I went camping with the church youth group this past weekend.
Yes, that’s right. Mr. “I Hate Nature” purposely subjected himself to a heaping dose of it.
I could tell you all about the horrors of the wilderness, but it was a really nice and fun trip. We went up to the Ichetucknee River (about 2-1/2 hours northwest of here) on Friday night and camped at Ichetucknee Family Canoe and Cabins (a fabulous camp). We arrived late, so we had to setup the tent in the dark, but we had it up and a fire going before the rest of the crew arrived.
The next day, we headed out to float down the Ichetucknee on a series of tubes and assorted rubber rafts. I volunteered to be the comic relief by launching myself ass-over-end while trying to board by craft, sending my (spare) glasses to the bottom of the river. I was able to dive down and get those, but the (spare) car key that the youth leader entrusted me with was nowhere to be found (luckily, they have great car-jackers in Fort White). For the next 3 hours, we floated downstream on cool, clear water. We saw tons of fish (some jumping out of the water), birds, a family of otters, and at least one snake (I didn’t stick around long enough to be sure if it really was a snake).
When we got back to camp, the rain that had been holding off all weekend decided it couldn’t wait any longer. We got dumped on for 3 hours while we tried to cook supper. I got to stand in a rain slicker holding an umbrella over a fire for an hour. Life’s ambition fulfilled. But we survived, and the food was good. Afterward, we hung out in the cabin we got for the girls and played Cranium and Apples to Apples for a few hours.
All-in-all a fun weekend.
One thing that follows along the lines of “death, taxes…” and if you go camping it will rain.
Still, so long as your tents don’t let water in, it can still be fun, rain be darned. Glad you had a good time.
What kinda camp is that? No lariats woven, no song singing, no mosquitos, no strange noises in the woods?
Oh, we had those things, too. The coyotes (I think they were coyotes) yipping and howling around 2am were fun (as was my urgent desire to go to the bathroom around that time and being unable to unzip the tent flap for 10 minutes). And, of course, we got to play with FIRE!
Heh heh. You said, “…a series of tubes….” Heh heh heh.