By: Jennifer Richardson Holt
In a few weeks my family will be conducting an experiment. It is something with which I am relatively familiar and an undertaking in which my husband has a great deal of experience. My daughter, however, has the faintest inkling of this enterprise much like someone who has looked at a lovely full moon on a summer’s eve has a good grasp of space travel. I do not know what this venture shall hold for us as a trio. We are calling it a research operation to see if this is something that we might want to repeat and expand upon. I am mildly anxious at the outcome and not just because I do tend to be a worrier about most things in general but because this could be a glowing family time that will leave us with happy memories and more to be made or it could be an exploration of misery that will leave us all with a bitter taste in our mouths. If I am honest, it could very well fall somewhere in between the two when it comes right down to it. It is a true unknown as the results of this exploit could run the full gamut. In about a month, my family is going to go honest-to-goodness, camping.
I understand that the term camping can have wildly varying definitions depending on who you ask. In the very primitive sense of the term, it could mean that you were heading off into the wilderness to build a shelter of branches against a tree after gathering firewood for a flame that would have to be produced from a fervent meeting of friction and perseverance. I assure you that is not the type of camping that we shall be doing. I am not what I consider a terribly high maintenance type of individual, but that is asking a bit much of my minimal survival skillset. There is of course the diametric opposite end of the spectrum which I believe is commonly called “glamping”. While I do not require the full-blown luxury that is air conditioning, electricity and furniture as I have seen in some such set ups, I wouldn’t be angry about it. A lake near my home at which I have actually camped now has glamping tent set ups with furniture, beds and all the amenities. I would be lying if I said that the idea was not appealing to me, but in the grand scheme of things, I do not have to have such things to enjoy myself. Now if you want my hair to look presentable in any way, I strongly recommend you give me electricity for a hair dryer at a very minimum, but it’s not required. Camping is one of those prime opportunities to find ways to wad hair into buns or stuff it under hats.
Where our family adventure will fall will be somewhere in the middle of the two varieties of wilderness experiences. Yes, we will be sleeping in a tent. This is not my favorite, but it is tolerable. The issue is that my daughter’s experience of sleeping in a tent involves us enjoying ourselves in our home up until the minute that we go and sleep in a tent set up in our fenced back yard. Yes, we are near a large portion of undeveloped forest but therein the fence negates a lot of questionable goings-on that an undeveloped forest can present. The reality of the matter is that she has literally only slept in a tent after spending the evening in her home, then got up the next morning and went into said home and enjoyed a breakfast cooked in her home kitchen whilst sitting at a dining table. She thinks she loves camping when truly all she knows is she enjoys one very brief night full of novelty and fun on an air mattress.
While we will be in a tent, we won’t be wholly roughing it per se. We are going to be staying at a place that has bunkers. Apparently, this was an old military base and there are giant concrete bunkers built into the ground along ATV trails. We will be taking our ATV and have booked one of these bunkers and will set up camp near it. While they may keep a constant temperature and be thick concrete walls, it is a bit on the creepy giant hole side of things for me and my daughter, so we won’t be sleeping in it. We’re going to use it as sound dampening for our generator. That’s right. Thankfully, we have a new generator that my husband wants to get some use so I shall not be fully robbed of my beloved electricity. So, while we will not have a technical solid structure to live in, nor plumbing besides the main building of the park, we will be able to have a bit of power to run a few of the most important bits and bobs. Once we’re done riding our ATV around trails and exploring the woods, we will be able to retire to an abode that is hopefully a pleasant mixture of rustic and modern. Sounds like I may have just given a name to our camping style.
I hope the weather cooperates. I hope spring has sprung just enough that we have flowers and some greenery. I hope the wildlife is not offput by our presence and quite frankly if any non-predatory animals want to come and visit and give us a very Disney-esque communal moment I am utterly fine with that, minus any threatened feeling skunks of course. This test of the camping waters will be interesting to say the least. If it produces a love for wilderness adventures in my daughter, so be it and more plans can be made. If it fosters in her a love for nature even beyond what she already has, wonderful. But if she learns that camping beyond her backyard is not her proverbial cup of tea, I hope at the very least she will have fond memories of that one time she went camping with her mom and dad, didn’t particularly like the logistics but had the best time out and about with her family.
Prose and Possibilities 