what’s the big appeal of camping anyway?

i mean, you basically pack as many comforts from home that you can cram into your car, drive out to what you thought was the Middle of Nowhere only to find Billy Bob and his buddies already drinking up a ruckus at your favourite spot, sleep on a bed of sticks and rocks thinly veiled by an air mattress, offer up your finest blood samples as a buffet for the hordes of mosquitos, and drive home at the end of it all with a huge pile of laundry stinking like camp smoke and a wet messy cooler to clean out.

why bother?

because in the morning, while Billy Bob and his buddies are sleeping off their binge, you will be awakened by the bright sun driving you out of your uncomfortably hot tent. or the pitter patter of raindrops on the tent fly will make you grimace as you roll over and refuse to get up. or the birds will chirp loudly. or you will hear a bear rummaging through your food stores.

whatever it is, it’s not an alarm clock urging you on to another day at the office.

and because in the day, you get to sit around the remains of last night’s fire and not feel guilty for doing absolutely nothing. or you get to go for a swim or a hike. or not. or you get to start drinking beer at 10am and not move from your camp chair until you need to pee.

whatever they are, the activities (or lack thereof) are perfectly timed because they are not on a schedule.

and because in the evening, you top off all that beer with a steak over an open flame and gooey s’mores that drip all over your shirt and make your fingers painfully sticky with hot marshmallow. or you carefully roast a hot dog, turning it regularly to brown evenly, only to have it burst into flames right when you decided it was perfect. or you figure it’s too hot to cook and just continue eating from the bag of chips you’ve been dipping in all day.

whatever it is, the food is guilt-free because calories don’t count outside the city.

and that’s why i think we drive like flocks of metallic birds out of the city and into the country. even if we bring all of our favourite foods, and have an RV with satellite TV and the fluffiest air mattress, the rules aren’t the same as at home. the ties of daily routine that tether us to our life and our thoughts and our ideas and our opinions are cut free… so you get to think and do and be different things.

this weekend i hope i get to think a lot about nothing, do a lot of swimming with Maddy and sitting in my camp chair, and be someone completely unconcerned with the fact that she is somewhat permanently moving to a different country (and climate!) in less than a month.

i hope you all have a fantastic weekend. enjoy July while it lasts!

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.