Nut Farm Camping

Camping. You have to love this family activity.  It's such an opportunity for a family to bond, to become closer, to test their mettle in the great outdoors, to torture surrounding campers.

The first time we went camping as a family, we went up to Wellsboro, PA- the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon.   Ok, so first thing to know, don't leave the hotdogs on the kitchen counter at home.  Second thing to know, rustic camping means no showers and peeing in a bucket with walls.  Third thing to know, don't take any one under the age of 14.  Fourth thing to know, it gets cold at night in October.  So we did this family bonding event when Katie was maybe 9 months old, Rebecca under 5 apparently.  If you've ever heard of the PA Grand Canyon, you were probably told to go on the wagon ride through the canyon valley to see the fall colors.  Yup, we did that.  However, we took those kids with us.  We didn't know it was a loooonnnggg ride, so no diaper bag for us.  Well, Katie (who had her own theme song in those days... woah, oh,  Katie's crying- to the tune of "Janie's crying") cried, wailed, moaned, carried on for the entire 50 hour (minute) ride out to wherever the heck we were going.  Nothing would make this child happy. Ok, one thing would make her happy.  Spewing.  All over her clothes and the wagon.  When the wagon stopped for the sight-seeing and turnaround, I actually threw her clothes down the hill, they were so foul.  Remember that I had no diaper bag (what the heck was I thinking?)  So, the previously wailing child is now... NAKED, but sleeping. I wouldn't be surprised if that wagon load of people demanded their money back- I would have!  And did I mention our campground had no running water?

The second time we went camping was almost a year later.  We were much better prepared.  We'd heard of this fabulous campground in Niagara Falls, Canada.  Off we went.  Relatively uneventful car ride.  Niagara Falls is gorgeous, of course.  The campground is great.  It had activities.  It had a pool.  It had showers.  Everything is fine.  Until that first night of camping in the tent, when we discovered our camp site was 25 feet away from very active train tracks, with lots of trains in the night time.  Lots of them.  And then we had neighbors.  Neighbors without small children.  Neighbors who stayed up late.  Neighbors who then were awakened early by our children who have never thought sleeping was a worthwhile activity.  By the 3rd morning, we could hear the neighbors imitating the whinefest.  It was actually pretty hysterical to hear these grown-ups with their prize-winning whining.

Were we done with camping?  Heck no!  We camped at least once a summer every year but this one.  Most of the time it was fun, uneventful, once you get past the fact that it always seems to rain before we get the tent up and therefore we spend the entire weekend trying to get dry again.  

The next camping fiasco involved our favorite place in the universe, Long Beach Island.  We decided that camping off island would be the ideal way to make this fabulous vacation a little less pricey.  So we camped at the worst campground in the history of campgrounds.  Our campsite was just big enough for a tent and a car, which was actually ok because we didn't spend any time there anyhow.  The problem?  Beach sand everywhere.  I think we still have some of it in the tent.  The other problem?  It rained all week off island- not on the island, mind you, the weather was fine there.  Every day it rained.  When it wasn't raining, the man-eating mosquitoes came out.  The hike to the showers, pool, toilets was about a mile- a treacherous mile guaranteed to result in malaria or at least some itching. Somehow the name of this campground, Baker's Acres, conjures up a homey, pleasant environment.  We know better.

Do we hate camping?  Surprisingly, no.  We've had many fun adventures at campgrounds. We've cabin camped for New Year's Eve several times.  We celebrated my birthday in a cabin one year.   We're especially fond of camping with other families.  I'm partial to my Princess and the Pea blow up mattress.