Calvin's dad is a smart man
So, I never understood the old comic book cliche of the dad who forces his family to go camping. Why bother? Why drag a bunch of people out to a miserable hell hole where it's always raining and you all come back stressed? I have been on plenty of camping trips before, but if one were ever that bad, I would run back home without a second glance. So it came as a bit of a surprise this weekend when I went on one of the most miserable camping trips of my life, and had a great time.
We started camping on Sunday, and it was a blistering 102 degrees outside. My car is in an eternal state of disrepair, and on this particular trip the right window, air conditioner, and engine mount were malfunctioning. So it was a very hot, bumpy ride to pick up Roni. We packed a metric ton of bottled water into a small cooler, and off we went to the state park near Macon, Missouri.
We picked a walk-in campsite, meaning you have to park some distance away. Oddly enough, we were the only ones in that part of the campground. I was not aware, but apparently people are lazy. Even when camping. They bring their RV's out there, park as close to the shower building as they can, pay extra for water lines and electricity, and use gas grills to cook. In my opinion that's not camping, that's going to a lot of trouble and expense for a shitty hotel experience.
Anyway, the point is that our area, being non-electric and something of a walk from the parking lot (maybe 1 minute, tops), was completely deserted. Not a soul for miles. Not only that, but it was tree lined and it actually had its own private beach, facing out on the big lake. Now I've seen the ocean, and I've been to a lake or two in my time, but rarely have I seen a more perfect beach. White sand, blazing sun, crystal blue skies, and equally blue, if somewhat muddy, water. Warm, too. It was more relaxing than any hot tub, mostly because of the currents.
Now, there were problems. It was like being next to a blast furnace most of the time- so hot that by the end of the trip we had gone through about 24 bottles of water. Our fan died on the first night and after that sleeping became a bit of an issue. There were the usual giant bugs, and giant swarms of small bugs, and annoyingly loud boaters. On the way home my tire blew and I was late for work.
Despite that it was a wonderful time. The swimming was wonderful, we each got a lot of reading done, we had a few adventures, the sex was phenomenal, and we didn't have a single real argument in the whole course of the trip. In short, the camping was so terrible that it induced a sort of zen-like calm and actually wound up relieving a lot of stress for us. I will probably never get over the sunburn I picked up out there. I won't ever get over the memories of the trip, either.
We started camping on Sunday, and it was a blistering 102 degrees outside. My car is in an eternal state of disrepair, and on this particular trip the right window, air conditioner, and engine mount were malfunctioning. So it was a very hot, bumpy ride to pick up Roni. We packed a metric ton of bottled water into a small cooler, and off we went to the state park near Macon, Missouri.
We picked a walk-in campsite, meaning you have to park some distance away. Oddly enough, we were the only ones in that part of the campground. I was not aware, but apparently people are lazy. Even when camping. They bring their RV's out there, park as close to the shower building as they can, pay extra for water lines and electricity, and use gas grills to cook. In my opinion that's not camping, that's going to a lot of trouble and expense for a shitty hotel experience.
Anyway, the point is that our area, being non-electric and something of a walk from the parking lot (maybe 1 minute, tops), was completely deserted. Not a soul for miles. Not only that, but it was tree lined and it actually had its own private beach, facing out on the big lake. Now I've seen the ocean, and I've been to a lake or two in my time, but rarely have I seen a more perfect beach. White sand, blazing sun, crystal blue skies, and equally blue, if somewhat muddy, water. Warm, too. It was more relaxing than any hot tub, mostly because of the currents.
Now, there were problems. It was like being next to a blast furnace most of the time- so hot that by the end of the trip we had gone through about 24 bottles of water. Our fan died on the first night and after that sleeping became a bit of an issue. There were the usual giant bugs, and giant swarms of small bugs, and annoyingly loud boaters. On the way home my tire blew and I was late for work.
Despite that it was a wonderful time. The swimming was wonderful, we each got a lot of reading done, we had a few adventures, the sex was phenomenal, and we didn't have a single real argument in the whole course of the trip. In short, the camping was so terrible that it induced a sort of zen-like calm and actually wound up relieving a lot of stress for us. I will probably never get over the sunburn I picked up out there. I won't ever get over the memories of the trip, either.