One Day at a Time...

Rolling with the punches…

 That’s our life for the most part.  We love to go camping, and once we plan the trip, it’s a countdown in my home until the day is finally upon us.  When we camp, we rough it.  I mean, really rough it.  No campground, no restrooms, no cell service.  Completely unplugged, as camping was always intended to be. 

My husband began going hunting with his father and brothers when he was a teenager.  They would travel up to the mountains in the West Forks, Maine, and spend a week or so in a school bus turned camping bus.   Not being a hunter myself, I agreed to go camping up in the same mountains…  (Of course, never during hunting season!) … and found myself absolutely loving every minute of it.

We began bringing our daughters up to these mountains once they turned five, and have been doing this ever since.   It’s an experience that I think everyone should experience at least once in their life. 

The simplicity is palpable.   A completely different way of life than one from a city, or suburbia would expect.  You can almost hear the song “The Good Life” playing in the background. 

As you sit around the campfire, you listen.  You listen to the wind, the leaves in the trees rustle, the water flowing down the stream, and even, if you’re lucky, some animals walk through nearby areas.

(The curious Red Fox pup.)

The air is different when you’re seven miles up on a mountain side.  Cleaner.  Fresher.  Eye opening.  It’s a place that, when you arrive, and watch, you begin to realize all that’s important, and all that’s not. 

In all the years that we have been going, we have never experienced a trip like we experienced like this latest trip. 

We arrived to our special spot, set up camp, built a fire, and just really began to relax.  We thought we heard logging truck being loaded up, so we continued to relax, and really just enjoy each other’s company.  We felt a rain drop, then two.  A passing shower possibly.  A shower turned to downright rain.  Rushing to load our supplies back into the truck, we decided that we would travel the 9 miles into town, and have dinner, find out what the rest of the night would bring as far as the weather was concerned.  Worst case scenario, we would rent a cabin for the night, and try again tomorrow.  Our waitress, the owner of the establishment, had told us, the weathermen had only called for showers and a passing storm during the late afternoon. 

Being optimistic, we decided to go back to our spot, and set up camp once more.  Seeing as we are pretty much the seasoned camper, setting up camp takes just about 20 minutes.   Sitting around the campfire with our daughters is always great, we all talk, and laugh and a great way to spend quality time with them. 

We had just broken out the S’mores, and made the first one of the night, when we heard the rumblings of thunder.  No sooner did we hear that thunder, came the rain.  I’m not talking small rain drops either, no; I’m talking hard, big, wet drops!  Rushing to put things together, and get items packed up to wait out the storm came the lightning. 

Okay, I guess it’s a cabin night after all.  Maybe we’ll have better luck in the morning, after a good night’s sleep. 

Morning arrives, and rain all day… not continuous rain, no this storm is circling around the entire state of Maine in bands of thunderstorms. 

We still managed however to dodge some rain and storms and hike to the river that my husband and I found when we last camped, and were now anxious to show our girls.  When the lightning bolts reared their ugly head, we fast tracked it back to the truck, and made the decision to cut our trip short, take the long way home, enjoy the ride, the camaraderie and the sights.

Rain and all.   

If you ask the girls, they too will tell you they had a fabulous time, and that’s all that really matters, even if it’s not what you expected.