The Camping Trip
By Patricia Darak
The day dawned peacefully enough, I suppose, so that nothing particularly exciting seemed imminent. There were no winning lottery tickets to redeem. There was no treasure map to follow in order to dig up heretofore-unclaimed riches. There was not even a sweepstakes letter in the mail.
There were, however, a husband with a sense of spontaneous adventure, three children who were, themselves, incredibly adventurous, and me.
So, there I was, sitting quietly, unsuspectingly planning out the household chores and making a shopping list of semi-epic proportions. My husband came into the kitchen and announced that we were going camping. He wanted to go immediately, but I talked him into giving me a couple of days to get everybody ready.
After all, there were blankets and pillows to pack, food supplies to purchase, coolers to stock, and a tent to buy. That’s right. We needed to buy a tent. Pretty important, right?
After two days, we were ready. Our expedition was fully equipped and our vehicle was packed. We were going camping! (I should mention that this was my, and my children’s, first-ever overnight camping trip. We were really excited.)
We began the scenic drive in high spirits, excitedly pointing out the cattle grazing alongside the road and imagining hidden castles in the rock formations as we drove past. A few spontaneous songs broke out in the back seat among the children. All was well.
As I pulled into the campsite area and parked, the children began unfastening their seatbelts and filing out. Well, less like filing out and more like exploding.
The first thing that their father did was to unpack the games and start a ring toss tournament. The children ran after him with their shrieks of joy echoing loudly off the tall trees.
After a few minutes, I realized that we would need to set up camp. I carried the boxed-up tent over to our campsite and proceeded to lay it out according to the diagram. Our youngest daughter came to see what Mommy was doing and decided to help. She was an instant expert at assembling the poles and sliding them into their assigned locations. We had almost finished the tent when we realized that we needed someone very tall to lift up the tent frame. Thank Goodness her daddy wandered over just in time to save the whole operation. Before we knew it, the tent was up; I began to set up the sleeping quarters with our nice soft pillows and several comforters.
While I was busy, another game tournament had begun. So, while my lovely family was otherwise occupied, I began to unpack our dinner supplies and prepared to cook. I looked over at the family; they were still happily involved with the game. Every so often, one of the kids would trot over to see what I was doing. And, seeing that most of the hard work was already finished, they would trot back to their father and game.
Soon, dinner was ready and everyone descended upon the food, made appreciative noises and declared that the food tasted way better than Mommy usually cooked. Yes, I had to admit that there was just something about enjoying a sit-down dinner with everyone together in such a beautiful outdoor setting that elevated the food to greatness.
Or, maybe we were just really hungry.
Night fell quickly, so we finished our meal by flashlight. Surprisingly, everyone cleaned up their own mess in record time. All of the remaining foodstuffs were put back into the cooler, the coals completely doused, the ashes stirred to make sure there was no more heat, and the trash was gathered and taken to the dumpster outside of the campsite.
Our family gathered once again; we made our nighttime visits to the restroom before climbing into the magnificently put-together (and surprisingly roomy) tent. Any thought of a quick drop-off to slumber was quickly dismissed by my realization that, yes, there was story time in the woods and the kids wanted three instead of the usual two. Trying to drag myself back to semi-consciousness, I was relieved when their father began a rather long and involved story that enraptured our three rowdy campers. When he finished, I was sure that sleep would be immediate.
Wrong.
It turns out that there was a great deal of surreptitious water drinking during the story, and a child’s bodily functions will not be denied.
After everyone had finished and was settled back under the blankets, the temperature had dropped so low that we all began shivering. Wrapping ourselves in more blankets seemed to do the trick, and we fell asleep. Well, almost all of us fell asleep. As it turns out, my husband had given most of his covers to our eldest daughter and spent the night shivering. As soon as the sun came up the next morning, he took the keys and sat (and dozed) inside the vehicle while running the heater and using the automatic seat warmer. Our son awoke and went to join his father.
Eventually, the females emerged and everyone went on a nature hike, making our way through the hushed forest. A squirrel was sighted (and followed for quite awhile), and the children marched around, picking up small bits of trash from campers past. There was time, while my daughter and I packed up the tent, for more fun and games, and a new tournament erupted. We stayed until mid-afternoon, loaded up the vehicle, motored slowly down the dirt road and made promises to come again as soon as we could.
