Embracing Mother Nature

Last weekend we embarked on camping trip #2 of our married career... and camping trip #3 of my entire lifetime. Between my junior and senior years as an undergraduate, I went with a group of friends in Tennessee... was it Fall Creek Falls? I can't remember, but I will forever remember this as the camping trip where the guys were throwing rocks at raccoons that were attempting to invade our campsite, we got lost on our day-hike, and I hoped it didn't rain. Here we are somewhere in the middle of our hike, smiling and probably unaware that we weren't quite hiking in a direction that would get us back to our campsite before sundown...
By the time we hit a road, we knew we had taken the wrong turn somewhere. I believe at least a few of us had to hitchhike back, if not all of us.
More recently, Nate and I have discovered a quiet park north of town that feels quite secluded from the big city. We've been there twice in the last six weeks, and both times it rained on us, but this past weekend, it poured. Nevertheless, the indestructible Nate managed to keep our fire going both during and after a lake formed around our campsite. As far as I could see, we were the only campers who had a campfire after it stopped raining. Booyah!

Here is our healthy fire from our first excursion.
It was perfect for s'mores and hot dogs, which made our tummies ache.
So this time around, we switched to grilled chicken and potatoes. YUM!
This photo below was taken from the shelter of our tent during a downpour.
I was just emerging from the tent when I took this photo. Do not be deceived by the seemingly put-out fire. It's still burning, and we were able to stoke and enjoy it for several more hours.This last adventure was fun but sleepless, as we chose to forego using an air mattress (what were we thinking) and mother nature was having an all-night party, including two hoot owls having an extended conversation near our tent, and a shrieking donkey on the other side of the park. But that's the beauty of the great outdoors. I still vote for bringing our air mattress for the next outing...