Camping

It's been probably 9 or 10 years since we've been camping. But the other night, some good friends of ours wanted us to go camping with them at a nearby lake overnight, and also enjoy some fishing. Now I usually panic at the thought of camping - food, necessities, will I forget something? NO BATHROOMS??? But ... we decided to go and take the chance to get away. The weather was still nice, not getting too cool at night yet.


We hauled the tents and sleeping bags and blankets from the depths of the upstairs storage room. We gathered up food (mostly hot dogs and s'mores!), and I packed enough for a week. Hey, you never know what you might need when you're roughing it!


Our friends got there ahead of us and had their tent already set up and a good campfire going. It was getting dark fast, so we got our tents set up, then enjoyed some visiting, fishing and eating.


I'd had a trying, tiring day, and really wasn't the best company. I ended up bawling a lot. So finally I just went to bed, as did older Son. But Hubby, younger Son and our friends stayed up and fished and yakked. Finally in the wee hours, I heard Hubby and Son come in the tent for some sleep. I won't remark on the comments flying back-and-forth between the two tents for awhile! Let's just say that our friends thought Hubby was laughing at THEM, and he wasn't, and it got rather hilarious!


It was pretty peaceful sleeping, if you could tune out the neighboring campers' generator that ran all night. Anyway, it was good sleeping, considering my bed was on the ground. Maybe that's why I slept good!


Then I heard Hubby get up really early, to go check his lines. The fish hadn't bit that great the evening before, but that morning Hubby caught a 10-pounder (catfish) and two more a little under that! So you never know when those varmints will bite! I lolled in the tent, in-and-out of slumber, and I was vaguely aware of people up and around. I looked out the door, and saw the campfire going. It was so peaceful - I love campfires. They're so comfy and relaxing. Then, Hubby had taken the rain fly off for some reason, so I looked up and saw the beautiful blue Oklahoma morning sky with high white clouds floating in it. This was the backdrop to Cottonwood tree branches, with their graceful, green leaves dancing in the breeze. I love Cottonwood trees. Grandma said they "talked." (Leaves rustling in the breeze.)


Finally I got up, and all of us just got woke up and snacked on stuff. Too tired to fool with cooking bacon and eggs like we planned! I didn't feel one bit like hurrying, so I said, "We don't have to be in any hurry, we can leave later in the morning if we want to." Then, I found out it was already 11:00!! I guess when you don't have a watch or clock you can really lose track of time!


Younger son enjoyed looking around at various things - an old crawdad, a caterpillar, a huge fly flying around. Then there was a Monarch butterfly flying around. Son kept wanting to chase it, and we kept saying to leave it alone and let it rest! So we watched it from a distance. It landed on the grass awhile. Then it took a short flight and landed again .... right in the hot ash by the campfire! Talk about taking off lickety-split and we didn't see him again! Poor thing probably really got the "hot foot."


We finally got everything packed and came back to town. Despite the rough start, it was extremely relaxing, and good to be out with friends. Sometimes you just need that.