Oh hurray, a new poet laureate who does not suck. Please read and dig Charles Simic. Under him, the Office of Poet Laureate will be awesome! It’ll be a room with doors that open to blank walls and dark mirrors! And there will be a blind dog and an empty coat with mice who whisper in the sleeves! Then again, can he really make things in Washington any more creepy and surreal than they already are? I kind of think not.
One Michigan camping trip down; one more to go! I don’t know if I mentioned that all our road trips this summer have also been camping trips. Back in April we impulsively bought a tent on sale at Dick’s Sporting Goods (who really needs to fix the typo in their sign, since after only ten minutes there it was abundantly clear that they’re supposed to be called Dicks, Sporting Goods, but never mind). And so for our Iowa and Wisconsin and Michigan trips we’ve loaded up the car with sleeping bags and an air mattress and set out like the Joads, except without all the abject despair and tin pans.
I know a lot of people find camping sort of horrifying, but it’s how my family did a lot of our summer vacations when I was growing up. And it was fun, though how much I truly enjoyed it depended on how old I was. From the age of five through about ten my attitude was: yay, let’s check out the rec center, maybe they have pinball and Tombstone Pizza! From eleven to sixteen it was: oh, fuck, I’m just gonna sit in the car and listen to my Walkman and constantly reapply my makeup using the rear-view mirror. Now it’s: wow, I totally have not checked my email for the past twelve hours. And part of me still can’t believe it all works, this tent thing; it’s crazy! Of course, all this time we’ve camped at places where there are showers and roads and picnic tables. THIS weekend, however, we’re going up to meet up with a big group of Chris’s friends from college and camp along the east shore of Lake Michigan. And instead of showers there will be… Lake Michigan. It’ll be some dirty, dirty camping, to be sure. I will be brave! And probably a little drunk, too.
The difference for me, as a single adult, is that I have to do the freaking work. It was better when my dad had the meltdowns. ‘Cause, um, sometimes it rains. And I cry.
What kind of dirty are you talking about? Dirty like Christina Aguilera or dirty like sand? Haha…
Camping is awesome! Have fun.
RT
Christina Aguilera would never go camping.
Twice I’ve gone backpacking/canoeing for a week’s stretch in Algonquin Park in Canada. You get used to the grime and baths in the lake! Finding water to drink was another story…
I love camping – you’ll have a great time!
Did you get my email? I sent it over twelve hours ago.
Are you trying to say that Ted Kooser sucks?
Yes, and Donald Hall is poopy, too.
You make Charles Simic sound like something out of Coraline… Not that that’s a bad thing. I’ve never heard of him, but I will now go looking.
The more backwoods and secluded the better for camping. You may just, after you get over the dirt, really enjoy that trip. Or it might rain and suck hard.
Did you see the meteor shower? I went camping with a bunch of friends this weekend in western WI. We were all excited to see the shooting stars on Sat night, and we saw four or five good ones before the clouds came and the wind started blowing and the VERY SEVERE thunderstorm dropped tons of water on us and the tents almost blew away and my rain flap broke and I had to go outside in the monsoon and fix it. After I stopped being afraid I was going to die, I had a pretty good time.
YES we saw the meteor shower! It was incredibly clear on the beach at night– way, WAY more stars than we ever see in Chicago. So we saw plenty of shooting stars on both Friday and Saturday.
We got the thunderstorm very late Saturday night, but it was really short, because in the morning the car was still dusty and everything was dry again…
I have never been camping in my life and I’m starting to think that’s why I’m not fully self-actualized, for real. I tried rock climbing this year, though, so I figure that vaulted me ahead just a bit.
Thanks for the Charles Simic links. I could use some poetry right about now.
Every summer, we go car-camping with our kids and several families. This year it was a huge gathering because everyone who was ever invited in the past five year showed.
You want horrifying? Nine families = 20+ kids at dark telling ghost stories and stirring up the fire with their marshmallow sticks. I’m still washing the smoke out of my hair.
Then there was the infamous retelling of “Bloody Mary.” Kept some of the kids up all night.
Camping can be so fun. Especially when you take tons of “comforts of home stuff” like real pillows and comfy sheets! (Beware the rain, that can make it suck a lot)
Yes, camping *can* be fun.
Just like electrolysis can be fun. Or a root canal can be fun.
Have fun.
I guess I’m just too much of a city boy, because they few times I went camping just weren’t my cup of tea
I guess I’m just too much of a city boy, because they few times I went camping just weren’t my cup of tea