A CAMPING WE WILL GO

BFF Laura

Jessica

It's guest blogger time!  I became acquainted with Jessica and Laura first through the Bound4Burlingame Facebook page, and then I finally had the pleasure of meeting them (and their offspring) when we rendezvoused at Burlingame Campground over the 2013 camping season.  I found them both to be kindred spirits and look forward to many more camping trips and off season excursions. 

Thank you Jessica and Laura for your continued support!  Camp On!

And now a word..or two, from Jess.....

Another summer has come and gone with my very special gaggle of people.  I wouldn't want to be in the company of anyone else for summer vacation then my BFF and OUR 5 kids.  We started camping at Burlingame umpteen years ago with our folks, and have continued the tradition with our own band of misfits.  Every winter begins the countdown and the questions from my girls “mamma, how much longer till we go camping?” ……or to my BFF--”Pearl, what camping items did you find this week?” My BFF’s name is Laura but I call her Pearl LOL—it references my grandmother and her best friend, but that is a tale for another blog.

This year our camping trip seemed to creep up way to slowly, but finally it was upon us.  As excited as we all were, a few weeks before our annual trip, my BFF delivered devastating news to me…. She would have to LEAVE CAMP EARLY! GASP  ‘THE HORRA’  Her oldest had football practice.  Damn kids ruin everything!!  We have a set routine.  An order of things done.  A set way to begin and end our camping  journey, so as NOT to anger the camping gods.  It seems that we miss something every year which results in cracked windshields, trips to the ER with hot cops, postage stamp sized campgrounds, torrential down pours, hurricanes, car alarms that refuse to shut off, or tarps a-smoldering.  There is a long laundry list of camping mishaps for us and each memory makes us giggle.

This year started off on the wrong foot!  As I mentioned the camping gods…. They were already plotting against us just for the fact that my BFF had to leave early.  Now, one of the other rituals that we have is to meet at a specific time.  Then, 45 minutes AFTER that specified time we all manage to get to our meeting spot.  Once we are on the road, and then turn back once---twice---sometimes three times for things we have forgotten, we begin our journey.  I am the driver and Laura is the ‘navigator’ and yes I use that term very loosely.  As we listen to the kids bicker and argue and fight and laugh, Laura and I reminisce of old times and ponder what will go wrong this year.  This is the routine.  This is what did NOT happen this year as we took 2 cars (dun duh duuuummm) AND Laura left a full 5 hours after we did.  There was no hope for us to make it through the week without the camping gods having their revenge.  Arriving at our normal halfway spot in Middletown Connecticut, i felt the void  of half of my camp clan missing.  Not even my pick me up DD coffee was oddly not the same.  But….drive on I did.  Once I made it to Burlingame, I set up camp with minimal yelling for the kids to help me.  Then off to dinner and the store to pick up supplies.  FINALLY  my BFF showed up around 8, just in time for her to fall asleep around the campfire!  And so ends our first day.  

Camping Cuisine...

The rest of the ‘week’ was filled with new friends, (thanks Laurie and Craig) lots and lots of rain, a trip to Wal-Mart in the middle of the night with my love to stop the Titanic (aka my tent) from sinking.  It is amazing what tarps keep out (the rain), and what they also keep in (smelly feet and kid stench…oh, and body heat and.... tooting).   This year brought  new adventures to the Point Judith Lighthouse, Bagels and More, the Umbrella Factory, Misquamicut go karts, and a Chinese buffet (please don’t judge).  If you are looking to lose yourself in jewelry, clothing, cool nick-knacks or a bamboo maze—The Umbrella Factory is the place to go.  For a few hours of fun off the beach, the go karts and bumper boats are a blast!   This trip was also filled with the old standbys.  The beaches of Westerly, Charlestown and Galilee, Frisbee tosses, metal detecting, Watch Hill for the carousel, ice cream and our annual trip to Romeo’s shop.  

...the camp tradition will live on!

