Family Campout Numbers #1 - #13: California Camping with My Ever-Growing Family

Growing up my parents were always fairly assertive with their expectations. My mother told me once that if I got my ear pierced, no big deal, she would just rip it out of my ear, so when she asked me to go to the family campout each year she did not make it much of an option. Through the years, a few of us have missed campouts here and there, but Mom's firm request that we all get together this one time during the busy year has kept our family close and allowed our children, the cousins, to know and enjoy each other. We have camped all over California and even spent one year at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. Mostly tenting it between Sacramento and Los Angeles, sometimes camping by the beach, other times in the mountains. We have had rain outs where we had to find refuge at the family house in Mariposa (near Yosemite), but mostly enjoyed beautiful whether, picturesque scenery, and the wonderful smells of the outdoors. As an avid homebrewer myself and having a family of beer, wine, and alcohol lovers we have drank much at most of our camp outs, but as we get older, sadly, our alcohol consumption has subsided somewhat. Dad only drinks the Near Beer and last camp out only my brother-in-law Steve and I stayed up to have a few more after the kids went to sleep. Sight seeing, hiking, and swimming, have always been high on our agenda, but as the kids get older their pace and interests have dominated our activities making the hikes shorter and the games more age-appropriate, sadly again.

The annual campout began the first year I did not come home for the summer. I attended UC Santa Barbara in the Spring, got arrested, lost my license, and dyed my hair blonde. I landed in San Luis Obispo for the summer crashing on a futon at a friend's six bedroom house. I rode my bike on the highway (surprisingly, I was never run over) to my job at the Wherehouse, a record store in San Luis Obispo. I did not stay the Friday night because I had to work, but since I had a suspended my mom came to pick me up the next day so that I could join the family on our first family campout.

1. Montana de Oro-- The Sign of the Hulk Mat (1996)
When I was young I loved the Incredible Hulk, I had a Hulk sleeping pad. My parents brought this pad so someone could use it to sleep on, but when they discovered how difficult it was to find the camping site they tied it to a tree on the road figuring anyone in my family driving down that road would know that that was OUR Hulk mat. My brother Sean never found the Hulk mat and opted for a hotel. My sister Laura saw the mat and thought "Wow! someone else has a Hulk mat just like us. Montana de Oro is considered an environmental camping site, so there were no flushing bathrooms and no showers. It was fun though. We went swimming, played baseball and even a scoop ball Hi-li game that I received for my birthday. (Picture included)

2. Folsom Lake--- Sneaky Snake (1997) The Friday night that we arrived at Folsom Lake it was already dark making it difficult to set up camp and even more difficult to see the snake that snuck up on my dad that will forever be dubbed sneaky snake. We did a bunch of swimming on this trip. The first spouse, my brother's wife, April attended. We had a mock graduation ceremony for my B.A. from UCSB. I have never attended a college graduation ceremony although I have earned an A.A., a B.A., and a M.A. There was a pile of beer bottles at the end of the weekend a sign of things to come, but perhaps the most disturbing occurence was the rednecks in the next campsite over trying to break boards in half in the middle of the night yelling things like, "Break it you bitch, break it mother-f##er.

3. Big Sur, Pfeiffer-- Move your tent, you bitch. (1998) These campsites were too close together. We drank a great deal. My mild-mannered brother in response to some woman's request that we "Keep it down, please, we have kids," yelled, "Well, move your tent, you bitch." Pretty funny stuff and that story has lived on in infamy. We went river rafting and even did a scavenger hunt that year.

4. Las Vegas--- Is this camping? (1999) There are no pictures of the trip to Vegas. My brother taught me how to play craps where I won $100. my first go and was dubbed "Virg" by the gamblers at my table.

5. Mt. Diablo--- (2000)Rock Climbing, Drinking from paper cups--- Beautiful views from the top of Mt. Diablo overlook the entire East Bay. This was an alcohol free campsite which only meant that we had to drink from paper cups (law-abiding citizens that we are). I brought my guitar on this trip.

6. San Simeon--- (2001)The wind and Hearst Castle, Xander's first year--- It was very windy at our site on top of a hill. The ocean was beautiful and cold. This was year of the first grandchild, Xander. I reminded him of the the first time I fed him mashed up fruit just this past year. We all said, "Won't it be great when he can get us a beer." We visited Hearst Castle and marveled in its decadence.

7. Calaveras Big Trees---(2002) The meat Bee-getter, Xander in the goop, Moaning Caverns stalagtites, stalagmites, Anneliese's and Steve's first camping trip.---My brother Sean became fed up with the bees and made a sweet meat Bee-getter that tricked the waspish bees into drowning. I asked everyone how they proposed and we made fun of Belgians.

8. Bass Lake-- (2003)Total Rainout, Ava and McKenzie's first year--My daughter's and my sister's daughter's first year and they were good sports. My brother and his girlfriend spent the night in their car because of the rain. My sister was ringing the water out of the clothes in her luggage because a small creek was running through her tent by the end of the evening. We high-tailed it out of there, kicked my grandfather and his girlfriend out of the Mariposa house and slept the next night under a solid roof.

9. Dinky Creek-- (2004)Jocelyn's first, fishing, swimming down the rapids. We did a great deal of fishing. Climbed underneath a huge bridge. It was fairly warm, but great fishing.

10. Morro Bay (2005) My family canoed the estuary.

11. Loon Lake (2006) I didn't go. WIll was born a month before

12. Mariposa (2007) With so many young ones we opted for an easier destination.

13. Rollins Lake (2008) My sister's kids got us all sick. She went home Saturday night in a diaper. My daughter, my son, and I puked our guts out at my friend's house in Sacramento, but it didn't hit my wife until we reached Tahoe. This is the first year that my family made a long trip out of it. We spent fifteen days on the road in our Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia.

14. Mt. Madonna (2009)--- Interesting hiking of an historical area. The boys all wanted to ride my skateboard down the hill.

Each camp out has brought us closer. We have done what we could to make it each year and we always have great stories to tell otherwise we just quote Monty Python's Holy Grail or Major League. "Forget about the curveball Ricky, give 'em the heater." These small things are what keeps families together and makes life worth living.