A-Camping We Will Go!

Last weekend marked year 10 that my college buds and I have embarked into the wild (and by wild I mean within 2 miles of civilization with modern bathrooms no more than 10 feet away) and together experienced God's wonderous nature while camping. We've come a long way, baby! Our first trip was at a teeny tiny campground bordering a cow pasture (I believe cow tipping was the activity of choice that year) and included a keg. We're MUCH more sophisticated now! This was year #4 that we chose Pokagon State Park in Angola, IN (on the Ohio border). A BEAUTIFUL park with wonderful facilities parked on a sweet little lake.

On Friday James and I left our boys with various generous family members and, cackling as we sped away (sweet freedom!), made the two hour trip to the campground. Upon arrival Friday evening we set up our tent and then spent about 20 minutes sitting in Minnie the Van while we waited for a rain shower to pass. This did not make me feel optimistic about the weekend ahead, I'll admit. However, the clouds did pass, and we enjoyed our first evening around a roaring fire, noshing on pudgie pies and s'mores and basking in the fact that nobody needed us - we could park our heinies in those chairs for the duration of the trip and no one would be maimed or starved in the meantime! Overnight we snoozed (without being awakened! Can I stress enough how much we needed a short break from our offspring?) to the sound of more rain and awoke on Saturday morning to overcast conditions. Again - my optimism felt a bit squelched. As is our tradition, we had rented a pontoon boat to cruise around the lake for the day, and this is generally more enjoyable when you don't have to wear three layers and bring an umbrella. Generally. So we took our sweet time cooking up a sweet camp breakfast and then braved the water. We parked at a sand bar that comes complete with its own restaurant (seriously - a boat that serves up such delicacies as chicken wings, french fries, and sloppy joe. Camping utopia!). The sun did make an appearance for about an hour, and the rain held off, so it was good enough for us! We lasted about 3 hours or so and then returned to camp for showers and a fantabulous dinner of "combos" (another tradition) - Italian beef & Italian sausage accompanied by various salads and drinks. Yum yum. Following dinner, commence...MORE SITTING! It was just glorious. We enjoyed another evening around the fire, catching up, cracking jokes, and just in general making merriment. So much merriment in fact that we got chewed out by the park "rangers". Twice. It's not often that a group of 30-somethings (oh, alright, and a few of you who are still twenty-somethings. Pbbbbbt - that would be me blowing rasperries at you) must be reprimanded in this manner. But hey, you try laughing hysterically with twenty people - not easy to do quietly. I'll admit (and perhaps this was due to the vodka lemonades but I think more to do with just my general euphoria at being with adult (and only adult) friends) it was pretty hilarious to have an individual mysteriously cloaked by early morning darkness not-so-delicately threaten our behinds with campground expulsion and then as he turned to go hear our friend Russ (tucking heartily into a pound of macaroni salad) utter enthusiastically, "This is great potato salad!" Insert more laughter here. For all we know, really, the guy could have been a disgruntled fellow camper. In any case it kind of killed the party atmosphere and so we all turned in. (Disclaimer: I DO, in fact, feel guilty that we perhaps kept awake families and other camping individuals at 1:15 A.M. I know I would have been pretty ticked if it was James and I and our kids and a rowdy group doing their once-a-year freedom-from-children dance were the next site over. So, I do apologize....a little.)

Sunday morning brought with it the realization that camping fun was coming to an end. Again, not in any great hurry, we pulled together another beautiful breakfast, then began the arduous task of breaking camp. Despite my obvious joy, as represented in this post, at being away from the boys for a bit, James and I were both anxious to be reunited with them and to spend a few hours with family before heading back home.

This camping tradition is honestly such a blessing to me. To still be able to join together with 18 close friends, reminisce about days of old, share life's trials and tribulations, and also laugh a LOT is just amazing. I don't know how many times I said, both aloud and in my own mind, how warm and fuzzy I felt for having my friends around (which reminds me that I didn't mention this was the first year that EVERYbody was able to make it!). I am truly blessed by my friendships, both these and others, and I was reminded of it this weekend. Next year will bring a new venue and as we gather at it, who knows what changes we will have experienced. A year seems too long and so some other group traditions are in the works to bring us together more than once a year. In the meantime, I look back fondly on the weekend's revelments and feel all warm and fuzzy once again.