Dear Molly,

While recently visiting my daughter and family in Toronto I read your Spring 2010 issue of The Old Schoolhouse magazine. As I read several of the camping stories I was reminded of the Biblical statement about laughter being good for the soul. It has been a long time since I have laughed so heartily.You asked your readers to relate some of their camping stories. I hope your soul will be lightened as you read the following account.

We camped often with our daughters when they were young and had wonderful, usually VERY eventful camping trips. It had been a while since we had camped. Our girls had gone off to college and then they were married. Now, mind you, we were tent campers, we didn’t have a big, fancy motor home. Is that really camping??

Several years ago Mike and I decided we would go to Virginia Beach for a couple of days. We got everything in our van and headed out. When we got to our destination and got our “stuff” out we began to set up our tent. We had decided, since it was a short trip, that we would just take our little 2 man tent. So we laid everything out and
proceeded to set up the tent. Much to our dismay, we did not have the two long poles to hold up the tent. What to do? Well, fortunately, my husband had packed his golf clubs Yes, two of the clubs were almost the right length. So the tent was looking almost normal, except for the sagging roof line. Oh well!

We went off to town to do some sightseeing and shopping, and enjoyed the time. While we were gone a storm blew up where we were. Hopefully it had not hit our campground too. With fear and trepidation we returned to the campsite. Horror of horrors, the tent had collapsed and everything inside was soaked, including our foam mattresses. Several hours in the local laundromat left us somewhat discouraged.

Since there was several inches of water in the bottom of the tent we knew we could not sleep there. Well I always had wanted a conversion van for such occasions. However, our van was just a plain old van.

By now it is way past midnight and all of our neighbors were enjoying their nice, dry motor homes. Well, we moved some stuff around in the van to make room for sleeping. There was only enough room for one in the back. So my husband reclined the driver’s seat and I got the back of the van. Because it was still raining we had to have the windows up. The heat and mugginess were unbearable. So, we put the windows down….but the mosquitos had arrived due to all the rain and they were also looking for a dry spot! So we decided to hang some towels in the windows, hoping that would let air in and those pesky mosquitos out. Nope, didn’t work.

Then, of course, we had to use the restroom. At least the mosquitoes weren’t attacking us while we were walking in the rain. Back to the van, what to do next? The only solution was to roll up the windows, try to sleep for a bit, then turn the engine and AC on for a bit, turn it off, and continually repeat this scenario. Sleep was sparce and morning could not come soon enough!!

Guess what, we are still tent campers. We plan to take our 16 year old grandson on a camping trip to Michigan in a couple of weeks. So, do you suppose he might think we are a little old-fashioned? Probably! Will we have a good time? For sure! Will we have stories to tell? You bet—-but we WILL be making NEW memories!

THANKS FOR LETTING ME RELATE THIS MEMORABLE TRIP.

SINCERELY,

DIANNE

If you want tips for making your camping trip fun, organized and as hassle free as possible, check out my new E-book, Molly Goes Camping!