In the Woods

Camping by yourself with children is definately work. I love to go camping, I was raised on it. My family would go for several days at one time, backpack, lots of hiking, etc...I went a few times when I was married to my son's dad before the baby...and I had him to do most of the hard work. Now, it is just me, and I never realized how many things take two people to do. My current fiance does not care for tent camping, but I am not one to sit around and miss out on life because there is no one to go with. So, we bought a small tent and off we went. Alas, even a small tent needs TWO people to set up easily. It even says that in the instructions. After a lot of swearing and sweating, I managed to bully the tent into standing up long enough to wedge the tent poles into the ground. Same goes for tent stakes. I banged on those stakes so long I thought my arm or the top of the hammer would fall off. I must have put my tent on the hardest piece of dirt in Iowa.

We managed to have a good time. I only stayed one night the first time. Since I was doing all the work, I was exhausted. We went hiking and swimming and kept the injuries to a minimum. My son got stung by something...I didn't see the offending insect. He was climbing trees and accidently stumbled upon a nest of wasps or otherwise agitated bugs. He started screaming, "bees! bees!", and I ran over and grabbed him. I inspected him and found two or three nasty red welts on his forehead and hands, but no stingers. Thank God.

We survived raccoon trash invasions, howling tomcats, and many gnats, but in all, it was fun. I am looking forward to when my son gets bigger and he can help with the tent. I'm glad we can share something together that doesn't involve tv, the computer, or matchbox cars for that matter. I know someday I will be glad for something like this when he is teenager and he doesn't like 'anything'.