whta i learned this weekend

“well we went car camping and im covinced that it has gotten much harder to do then i remeber.
i think backpacking is alot easier to do then car camp.
1. less crap to carry. my son did not have to bring his BIG metal truck that i had to carry.
2. the ice does and will melt faster no matter what you do..
the cooler was so heavy i dont think i left any food at home
3. kids dont need 2 pillows each because they go to sleep with them but they are alwasy on the floor the next morning anyway. and i had to carry them or get to listen to them conplain
4. get the right size batteries.
5. buy batteries before leaving home.
6. when buying a new tent try it out before trying to put it up in the middle of the night. still cant find the directions
7. leave in the morning because trying to get to camp after work is not going to work! (hint- left work at 5:30pm and arrived at camp at 9:00pm. unable to find camp . by 11:30pm said #&%!$ it and pulled into the nearest site. and stayed there all weekend) drive should have only taken 1 1/2 hrs. should have been enjoying dinner by 7:30pm.
8. bring more beer and less sugar for the kids!!!!
9. have a pellet gun for when the neigbors dog comes into my site around 4:00am while im having a pee and scares the #&%!$ing #&%!$ out of me.
10. dont scream at the top of your lungs when your scared in the middle of the night. it will and does scare the kids very bad. (sorry samantha and michael)
11. look back on the weekend and remeber that you have spent a pretty good weekend with your kids becaues no matter what your doing your doing it with your kids..
12. did i mention bring more beer?”

“Of course the neighbor's dog came over. You were marking the territory it had marked earlier in the day!”

“You never mentioned how dinner went that first night.

Backpacking is much simpler. It has self imposed limits. We went "car" camping last month. Completly filled up an eight foot pickup truck bed with gear for a one night campout. It's insane.

The kids still had fun though.”

“I'll be heading down to the Sods for a week of car camping with family starting Sunday. The car will be loaded to the roof with gear. But it will be great fun.”

“#6 is one of those things I didn't think I needed to do, but when I finally put up my tent to rain test it and reseam the seals, I realized it could be rigged to contain a great vestibule that I never used. (Boy did I feel dumb!)”

“did i forget to tell you about dinner the first night??




because by the time we pulled into camp and unpacked the car my kids were tired and very pissed at me. so i think i heard them say something about" you suck at this camping thing and you call yourself a nature love and a backpacker?" while they went to bed hungry and tired!


they did love me the next morning when they were eating there pancakes!!”

“i think the best part of the trip was laying in the meadow with my son around 10:00pm sat. watching the stars. it was so clear that night that i dont think ive ever seen statrs so bright. (note to self must brush up on star systems because 10yrs ask alot of questions)”

“buy him a book about stars. thats peeing-screaming bit cracked me up.”

“Screaming while peeing can cause quite a stir. Try it at a urinal in a crowded restroom sometime.”

“On the east coast it would not raise one eyebrow.”

“lmAAAAAAo”

“Really great food for thought and humor. I learned long ago not to go after work unless I can leave earlier than normal. It is too stressful. I leave in the morning.

Kid really remember this stuff much more than we imagine. I'll bet you can still remember the outings and vacations when you were a kid. My strongest childhood memories are about family vacations.”

“Three weeks ago, I came home Friday afternoon looking forward to digging out all the crap to pack-up. I found that my fifteen y/o had moved all the stuff up from the basement and had it ready by the front door! I was really, really pleased. I did do a final check of the basement and grabbed the cook-kit and tarp which he failed to notice!”

“Really great food for thought and humor. I learned long ago not to go after work unless I can leave earlier than normal. It is too stressful. I leave in the morning.

Kid really remember this stuff much more than we imagine. I'll bet you can still remember the outings and vacations when you were a kid. My strongest childhood memories are about family vacations."
Phil
10:09:03 AM
08/12/02



Phil, im not sure if i even want them to remeber this trip....lol
mom getting scared from a dog while peeing in the middle of the night is not somthing i want my grandkids to know about!”

“Some of the best memories seem to come from trips that start with problems. It's how you deal with it that counts.

The peeing/screaming event will probably grow to legendary status by the time you have grandkids.”

