wuyaugust12p19.jpg
As it is with anything else in life, camping is all about attitude.
Yes, life is easier in a hermetically sealed, temperature-controlled living room, but you would miss out on the fresh air and the scent of pine that doesn't come out of a spray can.
My attitude is good. Not always, but most of the time. There can, at times, be a great internal debate between the optimist and the pessimist. Sometimes the CAMPER in me has to put up with the SKEPTIC.
Well, I'll let you listen in, too, on this recent camping trip:
SKEPTIC: It's Saturday morning and we really don't have anything prepared for this trip. I don't think we can fit everything into the car with all of the stuff we need anyways. And look outside, it's raining isn't it? ... look at the forecast, it will surely rain. Haven't we done enough stuff this week/this summer? Do we really need to cram that much stuff in? I should be cleaning the garage. The couch just looks so comfortable.
CAMPER: There were a million reasons not to go camping this weekend. But we're not a bunch of wusses ... we're tough. Or maybe we're stubborn. We had it in our mind that we were going camping! Bad weather won't keep us from getting out this weekend. Nor poor planning, nor inexperienced foreign visitors, nor common sense and certainly not better judgement.
We got the best spot in the campsite.
SKEPTIC: Of course we got the best spot, everyone who is smart left because of the rain.
CAMPER: There was lots of firewood.
SKEPTIC: We'll need that to keep warm and get dry.
CAMPER: Don't you just love the sound of rain on the tent.
SKEPTIC: And on me and on my food and in my wine and on the dog (she's going to stink later).
CAMPER: Look at the view from this site.
SKEPTIC: Doesn't look as good as the CFL game on 56" HiDef.
Well, you get the picture. But I just dug a hole and stuck SKEPTIC in there, just deep enough so that he could still breathe, but I couldn't hear him whine.
It rained. Not hard, but it was that constant rain that keeps you under your tarp/tent/poncho. You know, it was that kind of wet when it's not so wet you need to change, but you can still feel the moisture right through to the very bottom layer of clothing.
The cheap tent from the big box store lived up to the adage "you get what you pay for", too.
I'll know in the morning if the multiple bungee chords I put on the tent (the size of your average home addition) did the trick.
But with ponchos wrapped around us while we sat at the fire, around our chairs even, we were all warm and dry.
The foreign guests took it all in stride and either enjoyed themselves or lied about it well. Either way, there was no complaining.
And, you know what, there's no garage to clean at the campsite, and there is no yardwork to do at the campsite, and there's no shed to build at the campsite, and there is no phone/e-mail at the campsite (well, except for this iPod that I'm typing this missive into).
Consider this: the worst day of camping is better than any day home doing chores.
And, to be fair to the SKEPTIC of the camping trip this weekend, Saturday was wet and cold.
Sunday, however, was one of the best days out all summer so far. We paddled all around TARFU Lake, saw some great wildlife and I got my first solid sunburn of the season.
Who said that?
Tammy Beese