Hey everyone, sorry I have not posted anything in a while I was really sick for 2 weeks. Never been sick like that, for that long but I guess age has caught up with me. For all you young people ... do not grow old. The older I get the more crap my body will no longer put up with. Then once I was feeling better I really had no time to write and before I knew it there were camping trips and holidays and well... again sorry it took so long.
I love camping!! I can not say it enough. If I could I would camp every weekend over the summer rain or shine. There is nothing like looking at a pristine campsite once you have the tents and kitchen setup. There is nothing like watching that flame grow up into what will be a sustainable fire and starting the first campfire of the weekend. There are few sounds on earth quite as relaxing as listening to the wood pop as it burns. The smell of the burning wood. and I don't know of anyone that would not agree with that feeling of pulling up to a campsite after a long day of fishing or playing in the water. I believe there is something primitive about the experience. The idea that out of very little you have created (albeit just for 2 days) a place to live, a place to cook your food and place to connect with your friends and family. This is your spot and you built this (just stop thinking about the fact that you too will have to take it all down).
So 2 weekends before the 4th of July weekend I took my kids camping. My middle daughter has been almost more excited for this trip than I was. I am a preparation freak. So badly so that I am sure it drives my son crazy. I have a list for the kitchen/cooking/food stuff (each thing with a check box of course), I have a list of bedding, I have a list for the tent and awning (yes these have parts), I have a list of fishing gear and I have a list of all the lists I have. On Thursday we go down the list and place each thing in it's proper place or bin, then check it off. I drive my kids nuts but we have a great time because we have everything we need and nothing gets forgotten.
I have a friend down at the Talley Bend Campgrounds and I had never been there. He invited me and the kids down for the weekend. I really like the campgrounds and the spot he picked for us was beautiful. I am really picky about my camp spots but he really knocked the ball out of the park with the area. I highly recommend checking out the Tally Bend Campgrounds if you've never been there. (I will try to link a map spot for the campgrounds if I can figure it out but here are the GPS coord.'s: 38.136355,-93.614428) My only real complaint was that I like to fish the dam and some spots on the upper part of the lake and they are just too far to drive on a budget weekend. Had I planned for the drive this would not have been even an issue to bring up.
We decided to take the younger kids tubing and try out a new pair of water skis (which wouldn't fit my feet even though I got them for me). It turns out that a 40 HP Force outboard motor does have enough power to pull a few people (kids) around in a tube but not enough to pull a 200lb man out of the water on skis (hope the 80 will).
The weekend before the 4th of July weekend I took just my youngest son out fishing at a smaller lake here closer to me (Smithville Lake | Little Truman). We grabbed 2 doz. minnows and hit the water around 7am. I had not expected the wind we got and if the wind had not been so bad I think we would have caught a lot more fish but I do not do well in the wind. It was kinda funny because with my oldest son and my dad we don't usually go through 1 doz. minnows in a day but my youngest son and I went through 2 doz. in about 2 to 3 hours. Not really sure how that happened but maybe the boy was just really hungry for fish...
The point I want to get to here is that both of these trips almost got cancelled. As a matter of fact, the trip with just my son, I had to fight myself to go several time the day before. Neither were almost cancelled because of work or house stuff getting in the way but just me saying to myself "I don't want to hassle with this, I can sit in the AC all weekend and do what I do every weekend.... nothing." but then I would say to myself "Then you'll get the same thing out of this weekend that you always do... nothing." I would not have the memories of my daughters putting up their own tent for the first time. I would not have the memories of my youngest daughter teasing me because I forgot to close the air vent of their air mattress and losing air that night as they tried to sleep. I would not have the memory of my middle daughter get one part of her leg sunburned. I also would not have the memory of taking out my little man, just the 2 of us, out and fighting the wind. In the end I would have ended the weekends with nothing.
Sometimes as Dads/Moms, Uncles/Aunts, Brothers/Sisters or Grandparents we need to consider what we will gain from doing things that may not seem to be fun or comfortable on the surface, if they are done for the sake of the other people they will always turn out to be more fun or at least memories that both of you can share and build you relationships. I know I am glad I fought the "lazy me" because I had a blast and more importantly I KNOW my kids did.
Thank you for reading, cast a big net and keep tight lines.
Until next week
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