The Joys of Outdoor Camping

Yesterday evening, my husband and I were traveling down memory lane and talking about our camping expeditions during our lifetimes.  We've had some doozies, I can tell you that much! 

 Starting at the very beginning of our married life, we had a long-time friendship with another young married couple and we decided to get together and head to Six Flags in Arlington, Texas for the weekend and camp out in their brand new tent.  We all went in one car, the four of us, along with an apricot poodle.  The dog was boarded at the kennel there at Six Flags for the day and we spent all day riding the rides, having the "Pink Things" as they were called and having just a wonderful time of it.  We picked up the dog that evening, and we made our way back to the campground.  I told Don that it would be our luck that a thunderstorm would pop up around three in the morning and we'd have to run for cover.  Oh, no, I was reassured that the tent was waterproof and we'd be high and dry!  So, we climbed into our respective bed linens and went to sleep.  Just as I'd expected, the thunder and lightening began to disrupt our slumber and then, drip, drip, drip, the moisture was coming through the tent right onto our heads.  We had no choice but to make a run for it to the car.  The dog was carried, but, he still got wet.  It was summer in Texas and the nights weren't cool.  We all piled into the car, wet dog included and tried to get comfortable.  My sweetie and I were in the backseat of the car while the other couple were in the front seats with the dog.  The wet dog.  Now even though he was a Poodle, he still had quite an aroma because he was wet.  We couldn't put the windows down because of the deluge of rain, so we were all stuck in the car smelling the wonderfull scent of wet dog.  Waiting for the sunrise, we headed for the donut shop for some breakfast after breaking camp.  We laugh now as we remember that trip so maybe it wasn't so bad of an experience.  If nothing had happened that night, it would have probably been lost in transit to the present. 

Another time we went camping, in our own tent this time, we had an interesting experience as well.  Our daughter was a toddler and we had bought a 9x12 foot cabin tent for our camping pleasure.  We took my younger brother with us this time and we drove up to a lake in central Texas.  We set up our tent, fixed us some supper and went into the lake for a little bit.  Night came and we turned out our lanterns and crawled into our sleeping bags.  In the middle of the night, we heard crying from a young boy.  "Uncle Milt, Uncle Milt, I'm lost!"  Oh, we were so distraught to hear a voice so helpless in the night, but we couldn't risk going out into the night and leaving our two younger campers alone.  And, maybe it was a trick to get someone out into the darkness and club them, we didn't know.  But, earlier that day, we saw Uncle Milt with two young boys carrying a canoe over their heads, "Indian style" according to Uncle Milt.  We stayed put and the voice was not heard so we assumed he found his way back to Uncle Milt, unless Uncle Milt was back in town doing more adult things if you get the drift. 

The next camping adventure we had in our lives with the same tent as I described in the preceding paragraph, was to Colorado.  Vallecita Resevoir to be exact.  It was an old Boy Scout camp turned into a private campground around a very large lake.  We checked in on arrival and of course, just having a tent we didn't make advance reservations.  There would be plenty of room in a campground to set up a tent, right??  Sure...

The only place they pointed us to was one spot and it was on a slight slope, but we saw that we could put our tent on level ground, so we set it up.  We were freezing during the nights because of the temperature dropping like a rock after sundown, but hey, we were camping!  And, we were enjoying some cool days in the Colorado August sun!  Then, the clouds began to form, the thunder clapped over the lake and above the mountainous terrain.  The water fell from the sky like there was no tomorrow.  It was the rainy season in Colorado as well.  It was our first trip there in our lives, how were we to know?  We didn't.  The rain fell and after a trip to town we came back to find a river of what appeared to be chocolate milk running through our tent!  Oh, no!!  Now what????!!!  We began to find something to scoop up the chocolaty mess to get it out of our tent.  Oh, it was a losing battle!  So, we decided there were plenty of rocks just outside of our tent, "So let's make a dam to divert the water and we should be fine."  Ok, out into the rain we went.  Rocks piled up on the upper slope of our campspace making an obstacle for the rainwater making a hasty advance on our tent.  It worked.  We were successful in that.  Then we began to clean up the mess inside. 

Sitting outside the next morning, we were having our breakfast and what did we see?  An Apache tent trailer, hard-sided, above ground, high and dry!  Now, that's the way to camp said we! 

Once back home and telling our tale of mud and water, rocks and cold ground, friends suggested we go to the trailer and rv show coming up.  We agreed.  We went, and we shopped.  We eventually bought a Coleman pop-up tent trailer with a shower, potty, and it would sleep all three of us comfortably.  And, it was off the ground with a real mattress!  What a deal!  We could cook inside of the thing and life would be good!  Right???

We loved our camper, we took it everywhere.  Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico.  Anywhere we could take it for the weekends for a quick trip, we did.  What a great time.  But, on a trip out to West Texas in the Big Bend area, we were setting up our trailer on the top of a canyon.  Beyond the canyon was a pretty good storm from the looks of it, so we began to work faster setting up the trailer.  We had the thing up and stable when the wind came up from the floor of the canyon and began to blow a gale.  The three of us were inside of our trailer holding the roof as it swayed back and forth with the wind.  The sand was coming in at an amazing rate of speed whipping our arms and faces as it was sifted by the canvas of our trailer.  The air conditioner on top of the camper wasn't helping matters either as we all had our arms up in the air trying to stabilize the trailer.  Ok, the storm passed a little and the wind began to die down a bit.  We were out of there!  We got the money back from the camp manager and headed down the road for Fort Stockton. 

Later that night, we pulled into the Motel 6.  We settled in, took a shower, and called the pizza delivery.  This was a definite upgrade!!!  Never in our lives would you think that the Motel 6 would be an upgrade, but it was!!  We had clean sheets, no sand in our hair, television without snow, it was great.  After that adventure, we said we needed to look for us a regular trailer, hard-sided and comfortable as well. 

Again, we upgraded.  We bought a 26 foot Terry Taurus travel trailer with an anti-sway bar as an  upgrade.  We loved it.  However when the windows began to leak and the inside was beginning to show it's age, we sold it.  We haven't bought another and I don't know if we ever will again.  Motel rooms aren't that expensive, right?