“Look at it this way Maple, weren't you glad it wasn't Brian?”

“lol mapleleaf, sounds like quite a trip!

A couple of things I learned this weekend -

1) next time I see Mountain Dew in my brother's van prior to a camping trip - throw it in the bog before the kids ingest a 12 pack. What WAS he thinking??

2) and bring more beer!”

“Flyguy6x, I used to pack everything for the family campouts when I was a teen.

MapleLeaf, if you are leaving after work, just bring sub sandwiches. On a lighter note, I did find lime margerita mix in a plastic bottle and a container of appropriate salt. I have no appropriately shaped cups but I'm mostly ready for the next campout, whenever that would be.

Where did you end up going, anyway?”

“lol lyndys i have very lightweight cups for your drink mix
we went to our fav. spot in upstate ny. its in a town thats right on the border of CT and NY. i love it because there is no crowd!!

i mean there might have been about 20 people on the beach all weekend!
other then the dog and his owners i didnt see that many people at the campsites. my children spent most of there time looking for frogs. they found alot of them that had not totaly turned to frogs because they still had there tadpol tails. can you say yuk??
but it was cool!”

“lesson # 13
pack your own bag becasue children will take your clothing out of the pack to make more room for there teddy bear.
note to self check to see that you have clothing before leaving for camp because its no fun to find out its still all at home on the table!”

“I'm teaching vacation bible school, and one of the games was to have the kids pull an item out of a backpack and tell why it was useful or not, and whether it should stay home or not. For some reason they really wanted to take the ice cream scoop. They said that they could bail the canoe with it. I couldn't hold the hysterical laughter back. Really bad, I must do better tomorrow.”

“ice cream scoop vs underwear?

well thats a tough call.

good luck :)”

“Did you have a trowel in there? Would have loved to hear their reactions to that necessary piece of equipment...”

“No I was afraid that someone would complain that it might not have been sanitized enough for their little darlings to handle.”

“Ah yes. God forbid they should get a little #&%!$ on their grubby hands...lol....as if it wasn't there already...”

“Ah, screaming in the bathroom. Reminds me of a time I was at the drive-in movies. I went to the bathroom and all of a sudden a guy two urinals down from me starts slapping his bloody wanker against the side of the urinal. I nearly got myself stuck in my zipper trying to get the @#$ out of there!

This is a true story. I don't know what came over this guy, but the whole thing was very disturbing.”

“uuuummmmm i wish i had been in the bathroom but i dont do outhouses (its a long story)”

“always whiz on stray dogs head, so it's owners can think of you when they give it a pat, or are giving it kisses on top of head.
car camp sounds safe.
i learned always remove sternum strap from 65# pack b/4 throwing it to the ground in an exhausted state”

“Yes that sternum strap gets me every time. I don't do outhouses either. There was this woman who, under hynosis, remembered seeing the face of her father floating in the outhouse. Her father had disappeared when she was a child, so they excavated the family farm outhouse and sure enough, there was a skeleton. I don't care whether the story was true or a girl scout campfire story, I can't handle using an outhouse any more.”

“my problem is when i was younger my bottom was alot smaller and i had a fear of falling in


shout up i can hear you giggling at me!!

LOl”

“I took my 65 year old mother car camping with the Prowler family and had a blast..you must be some kind of amateur to screw up car camping...I can';t wait to see you on the trail backpacking...LOL

I'm kidding...what a hoot...cause I can totally relate about forgetting crucial stuff and bringing other useless stuff. I still love to car camp...its the neighbors that can make or break the scene.

I bet you are already planning your next outting.

Stratusloop...get your arse in gear and get that daughter out there and car camp!!!!”

“In a few years it will be looked at as a "memorable" trip. Then a few years after that it will achieve "great" status. Then, after further embelishment it will become "one of the best family experiences of all time"...just give it time.

BTW, one of the best campouts my son and I had with our Scout troop was the one with the worst weather...freezing rain blowing sideways, tents that leaked, etc. We had so much fun surviving that we had a great trip. Our Dutch oven dinners rocked. Packed up in the morning and ate breakfast at a restaurant...the boys had a blast.”