Happy Midsummer to you all.
I just returned from a weekend camping trip/spiritual retreat and am taking the day to recover. It was quite the experiance, so I'm going to tell you all about it.
Warning: it's long and a little rantish.
This experience started about 2 weeks ago when Sweetie learned that he'd been chosen (not asked) to be the camp Chef for the weekend. He accepted this and went along with creating menus and going shopping. That's when the exhaustion began for him. He had to fight for almost every decision he'd made about the camp. For example, our darling leader wanted there to be enough coffee available for 30 people. Ken said 2 pounds of regular and 2 pounds of decaf should be enough. She wanted 32 pounds total. He was able to talk her down to 12 pounds. And we used up .................... 1 1/2 pounds of coffee total.
After settling those arguments we packed (and packed and packed and packed) the car (Emmileen was not happy with all of that). For us we had our usual tent that is tall enough for me to stand up in, the inflatable bed, our clothes, many many blankets, the mega portable batterie and our regular camp cookware (good for feeding 2 - not so good for feeding 30), for the group we brought: a screen tent, a gas camp stove, 2 Simon Delivers green bins of shelf stable food (cereal, dry noodles, peanut butter, etc) and 2 Simon Delivers white coolers of frozen food (ground beef, sausage, cheese, etc). And thus ended our ability to use the rear view mirror. Not a big deal, we could always use the side rearview mirrors.
We arrived at about 3pm and discovered that we were the first with authority to checkin to arrive, so we checked in (and were later re-imbursed for the expense). Funny that, our leader was supposed to arrive at noon and have the site mapped out with athletic chalk so every one would know where to put things. So without that, we looked at what the sites were like, and where we knew certain things were going to happen and decided on where to set up the kitchen and our tent. We enlisted the aid of the one other person there to help move the heavier than lead picnick tables state parks provide to a more suitable location and started schlepping all the equipment down the hill. We had everything all set up and were just taking a break when others began to arrive. So we started schlepping other people's stuff down the hill.
Our dear leader was not happy with the decision we had made (and reminding her that she was supposed to have arrived 6 hours earlier didn't help any). She got kinda cranky when we refused to move everything to where she wanted it (mostly because she couldn't give us good aswers as to why our decision was bad - We'd chosen the closest level area to the water spigot for the kitchen, she wated to moved further down the hill to the other site). And she didn't have the chalk to mark things out - that was coming with someone else - so as people arrived they pitched their tents where they could find reasonable places for them. We ended up with a slightly chaotic but workable little village and everyone seemed happy.
Oops one more problem, Sweetie and I couldn't fit all the food in our car, so we'd left some of it with our leader to bring, but she couldn't fit it in her car. The food for the first nights dinner didn't arrive until after 8 because the person who did bring it didn't know that it was meant for that night, so they took their time coming. Also, the person who was supposed to pick up the fire wood didn't get the message and also didn't arrive until after the ranger station closed for the night, so we had not evening fire.
In frustration (and to warm up - I was cold) I took a walk along one of the parks hiking trails. It was a wonderful walk, the woods were pretty and I saw many little animals and a few big ones - a pair of white tail deer who seemed just as interested in watching me as I was in watching them. I have no idea how long we stood there staring at each other until another noise made them decide to leave. I also found a gorgeous scenic overlook of the St. Croix river. When I got back to camp I told Sweetie all about it and he wanted to go see it too.
After dinner we schlepped the food all back up the hill and locked it in everyone's trunk. It was dark and we were in a hurry so organization wasn't the best, but it was all safe from the small bandits known as Racoons. The next morning we discovered that organization would have been a big help. We couldn't find the coffee right away and other parts of breakfast (like the cold cereal and instant oatmeal) had been packed in the car of the latest riser. But we all survived and the sun still rose and all was well with the world.
I hadn't slept well, I was cold and our matress sprung a leak. That wouldn't have been a big problem if the mega portable batterie hadn't decided not to work - we couldn't re-inflate the bed. So by dawn, I was cold and laying on the hard ground. Not the best conditions to stay asleep in to begin with, then add the "Dawn Chorus" and I was just plain up. Needless to say, by the time everyone else woke up, I was ready to go back to bed. But first I had to get one.
Once we solved that problem I napped. During which, I'm told, there was a parade of gazebos as we moved part of the camp from one site to another. I wish that I could have seen that. In the evening every one loved Sweetie's Chicken and Vegie packets (Chicken and vegies with spices wrapped in tin foil and tossed in the fire). Then came the schlepping of the food back up to the cars - and the pulling of teeth to keep people focused until the task was done.
Then, in the dark we held our Midsummer ritual. It was a nice short ritual focussing on the marriage of the God to the Goddess. Following the ritual, were announcements and then S'mores. I stuck around just long enough to show people where we'd kept the S'mores stuff then joined Sweetie in our new inflatable bed. I borrowed one of his hoodsie sweatshirts and managed to stay warm most of the night. There was one brief instance in the middle of the night when I tried to roll over but was tangled in the blankets. I managed to elbow Sweetie in the mouth while trying to free myself. He forgave me (he's so sweet that way) and helped to untagle the mess I'd gotten into. Next time, we bring sheets to prevent the tangling.
In the morning breakfast was much better organized, and everyone seemed happy. We made french toast over the fire and scrambled eggs on the stove. There was also bacon and sausage in abundance. Then people started packing up and loading their cars. We had a meeting about the next camp, I'm on the activities committee, so maybe there will be some organization on that front next time. Then the remaining food was devided among cars with space to transport it home and we all left.
Home at last, we had to go pick up our puppy from Mom's house. Boy was he happy to hear us. So was Vanna (Mom's dog), she jumped up and kissed my cheek hard enough to leave a mark. Mom wasn't home, so we let both dogs out for a romp in the yard before we left Vanna all alone again. Then it was showers all around and fall into bed.
Over all a good experience. But some things will have to change if I'm going to keep going to these things.
Posted by Becca at June 21, 2004 12:26 PM