Went Camping

I didn't grow up in a camping family. As a matter of fact, the first time that I went camping with my family, I was 16 years old. We went for 1 week that year and 2 weeks the 2nd year. The first year we were in tents, the 2nd my parents had found a used camper. It's amazing after those two summers that I ever wanted to go again. My mother made camping more work than staying at home and doing spring cleaning. First there were the meals...breakfast was never cereal or a doughnut (I'm obviously not health conscious.) My mother would fry eggs and bacon, make pancakes or french toast...never using paper plates. It took an hour to make breakfast and at least an hour to clean up. We would get done just in time to start on lunch. Supper would roll around and again, no hot dogs on a stick...instead we had spaghetti, or some other NON-CAMP-TYPE meal. Then there was the condition of the tent (or camper). Everything had to be folded neatly and put in a specific place...well, I think you get the idea. Not much time left over for fun.

While in college I decided to become a camp counselor during the summers. I did this for 8 years. The last camp I worked in was the one that really brought about my love for camping and the outdoors. I worked at a wilderness camp in Northern Ontario. The kids were usually sent by the courts and were there for the entire summer. We would bring a bus up to a small fishing village (Missanabie, Ontario) and canoe nine miles across Dog Lake to our camp. We usually didn't see any other humans until the end of the summer. There was no electricity, running water meant running to the lake and running back. We took showers in home made showers right outside our cabin. You would wash with one hand and bat mosquitoes with the other. As rough as it was, I fell in love with the woods.

When Zack and I started travelling back and forth between South Carolina and Washington, we camped all the way across the US and back again--three times. We found KOA our first summer and did most of our camping at KOA's--mostly because being a single mom with her small son, I felt safer there. We have had some of our BEST times together at a campground.

I am a simple camper. I don't need a camper, I enjoy the tent...though as I get older I find I need something more than a sleeping bag between me and the ground. I don't cook gourmet foods...we do hot dogs on a stick, or our campfire pizzas (made in our campfire sandwich irons). I love sitting around the fire at night, telling stories, roasting marshmallows, laughing, crying, just relaxing. I like to take walks (notice I did not say hikes), I like smelling the woods, hearing the sounds in the woods, (unless it's a deep growl). The whole thing really relaxes me and gives me the feeling of a closeness to God that I find hard to describe.

This weekend I decided 2 things...I love my friends, but I really find more peace when I camp alone with Zack and #2...never again will I go camping with a 4 year old. Need I say more?