Hellos!

I'm back, from the "wilds of 10 minutes away" as Opti so succintly put it. Yes, the campsite is about a 10 minute drive, away. As the crow flies, it's about 3-4 miles from the house. But it's a whole world away, without being a day's worth of driving. Alden managed to go to school, from the campsite, even.

Felt good, everything was perfect. We've got shit so together, we can just decided on the fly that we want to go, and have very little packing. Basically, all we need to pack, nowadays, is clothing, a little food, from the house, and that's it. We grocery shop, on the way out, and boom, that's it. No preplanning necessary. Takes literally 20 minutes to get ready to go. (plus, we're 10 minutes away, should we forget anything...)

So, yeah, everything went amazingly well. No rain (which is a first, in the history of camping, for us), no other Weather. I capitalize that, because we have had some serious Weather, camping. Like the tornado that ripped through the woods, 3 campsites away, felling a swath of trees destroying the playground and this guy's pickup truck. The playground, 20 feet away from the bathroom, that Mindy and I were showering in (musing, as we were showering "gee, sounds like the wind picked up...). So, yeah, no tornadoes. No injuries, broken bones, 3rd degree burns, etc. (all, also, from the tornado camping trip, which was the first time Dan and Mindy went with us. I'm suprised, after that fiasco, that they ever wanted to go camping again...) Everything was serene, and very relaxing.

We carved a pumpkin, we fed squirrels, we bitched out the ignorant NY neighboring campers that I affectionately dubbed "The Fuckers" As in, "shut the fuck up, fuckers, it's after 11" or, "ignorant NY fuckers, leaving your garbage everywhere" . We alternately hiked all over the place, and took long naps in The Chair (if there was any doubt, that we brought a recliner, camping with us, there is photo evidence.) watching the sun travel across the sky.

I spent the latter half of most of the days, cooking some incredible something, over the fire pit. One night it was chicken stew, and dumplings, one night braised rosemary mustard pork loin, and one night, it was Steak. That's half the fun of camping for me, cooking like that. There's something very satisfying about grabbing a book and a jug of tea, pulling The Chair close, and tending the fire, all day, while dinner bubbles away. It's like, this really great lazy anticipation. No timers, no measuring. "Dinner will be done, when it gets too dark to read this book."

Reading, too. Got sooo much reading, too. I finished four books, out there. Two Patricia Cornwell novels, Blow Fly, and Body Farm (enough to know that I dislike her writing, and I won't be buying any more of her books) and the final two books in the His Dark Materials trilogy. My new favorite trilogy. I'm about a chapter away from finishing the final book, The Amber Spyglass. Awesome books, by Phillip Pullman, I highly recommend.

I missed Dan and Mindy, though. We usually invite them to camp with us, especially in the fall. But this time everything was very spur of the moment, and we pretty much forgot. It's not the same without them, so, hopefully we can get together come springtime. We haven't seen much of them lately, with us being busy, with the house, them being busy with whatever. I should go call them...if I can get over my phone phobia.

Oh, one final thing, before I go make dinner...thanks, you guys, that called me out there. It was great to hear from you, and all rather surreal, sitting there in my recliner, in front of the campfire, talking on the phone.

More pictures, from the journey, if anyone cares.