Roughin' It

When my husband and I first got married we used to go camping in a tent. We slept in sleeping bags on the ground, or on an air mattress. Granted I weighed a lot less then but these days if I had to sleep on the floor I wouldn't be able to get up again in the morning! One weekend my mother-in-law offered to keep the kids so we could go camping with a group of friends. They were all couples like us with small children thrilled to have a weekend away. In those days I might have had a glass or two of wine coolers (really cheap Mogan David grape wine mixed with Fresca) as we sat around the campfire. That night after we went to bed a storm blew in. A bad storm. It rained so hard that it sank a couple of the boats. It rained so hard that the force of the rain made the drops come through the tent. Now you may not know this but if you've had a glass or two of wine, or in my case wine coolers, you can't make it through the night without going to the bathroom. The bathroom in this campground was up at the top of the hill above us. I waited as long as I could but then finally there was no more waiting. I braved the rain in my nylon nightgown with a parka over it and immediately lost my shoes in the mud. Out of the tent I was completely soaked in less than 2 minutes. Picture me trying to climb a hill, barefooted, rain soaked, nylon nightgown (do you know what a wet nylon nightgown looks like plastered to your body?) and falling down not once but twice. It was 2:00 a.m. and my flashlight wasn't helping more than a foot or two in front of me. I gave up, did what I had to do where I stood, and went dripping back into the tent. A few minutes later a park ranger came driving up and yelling that a tornado had been spotted a few miles up the road. The next morning I told my husband I was done with tent camping. And I was.

A few years later we came up in the world...we bought a pop up camper! It had 2 big beds on each side with a hard roof and tent sides. It had a stove to cook on and a booth where we could sit and eat. Still no bathroom but hey, this was Heaven compared to the tent so we were happy. Even after the third child was born we could manage because the booth folded down and made a bed. And if you took the table part of it out a play pen fit right in there. See...perfect! One week my husband's parents took their camper and we took ours and we went camping with all the children. My husband and his parents loved to trout fish so we camped beside a beautiful river and they fished. They fished all day. And it rained all day. Every day. No one ever offered to watch the children so I could get out. Except for the day we had to go to the laundrymat. In those days we were still using lard and I accidentally left the can of lard on the counter where my 18 month old son could reach it. Before I knew it he had lard all over him and the play pen and anything else he could reach. That's when I nearly lost it. And that's also when I told my husband he could sell the pop up camper because I would never be camping in it again. He waited two years for me to change my mind and then he sold it. I'm a woman of my word.

Recently I mentioned that I was living in my camper while I babysit with my newest grandbaby and that my camper is very, very, very nice. With my history you can bet that this time around roughing it was not going to be in my vocabulary. I wanted a couch and recliners. I wanted a kitchen with a refrigerator and cabinets, lots of cabinets. I wanted a king sized bed and closets and a shower and a toilet. I got them all. :)

I never thought I'd want matching recliners. Ever. But I love these. I sit and rock and stitch or I lay back and watch television or play a movie on the DVD player. And I just smile. See my little "coffee table?" My husband put rollers on the bottom of this basket we found and converted into a coffee table. It holds my Featherweight sewing machine perfectly. I have a bedspread that matches the curtains and lots of throw pillows but I took those out because the spread kept slipping onto the floor and the pillows were in my way and my grandchildren needed a bed they could crawl on and not worry about getting dirty. I put this picture in so you could see I have not one closet but two! And besides that's me in the mirror and through some trickery of the camera I look slim!

I have a sink and a medicine cabinet and hot water. I have a big shower and a private toilet area. Now I ask you, could a girl ask for anything more?

Now I realize that some of you out there reading this might have one of those huge bus type recreational vehicles that are probably nicer than my house. Some of them have satellite television, a wet bar, a washer/dryer, etc. We looked at some and thought about buying one. Of course, we would have had to sell our house, our cars, our dog and two of our children to pay for it. But if you're coming from a tent or a pop up camper you'll know what I mean when I say I have a very, very, very nice camper. :) :) :)