For the longest time I couldn't figure
it out.
I work very hard so my family does not
end up sleeping in the woods under canvass, only to intentionally
leave a perfectly good home to sleep in the woods under canvass.
My wife grew up camping. Her family
often headed to the wilds of our glorious province to commune with
nature, to talk to wildlife, to pee on a tree.
My family, on the other hand, never
went camping. Not even once. We would do these annual marathon
two-week vacations that covered just slightly less distance than
Jupiter's path around the sun, but we never went to a campground just
to hang out for a couple days.
The Missus used to do it all the time,
so after we wed, guess who started to go camping?
We would often go with some close
friends and when it was just the four of us, camping was basically a
big two-day party.
OK, that I liked. I was not too keen
with sleeping in a tent like some ground-dwelling savage, but it was
part of camping.
Like they say, happy wife, happy life.
Our friends and us started having kids
at the same time and camping took on a new dimension.
When the kids were little and they
dirty and tired and hungry and screaming I thought I must be demented
for doing this, but happy wife, happy life.
When kid No. 2 arrived we did one
camping trip in a tent and after spending 10 hours loading the truck,
unloading the truck and setting up camp, I decided this was not going
to happen again.
So we bought a tent trailer and camping
was much better – except for the rain that is.
It seemed every time we even thought
about loading the trailer, the heavens would open up with a
torrential rain akin to the days of Noah.
It could have been hot for weeks on
end, but as soon as we headed out camping – whoosh - rain, rain and
more rain.
However, by now the kids were getting
older and they absolutely loved camping.
I was not about to put an end to some
quality family time, so we spent many a summer's day living outside
in the pouring rain.
But the kids really didn't care as long
as they were camping.
I must admit, at first I really did not
see the value in spending all that time, money and effort to sleep in
a woodland realm, but the more my children enjoyed camping the more
the value of such excursions became clear.
Smart woman my wife.
We have been camping with our friends
at least once a summer for close to 30 years. Our children are adults
now, but they still want to go camping with the 'old folks' which I
must admit is pretty cool.
We recently went on our annual trip
with our friends and only one child was not able to make it.
It is a lot different camping with
adult children, and a lot less effort. The kids are like cousins so
they always have fun together, and we older folk can relax by the
fire once again without having to chase little ones to and fro all
weekend.
However, on this most recent trip one
thing did remain the same: the rain.
And by rain I am not talking about a
sprinkling here and there. We did get some off-and-on light rain, but
it was the torrential downpour of apocalyptic proportions that kept
us huddled under a large tarp.
Over a two-day camping trip it rained
buckets, cats and dogs and whatever other cliche you can think of
three times.
Everything felt kind of damp and some
things were downright soaked, but we were having such a good time no
one cared.
So what if it rains, so what if it's
cold. What matters is family, friends, fun and lifelong memories.
Now if we could just do something about
the insects...
Copyright 2016, Darren Handschuh
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