Camping Life

Camping is a powerful escape. My kids took off into the woods and didn’t look back. They jumped into the lake and stayed there all day. They went tubing, and played board games, and sang songs by the campfire. Electronic devices were not in the picture, and never mentioned. Meanwhile I had a beer in my hand and a smile on my face, sharing a conversation with fellow parents who also couldn’t believe the kids’ never-ending patience for swimming and playing with sticks.

We stayed at Little River State Park in Waterbury, VT. This is the ideal place to go if you live anywhere close to Boston. The campground feels so isolated in nature, yet it’s only a twenty minute drive to a bait shop, restaurants, liquor store, and the mother of all ice cream stands, Ben and Jerry’s. By the way, if you do hit that dessert palace, go around 8pm after the crowds are long gone.

I miss camping already. It’s tough getting back to work, and staring at a computer monitor again. The kids’ patience is now long gone, and the television and iPad are booming.

Take me back to that morning I woke up at 4am, dying to put a hook in the water. Watching the sun come up over the green hills. Hearing the loon sing and laugh. Then my daughter greeted me and fished too, while my son slept off his beach day binge. Why did the coffee taste so much better over a butane stove? Why don't we always eat fish for breakfast?

And I should also mention my engorged bladder. The half-mile walk I suffered through every time I used the bathroom. Or the mystery insect that turned my right forearm into a feeding tube. Or the dirt in the tent, the air mattress that deflated, and the quilt that wasn’t quite warm enough. These negatives are all magically overshadowed by the fun we had.

Camping makes me realize that life is supposed to be grueling. Sitting on a couch all day is not living. Camping makes you see how (too) well we have it. I love the sights, the sounds, the mess. And I can’t wait to go back.