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- An ariel shot of Priest Lake.
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- Priest Lake
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- our campsite!
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- Our site from the paddle boat.
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- Early on the trip and still energetic.
This was not camping however. I would go to “bed” in an actual bed. When it rained, I was dry because I was in an actual building, not a tent. I could move from room to room and yes, it included a bathroom. I felt sorry for the poor souls who had to “rough it” outside, down at the camp gound, cooking over an open fire. You get the picture.
So when my wife began to talk with me about camping (now that I’m grown up), my hesitation was obvious, at least to me. As I said, I gave in and last week found myself packing up our mini-van with all the supplies that it would hold for our overnight adventure. There we were, my wife piloting the van, I was in the co-pilot’s chair, our 2 boys behind us and we headed out of town. Like most campers, I believe, need to get one last morsil of civilized food. In this case it was Taco Bell. We pulled over to begin our meal when my youngest son announces that his stomach doesn’t feel very good. I found myself searching in vain for an air sickness bag. Instead of an air sickness bag my son decided to use his shirt, pants, seatbelt, and car seat to catch the contents of that mornings snacks.
After another unscheduled stop at home we were back on the road. We piloted the mini van towards N. Idaho. Not to Priest Lake but to Coeud A’lene Lake. We found our camp site and in record time (1 1/2 hours) had our tent set up and gear unpacked. When we picked out our site, we didn’t take into consideration the distance to the bathrooms. When my young lad declared that he NEEDED to use the bathroom we discovered the flaw in our location. You see, emptying the contents of his stomach earlier in our trip was just the beginning. Some of his illness made it lower into his digestive tract and well, it was a long hike up to the bathroom. After several trips back and forth he must have decided that it wasn’t worth it. His mom noticed a rather, umm, natural aroma eminating from him. That’s right, now we had a “situation” on our hands or rather, his bum.
Everyone is cleaned up and ready for an adventure. My oldest boy thought that a 2 hour trip in a paddle boat would be the ticket. The thing with paddle boats is this: you are the engine. The faster you peddle the faster you go. After about 25 minutes on the water my youngest son did an internal inventory of his facalties and discovered that yes, indeed, he was getting sea sick. The lak was like glass and we were traveling at the lightening fast speed of 0.5 mph and he is getting sea sick? back to the dock we head. My older son and I decide to go back out and after another 40 minutes and the very real possibility that I would end up in the ER due to cardiac arrest I convince him it’s time to head for camp and get some dinner.
The next day as we were driving home my wife asked me how I liked it. She was expecting me to tell her that although I enjoyed seeing my family having fun, personally I didn’t like it. Especially with all the mishaps, hole in our air mattress, and intestinal problems of my son. I suprised her. I had fun. Cooking over an open flame wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be. We had hot dogs but they seem to taste better in the woods. We made smores and went on a hike and made our own adventures. I guess you could say that I’m hooked and want to do more of it.
