This all because of sand fleas. Although at the time, my mom called them sand lice. Whatever the heck they were, they got on my head and bit, bit, bit. Small welts all over my head. I do remember itching the bites and that's when Mom discovered what was crawling and biting my head.
This was one of many memorable times when we camped growing up. Most being much more fun than the sand fleas. For a few years when we were younger, and before my mom and Jerry got divorced, we'd go tent camping in Huntington Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I remember eating breakfast on cool and crisp mornings, exploring and climbing rocks with my sister, swimming in the cool lake and fishing for trout.
After that, there was no more camping. A decade later, Mom and Dad had a boat, and then after that a motorhome, but we never went camping. My sister's kids when with them, though, and dad and I did go fishing a few times together on the boat, and I treasure those times.
We've never gone camping with our girls. It's just never been a thing we've done. We've gone hiking in the mountains and swam in lakes and rivers with them, but no tent camping at all. And probably for good reason for my wife Amy as I've written before. The year after we met, Amy and one of her best friends took a safari trip to Africa and camped in tents. It was an amazing trip until they all got dysentery for days. And that was the end of tent camping for her.
Although I've sworn in the past I would never own, much less drive, a motorhome and/or pull any kind of trailer camper, that's exactly what this old "no" guy Jedi has gone and done. We're super grateful that we were in a position to do this for our family, especially in these dire times with a pandemic surging around us that's leaving economic devastation in its wake. Neither has hit us yet. Either one still could at some point, but it hasn't, and our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods.
So for now, this is the only travel we'll be doing for the next few years. A way to see the great American outdoors and still be able to social distance, wear our masks and be safe. We researched the camper, we shopped for it, and we bought it, knowing we were in this for years to come. We then joined a wonderful online RV community that has been very helpful and supportive.
Sure, some call it glamping, because we're camping in a tiny traveling hotel room, and not really roughing it. We're okay with that, because it's still time with our family and we can go anywhere we can drive to. The first day of our inaugural trip it only took about 6-7 minutes to back it into our camping spot correctly -- well, almost correctly -- when we thought it would take 20-30. We actually set it all up in our first campsite without hitting anything or breaking anything. I told one of our camping neighbors that and he said, "That's great, but you're not home yet."
Dammit.
We barbecued hamburgers on our tiny camping grill (thank you, Mom and Dad!), and then on the first morning, we played card games and then fixed a yummy breakfast outside in the cool coastal air (we stayed close to home for our first trip). The girls rented banana bikes and we walked around the camp with our dog Jenny while the girls rode. On the way we made mental notes of everyone else's rigs and and all the camping stuff they brought with them.
We need this and we need that and we need that and we need this. We may never be ready for the zombie apocalypse, but we'll be pretty damn close. The true test after we have a few trips under our belts will be the dry camping, without all the hookups, especially if we have to stop somewhere to sleep, otherwise known as boondocking. We're going to make mistakes, hopefully not costly ones, and yet the only way to know is to do.
We also made s'mores around our own tiny campfire, although they didn't quite look like they do on T.V. We were then s'more shamed by family because we didn't use Hershey chocolate bars for our s'mores, and our chocolate looked like baby poo. That's love, baby. What they didn't know is that we used generic marshmallows that just didn't work the same either, so that's what we get. Still tasted good, though!
With so many new adventures ahead, all I could think about as we walked through the campground were my childhood memories and our own children's memories now and to come. I hope I've made you proud, mom and dad. Love and miss you both!
Other "Days of Coronavirus" posts:
