The Official Particulars

It was a quick camp. In on Friday, out on Sunday, but it was worth every minute of "work" needed to make it happen. In the beginning I felt a little trepidation about the time frame and the amount of stuff to gather and transport for such a short time, but I found my groove, trusted my instincts and let the stress go.

I claimed a new mantra for the weekend: "If we don't have it. We don't need it."

Sure, we were only 15 minutes from home and I could "run' back for anything we forgot, but I had it in my head to relax and "running home" for little things was not an option. I got out of bed at 5 Friday morning (as Josh left for work) and spent two hours slugging coffee and gathering. Gathering cooking stuff, sleeping stuff, eating stuff, wearing stuff, dog stuff, swimming stuff, bug/sun repellent stuff and placing them into a huge pile for Josh to transport to our campsite that afternoon. I then got ready for work and tried not to worry about what stuff I forgot and focus on my job for the day.

Josh finished work, he collected the kids, collected my piles of stuff and gathered more stuff (boats, fishing gear, firewood, man stuff), crammed as much of this stuff as possible into the car and after a few trips, got all the stuff to camp.

I caught up to my crew at 6pm with a pizza and a smile as I took in the beauty that surrounded us: green trees, blue sky, deep blue water, blueberries peaking out from the bushes and a calm settled over me. No TV, no internet, no video games, no laundry (I did dread the loads we would bring home a little), no lawn to mow, no floors to clean, just the breeze rustling the leaves and the loons partying it up late into the night.

We had a wonderful time. Thunderstorms woke us on Sunday morning and we abandoned camp earlier than planned, but the afternoon brought naps, hot showers and a renewed appreciation for the comforts of home.