#96. or, a camping we will go

  So, we went camping this past weekend. It was nice to get away and relax and spend some time with some friends. I just wish the weekend had been longer.

  Now, you should know, it's not really "camping" it the sense of sleeping in a tent and tying your food in a tree to keep the bears out of it, sort of camping. My wife and I are fortunate enough to own a holiday trailer. We have pretty much, all the amenities of home when we go. But there's always campfires and being able to wander around in your pajama pants until noon without looking like a schlub. (because if you don't, you sort of look out of place.) But we also take a portable generator. Just in case we feel the urge to make fruity blender drinks. Because as manly as i am, occasionally, i like to get me some fruity blender drinks. I'm comfortable in my sexuality that way.

  My wife and I have gone through three distinct stages of holiday travel in our lives. We started out using an eight foot truck camper. We took our honeymoon in one of those. As our family grew, it became a space that was  entirely too small to accomadate all of us. You can fit 5 adults into an 8 foot camper, easier than you can fit   2 adults and 3 children. I know that seems unreasonable if you take into consideration the mass of the bodies and divide it into the square footage of avaliable space. But if you have boy children, stop reading right now and go take a peek into their room. (I'll wait while you do that.)  If you are a woman with children, you probably don't need to do it..........you just know.

    Stage two, put us into a mid-sized, bumper pull holiday trailer. It was laid out quite well for a family with small children. We got to see a lot of country in that trailer. It was the first one that my wife and I actually owned for ourselves. The bad thing about that trailer was that it didn't have much outside storage access. I don't want to brag here (maybe a little) but I became a master at confined space storage. Everything we owned, that we used on a daily basis, was easily accessable through the only door to that compartment. Everything had it's place. When that hatch closed, there wasn't room to wedge in another item. Occassionaly, my wife or kids would try to help with the packing of that compartment and i would have to stand to the side twitching with a dry mouth, willing them to put the things in, in the exact proper order that they belonged. I might have a touch of OCD?

  Eventually, we outgrew that trailer and now we travel with a 5th wheel trailer. There is a bedroom in the back for the kids (that still travel with us) and my wife and I have our own bedroom on the other end of the trailer. The bed is actually bigger than the bed we sleep on at home. It's a little older and we bought it used but it is still quite luxurious compared to where we started out from. The thing that impressed me when we bought it was ALL of the doors to outside storage. We would never be able to use all of it. It appears though, that we must have aquirred a few items because it seems, that my master of confined storage space skills seem to still come into play.

  The plan, when we got this one, was that we would have everything stored and ready to go. But that never happens. Every time we  go somewhere with it, my wife will say we are leaving at a  particular time. We always leave about 4 hour after that. I'm running around checking things, trying to clean all the crap out of my truck, checking wheel bearings, and generally freaking out. I think, the last 3 hours before we actually leave, may be the most stressful time of holidays. I lose about half a day winding back down from that. Blender drinks help.

  So, we don't really rough it. Although, because i do most  of the campground cooking, thing like this happen.

BACON.........NOM  NOM  NOM

......and pancakes

   And there was also fried eggs. But because fried eggs on an open fire require ALL my attention, alas.....no picture.

  While at the picnic table, eating fried eggs, bacon, and pancakes. I was stricken with this little decision.

Nutella or Peanut Butter on my pancakes?

  Actually, I was rather surprised that we even had Nutella in the trailer. Our son used the Nutella. I used the Peanut Butter. Because, of course, Peanut Butter is the correct answer. It can be used on just about everything. On warm pancakes, it melts and runs into the low spots and has a wonderful appeal. Then I pour syrup over it all and everything is right with the world.

  ................we are now planning to go again some time in the beginning of next month. I should be ready approximately 4 hours after that.