I miss camping
It has been a long time since I have sat on a log, looked into a campfire, and roasted marshmallows. We used to do that a lot when I was a youngster. When we moved into the backwoods about sixty miles from the nearest town on unpaved rutted roads, we would cook over a fire a lot especially when the propane got low in the tanks. Our stoves were propane fueled.
There is nothing like vegetables wrapped in aluminum foil and put in the base of the fire. We would cook the meat in a cast iron pan. We even had a dutch oven. I remember that it was cooler if we cooked on the fire than in the house. At the time we didn't have electricity except for the gas generator. It meant washing our clothes in the ditch water. We would put the water in barrels and sprinkle alum powder on the top. It would help the wilt to settle better.
I would use a washboard and soap to get our clothes clean. Then I would pin the clothes on the line. We didn't have a way to wring out the excess water so it would take a long time for the clothes to dry. It was almost impossible to wash our clothes in the winter this way. It would be too cold and the years we were down there, the snow would stay about three to four feet around us for months. The spring would be a 1/2 foot of mud because of the runoff and how wet the ground was from the melting.
Those years were one long camping in my memory. If it had been less work, I would have loved it more.
The last real camping I did was when I was in Japan. I took two friends with me who had never camped before. It was almost midnight when we found the campsite. It was raining hard and I ended up being the one who had to pitch the tent because the other two had no idea how to do it. It was not easy and dark. Our car lost it batteries because we used them to to see what we were doing.
So three girls-- actually women-- were in a crooked tent. Two of them had never cooked over a fire, which would have been impossible to make in the rain. But we had sterno. Yep, I ended up being the cook too. It could have been a real disaster, but we found a nice Japanese man to start our car. We stayed there for two days and it was fun, but I told myself I would never do that again with anyone that green.
Next time I would take a man with me. Don't laugh. They are useful.
My late-hubby was not really a camper. We would camp in a hotel room and then walk around the beach or where ever we would find interesting. I have seen a lot of little German towns and beaches with him. He did have a point though. When you get older, you like to sleep on a real bed instead of in a sleeping bag on rocks.
Still I laugh at my girl camping expedition. It's a good memory-- even though when I was in the middle of it, I was not impressed.
Maybe I will be able to sit around a campfire again and listen to the night sounds and look at the stars.