Crickets and Frogs and Stars...Oh, My!

My family thinks I'm nuts. Perhaps I am...but not for the reasons they think. You see...once again, I've got the camping bug. I....love....camping. I always have.

Some of my earliest, most pleasant memories revolve around camping. When our family was still relatively small, we would pack up and join aunts and uncles and grandparents at various lakes in Arkansas and Tennessee for a week-long adventure. My uncle had six girls. Getting together with them anywhere at any time was always a party! They always made these outings extra fun.

The adults would sleep in a big, ol' canvas tent. I guess there weren't any other types back then (we're talking OVER 50 years ago). We kept "stuff" like cooking gear and food in another tent. They would bring bales of hay which would be spread out on the ground. We kids would sleep on a tarp thrown over the hay. I can still smell the hay and see the stars filtered through the trees towering above me. I swear I never slept so well since.

My favorite photo of my grandmother is of her stirring a big pot over a campfire - with a huge smile on her face. She loved it! I got a lot of characteristics from my grandmother, and this is one of them. I spend a great deal of energy cooking while camping. Memories of campfires and picnic table banquets swirl in my head at these times.

I camped a little when I lived in Maryland, but my little tent had begun to be a strain on my aging back. I couldn't stand up in it, and the door was way low. Plus, I had a terrible time getting up from sleeping on the floor, even though I cushioned my bed with lots of mats and quilts and even an air mattress. The ground is the ground - no matter how you try to disguise it. Creaky old women are not meant to sleep on the ground!

So, when I moved to Tennessee a couple of years ago, I got rid of all my camping gear. Every last bit. I've been regretting it. This last week or two, I've intently been gathering the necessary equipment in anticipation of a flurry of camping activity later in the summer. I'm spending the Fourth with my sister, out in the boonies. Here's where the crazy part comes in. I'm taking all my gear and pitching my new, untried tent in her yard! I need to practice putting up the tent...plus I need to spend a whole night on my new cot - the solution to sleeping on the ground. (It makes for great naps in the living room, but that's all I can vouch for, so far.)

I am SO looking forward to sleeping with the cricket and frog lullaby tonight. Tomorrow morning I will arise before they do and put coffee on the campstove. (I drink tons more coffee when I'm camping than under normal circumstance.) Then, I'll quietly read my book until they start stirring. I'll whip up some breakfast burritos and hashbrowns with orange juice to greet them. At that point, I'll bet nobody says a thing about how "crazy" this is. It's hard to talk with a mouth full of hashbrowns!