One of the most awesome things still left to do that is free is camping. Last weekend the boys and I went camping with my friends Joe and Anna and their son Sam*.
Here in Colorado we have the pick of the litter as far as where to camp. We can choose land as flat as a board or as rocky as well, the Rocky Mountains. Uh, we went rocky. Really rocky. As in my car should not have gone there rocky.
Joe and Anna started putting up their tent and the boys and I were trying to get ours up. We have one that is supposed to be easy to put up, but lemme tell ya it was anything but easy. There was actually a bit of hollering on my part when the tent just wouldn’t stand because “darnit we followed directions”… except all important #1.
RULE #1 – stake down the tent (it GREATLY benefits step 2, 3 and 4)
We got our tents, tables, grills and food all set to go and sat down around the fire and enjoyed the ambiance of pure nature. Then I realized that being in pure nature kind of scares me too. All I could think of was the recent bear attack in Montana. I asked Joe if there were “bears in these parts”. “Yup”, he said without a care.
RULE #2 – clap your hands if you see a bear (they don’t like loud noises)
We went for a little walk to let the boys get some of their energy out. We were camped next to a little river and a couple of ponds. It was so beautiful! The water was so still the reflection of the mountain and sky looked like a mirror!
Rule #3 – do not pee near the water (waste seeps)
We made dinner, cleaned up camping style and sat around the fire. It was so nice not to even have the option to worry about laundry, dusting, floors, answering e-mails… We talked a lot and laughed a lot more til the sky was dotted with stars.
Rule #4 – keep the fire in the fire (nuff said)
Eventually we couldn’t hold our eyes open any longer so we headed to bed. I was sure to move all of the coolers and food AWAY from my tent before I tucked in. I also didn’t put it in my car because if a bear was coming for food, and it would come no matter where the food was, I wanted it to have easy access!!! I mean, if it’s hungry, I don’t want it tearing through the tent or the car to get to food. I was totally willing to sacrifice my cooler.
It rained heavily minutes after we tucked in and I think we fell asleep quickly to the splat, bam, sploosh of the rain. And then… two very big splashes woke us up. My son said “mom, did you hear that splash?” Anna yells from her tent, “did you hear that?”. We kind of freaked out and convinced ourselves there was a bear near! Crossing the river to eat us. My son said, “it’s okay mom, I’ll be your protector. I’ll just lay hear and listen for every little noise.” A little bit later another splash woke me. I said “did you hear that?” My son, who was already dead asleep, replied “no, I’m really tired and I want to sleep now, I don’t care if we hear noises.” My protector.
We crawled out of our tents early the next morning. It was so cold we could see our breath and everything was soaking wet. Um, we used all of the wood last night. We sent the boys out to find some wood. Um, it rained all night. Meh, some areas the trees were so thick the ground was still dry so we gathered up some dry sticks. Um, the matches were wet. Eventually we got a fire started.
With breakfast eaten and tents down, Anna and I took the boys for a walk. We walked farther down the path and found a little old building probably for the cowboys a long time ago . Pretty cool!
When we got back to camp and Joe said “do you have jumper cables?” I didn’t and his truck was dead.
Aside from a few minorly major issues we had a great time and we added a *few* new camping rules.
In order of importance:
Rule #1 – no camping where Jill’s car should not go
Rule #2 – stake down the tent!
Rule #3 – start the truck if you’re listening to the radio
Rule #4 – don’t use all the firewood at night, or bring more
Rule #5 – put everything away because it’s Colorado and it will probably rain, or even snow
Rule #6 – keep the fire in the fire
Rule #7 – don’t pee near the water
Rule #8 – bears that go splash in the night are probably beavers. 
* names have been changed to protect the guilty.
