Camping

There are many things I enjoy in life; camping is one of the ones that brings most joy. Sadly, it has been an awfully long time since the last time we went camping. 

It all started at a garage sale. When my son was in kindergarten, he learned from a friend in school, whose family would go camping in the Carolinas, about how much fun they had, and he wanted to experience it. We dropped my wife off at a seminar, one Saturday morning, and proceeded to visit garage sales nearby as we often did. 

We found a large tent at one sale for $10.00 and three, almost new sleeping bags for a buck each. At the next one we found a brand new, in the box, Coleman lantern for another $10. So, $23.00 later we picked up my wife and told her: “We are going camping” 

We packed some food, a few utensils and a couple of other things we thought we might need and headed south to a park in one of the Florida Keys. We paid for one night and set up the tent and sleeping bags, fired up some logs and had the best night of our lives, thus far. 

The next day we packed up and went home in the afternoon. We fell in love with the adventure. After every scape I would purchase equipment to make our trips more enjoyable. The campsites had electricity, so I started carrying a fan to cool our hot Florida nights. Extension cords, camping pots and pans, utensils, a hose to make the water faucet available at all campsites more accessible, every conceivable thing was covered. I kept everything stored in plastic containers that could be easily loaded and unloaded from my Jeep. 

After a couple of years, I bought a small travel trailer and used it for a while. It served us well but needed some repairs and I ended up selling it, rather than fixing it. We went back to the tent and, by then, we upgraded to inflatable mattresses. 

We discovered many wonderful parks in Florida, spring and fall were the best times to go camping in the hot Florida sun. It was fun while it lasted, but like everything else, life got in the way, and we stopped camping a few years before my son graduated from high school and we moved up to Boston. 

Recently my wife and I have been talking about getting back into camping. Neither one of us can handle sleeping in the floor anymore, so we have been looking for a camper. There are a lot of expenses to consider, not the least of which is where to park it, so time keeps going and we still have not gotten one. I am leaning more towards a van where we can place a mattress to sleep in. Everything else can be done outside. 

I decided that this year I will get back into camping, even if we cannot find a camper. I have found other ways we can go without having to sleep on the floor, so, one way or the other we will be doing some camping this year. I might start out by myself first and then have her join me later. 

A friend took me to some primitive camp sites around the mountains in our new home state. The sedan we currently have would not make it on some of those roads, so that is one concern. In the meantime, I am looking for gear I can start purchasing and accumulating so I can be ready when the time comes. 

I am looking forward to sleeping under the stars, once again, and huddling by the campfire.