Have you ever been camping?
My husband and I love to go camping! In fact, I had only ever been camping one or two other times with my parents before I met my husband. Twenty five years ago, camping at a fairly local campground near a lake was one of the first things we did together. We frequently go back to the same campground for a weekend getaway. This is the same place that his father frequently took him when he was a kid. I can’t tell you how many times we have been since. It’s not rough camping. We sleep in a tent, but definitely bring as many amenities as we can to make it comfortable. There is a bath house with showers, toilets, and sinks. So no digging a hole in the ground and hoping for the best when we have to go.
We’ve been camping at other places. One year we took a trip to upstate New York and camped up there. We did touristy things during the day and came back to our site in the evenings.
One of the most memorable camping trips, however, was the summer we camped on Mt. Mitchell—the highest peak east of the Mississippi. In fact, I wrote a post about it back then because it was so memorable.
We haven’t been camping in several years. Mainly because we have dogs now and we would like to bring them with us. Where we usually go allows dogs, however, ours will need some acclimating before we take them. They aren’t the best on leashes yet. We have a fenced in back yard so there’s rarely a need for them to be on a leash. My husband did pitch the tent in the backyard one time and took Millie to sleep outside with him so she could get used to the experience. I opted to stay inside and apparently, there wasn’t much sleeping happening out there. We’ll try again soon now that we have Ethan. It might just take repetition to get them used to it before we actually go.
All this talk of camping makes me really want to plan the next trip now. It’s so peaceful when we go. No distractions. Nothing to do except sit and relax. That usually means reading or playing cards on the picnic table. Some intense battles of Rummy 500 have taken place there. There are several hiking trails that we like to walk on, and of course, swimming in the lake is always fun. We’ve gotten some great pictures of the sun setting over the lake. There’s a perfect view from one of the docks. Now would be the perfect time to go! We generally avoid going in the summer because of the intense heat. In the meantime, maybe I’ll dig the tent out of the attic so we can do another trial run of sleeping outside this weekend.
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