The amazing adventures of the incredibly naive and lucky (...that would be me...)

May 02, 2007

Iteration 05/02/2007: Camping out

Starting when I was about five years old, my family went camping at least once a year. We mostly stayed in our 'neck of the woods', and didn't do ginormous road trips - so I've never camped in Yellowstone, even though I hear it's gorgeous.

1. My first camping trip was to the southwestern desert. Another family had invited us (two small kids and their parents) to share their RV with them...in a camping trip in the desert. My most vivid memories from this trip are the arguments about who had to sleep at the back of the bunk bed; and the incredible sight of the nighttime desert sky. I was a city kid, so I didn't realize that there were that many stars.
2. Shortly after that, my father bought a Coleman popup tent-camper. (Mom flat out refused to sleep on the ground, and wanted a regular potty. Well...less irregular than a pit toilet, at any rate.) It had a queen popout bed, a twin popout bed, and another twin bed (cushions laid over the dining table.)
3. Every year after that, we went to the same camping area. I learned to recognize "our spot". We went there at least once every year until we moved to the west coast - sometimes by ourselves, sometimes in a group with our next-door neighbors and their kids.
4. One summer we went on a guided nature hike. We ate dried strawberries when we got to the ridge. On the way back, it began to rain...hard. The littlest kids (me, my brother, the neighbor girl) were draped in trash bags (makeshift rain coats) and carried by our parents.
5. Another year, a girl from my softball team and her family were camping at the same spot. The two of us ran all over, looking for horned toads. We found one, it ran, and we started chasing it. K stepped on a stick...just as the horned toad was on the other end. The toad flipped up into the air (probably only about a foot). When it came down, it faced us and hissed. We both freaked out.
6. Once, as we returned to our campsite, I opened the car door to hear a hissing, rattling sound. I looked behind me about four feet and said, "Mom, there's a rattlesnake." "Oh," she said, "you're just hearing the wind blowing the leaves along the road." "Nuh-uh," I said, "it's a snake." (It was. A rather surprised, displeased diamondback.) Mom freaked out, threw me back into the car, and freaked out some more. We drove off to go find the ranger who said, "That snake's more scared of you than you are of him. If you go back now, he'll probably be gone." This did not impress Mom, a dyed-in-the-wool city kid herself...but sure enough, when we drove back, the snake was gone.
7. Two nights later, guess who made a repeat appearance? Yep. Mister Diamondback. (Actually, it could have been a different one.) Mom was crocheting in front of the campfire and my sib and I were under one of the pop-out arms of the camper when Mom suddenly shrieked. We looked...and there, on the other side of the fire from Mom, was a snake - reared up and looking like it was poised to strike. (Keep in mind - if the snake had a thought bubble, it probably would have said the same thing as my mom's: "Oh, *^?#$%*&!!!eleven111") Once again, Mom put us kids in the car (Dad stayed behind - don't ask me why, exactly) and we drove off to find the ranger again. By the time the ranger came back to our campspot, Dad had used a shovel to decapitate the rattler.
8. Once, on our way to a camping trip in the desert, Dad suddenly stopped the car. A huge lizard was sitting half-on, half-off the road — just basking unconcernedly away. I was about six years old, and SEVERELY into the dinosaur phase...and this lizard was about 3/4 as large as I was. Of course I thought this was a dinosaur, and was thrilled. Mom had my sib and I go stand in front of the 'dinosaur' and pose for photos. When we got home, we saw a newspaper article about gila monsters. The 'dinosaur' had been a very large, very poisonous gila monster. Apparently, it had recently eaten...recently enough that when a pair of potential hors d'oevres walked up close and turned their backs, the lizard just sat and looked appropriately dinosaur-like. We didn't try to touch it, I don't think we got closer than three feet...but for a lizard that can move fast when it wants to, that's plenty close. (I'm still somewhat amazed that my sib and I didn't end up dead.)
9. When we moved to the coast, we found some good campsites by the ocean. We quickly figured out where the better spots were, and asked for those whenever we came. (Sometimes we got them, sometimes they were already taken.)
10. Once we went camping...at Yosemite...in December. No, we did not stay at the Ahwanee. We stayed in a little cottage, out in the woods. Two twin beds in the "front" room, and a master suite — okay, let's be realistic, a room with a king bed — and it rained. A lot. It was Very. Cold. (And being Yosemite, those cottages probably cost an outrageous amount of money.)
11. I remember making s'mores on camping trips, but I dislike marshmallows. I usually just ate the Hershey's slab-o-wax. (Hershey's markets these slabs-o-wax as 'chocolate bars'...but don't be fooled. It's like instant coffee: okay when you're desperate, but otherwise unacceptable.)
12. My family has camped in the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Lake Tahoe. (Many other places; but most people will recognize the names of those locations. How many of you know Organ Pipe National Park? Yeah. Didn't think so. Besides, I don't know how to spell some of the names.)

Keywords: | Wednesday | memories | memes | family |
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