And of course, the most important thing of all…. Memories made around the campfire.  I was even grown up enough this year to let others light the campfire. Between the s’mores, roasted starbursts and laughs, not a moment will be forgotten.  Children falling asleep in the chairs by the fire, marshmallows flying all around for a marshmallow war and 007 trying to make an appearance with lighter fluid.  Folks, my love is more dashing then 007, but should not try and get a job as a special effects master in Hollywood.   With boys being boys and trying bug zappers on themselves, wood that didn't want to light, rain forcing us under a pavilion for a lantern lit game of taboo….. the laughs were never gone for long.  This is my place.  This is home to me.  And every year I spend here with my BFF, my love,  our kids, or our folks that come for the day, it always leaves the promise of a  lifetime of memories.  My countdown to next year has already begun.  Only 343 days to go! Laura…let the shopping begin.

THE EVOLUTION OF CAMPING

It's the weekend! Time to pack up, gas up, and hit the open road/path to become one with Mother Nature. Sixty hours chocked full of throwing Frisbees, listening to the transistor radio, playing Go Fish, scribbling in the Mad Libs blanks...anything that could fit in a small backpack really. We would hike for miles, drink from streams, pee in the woods, scout out stumps for campfire seats, draw tic-tac-toe grids in the dirt, whittle our marshmallow sticks, and set the stage for that night's ghost stories. We went to bed dirty, slept in our clothes, and woke up to start another day with unkept hair and unbrushed teeth. Chances are we scarfed down a doughnut for breakfast, PB & J for lunch, and a hotdog cooked on a stick for supper (simplicity at it's finest). Throw in a couple hundred mosquito bites, a dozen blood soaked band-aids, a pile of muddy rain drenched clothes,  and an empty bottle of Calamine lotion. Not in a million years, would you ever have been able to convince us that it was anything less than heaven on earth.  

So why have we complicated things by "improving" the camping experience? 

Log seats gave way to lawn chairs. Lawn chairs became folding camp chairs. Now your camp chair has to have a cooler, cupholder, side pockets and foot rest. And, we have led our children to believe that they too need these same kid-size comforts to enhance their camp life. In the 70s, we had "sit-upons". These were created by taking two pieces of wallpaper ripped from an old sample book with a layer of newspaper between them. Holes were punched around the four sides and then yarn was strung through the holes to seal the edges. We threw them on the ground and sat upon them! So certainly you can go two nights without the need for inflatable furniture!

Everyone brought their own prized plastic flashlight, complete with their name magic markered on the side. Did those get pushed aside when headlamps and shoe lights became trendy? Disappearing are our beloved lanterns powered by mantles and fuel. They've been replaced with newfangled rechargeable, solar, LED lanterns that can light up a campsite brighter than a football field on a Friday night. Saddens me remembering that half the fun of camping as kids was not knowing what was lurking just beyond your flashlight beam! 

Coolers became bigger and better. Plain white squeaky Styrofoam coolers morphed into modern day iceboxes...congrats on your $300 Yeti purchase (You could have bought the Lifetime brand for fraction of price). Just a reminder, an overpriced cooler is still not as efficient as a mini fridge running off a "quiet" gas generator. Of course back in the day, we sufficed with dry cereal, warm drinks, fluff sandwiches, peanut butter/crackers, chips, and hoards of other nonrefrigerated foods. I think the only thing that took up our limited cooler space was a block of ice and the hamburg/hotdogs for supper. Do you think many campers drink red wine for the taste...or due to the fact its consumed at room temp? Hmmmm...

Wooden match sticks and matchbooks (remember when they were free?) started vanishing in 1973 when BIC launched it's first butane lighter. Now, campers don't bat an eye at spending $20.00 on refillable windproof flex shaft automatic butane lighters. How about keeping the kids busy with a cheap magnifying glass and some dry twigs. Easy to teach and it's a great skill to possess.  Sadly, I only use my magnifying glass to read the fine print on the pain reliever bottles :-(

The camping Gods have indeed smiled upon tenters in the past couple of decades (as much as I miss laughing hysterically to nightmare stories of setting up tents at midnight). Don't feel guilty for giving your old 100lb canvas tent the heave-ho! Thanks to improvements in designs, even at 2am in pitch blackness, 72.3% of experienced campers can get an eight person tent up in under 10 minutes. But, unless you are camping in Alaska and need extreme, there is no need to spend big money on a deluxe setup. Although they may look impressive, bigger is not always better. Look for quality zippers, windows/screens made for airflow, and a full size rainfly. It is however still going to take you awhile to blow up your air mattress. As teens, we would sleep under the stars with just our sleeping bags laid on beds of fern leaves. I have a bum back, and I definitely use an air mattress, so I bought a handy dandy portable AC/DC  inflator like this. These are 2 "improvements" I definitely approve of.  LOL

