Camping!

On the sodden ground, beside the overflowed lake, in the frigid air, setting marshmallows ablaze above a roaring fire, crouched beneath low flying clouds, those clouds slashed at random to allow us glimpse of diamond stars.

I’ve been looking forward to this camping trip for over two weeks, and darn it, no matter how soggy, frigid and flooded the trip may turn out, I’m expecting to have a kickin’ time. I’ve packed enough cold weather gear to last a winter’s week; my sleeping bag is good to thirty degrees, my hair is washed, my boots are found, and I’m ready. Ready to launch myself into the great outdoors. Ready to toast things on sticks and sing stupid songs and tell scary stories and hike for miles over treacherous ground littered with poison oak and black widow spiders.

Ahh…nature. The nostaligic excitement of charred food in the open air. The bonding that can only take place by firelight, tossing and turning over tarp covered mud, squashed inside a tent with the rain pounding stacatto against the roof.

My last real camping experience ended in flash floods, my camping group running in controlled terror straight down the mountain to the ranger’s station, stumbling over roots, flash of lightening blinding the sky, to sleep the night on an empty concrete porch. My memory of hiking before the death march down the mountain was staggaring uphill, miles and miles with a pack of necessary provisions on my back, like a ‘nam movie without the sixties background music.

Ever the optimist, I’m hoping for better things tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to this like a kid dressed up for Halloween holding out her hand for candy. I want the sweet reward, but I also you to tell me how cool my costume looks, to give that  nod of appreciation for the work that went into the me I’ve created today. Even if you don’t know the character I’m playing.

So I’m writing now, inside rocking on my heels, rubbing my hands together with excitement for the future. The woods. The rain. The rides. The monster truck rally that promises to metamorphasize back in time to jurassic times.

Goodnight to all, and to all a good night.