The curious joys...

....of camping.

My husband says I don't camp, I RV. He likes to point out that the nature of camping is to "get away from it all" and "leave behind the comforts of home." In exchange for what? The discomforts of nature? The sheer terror of squatting in the dark in places unknown? The unpleasant love pecks of a swarm of hungry mosquitoes?

In an effort to comply with his brand of camping, we registered for a tent for our wedding....and got it, much to the glee and gid of my father. :o) We tested out this camping gear this past weekend. In the middle of the night we "set up camp" out behind the barn on my dad's land in Coral. We laid down a tarp, pitched the tent (well, Dan pitched it; I was inside the barn putting away our food and pantry items and inflating the air mattress), and commenced camping. Or so I thought.

In the morning (over cornmeal pancakes cooked on the electric oven) when I declared that camping wasn't so bad and I could probably get used it, he further insulted me by announcing that we weren't camping, we were tenting. Tenting!? What's tenting? I thought the clincher in the camping dialog was giving up the comforts of home and getting away from it all? I gave up the cushy dinette bed, my mom's excellent cooking (we bake cookies, have roast and such, and occasionally make sh'mores when we go camping as a family), the AC, the in-trailer bathroom complete with walk-in shower, the TV (well, almost---it was Saturday night and Dan left me to deliver a stray puppy to some family friends who were adopting it---"Missing" was on!), the hard-sided shelter over my head, the infinite storage, and on it goes to sleep in a TENT. What gives?

Apparently, camping is neither RV-ing or Tenting. It is a miserable existence in the wilderness, void of any creaturely comforts 'cept the creatures themselves, simply living off the land and roughing it. Well, if that's camping, then you can keep it! :o)

Whatever form your camping takes on, I hope you do it with gusto and enjoy the beautiful earth God has given us. And I know from experience that you can do that pretty much anywhere.... perched atop the trailer dinette, peeking out from beneath the tent flaps, or yes, even out in the middle of nowhere with nothing over your head except the stars.

Happy trails!