Friday afternoon I headed up to Girl's Camp for the night with our YW President. Can you believe this gal forgot the camera. Eeek! I'll tell ya - camping in the backwoods of Tennessee is significantly different than camping in the mountains of Idaho.
1...Bugs (they are GIGANTIC here). I hardly slept at all for fear there were creepy crawlers on me. We even stayed in a cabin which had been bombed the week before. But the sight of dead buggies was not comforting. And we had a moth the size of a large grapefruit attempting to get in our door. Yes - we shrieked and our president sprayed it with hairspray to try to scare it off. I'm sure we were quite a sight. But I do have to report that I didn't get a single mosquito bite which may be good evidence that my Clean & Fresh OFF! worked.
2...Humidity & Heat. In Idaho we wore heavy coats at night around the campfire and we drank hot chocolate. We bundled up in our sleeping bags and took Wool blankets. In Tennessee we borrowed a huge fan from the lodge and opened all the windows and hoped for a cool breeze. It was too hot for a blanket. And there were no campfires if you can even believe that. What is camping without nice yummy smores!
3...Food. In Idaho we cooked our food as a ward over a fire or dutch ovens. Half the time we probably burned it, but it generally was semi-tasty. At this camp in Tennessee they had a kitchen with cooks who prepared all the meals. It was interesting to have lasagna, toasted bread, grapes, and salad for supper.
4...Camping? I admit that having A-frame cabins(due to the Idaho bear population), a swimming pool (dirty as it was), potties and showers isn't exactly roughing it, but it was semi-camping I suppose. At this camp in Tennessee, they had a water moccasin infested lake, canoeing, horse-back riding (cool huh!), archery, potties and showers, and a lodge. Does anyone learn lashing or tieing knots anymore??? We need MaryLou to pass on this tradition.
But despite all the differences really - it was fun to go up and see the girls so happy and silly. We had the bishops for dinner and they had a testimony meeting which was super. So, I'm glad I went, but was reminded why we are not a camping family at this point in time. If I ever decide to be a camper, I think we'll have to invest in a trailer or a cabin in the Idaho mountains where there are fewer bugs and it is cooler. But you've gotta love girls camp with all the silly songs and smiles and love. Yodelah-ee-doo-ee-doo-ee!
3 comments:
nice comparison and contrast to idaho girl's camp!
Welcome to the way the other half does summer camp. Think of the bugs as just curiosities. Except for a few very devious species, most of them have no idea where they are going and happen to wander into your territory. I had a wasp living in my house for a whole day: my first impulse was to devise a method to smash it before it knew what was going on, but I would have damaged the blinds in the process, and might have missed. So I waited, and it waited. Then at lunch time today it became restless, so I opened the door and it left. Om.
Have you read _Life of Pi_? It will change your view of most creatures.
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