The First Camping Trip

Most anyone who has gone camping remembers his or her first camping trip. You might remember this as a good experience or a nightmare but you will have some memory of it for years. You might remember the camp site you first camped at, the long list of camping equipment you needed or didn't need, or maybe you just remember the people you went camping with.

My first camping trip brings back memories of all these things. A friend and co-worker of mine started the camping experience by sharing how much fun she had the year before with her family camping at a local camp ground. The more she talked the more interesting it sounded being a single mother with two kids still at home I was always looking for inexpensive entertainment.

After several weeks of her going on and on about how much fun camping was and how cheap it was I gave in. First came the list of camping supplies I would need. A trip to a major discount store got me started - I found a tent that would work for half price. Best of all it was 'pretty'. Ok history here an ex fashion model would not be satisfied with an ugly green or brown tent.

A blue, purple, and silver cabin tent that slept six set off the camping equipment search. We never slept more than four but had room to keep supplies and move around inside without walking over beds or each other. We added to the list of purchases for the camping trip sleeping bags, flashlights, a tarp, and two coolers (one for food the other for drinks).

The first camping trip was for a three-day two-night stay at Goose Lake. My friend, also a single mother, her kids, her brother and his family, and her parents all got camp sites next to one another - 4 sites in all with a nice view of the lake. There was swimming, fishing, canoeing (another story to come about that), and lots of fun relaxing in the sun. Yea right!

I had packed all the new camping equipment along with enough cloths for a week, make-up, curling iron, blow drier and numerous other things I felt we might need. The second camping trip make-up and curling iron along with half the other stuff were left at home. Only reason the blow drier was included was it worked great to blow up air mattresses, added to the camping supplies the next trip.

Now the real 'fun' began. The first night camping, this was early spring in Michigan; we had 30-degree temperatures. It was cold and except for my hot-blooded son, none of us slept most of the night. Saturday it did warm up and we had a great time the kids went swimming even though the water was close to ice water.

Late Saturday afternoon the wind picked up! At the same time, tents started to come down. Stacks were pulled out of the ground, lawn chairs if not held down by a body relocated a few camp sites over, and our diet included a lot of dried leaves. I was beginning to wonder where the fun was in camping. Next camping trip heavier stakes were added to the camping supplies.

Sunday on the camping trip rocked. And I mean rocked thunder, lightening, and torrential rains made life miserable. You could not leave the tent without getting soaked. Forget that, it was wet even in the tent. Purchased waterproof for the tent and additional tarps before the next camping trip.

That afternoon as everyone tried packing up to go home in the rain there were several comments made about my first camping trip. "She won't be camping again", was the most common one. Wrong, my come back was "No I look at it this way - we had cold, wind, and rain all in one weekend. I'm an experienced camper now."

A few weeks later, we planned our second camping trip, back to the same camp ground. The weather was much better with temperatures in the high 70s and sun all weekend except for a gentle rain Saturday night. Which became a joke among friends and family - if Faith was camping it was going to rain one night and it did for the next five or so years of dozens of camping trips a year in camp sites from northern Michigan to Kentucky it rained one night every single camping trip.