Not Really Roughing It

Tomorrow, we're leaving home with our trailer and driving to Yellowstone State Park, here in Southern Wisconsin. We'll work until noon and then hit the road. It'll be a beautiful drive on highways ascending and descending rolling hills as we travel through farmland and small country towns.

We'll leave the comfort of our home and rough it in this makeshift shelter out in the woods. As you can see from the photo, I'm playing with you again. Obviously, we don't suffer when we go "camping." We're very comfortable with the pull out full-size bed (it extends several feet out from the front of the trailer and is fully enclosed), the microwave, stovetop, oven, refrigerator, double sink, bunk beds, pull out dining area with a table and seating, couch that opens into a bed, bathroom with sink, toilet, bathtub, shower and lots and lots of storage space in all areas of the trailer. Outside, an awning can be opened for shelter if it rains or from the sun. We can cook outside on a gas stovetop that drops out from the side of the trailer (it's there above the wheels).

We enjoy the state parks with their spacious and mostly wooded camping sites. Private parks turn our stomachs. Occasionally we'll drive through one in hopes that it will be different. With few exceptions, the many trailers parked in these camps are packed so close together that privacy and a sense of being one with nature is impossible. We don't understand that type of camping.

Fortunately, there are several state parks in close enough proximity to our home, that we can get to one, enjoy a full day and two half days, and get home again for work on Monday, if we leave here at noon on Friday and return home on Sunday. Because of their popularity, reservations are taken up to 11 months in advance. For several years, I reserved campsites at the state parks so we could get away with our trailer every other weekend from late April through the month of October. I screwed things up the past couple of years by not reserving sites until it was too late and the parks were full. There is a nice state park in Northern Illinois that we can often get into without an advance reservation. It's close enough that we can pull the trailer there on a Thursday evening, get a site, leave the trailer there and return home, work Friday morning and then drive back to the park Friday afternoon. I'm sure we'll take advantage of that option a few times this summer and fall.

Lon hopes to do some fishing this weekend and I hope to do some running, reading and writing. We like to take walks with our cameras and to go into the nearby towns to look around. Lon will make a campfire and get a kick out of keeping it going, poking around in it and watching it burn. I'll try to sit with him for as long as I can tolerate sitting there watching the flames. I usually sneak away and curl up with a book inside the trailer. I feel bad leaving him by the fire alone but he turns on the radio or just sits and enjoys the peace and quiet. We're usually close enough that we can talk to each other so nobody's really alone and everybody's content. That's makes for good camping.

We've loaded the refrigerator and cupboards in the trailer with food and our clothes are in the closet and drawers. It's just a matter of getting through the hours until noon tomorrow when we'll hook the trailer to our Avalanche and enjoy some time away from our normal surroundings and routine.

You enjoy your weekend as well now, ya hear?