Home sweet home..

Home from camping....Wow - I have to say, as w/ everything in life, it was a learning experience.

We, as suburbanites or even city slickers, have had nature SO pulled out from around us that we will go to strange lengths to get back to it. As we worked setting up the tent and our chairs and getting ready, I thought about "then what". So we come all the way out here and do so much work for.....what? Well, just to observe and live with nature. Which I really love. The smells, the sounds...all reminds me so much of being AT camp as a kid or being at my Grandma's which I desperately miss. I love to breathe the air, have the kids run free and listen to the birds.

But what this suburbanite didn't quite realize was my great love for city water. It's crisp and clean and comes hot OR cold. I also LOVE the smell of city water - pure and fresh. So I guess my point is that well water just aint my thing...I am a city girl in that way. I love you Lake Michigan water!

I also underestimated my love for my own bathroom - a place where only about 4 or 5 people come to visit all of whom I know and love.

I guess I also didn't really consider the company. I mean, I will admit as much as I love to meet new people, I tend to gravitate to people who are like me. In some way, like me. I didn't really know that campsites are so communal - so close, like cozy neighbors. It's pretty unlikely that anyone in my circle of friends would ever have a call to 911 dialed up on them. It's true, that on Friday night, our first night amongst the nature, I reached for my cell phone to make the big 911 call when I heard sirens from afar but coming our way. Thank goodness b/c about 5 campsites down, at 3:30 in the moring, some drunk woman wanted her drunk looser boyfriend to give her back her "fucking cell phone" so she could call the "fucking cops". She screamed this, amongst other things, about 20 times which echoed through the trees and I am quite confident woke up every human there. Now that is just not why I came to camp. It brought back those old Child Welfare days and I am sure some suppressed PTSD. Ahhhh....nature.

Then, after about 30 minutes of on an off sleep (and I am NOT exaggerating) Peter woke up to tell me "it's morning". Yes it was and frankly I was happy b/c who was sleeping anyway. I took my little Bear into the not so thriving town of Dundee to get a coffee at the BP. Half the reason I wanted to take a drive was to warm up in the car since it was about 40 degrees that night. On the way back from getting my coffee, right when I thought things might be looking up, Peter threw up. He continued to throw up intermittently until about noon. It wasn't horrible but nonetheless, puke. He would rally then puke. And as bummed as I was for HIM, there was a secret little part of me that was optimistic that this was my ticket out of there. However, we made a deal that if he wasn't better by a certain point, we would go home. Well, he was totally healed by noon. So my PMA had to kick in and I had to rally.

I did and we had a very nice evening, a much better nights sleep and a good day today. We saw some beautiful things and I think the kids had the time of their life. And although I am a bit worse for the wear, I am not giving up on camping. I have learned some things on this trip I can implement next time. Bring more socks, a clothes line, flip flops for the bathroom, winter coats for sleeping, and the list goes on.

I camped. I did it and I am tough. I slept on the ground. I ate like crap. I hiked up a tower to see beautiful things. And I even have Peter randomly telling people "I'm a Hoosier". So I am thinking the trip might be worth it all after all.