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"At some point on each walk there comes a moment when I look up and notice, with a kind of first-time astonishment, the amazing complex delicacy of the words, the casual ease with which elemental things come together to form a composition that is--whatever the season, wherever I put my besotted gaze--perfect.” ― Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
In late June, I had that unsettling feeling to do something, go somewhere so when B sent me this picture and texted, “Let’s go here!”, my eyes lit up.
I had been wanting to try camping with the kids and this seemed to be the perfect mix of luxury and wilderness and it was close to home. “The kids will love this!” I gushed. Booked. In a show of spontaneity, we were leaving the next day for a one day trip and returning just in time for Day 2 of Mom’s Annual Tri-Day Birthday.
As departure time approached, I started getting these ridiculous urges to enjoy the finer things in life. I knew it was crazy, after all we were only going for a day and it hardly looked like we would be ‘roughing’ it, but I indulged myself nonetheless. I got a manicure. I whipped out my nicest, French milled soap and showered…twice. I packed cashmere socks and silk pajamas. I blocked out any thoughts of little creepy crawlers in my tent…. and yet a tiny but distinct knot started forming in my stomach. I like my bed. It’s clean and white and when the sheets are pulled taut, you can feel the slight perforation of the weave and it’s just heavenly…. I would again stop and remind myself that we are going for a day.
As we all huddled into the garage ready to depart, B noted the first of a series of misfortunes. The SUV had some indicator lights going off and we would have to take the convertible.
So with the top down we headed out to our favorite
sushi restaurant for a pre-camping celebratory meal. I had packed a few light
provisions but for the most part, we were relying on restaurants given the fact
we were not going more than an hour +/- out of town. However, when we got to the
sushi restaurant, it was closed. I was surprised by my depth of disappointment.
Aside from fast food, there was not much to eat so our slightly hungry group
decided to head North and find something on the way.
As we pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, Hunie declared he was going to count the seconds till we got there. This drove the Tingers absolutely bonkers for many reasons (1) he was counting too loudly (2) he was counting inaccurately (3) He was messing up Tingu’s counts…..then they started debating top up versuses top down. B just drove faster to drown out their voices in the wind.
Forty five minutes later, with no restaurants in site, we turned off onto a small paved road which within minutes turned into a pot-hole ridden gravel nightmare. The rocks flung themselves mercilessly at the underside of my car, the suspension valiantly tried to hang tight as the dirt and gravel sandblasted the fender and dug into every nook, cranny and tread. It was brutally long and I felt every rock as if it were hitting my body.
When we final pulled into the parking lot of the camp site, B, wiping the dust off his sunglasses, proclaimed while staring straight ahead,” We aren’t going back down that road again until we leave.” I translated that to no dinner either. Ugh, the knot was growing but I channeled one of my best friends by clapping my hands together and smiling brightly at the boys, “ C’mon let’s go explore!”
The campsite was a little run down looking and fairly desolate. As Tingu and Ben sorted out our accommodations, Huns pointed out that he in fact did camouflage somehow fittingly with a bed of day lilies.
We saw the tent in the distance and it looked promising…from afar.
Up-close, Hunie thought it smelled.
Tings was still rather enamored.
Perturbed by dirt, Hunie contemplates sitting on a swing. I had to clean it
with my hands – on both sides before he would sit on it.
The swing was briefly enjoyed until a bee started flying around Hunie so he jumped off and ran across the dirt path. Surprise! He found a snake and slowly backed out of the patch of grass and clung to my leg.
Comfort food to the rescue! The boys were ravenous so we plunged into the measly provisions: 2 sandwiches, 2 drinks and 2 small bags of chips. I optimistically waited for the boys to tell me they were full. When I noticed after a good ten minutes that wasn’t happening, I stole a few chips. B went hungry.
On our exploration in stifling hot weather, we found an out-of-place koi pound, some old-fashioned activities that carried a sense of nostalgia for about 2 minutes until the boys started flinging the beanbags at each (yes, I started that version…) and a tether ball they couldn’t quite reach.
