What Happens at Camping Stays at Camping
- Mar 18, 2020
- 7 min read
It seems like every year the car gets packed with more and more stuff. I always sit in the backseat and it is like I am buried between pillows, blankets, sleeping bags, bags of food, fishing rods, and lots of other necessities for our camping trip. This trip occurs at the end of July or the beginning of August. My whole family goes camping at Twin Tamarack in New Hampshire and this trip leaves us with memories that will last a lifetime.
Once everyone and everything is strategically shoved into the car, we leave. Every time we take a sharp turn, there is an avalanche of objects that topple down on top of me. As my family looks to the backseat to see me, it is like a giant I Spy game just to find my head among the clutter. Although I cannot see out any of the windows from my seat, when the car makes its first stop I know we are at Dunkin Donuts.
My dad, sister, and brother all run in to get the usual stuff. I can hear my mom on her cell phone talking with relatives we will be seeing once we arrive. I’ll never understand why she must talk to them when she will be spending the next four days with them. The sound of her voice vanishes once my sister jumps into the car screaming, “You hooo” as she tosses my donut at my head. I hate it when she says that, but it doesn’t stop her. As she slurps her strawberry coolatta in an obnoxious way, my dad gets back on the road.
After the typical car ride full of “are we there yet?” and “how much longer?,” we take a left down the road to the camp ground. Our trip has taken about three hours due to all the highway traffic. We can hear the crunching of the gravel as we slowly roll to the check-in area. When everything is all situated, we ride up to our campsite. We see all our relatives begin walking over to greet us and help us setup our tarps and tent. Everyone laughs as I have a difficult time trying to make my way out of the jammed car. Once my dad removes the tent and the worn tarp, I crawl out of an opening over the seat and through the trunk.
My uncle has already got his ladder ready to string up the tarp to protect us from the rain that we know will come. It always does. This whole setting up process is really boring to me. My dad and uncles take care of that while I go off and start relaxing in the woods with my cousins. The first thing us kids like to do is hit up the pool. We do not care if it’s rain or shine; we must jump in that pool on the first day we arrive.
All seventeen of us stroll down to the pool in our swim gear with no cares in the world. We act like we own the pool because we take up so much of it. Despite the signs saying not to, we all like to do flips and different jumps into the pool. Our parents yell at us for it every time and tell us we are all going to “snap our necks” or “split our heads open,” but you know how us kids are, we don’t listen. What’s fun is fun! The adults do not see the fun in our defiance. They never do. Once the pool begins to get overcrowded with strangers, we decide to go to the lake. We cannot have any outsiders invading on our family. Many strangers try to join in on our family’s shenanigans, but as snooty as it sounds, they are never accepted into the fun times our family is having.
You would think it would be simple to get to this lake, but it is not. There is this giant road, similar to a highway, that you must manage to get across before you reach the destination. After waiting impatiently as the many cars whirl by us, we try to sprint across before the next car comes. It is kind of like we are in a real life version of the game Frogger and the adults always have a heart attack as we run across. Apparently we are still not old enough to cross the street without adult supervision.
One thing us kids like to do at the lake, is swim out to this random dock in the middle of it. The older kids help the younger ones climb on and then the struggle begins as we dig our own hands into the moving dock and pry our way up. When we are all on top, we begin searching for any massive rocks to be sure we do not kill ourselves jumping on them. Everyone gets a chance to jump, but not just any normal jump. One person will call out an animal or a person you need to act like as you spring up into the air and smack the water with a splash. When your head finally peaks above the water, you are consumed by the sound of the crazy laughter of all the cousins. This is usually more entertaining than television, but as the sun begins to go down we need to start heading back.
Before we all eat and change into warmer clothes to protect us from pesky mosquitoes, we go to the disgusting showers. There are only three of them; therefore, we girls all go in together in our bathing suits and flip flops. We huddle together like penguins and make sure we do not touch the filthy walls full of dirt and other unknown things that we feel are better left that way. Not only does the place make me gag, the water jets out in a line so you need to be directly in front of it to get hit. When someone yells “rotate,” the huddle slowly moves so that the next person gets the water. We are all relieved when we exit the horrifying bathrooms and trudge on back up the hill to cure our hunger.
The aroma of my dad’s famous “heavenly chicken” leads me back to the campsite. My stomach thanks me for the treat as I divulge into the tenderly marinated chicken that has been grilled to perfection. The other relatives all try to steal some for even a taste of the deliciousness, but I am always on the defensive with my fork. I never share my chicken because it is my absolute favorite food. My dad always knows how to make me and my taste buds happy.
As we wait for total darkness, we think of random things to entertain ourselves. We like to go on walks through unknown paths and take tons of pictures. This year, I was with a few of my cousins and we happened across this rock path. It was really neat and we were enjoying the scenery, until a little boy had to ruin it for us. This little kid came out of nowhere and said that we were “invading his kingdom”; he wanted us to get off of this path because apparently he claimed to own it. This kid’s confidence quickly left him when he saw us stand up. We towered over the young boy who was terrified now. My sister was angry that he tried to push her over the steep ledge of rocks and she began telling him words kids never like to hear. She asked him if his mother would like to know that her son tries to push girls off cliffs and she told him to go “far far away like Shrek.” This shook the kid up and he back peddled away from us with slight fear for what she would say next. After my cousin and I could finally control our roaring laughter, we continued on our journey.
When we made it back to the campsite, we watched the boys playing their typical Frisbee or football game. Another game the whole family gets involved in is badminton. This game is so intense and tons of fun. My uncle always makes a bet with me on who will win. I usually lose, but not by much. No one understands why my sister and I feel it is necessary to scream ridiculously and jump around every time we hit the birdie. I guess it’s our own intimidation factor to kill them with laughter. We still are paying off our debts to my uncle, but it is all in good fun.
Now that everyone is physically drained from all our activities, we sit around the wooden table with my Papa. My Papa is quite a reserved man, but when the cards come out, so does the liveliness in him. Everyone plays the usual card game of “screw your neighbor” and makes sure they strategically pick a seat away from my grandparents because they are the experts at the game. Some of the adults throw the game for the little kids, but my Papa always tells us that “You have to be ruthless.” When it gets down to the end of the game, some cousins try to make deals to split the money and others are greedy and take the pot for themselves. As we all get kicked out of the game we move our chairs around the fire.
It is now time to bring out the marshmallows and have some very sticky, but tasty, smores. We all get out our perfect stick that we had found earlier in the day. Everyone shares stories and jokes and our laughter echoes through the night. The blender can also be heard grinding away because the strawberry daiquiris and the mudslides are already being passed out. Then what we like to call “the hangover hoedown” occurs. All the aunts dance and sing “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” It is always embarrassing, but would certainly be a Youtube hit. We all flash our flashlights on them to see this horrifying train wreck that we can’t look away from. This is one of those times when you wish these ladies were not related to you. They will never let us take pictures of this because they say, “What happens at camping stays at camping.”
As the fire fizzles out, it is time to call it a night. I go in my tent and watch classic shows on the laptop with my family until I doze off. When I wake up, I can hear the faint sound of rain dripping off the trees onto the tarp and the bugs outside of my tent. I can not move because my sister has her arms wrapped around me like I’m a teddy bear. As I fling her off of me, I exit the tent to see who is up outside. After roughing it for four days, it is finally time to go home. Everything gets packed up and we all are excited to take a nice shower and sleep in our own bed. Although we look forward to going home, we will miss the fun and relaxed atmosphere of the woods, but we know we will be back next year.
Comments