Remember how proud (and comfortable)(and content) you felt when you spent the first night in your self contained hard top trailer? A dinette that converted to a bed, and a two burner stovetop changed everything. Now, we got a deluxe apartment in the woods with 4 slide-outs, a dual sided fireplace, smart tv with traveling wi-fi, and a side by side fridge with icemaker. Time to ask the age old question... if a tree falls in the woods, will you hear it from the comfort of your RV's leather armchair? And are you having a better time than the old days?

How ridiculous is it that the expense of nightly s'mores matches or exceeds the cost of your campsite? We ate plain ol' roasted marshmallows and didn't dare think about complaining. And we whittled our own sticks! I'm actually appalled when people spend money on roasting sticks! On those occasions that we were treated to s'mores, you can bet that the Hershey bars were rationed and store brand graham crackers were the norm. Do we really have to "improve" upon this camp tradition by using a Ghirardelli Intense Dark Moonlight Mystique 92% dark cacao bar and a toasted almond coconut crunch marshmallow squished between a Thin-Mint Girl Scout cookie? For the record, I've concluded that its highly likely that O.D. and Ruth McKee (Little Debbie's grand-parents) were campers. Why else would they have developed a whole product line truly perfect for camp snacks. So, don't even try to improve upon those... unless it's to bring the price back down to a $1.00.  

If the cost factor of fireside snacks doesn't phase you, just remember the potential for a sticky mess on your new portable movie projector (another "improvement", in lieu of good old fashioned campfire conversation). How else are you going to keep everyone entertained after your one colorized Duraflame log burned out about a half hour ago. Plus, everyone has stomach aches because you roasted hotdogs over fake logs instead of collecting dead firewood. What ever happened to roaming around the forest to collect free firewood? Yes, some campgrounds frown upon this, but fake wood...outdoors? Not an improvement, ever!

As an adult, there's absolutely nothing wrong with sitting by yourself in the dark, holding an extra chilled martini in your favorite crystal stemware while relaxing in your comfy chaise lounge. Head over to the bathrooms  (or inside the RV) for a hot shower. Blow dry your hair, charge your phone...contemplate tomorrow's adventures.  Chances are, you've earned your "improved" camping experience. But, if you want to instill the spirit of camping in your children/grandchildren.... do them a favor and let them rough it a little. Subject them to old school ways. Share stories, sing songs, tell jokes around a campfire, and send them to bed tired from the days adventures. No one will ever improve upon good conversation, and nothing beats listening to the pre-sleep squeals of kid's in tents with only their flashlights to entertain. I promise you'll only have to yell "settle down in there" five times before they drift off to sleep.

I know people camp, or stay at campgrounds for numerous reasons. Comfort levels, budget restrictions, rest & relaxation methods, vacation needs, health concerns, etc. differ from person to person, family to family. Some campers love the mountains, some the surf. Everyone is different in what they need to camp, and what they want from camping. Through the years, I have tweaked my techniques and perfected my packing list. I've modified my "had-to-have" splurges into mere basics...and I more than make do. Testing your knowledge and capabilities is far different then testing your limits. Also, I'm a hobbyist camper, not a survivalist. I have no real desire to live off the land. Boiling water for instant coffee with powdered condiments vs. grinding beans and percolating coffee to drink with fresh cream is the type of sacrifices I can relate to and the improvements I can deem unnecessary. I started in a tent and through the decades progressed to a park model, testing out various camping units in between.  Now in my late 50s, I'm back in a tent and loving it. I've rediscovered the hobo pie maker, the benefits of wool, foil pack cooking, the art of the whittle...and red wine. For myself, simplicity has been the only improvement I needed. Despite falling victim to the iphone (and every fun and/or useful camping and outdoor app that is out there), I find plenty else to do while in the woods.  Sure Siri's voice is comforting and helpful during my times of need... but it is doubtful she'll be able to warn me when I've nodded off by the campfire and my sneaker soles are smoldering.

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