Now we are veterans

[Greg Ellis]

We have had our (used) 10 year old Jayco pop up camper about a month or so and we just took our first trip in it.  We live in Texas (Dallas) and drove to the Missouri Ozarks -mainly for my Oldest son's high school graduation- but also to take my 2 boys who live up there camping with us.  Things were going great until we drove up to the campground (Johnson Shut ins) and found it had been flooded out and was closed until next year.  Then we went to the second option (Wappepello Lake -an hour and 1/2 away) and was told that the entire RV park had been rented out for that weekend -6 months in advance- because of a giant boat race at the lake.  I guess I must have looked pretty beat up by then, cause the old wizened gate keeper told me he had one cancellation and I might as well be the one to have it. Then we get to our site and find out that there is no water there, or sewer-of course I didn't bother to sterilize the water tank before we left, cause I was expecting city water at the park.  So knowing we had to have water we made a trip to Walmart for water jugs.  My wife has never been camping, so after "5 hours" at Walmart I was able to drag her whimpering back to the open wilds and our domestic campsite just in time for bed ( and the sounds of the dark primordial forest at night). Somewhere along the way my 5 year old steps on a bee in his bare feet and gets stung, and doesnt want to leave the camper for the rest of the trip, (except for the one time he had to go to the bathroom and A wolf spider that looked like godzilla jumps on him and we all found out he can scream like a girl)....then my 14 year old daughter (did I mention extremely vain daughter) catches her hair on fire while toasting marshmellows (too much hairspray I guess)....and she spends the rest of the trip whining that she wants to go home and talk to her friends on the computer.
But despite all the mis-adventures going on all around me, I sat there stoically and stared at my dutch ovens (and new dutch oven table) ....sort of like Picasso must have stared at a blank canvas...then suddenly I rolled up my sleeves, opened my new dutch oven cook books....left my camp chair and began to create the masterpieces that would long herald my reputation in that quiet backwater RV park in southeast Missouri...I baked cobblers, cranberry pork roast, homemade biscuits, and home made bread, I created culinary spreads that would rival a viking King.  I baked and I browned and I sauteed and fryed and became the cook I knew I could always become!
I created mouthwatering aromas that brought the 2 families from the two adjacent campsites over to "get aquainted- and by the way is that fresh bread I smell baking?"  So under the glaring eyes of my tenderfoot family, I temporarily basked in my new found glory, warmed by the applauding accolades of strangers with full stomachs I became a living legend around the campfire, inspiring stories that will live on long after I am gone from this world.  
My family loves me, but my new found camper friends briefly worshipped me!
And now I have come back home to the mundane and the ordinary, mowing the yard and dishing out movie money to teenagers...but for a moment there I was a member of the exceptional "leagues of extrodinary gentlemen!"
Gosh, how I love camping.....!!!  (Smile)

[barbjeff]

Terrific story Greg! I think we can relate in one way or another to your trip!

[tlhdoc]

It sounds like a great trip.  I wish I had been one of your neighbors.