Camping

Hello,

The decision to go camping was really made when Leroy came home after church about 1:00 in the afternoon. As soon as we were done eating we started preparing. The list of necessary items was made as thoughts came to mind. Carrying one thing out the door spurred a thought of some other item that was good to have along. Finally all was ready. In the car and away we drove.

As we started to fix supper it was clear that we had not brought oil, a necessity for late popcorn and morning pancakes. I gamely introduced myself to some well established looking neighbors across the way. They were happy to sell me some oil.
Then it was time to turn on the stove. The first fuel cylinder produced no flame, ditto for the second. What is happening? It was not in character for Boy Scout prepared Leroy to put away empty cylinders. Could they have leaked? What to do? Go to the nearby town or cook over a wood fire. Even though we did not bring much wood and had not bought any we got some from the empty camp site next door. The grating was quite far from the flame so it was difficult, but not impossible to cook. Leroy stacked the wood so that we could balance the pan on it. That worked fine to cook and heat water for dishes. However, now our wood supply was quite low. The thought of no popcorn treat put a damper on spirits. We walked around just looking at the lake and adjacent playground when we spotted a bigger log. Leroy has an efficient finger saw so it would be good. We picked it up and hauled it home. Not long after we got there the oil neighbors brought over two sawed logs and immediately behind them other neighbors brought over two more logs. Generous people are indeed everywhere.

We had also forgotten to bring dish soap, but we had some homemade soap so we used that. After all that is what my family used for dishes when I was growing up. Not so nice in hard water, but it still cleans, I believe.

In the morning Leroy said, “I feel as if I slept on cement.”

“I slept very well,” I said, “thank you for the comfort of this bigger air mattress (bigger, but still small enough to blow up with human lungs).”

When Leroy checked his mattress it was really flat. I had not blown enough air into it. Oops!

Paula