Practice Makes Perfect: Camping

The experts always say, “Practice your skills.” Well, now that my son has joined Boy Scouts, we have plenty of opportunities to go camping and practice.

I haven’t been camping since I was in grade school.  When I was little, we used to go camping all the time.  I remember having so much fun, but when I talk with my mom about it, she just remembers it being a lot of work.

There’s a campout scheduled for this weekend, and despite the fact that I’m fat there’s a heat advisory, and I’m very used to my air conditioning, I’m really excited about the trip.  We have to start somewhere, and going camping with luxuries like a cooler and ice, a battery-operated fan, and a sleep mat surely meets the definition of “roughing it”.

We will be cooking on a fire though, and we’re going hiking.  I’m curious to see how we’ll all tolerate it, and if it turns out to be as much fun as I’m determined it will be, I see a lot more camping and a lot more learning and practicing in our future.

I think Mom was right about the work though.  Granted, we’re not taking as many things as I remember my parents bringing when I was a kid, but there’s still a lot to remember.  And this first trip as an adult is a good practice run to help me figure out what we really need.  “Should I really bring … ?” “Why didn’t I think about bringing a  …”

I intend to use my husband’s phone to document the adventure.  Then sometime this weekend, I’ll post a “Camping Part 2” update.

Here’s to having fun even though it’s going to feel like 105 degrees outside and we won’t have a place to go swimming.  Camping, here we come!