Happy Campers

When I was in elementary school, my dad and I were involved in a group called Indian Princesses through the YMCA. The main thing I remember about it is getting to go camping with my Dad.

Then sometime around 11 my family got a camper trailer and we did a lot of family camping in that. There were several trips to Big Bend and Fort Davis that we enjoyed and quite a few other places as well.

I loved camping.

Then there was a "camping" trip with my first husband that was horrible (it was cold and we slept in the car and we where with his friends. It was the end of our marriage.)

I hated camping.

Then my daughter got involved in girl scouts and we went camping. Since more that 10 years had gone by, I was willing to give camping another chance. One of the girls was so homesick that she cried until she threw-up AND it was so cold that the girls got their polar bear patch (I hate being cold).

I still hated camping.

After much pleading from my kids and husband, I agreed to try it again. This time in we would try in April when it wouldn't be cold. Except it was. A cold front had the lows dropping below 40 degrees.

BUT I had fun. We had tents and cooked over a fire and went fishing and had a wonderful time. It was a ton of work getting prepared to go, planning the menus with all the sides and extras, trying to get everything packed so that we could access it easily. I forgot to get blankets (hubby and I slept on inflatable mattresses with sheets) but luckily they were remembered before we got more then 6 miles from the house. Its been a ton of work getting stuff washed and put away since we got back - but it was worth it.

The kids only complaint was that we didn't spend enough time camping, they wanted to be there for longer. They left their electronics at home and were very irritated with me when they saw I had brought the laptop. Honestly though, the laptop was only so that we could look at the stars and know what we were looking at. I downloaded Stelarium or Stellarium which is an amazing program, even if they can't figure out how to spell it (their website spells it both ways). You can have it show you what constellations are over your head at that moment and since I can find at least 15 big dippers and little dippers, it is a huge help to me. Although, since the moon was so bright, we couldn't see the stars so the laptop stayed in the car.

All in all, we were happy campers.