This has been quite a summer for me.
I have travelled much more than usual and it feels like all I've done is laundry and repack suitcases. I'm not truly complaining, just taking notice. But here we are; reaching the pinnacle of my husband's summer; we are taking the annual "That there's an RV Clark" road trip to Casco, Maine. We are camping.
Now, I grew up doing this every summer. My husband is the newbie on this front. THIS year we are packing the truck (spot #1) and then loading the RV from spot #2 and driving to spot #3. Again, I have done this. My parents used to pack two weeks of supplies into a powder blue Buick Skylark and make the schlepp to Canada...Not just over the border but WAYYYYYY up there. By the time we reached camp our skylark felt like a low-riding Yugo; my brother and I were bruised from beating the holy snot out of one another for the last fourteen hours and my parents were painting signs declaring they had small workers for sale; CHEAP! Hmmmm. We truly roughed it; no running water (for the first ohhhhh three or four years) a two-seater outhouse, a water pump for daily drinking, chopping wood for cooking and three lights and four outlets. As it was pointed out to me; "That's not camping, that's SURVIVOR!"
But I have the BEST camp stories EVER. I love reliving them, telling them and now that I live hundreds of miles from my folks and they can't ground me or take away my phone (ha Ha! I have TWO of them!!!!) I can make FUN of them. Ohhhhh it's such a release. Good times. Yeah.
But here we are, packed to the gills. The kids are sitting on top of the blankets and towels which has elevated Maddie to the point of scraping her head and Ben can simply be seen in the back seat..period. Everyone is happy but Winston. He is suffering from suitcase anxiety and will not let me out of his sight. He has run back and forth from house to car and jumped in it for the last three hours. He lays all over the clothes, blankets, towels and has tried to piddle on my booze box... Oh no you DON"T! SWAT! I have everything that we need and probably enough for the four surrounding camps. But it will be good. We will travel with some of the Yayas and proceed to not wear make-up, pony-tail our hair and sleep in the sun. When those non-chores are finished we will wander back from the beach and take a nap, light a fire, slip into sweatshirts, jeans and a fine layer of aloe and kick back, laugh at those who forgot to put on bug spray and poor another. For seven days my kids will have some freedom. They will ride their bikes to and from the beach. They will go places on their own (not far...I can still see them) and stay up late. There will be no schedule. None.
The kids are bouncing off the walls. I'm pretty giddy too. I am looking forward to being at the lake. Does it get better than s'mores (gooped with peanut butter) and beer? God wants me to be happy, I just know it. So I am here to say "Au Revoir" one more time. I'll be back soon and will have many photos and camp stories.
Git along lil doggies!
