The greatest joy in the world, bar none, is the anticipation for a summer getaway. For months, I’ve been dreaming, planning, making lists, and just generally being my over-the-top self when it comes to getting ready to go. You see, we haven’t been camping since the summer of 2019. And we really quite enjoy camping. So much so that for Christmas of 2019, my in-laws got us a number of gifts for camping: new folding chairs (this had another motive: so we wouldn’t take their chairs with us, or fight over the purple one we liked best. We now have two orange chairs like the purple one), a camping stove and case, a set of plastic wine glasses, a toaster contraption to use on the stove. We had been upgraded, and we carefully stored these items at my in-laws’ with the rest of our camping items, lying in wait for the following summer.
I was too scattered and traumatized and uncertain the summer of 2020, and so we didn’t plan anything - largely because we couldn’t, and everything felt too shaky. We didn’t go camping in the summer of 2021, because we were exhausted and burntout and it felt too hard to plan anything. I ended up booking us a cottage in September that year, a quasi-camping trip, and we loved it. Just what our fragile souls needed then.
The summer of 2022 came and I hadn’t planned any camping trips, because when bookings opened, I was once again too overwhelmed by the world in which I worked, and was struggling to imagine a future in which I could plan things, that winter. When summer rolled around and I felt better, I looked to see that campgrounds were booked solid. Gah. But I announced to my partner that I wanted to go camping the next summer, and that declaration sat quietly until one day in February, my partner asked if I’d looked into booking any camping trips for this summer.
It lit a fire in me. I researched campgrounds. I checked dates for online bookings opening. I registered accounts and made a list of places to go and when, and I pulled the bin of camping things sitting in my storage, from the cottage trip, to do a quick inventory of what we had for dishes. Did we need a new lighter? Had the batteries in the lanterns burned out? How long does a bar of soap last in storage, anyway?
I let my dreams run away. I thought of lying in a camping chair, reading a nice fat book, drinking beer, eating chips and salsa, a snack I really only enjoy outdoors at a campsite. I thought of swimming and ordered a pair of cheap water shoes, just in case my delicate office worker feet needed protection. I routed out bug spray, I checked expiry dates. As a child, I was always hyped for trips. To my grandparents’ house, to the family cottage. I would start making my lists months in advance. I would imagine perfect preparation. The anticipation was delicious enough to keep me fed for ages. I’d stopped this a long time ago, but I welcomed these old feelings back, the spring of 2023, after I made our bookings for all three summer long weekends, at all of the places I wanted. I wrote a menu for our first trip. I finished the menu on May 10. We left on July 1.
Our first camping trip in four years, since an aborted one which had been set to take place the weekend Dorian touched down, happened over the Canada Day weekend and it was perfect. The weather forecast was iffy leading into the weekend, but the rain held off until the middle of Sunday night, which we had decided to prepare for by packing up most everything except the tent we slept in. It was sunny and hot, with a few raindrops for about five minutes on Saturday and Sunday. It was incredibly humid, which meant it was damp enough to not worry about fire bans. In short, it all held up and my farmers’ almanac was right that Canada Day weekend was good for camping.
We did our favourite camping thing the second we arrived: read outside and drink beer. We do other things, like go to the beach and go on easy hikes, and now that we have a bike rack, we plan on biking at future sites which have better biking trails. For us, camping us about a small change of scenery, and spending time outside, with no pressures or plans to do anything beyond just relaxing. Once we set up our tent, our screen tent over the picnic table, and put out our chairs, we each cracked a can and pulled out our books. Later, we went for a short walk on a trail near the campsite, where my partner was very excited to look at fungi.
Camping is such an easy getaway, and an easy treat. We’ve done walk-ins and canoe camping, but it doesn’t need to be that complicated, and some casual car camping at a small family campground was a nice way back to camping after being away from it for so long. We got to try out our camping stove, which has been so patiently sitting in storage, unopened. I put my feet up on the picnic table while lounging in my new-ish orange chair and shut my eyes in the shady screen tent.
It was everything I had longed for in my extended trip planning hype. I went back to work Tuesday morning and was so relaxed that I had to ponder what my password was for a few minutes after I turned my computer on. And that is the true gift of going away and sitting amongst the trees: finding rest.
Wonderful words about a wonderful trip, Alison - I really enjoyed this post! I only ever camped in a tent as a Girl Guide, but even our style of camping since we got our VW campervan has got us out in nature and seeing and experiencing things we would never see on our previous style of trips (which would always involve hotels, pubs with rooms or bed & breakfast accommodation).
I love that you both took camping as the perfect opportunity to rest, read books, and explore your surroundings. I love that kind of trip - just gorgeous!
Awesome stuff! Looks and sounds like you both had a great time ☺️ Love that you have certain snacks designated for camping purposes.
This is the first summer that we, too, have made proper getaway plans since pre-pandemic. It’s a weird and delicious feeling.