Lingering in Summer
There are very few things that I enjoy more than camping. All of my life, camping has been a family recreational activity that I will always remember and love, which is perhaps one of the many reasons I love camping. Since moving to Colorado two years ago, I have loved the plentiful outdoor recreation and camping opportunities that the state provides. Additionally, I have a number of friends who enjoy camping as well, so we do a lot of group camping which makes camping even better. Excellent food, campfire, friends, laughter and the Great Outdoors cannot compare to any other form of relaxation for me! One of my favorite blogs, “The Art of Manliness” has a great blog post that I think sums up my feelings of spending time in nature. You can read it here.
This season, I was fortunate enough to partake in a number of camping trips: Memorial Day Weekend in Deckers, 4th of July weekend in Frisco/Breckenridge, Labor Day weekend in Winter Park and various other non-holiday trips this year! Every single trip has been filled with fun and many memories have been made. So, you can imagine how I felt a few weeks ago when I had to pack up the tents and camping gear for the winter.
I am not the best at unpacking the tents after each camping trip, cleaning and airing them out and then re-packing them. In fact, I have two tents that had two years of camping in them and not once did I clean the inside of them. That is a bad habit that I need to break. In any case, after the Labor day trip, I opened all my tents (three to be exact) and cleaned all of them, in side and out. As soon as I opened the tent bags, the smell of tarps and tents, campfires, fresh air and fun came oozing out. I was instantly taken back to all of the fun trips we had this year and years past. Laura, my fiance, came over and helped me with the cleaning, and we ended up sitting in one of the tents for a good twenty minutes just smelling and reminiscing. I think you can now understand how much I love camping!
Just a few weeks ago, I found myself on REI.com and Coleman.com looking at camping gear. Of course, whenever I am looking at camping gear, I am also looking at the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, but that is another story! With Laura and me getting married in June, we are going to need to get some new gear for our married life: camp stove, food prep items, mugs and plates, cutlery, even some camp chairs and a cooler, lanterns and canopies. When I was looking at these websites, making an online list of items we need (and probably don’t need but I really want), I realized that I am pathetically addicted to camping. I cannot stop thinking about it! I am having withdraws, and the sad part is that I have come to a realization that in all likelihood, I will not be camping again for at least 8 months; until after the wedding in June! That means that it is going to be a very long winter!
So, in the interim, I guess I will be doing a lot of daydreaming and “window shopping” for camping gear and future camping trips. I may also need to unzip one of the tent bags and get a big whiff of camping. As time rolls by though, I am sure that I will fully embrace winter. I love the snow, the smell of firewood burning on a cold evening, the crunching sounds of the snow and of course, sledding and snowshoeing! It will all work out, I am sure!
To see pictures of previous camping trips, see my online web gallery!
