Melody A. Carlson - Gathered Around the Campfire

Table of Contents

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Contents

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Although I grew up with a single mom who wasnt very campy or outdoorsy, Ive always loved being out in nature. And despite somewhat limited childhood camp experiences with friends and relatives, I always nurtured a secret dream to become a real camper someday. Maybe it was my pioneer roots, but I always loved the idea of packing up and heading out for a big adventure.

As an adult, I had more freedom to plan camping excursions, but I quickly discovered becoming a real camper takes time. Its a learning process, and one doesnt become experienced overnight. A rainy night in a leaky tent can teach you a thing or twolike its time to fold your tents and hightail it for home. So camping, like any honed skill, requires practice and patience.

I hope this book will be entertainingperhaps even inspiringas I share stories from decades of various forms of camping. Even though Ive gone from backpacking to tent camping to owning five very different camp trailers, and, finally, a comfy motor home, I still dont consider myself a seasoned camper. But Im working on it! Give me a comfortable camp chair, a crackling campfire, a hot cup of coffee, a gooey smoreand Im a happy camper.

Heres to you having a memorable camp experience too. Whether youre a weekend warrior or feisty full-timer, I hope youll be a happy camper too!

Melody Carlson

The mountains are calling and I must go.

JOHN MUIR

Youre in your hometown, just going about your business, like mailing a package or picking up some fresh produce, and you see one. You stop and watch from the corner of your eye as a big ol RV ambles down Main Street. Maybe you admire the paint job, or perhaps you think its somewhat garish. But that rigs grabbed your attention. Then you wonder: Where are they headed and where have they been? And the next thing you know, you have the urge that unexplainable urge to drop everything and hit the road too.

Now youre thinking about the comforting interior of your RV or trailer. Or maybe youre imagining your campsite with that cozy tent all set up and your camp chairs around a crackling fire. You can almost smell marshmallows roasting. Youre reminded of the peace and quiet of the woodsand escaping the demands of the day, free from your neighbors noisy leaf blower.

As you drive through town, you feel an uncontrollable urge to go home and check the air pressure in your camp trailers tires. Or you want to see if theres gas in the RV. Or youre making plans to dig out your camp supplies, hoping you aired out your tent after that last trip. Whatever the impulse thats grabbing at you, the wanderlust has bitten.

Perhaps you find yourself thinking about that cute set of unbreakable containers you found at the local flea market last fallor considering the weight of cast-iron pans. And maybe you should drop by the hardware store for some camping toilet paper thats on special this week. Before you know it, youve pulled out your well-worn road map and youre planning a little getaway. Just a few days maybe, or weeks, or months

But where does that urge originate? Why do some people feel the need to go, while others dont? Could it be the adventuresome spirit of pioneer ancestors, those brave people who traveled unthinkable distances to find a better way of living? Because almost everyone in this country has ancestors who migrated here from someplace else.

No doubt, life on the rustic trail came with daunting challenges, but imagine the moments when a weary traveler paused to gaze upon a raging river, the morning sun across the prairie grasses, a chain of snowcapped mountains, a herd of elk, a placid lake. Despite their hardships, these ultimate campers must have relished the rewards of the wilderness too. Because they had the urge to travel.

Perhaps your ancestors arrived by boat or plane. Whatever brought them to this country, something motivated them to travel. And perhaps that same seed lies within you, a need to go and see, to experience and explore. I think its simply the way God made some people. Were seekers, hopers, dreamerscurious for what lies over the next hill or what we might find at the end of the rainbow. Any excuse is a good excuse to go.

Wherever this wanderlust comes from, why not simply embrace it? Why not enjoy the thrill of the open highway and head out for your next adventure? Sure, your excursion might last only a day or two, and your biggest thrill might be finding a whole sand dollar on a windswept beach. But when its all said and done, youll be happy you went. Youll be a bigger person for it. Maybe youll even be glad to come back home again. And if not, theres always another unexplored road to find.

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.

URSULA K. LE GUIN

TIP FOR THE DAY

Resealable plastic bags are perfect for camping. Freezable bags can be filled with soups or stews and frozen at home. Then place them in your cooler to keep other perishable foods coldand ready for easy eating later. A Ziploc bag filled with premeasured dry ingredients (for your favorite camp recipes) makes cooking quick and easy at camp. Baggies also provide dry protection for matches, first aid items, meds, or whatever.

Money cant buy happiness, but it can buy a camper, which is kind of the same thing.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

Were staying at one of the few beachside RV parks in Oregon. On the left side of our trailer is an older Class C motorhomethe kind that looks like a van met a camp trailer and two become one. In this small RV reside eight people, including what appear to be grandparents, parents, and kids. I marvel at this extended familys tenacity for surviving in tight spaces, and try not to imagine the smell of those teenage boys feet on this humid summer day. Although I do wonder where they all sleep. I imagine them stacked head to toe like sardines in a tin.

Suddenly it feels as if our modest although comfortable motor home is quite spacious. And even though our Bounder is getting up there in years, its in pretty good shape. Not like the crowded one next door. With its faded paint and dents and dings on the outside, I cant imagine what its interior must look like. And each time I hear the door slamming on the little class C, I hope it wont fall off its hinges.

But lest I get smug about our accommodations, I need only look to the right of us to feel like were the ones slumming. I noticed the fancy RV as soon as it pulled in earlier today. This mobile mansion is shiny and new, and obviously equipped with every convenience imaginable. Custom-designed from a very expensive luxury bus, this huge motor home has an airbrushed mural of a Southwest desert on one side.