29 October 2007

Camping 101

What I learned from camping:

  1. It's best to spoil yourself when camping: steak and salmon for dinners and the like. It helps if you pack a Master Chef with you for just such an occasion. This is why I take my husband with me.

  2. Coffee tastes better percolated outside.

  3. Full moons are just as bright as the dawn.

  4. Also bring with you a pyro. They make the best campfires (um, my husband again).

  5. Watching a lake shimmer in the sun is better than DVR.

  6. Fires are hypnotic.

  7. If lit on fire, marshmallows are excellent carriers of fire and can easily ignite other items such as sweatshirts and chairs.

  8. The only time hot dogs taste good is cooked on an open fire.

  9. You get a lot of exercise just doing everyday things, like walking up to the bathrooms, taking out the trash, and hiking, so packing things like chips, hot chocolate, and the makings for s'mores is okay.

  10. I can get dressed laying down.

  11. At night, that walk up to the bathrooms can't be bothered with. Squatting behind the tent is fine. Pack toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

  12. No matter how clean the showers are and if they get hot water, nothing will feel so good as a steamy shower in your own bathroom when you get home (followed by a good night's sleep in your bed rather than an air mattress that you suspect is losing air).

  13. The Creator God must really love us to give us these trees and water and deer nibbling by and yellow and blue and orange butterflies fluttering this way and that and grasshoppers playing along the path.

  14. For the last one, you'll have to go to the Misfit blog. I will tell you this: it has to do with fire.

10 comments:

willowtree said...

It's all about the food and the fire.

Unknown said...

Um, how did you discover the marshmallow/sweatshirt/chair/fire combo?

Yeah, sigh, there's lots to love about camping and being outside.

~michelle pendergrass said...

I love camping

Jeanne Damoff said...

I'm a lot like you when it comes to camping. I love the sound of an ax on wood at dawn . . . when I'm snuggly in a sleeping bag and George is wielding the ax. He does everything. Pitches the tent, builds the fire, cooks the food. I wrap in a blanket and sit in a chair, duly hypnotized by pixie flames that never seem to get tired of leaping and cavorting in a magical dance.

The best scrambled eggs I've ever eating were cooked over open fire. The best showers I've taken were post camping. And I'm really not that hard to please. I ask only that the temperature not rise above 80 or drop below 55. Yep. I'd say I'm a lot like you when it comes to camping (i.e., spoiled). ;)

Heather said...

Jen--you see, when the marshmallow catches on fire and, in reaction, you fling it up out of the fire with such force that you set the thing flying...
the sad thing is, between chris and me, we've now done this three times.
Jeanne--yup, spoiled. That about wraps it up. Why else would one go?

Marcus Goodyear said...

So true about coffee. For me camping is about appreciating how easy we have it. A huge chunk of my day when I'm camping is about preparing food to eat--whether it's preparing a fire, boiling water, or whatever.

Pamela said...

Yes. Yes. Yes.
You and your husband are hired, especially your husband, for our next camping trip.

I love the sound of the crackling fire, too.

Real Live Preacher said...

Really funny stuff. Loved the getting dressed laying down and the marshmallow fire thing.

Anonymous said...

Next time I go camping - your husband is invited to cook dinner.

Why do hotdogs taste good while camping? Any other time they are pretty gross.

Gina Conroy said...

I would add that camping is so much more fun with friends!