We wandered around looking for four leaf clovers….butterfly’s, odd shaped rocks.
Yes, it was one of those trips. Finally we decided to play Frisbee golf and get a little hiking in. The goals were sparingly distributed over many miles of wildness so we ended up quite far from the camp site :
On one particularly steep hill, both B and the boys flung their Frisbees deep into the woods. Ironically, I was the only one who had worn long pants, long sock and hiking boots, in the heat. Armed with a giant stick, I retrieved their Frisbees from dark depths of the prickly, underbrush. I received a rather paltry amount of applause for my efforts but regardless, at least we were doing something and it was starting to cool down. A gentle breeze was blowing through the trees and I looked up in appreciation.
What I saw were big, dark
clouds starting to roll in and as if to emphasize the serious nature of the
storm a bolt of lightning shot across the sky. Tings also, at this juncture,
decided his legs are ‘giving up’ and so Hunie decided his were as well.
B and I were briskly walking back with both boys on our backs with the storm close behind. Just as we ran through the parking lot ,the rain started to come down and. As we approached the main cabin, we both noticed we were the only car left in the lot and on the door was a note and a number to call in case help was required – people were only 8 miles away should we need anything.
Super. So we climbed into our tent and played charades, shadow puppets, the yes/no game and wrestled. This was done in about 10 minutes. It was getting darker outside as the storm got worse and a small stream had now formed through the middle of the tent. B decided to give in to nature's commands and call bed time (it must have been 4:45 pm tops!)
In a moment of inspiration, I had grabbed my copy of a, 'Walk in the Woods' so we settled down to read. It had been a few years since I had picked this up and I was immediately gratified my the opening notions of adventure and appreciation for nature...however....and there was always a however in this trip....by the time you get to page 3 you start reading about the perils of murderers, hantavirus and bears....
I skipped over as much as I could but it wouldn't stop and B kept giving me looks that were literally shouting, 'Stop your reading, women!.' However it was too late. The damage was done - the adults - if not the children were creep-ed out, damp, hungry and very, very isolated in a tent crawling with spiders and lizards mostly outside, however not entirely.
This was the only gesture needed for us all to wordlessly pack up and head home!
We got home, dressed up and headed to our favorite Steak Lodge.
Not one to give up : Camping, Take II.
In late June, I had that unsettling feeling to do something, go somewhere so when B sent me this picture and texted, “Let’s go here!”, my eyes lit up.
I had been wanting to try camping with the kids and this seemed to be the perfect mix of luxury and wilderness and it was close to home. “The kids will love this!” I gushed. Booked. In a show of spontaneity, we were leaving the next day for a one day trip and returning just in time for Day 2 of Mom’s Annual Tri-Day Birthday.
As departure time approached, I started getting these ridiculous urges to enjoy the finer things in life. I knew it was crazy, after all we were only going for a day and it hardly looked like we would be ‘roughing’ it, but I indulged myself nonetheless. I got a manicure. I whipped out my nicest, French milled soap and showered…twice. I packed cashmere socks and silk pajamas. I blocked out any thoughts of little creepy crawlers in my tent…. and yet a tiny but distinct knot started forming in my stomach. I like my bed. It’s clean and white and when the sheets are pulled taut, you can feel the slight perforation of the weave and it’s just heavenly…. I would again stop and remind myself that we are going for a day.
As we all huddled into the garage ready to depart, B noted the first of a series of misfortunes. The SUV had some indicator lights going off and we would have to take the convertible.
 |
| Mom attempted to have us all look in one direction...alas.... |
As we pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, Hunie declared he was going to count the seconds till we got there. This drove the Tingers absolutely bonkers for many reasons (1) he was counting too loudly (2) he was counting inaccurately (3) He was messing up Tingu’s counts…..then they started debating top up versuses top down. B just drove faster to drown out their voices in the wind.
