It was the first time we had taken both the boys on an overnight camping trip. Larger Child had come with us a few times, and had recently just returned from a tent camping trip with his grandpa. You might say he was a seasoned camper. Smaller Child on the other hand, had never slept outside in a tent, he hasn't really even spent much time outside after dark period. But, we hoped for the best and hit the road.
We got out early, like before dawn early, and made it to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area by 8am. After quite a bit of driving around, we finally found a spot that was secluded, alone, and lovely. We set up camp, scoped out the surroundings, and made ourselves at home. The boys both took to the outdoors almost instantly.
We took a walk to the lake, skipped some rocks, avoided a couple huge fire ant hills, and started a fire. The weather was gorgeous, intermittent clouds, a few sprinkles, but not too hot or humid. We spent a good chunk of the day lounging at the campsite, SC and I playing on a blanket on the ground, and LC and B(NS)BH whittling together. LC picked up on knife etiquette quickly and comment several times on how "grown up" he felt.
We made sandwiches for lunch, hotdogs for dinner, and s'mores for dessert. We took a trip to the Nature Center, met a park ranger, and had several visits at our campsite by a not so shy fox.
It was one of those days that was just so good that you catch yourself in the middle of it thinking, "This is it, this right here. This is what it's all about." A picture perfect day.
Then the sun went down.
We went in the tent, and began to get ready for bed when SC began saying, "I want to go home." I think he thought that since it was bed time, we should be heading back to the house... he didn't understand, no matter how much we tried to explain it to him, that we were going to be sleeping there that night. We finally got him in the bed, and we were all tucked in. That's when the realization of the heat set in. It was HOT. SC refused to take off his blanket, and he was sweaty. The boys had a hard time sharing a bed, and B(NS)BH and I had a hard time keeping our cool in the exhaustion, heat, and discomfort of it all. B(NS)BH kept turning to me and saying, "We could be home in two hours..." I argued that we didn't have enough light to break down camp, and that we would all settle down soon.
Nearly three miserable hours later SC was now in hysterics. He was crying so much he was about to throw up, and his parents were losing it trying to get him to be quiet to not disturb the surrounding campers. LC began feeding off the tension. It got ugly, fast.
All of this resulted in:
1 child in a full blown panic attack
1 child unable to catch his breath and choking on bile
1 parent taking 1 child to the outhouse bathroom for explosive midnight diarrhea
1 parent breaking down camp in the pitch black
1 child sitting on an ice chest in the dark for nearly an hour while that parent broke down camp
4 people in a car at two in the morning
2 children asleep in the back seat within five minutes
5,327 bugs in the car with us while we drove for two hours
20 bug bites on Mama
3 ticks spread out amongst three people
One of the very best and very worst camping trips ever. But, one hellova story.
No comments:
Post a Comment