Cup O’ Joe: Down to camp

This past weekend marked what has become our annual weekend of camping. I am not the most avid camper to say the least. For years my wife tried to get me to go, but something always came up at work that prevented me. Or at least, that was always my excuse.
    “I’m sorry dear, I have to cover a parade, or a Little League baseball game, or a slow pitch softball tournament,” were often my excuses. Spending the night in a tent while swatting bugs has never sounded very appealing to me. I also like having a nice hot shower in the morning and the comfort of sleeping in my own bed.
But I am also starting to warm up to the idea that it is a good thing for our children to experience more in nature, rather than being plugged in to electronic devices all the time.
One thing I will have to work harder on next year is maintaining a positive demeanor for the weekend. Before the trip even began, I think I was in defense mode complaining about everything from the way the car was packed to which vehicle we were going to take and what time we were going to leave. I’ll have to work harder on that for next year.
Was I grumpy? I didn’t think so. It wasn’t until we returned home and started to review the photos we took that I realized just how grumpy I looked in nearly every picture. Apparently I was not the only one.
“Couldn’t you have smiled?” asked one of my co-workers who spotted the photos on Facebook over the weekend. Note to self … next year more smiling.
I tried to explain the photo she saw was of me roasting a marshmallow moments before the hot, gooey marshmallow fell off the stick, landed on my pants and dropped down to my bare foot. But since that was the worst mishap of the weekend, I can’t complain.
I also explained the grumpy face was due to lack of sleep as one of the adjacent campsites featured a rowdy group of individuals who thought it would be fun to go splashing and hollering in the lake around 11 p.m.
I learned a few things. I need to become more astute with packing the vehicle to maximize space and items we can bring camping.
I also learned I need to come up with more stuff to do to avoid boredom from setting in with both the children and myself. I am not a fan of fishing, so that is out. I don’t mind swimming, but this past weekend the weather didn’t really cooperate with that.
While the rest of the area enjoyed a sunny and hot Saturday, the area where we were camping experienced isolated rain showers for much of Saturday morning, which put a damper on our activities. It never really warmed up enough, either, as we were bundled in sweatshirts and pants (complete with marshmallow goo).
We did play an impromptu game of “Hit the wiffle ball into the lake, then go get it,” which entertained the children for a short while. There was also several hands of Uno played from inside a screened in tent as we watched it rain. Thankfully our campsite was beside our friends’ site from Thomaston, and they come for a two-week stint, complete with a miniature mobile home, canopy areas, gas grills and all the other comforts of home. Without them, we would have been stuck inside our tent, with a makeshift tarp, watching it rain.
One thing I also learned is that it would be better to camp in the middle of the week, rather than on the weekend. Friday and Saturday nights are apparently the most popular times for people to come and be a little bit rowdy. I can tolerate it to some extent, but listening to an 11 p.m. excursion in the lake for games of “chicken” is not my idea of relaxing.
What are some of your favorite camping memories? Feel free to send me suggestions on which family activities you like to make camping more enjoyable.
Joseph Cyr is a staff writer for the Houlton Pioneer Times. He can be reached at 532-2281 or pioneertimes@nepublish.com.