more camping in life, even (especially) if it's car camping...

Lisa B. said...

The picture of you and son is so freaking adorable, by the way.