camping with fern
This past weekend, I engaged in an outdoor adventure. I went camping with my dear friend Fern up north of Crouch, Idaho. It was fun. I have been working on writing a blow-by-blow accounting of this adventure, but I got about 5 paragraphs in and was still on Friday night. While I do tell very long stories and feel that it is important to share each moment as if you were there camping with us, most of the time, today I am going to refrain and only give you the camping highlights (in no particular order).
Fern is an excellent firewood gatherer. I highly recommend her skills as a finder of combustables in the forest.
Riding bicycles on dirt roads, and even on dirt trails, is way funner than I remembered. However, it is not quite as much fun as being able to hike almost like a normal person without massive swelling in the knee cap area until two days later.
The sound of rain on a tent fly in the middle of the night is awesome. This sound is less awesome if one needs to pee. Or if one is done sleeping and wants to get up and play.
There is a strong chance that zippers have it in for Fern. At least the zippers on my tent.
While I am not a religious person, I really do find some sort of airy-fairy loosey-goosey spirituality in the great outdoors. Not to be all Oprahfied or anything.
Food never tastes as good as it does directly after engaging in prologed physical activity.
Fern is a very patient person, even when sleep deprived and maybe a titch cranky.
ATVs? What's the big deal? Seriously. I don't get it.
Mocking science in an overly convoluted manner of speaking is superfun. In case you were unaware, bicycling down a hill is a great deal easier than bicycling up a hill. We opined that if anybody ever discovered "gravity" it might be a good explanation for the aforementioned phenomenon about uphill v. downhill cycling.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, it is not a good idea to fall asleep in a lawn chair while reading back issues of The Economist (did you realize they come EVERY WEEK?!?). There is a very real danger of tipping over.
Good company and being on something some people refer to as "the same page" is a pretty good way to enjoy any sort of excursion.
In summation, we had an awesome time. I'd love to revisit our campsite again real soon, camping with Fern is big fun, my sleeping bag is very comfy, and I like feeling less limited by my stupid broken knee.
Comments
But! ATVs are loud and fast and allow one to enjoy the outdoors without having to actually deal with the outdoors because the outdoors are zooming past too quickly!!! Which is also what makes them extremely dumb. Save the ATVs for the rescue people, kids. Try hiking. Or biking. Or fishing. Something quiet, damnit. I have the same issue with loud boats on mountain lakes.
I am so 80. Have I mentioned this before?