Forty five minutes later, with no restaurants in site, we turned off onto a small paved road which within minutes turned into a pot-hole ridden gravel nightmare. The rocks flung themselves mercilessly at the underside of my car, the suspension valiantly tried to hang tight as the dirt and gravel sandblasted the fender and dug into every nook, cranny and tread. It was brutally long and I felt every rock as if it were hitting my body.
When we final pulled into the parking lot of the camp site, B, wiping the dust off his sunglasses, proclaimed while staring straight ahead,” We aren’t going back down that road again until we leave.” I translated that to no dinner either. Ugh, the knot was growing but I channeled one of my best friends by clapping my hands together and smiling brightly at the boys, “ C’mon let’s go explore!”
The campsite was a little run down looking and fairly desolate. As Tingu and Ben sorted out our accommodations, Huns pointed out that he in fact did camouflage somehow fittingly with a bed of day lilies.
We saw the tent in the distance and it looked promising…from afar.
Up-close, Hunie thought it smelled.
Tings was still rather enamored.
The swing was briefly enjoyed until a bee started flying around Hunie so he jumped off and ran across the dirt path. Surprise! He found a snake and slowly backed out of the patch of grass and clung to my leg.
Comfort food to the rescue! The boys were ravenous so we plunged into the measly provisions: 2 sandwiches, 2 drinks and 2 small bags of chips. I optimistically waited for the boys to tell me they were full. When I noticed after a good ten minutes that wasn’t happening, I stole a few chips. B went hungry.
On our exploration in stifling hot weather, we found an out-of-place koi pound, some old-fashioned activities that carried a sense of nostalgia for about 2 minutes until the boys started flinging the beanbags at each (yes, I started that version…) and a tether ball they couldn’t quite reach.
We wandered around looking for four leaf clovers….butterfly’s, odd shaped rocks.
Yes, it was one of those trips. Finally we decided to play Frisbee golf and get a little hiking in. The goals were sparingly distributed over many miles of wildness so we ended up quite far from the camp site :
On one particularly steep hill, both B and the boys flung their Frisbees deep into the woods. Ironically, I was the only one who had worn long pants, long sock and hiking boots, in the heat. Armed with a giant stick, I retrieved their Frisbees from dark depths of the prickly, underbrush. I received a rather paltry amount of applause for my efforts but regardless, at least we were doing something and it was starting to cool down. A gentle breeze was blowing through the trees and I looked up in appreciation.
B and I were briskly walking back with both boys on our backs with the storm close behind. Just as we ran through the parking lot ,the rain started to come down and. As we approached the main cabin, we both noticed we were the only car left in the lot and on the door was a note and a number to call in case help was required – people were only 8 miles away should we need anything.
Super. So we climbed into our tent and played charades, shadow puppets, the yes/no game and wrestled. This was done in about 10 minutes. It was getting darker outside as the storm got worse and a small stream had now formed through the middle of the tent. B decided to give in to nature's commands and call bed time (it must have been 4:45 pm tops!)
In a moment of inspiration, I had grabbed my copy of a, 'Walk in the Woods' so we settled down to read. It had been a few years since I had picked this up and I was immediately gratified my the opening notions of adventure and appreciation for nature...however....and there was always a however in this trip....by the time you get to page 3 you start reading about the perils of murderers, hantavirus and bears....
I skipped over as much as I could but it wouldn't stop and B kept giving me looks that were literally shouting, 'Stop your reading, women!.' However it was too late. The damage was done - the adults - if not the children were creep-ed out, damp, hungry and very, very isolated in a tent crawling with spiders and lizards mostly outside, however not entirely.
This was the only gesture needed for us all to wordlessly pack up and head home!
We got home, dressed up and headed to our favorite Steak Lodge.
 |
| Know thyself. We don't teepee! Hunie was asleep and Tingu was, well, ironically wearing an aboriginal mask from school as we headed out. |
1 comment:
Hahaha so awesome! Hunie IS the next gen version of my husband, FYI. Also love the new cover photo
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