Just Another Camping Trip

Kate and I are just back from a camping trip, this time to Staunton River State Park in Virginia, a short hour and a half drive away. We call it camping, but some of you might beg to differ. Our camper has a microwave, queen sized bed and air conditioning. In the evening we may sip hot cocoa, but instead of relaxing to the flickering flames of a campfire, we watch Psych reruns on the flatscreen.

It was not much different from the other fifteen or so trips we've taken since buying our little travel trailer a year and a half ago. Long hikes, good food, nice views, time to relax. Same routine, different park. Camping takes us far away from the day-to-day stresses of our jobs, but also from the pull of endless chores that would nag us on even the most relaxing weekend at home.

All the good stuff, pure joy.

You might think that was all there was, and certainly that would be enough, and ample motivation to plan our next trip as soon as we return from the last. But there is more, so much more.

Obligatory camp chairs, great for
hanging wet towels.

A funny thing about our camping trips is that we probably spend as much time inside the camper as we do outside. We of course always set up the obligatory camp chairs (I think they kick you out if you don't), but almost never sit in them. Here we are in the great outdoors, and yet we spend hours cooped up in our tiny camper, tripping over each other to get a DVD off the shelf.

But the fact is at home, even in our modest-size house, we spend far too much time separated. In the evenings, while I'm catching up on my favorite "living in a van" Youtube channels, she's absorbed by lesson planning and classical music. Same room, worlds away.



This is it. ALL of it.

But in the camper, we can't walk past without physical contact. There's no calling to the person in the other room, and they pretend not to hear ("Sorry! The water was running!"). There's a built-in intimacy to our time together, and it's a magical space and time.

Here's wishing you an abundance of magical space with your own loved ones. I assure you, you can't have too much.