"Why not take the girls camping for a weekend?" my husband suggested.
"Why not," I responded like the village idiot.
That was the beginning of our great camp out experience.
Neither, my husband nor myself, were campers.
All you need to do is get the best equipment and you are set, right? Wrong, or so wrong, and on so many levels.
I must admit it was fun shopping for all the goodies needed for a great camping adventure.
The tent, down filled sleeping bags, a lantern,cooking utensils, stove, fishing rods and reels, and those cute little lures.
Those lures were adorable, it was like shopping for earrings.
The shopping turned out to be the best part of our camp out.
We literally spent hours shopping, and had a blast finding the right tent.
It had to be comfortable enough for two adult, two children (ages seven and eleven), and two dogs.
We walked in and out of numerous tents before choosing the perfect one.
It was a humdinger, a real tent extravaganza, big enough to throw a circus in.
Well, maybe not the elephants...
but it was big.
The week of the camp out, we were all busy and excited planning and getting ready for the trip.
We were going to a state park a couple of hours away.
We had never been to that state park before,figured it had to be a perfect camp destination, after all, it is a state park.
Friday came, none to soon.
The girls were animated and giggling, as they anticipated all the fun they were going to have.
I had drinks and groceries iced down in the ice chest, the chips and other yummies in bags, and a fried chicken dinner packed into the most delightful picnic basket.
All that was missing was my workaholic husband, who although was taking off early, was running late, as usual.
He filled the station wagon with gas on his way home, and backed the car into the garage to make it more accessible for loading.
He dashed in the house, changed clothes, and to make up for lost time (we were losing daylight), frantically threw the camping equipment in the back of the wagon, and slammed the door shut.
He came inside and announced we were ready to go.
The girls gathered up their dogs and we proceeded to the garage.
We stopped dead in our tracks, when we realized the car was filled with smoke.
I hurried the girls and their dogs back in the house.
My husband, not seeing any flames, opened the rear door of the car.
He had shut the car door on a box of matches, hence the smoke.
He managed to get the smoldering matches under control without major incidence.
I shutter to think what might have been: gas tank full, car, expensive camping gear, garage, garage attached to the house.
The smoke cleared out of the car, we once again started on our camping adventure.
We stopped, at a little country store, just outside the park, and bought minnows for bait.
Once in the park we hunted for the best camp site, then finally settled for any camp site.
I never realized so many people went camping.
It should have been taken as an omen, when we found a horse tail, a whole horse tail, full of cockle burs on the spot the tent needed to be erected.
I guess, someone got tired of pulling out the burs and whacked off the horse's tail.
The tail was disposed of in a nearby garbage receptacle.
We set up camp and the tent.
It was now dark, not the pretty dark with the moon reflecting off the lake, but dark like spooky dark.
We took our picnic inside the tent, to get out of the rain.
Yeah, can you believe it? It was raining and the wind had picked up considerably.
It would have been cozy fun, the glow of the lantern, a family with their small dogs, having a picnic, if it had not been for the wind.
The wind was relentless, it whipped at the tent like a demon demanding entrance.
The girls had been pale, since we discovered the horse tail, now they were ghostly white.
The dogs whimpering and pacing nervously in circles around us certainly didn't help to calm our nerves.
You could hear a cacophony, of noise, outside the tent.
The wind was in a real frenzy, causing the tent walls to heave in and out, it was like being in the bowels of some hideous monster.
It wasn't hard to envision tree limbs being ripped off and hurling about, or even a tail less horse whirling around in the agitated air.
Our plush sleeping bags laid unused on the tent floor.
Sleep would escape us; or should I say, sleep would not catch us.
We were terrified.
It was inevitable, our seven year old painfully declared she needed to go the bathroom.
She was so pathetic in her admission and plea, her eyes were full of tears; one blink and it was waterworks for sure.
A bolt of lightening so close it lit up everything like high noon.
The thunder followed immediately, vibrating the tent and rattling our teeth.
That did it.
"Everybody, load up we're out of here," my husband said in a booming voice.
It had to be booming to be heard over the wrath of nature.
The girls and I got everything, inside the tent, together.
My husband, not so lucky, he had to get the stuff outside the tent.
The girls, the dogs, the camping gear, and myself, sat in the car, while the man of the family, fought the elements and disassembled the tent.
I panicked when I lost sight of him, and almost jumped out of my skin when he opened the rear door and tossed in the tent and minnow bucket.
The reason I lost sight of him? He went to the lake to free the minnows.
The cacophony of sound had been other campers...
leaving.
We could have had our choice of any camp site in the park.
The storm was waning as we went out the park entrance, but we had our fill of camping.
It was home or bust.
Oh yeah, we did have to make one stop, out of necessity.
We listened to the news on our way home, and learned there had been two tornadoes in the area.
Whew! Close call.
And what about all that fancy camping equipment? We love it.
Turns out you don't have to leave home to camp out.
The best part of camping in your own back yard? It storms, you go inside the house; you tell scary stories and get scared, you go inside the house; nature calls, indoor plumbing a blessing no longer overlooked.