camping advice

Since it looks like the rain is going to take a much needed break this weekend, J and K are going to go camping with the little one. Though camping is pretty much my most favorite activity on earth, I will not be accompanying J and K. I have a wedding to go to on Saturday evening and a race to compete in bright and early Sunday morning.

Instead of participating in the camping trip, I decided I would participate in spirit by writing on this week's prompt by MamaKat about camping!

When we were in our 20's, our little circle of friends went camping almost every weekend from May to September. Sometimes they were planned trips up to New Hampshire or Maine and sometimes they were impromptu pass out sessions on the beach or in the state forest. As we have gotten older and pretty much everyone in the world except me married off and had children, the meaning of "camping" has changed dramatically. While I fully understand that toddlers need more stuff than drunk adults, I think our little circle needs to sit down and have a little pow wow about what is and is not acceptable "camping" etiquette.

For example:

5 things NEVER to bring on a camping adventure:

1) A portable DVD player: Two years ago, on our trip to the Saco River in Maine, we had a couple who stayed in the tent, watching Goodfellas instead of watching the lightening storm. That's just wrong! (and sadly, I may be the only one who didn't think bringing the DVD player was a good idea)

2) A dustbuster I understand taking shoes off before entering the tent. But a dustbuster? NO.

3) A full sized gas grill from your back deck Does anyone see a pattern developing here?

4) Four pair of Uggs They are just impractical. In any number.

5) Bean Dip. For everyone's sake

Five things ALWAYS to bring on a camping trip

1) The tent poles Though I think I deserve an honorary degree in engineering for rigging up the rope and stick contraption over a tree branch to hold the tent up. It just wasn't as rain proof as I would have hoped

2) M & M's They're the only thing anyone eats out of the trail mix anyway, so just save a few steps

3) Handi-wipes I once washed my entire body with ONE handi-wipe ripped into eight sections.

4) A sleeping Pad Especially if temperatures are supposed to dip below freezing

5) Somebody to aggravate in the middle of the night Though I have gone on (and loved) countless solo adventures, lets face it: bugging the crap out of somebody at 2:30 am in a tent is what camping is all about!

Get the heck out and do something nice this weekend, y'all!