Camping

I like the idea of it. In the abstract, but then when it comes to camping in real life, well, then I start to think about my bed, and I do not want to lay on the hard ground, you know? So I don't know that I actually like camping. I like going to the mountains; I like enjoying a bonfire and making tinfoil dinners. I don't love s'mores because of the marshmallows and who likes those anyway, is what I want to know? They are seriously yucky. But I do like the chocolate and the graham crackers. Then it comes time to crawl in the tent and sleep in the bag and...that's just where I have to say that we are spoiled and lucky and we have beds, and that is where I want to sleep...warm and cozy in my bed. That and I want to be somewhere close to a bathroom where I can go to a clean place and brush my teeth, and if I wake up in the middle of the night, well, you know I can go in a warm place, and I'm not stumbling through an unfamiliar campsite where I might end up stumbling over a rock or getting smacked in the face by a random branch or some such nonsense and now it's official that this is a run-on. I needed to get that out of my system.

So anyway you guys, I have a story about camping, and I hope I haven't already shared it here, but my friends and I, well, we are silly silly girls. I was a sophomore at BYU and school had started, but Labor Day had rolled around, as is its habit. So at about seven o'clock of a Sunday night we decided we needed to go camping. Jamie and Dawn and Camille and I made a decision to go camping on Labor Day weekend at seven p.m. on Sunday night. Do you know how epically crazy that was? Um, pretty much I don't think a single one of us understood that you can't get a camping spot ANYWHERE on the planet on Sunday night over Labor Day weekend.

First we set out in Spanish Fork Canyon. I think we thought we would go to Diamond Fork. But on the way there, we were flagged down by some random men, and stupid girls that we were, we stopped. There were two men, and I'm pretty sure they were drunk, and the more that I think about it, the more that I am certain we should not have stopped. I can't remember what they asked us or why the stopped us, but I seem to remember that we thought they had a flat or some other emergency, and so we were trying to be good Samaritans and whatnot. We ended up leaving them at the side of the road really fast, probably because they seemed shady and we got scared. Anyway, at that point in time, we were well on our way to Diamond Fork when I just couldn't stay quiet. So I said, "I have a really creepy feeling ever since we ran into those guys." Everyone else agreed and we headed to another site and drove around and of course not one single camping site was open. Not a one. SURPRISE!!!

And did I mention how we brought some bread to eat? We didn't really think ahead about the food we would have so someone grabbed a bag of bread. I think we had some orange juice as well. So O.J. and bread. And then we drove to Spanish Fork's lovely Canyon View Park. And so we were literally about a mile or less from Dawn's parents' home, and we set out to camp on a little lawn/camp site. And I don't know why they get away with calling it a camp site when they have automated sprinklers...that went off in the middle of the night! This is no joke. Okay, to be fair, they probably had the sites set up for RVs and they weren't meant for "campers" like us who were going to spread our sleeping bags onto the grass and sleep out under the stars.

Oh but did I mention how when the sprinklers suddenly started up that Dawn and Camille were in the car and wouldn't let Jamie and me get in? I don't know when they got the bright idea to get into the car, but there we were, waiting for Dawn and Camille to let us and getting all wet and such. They finally found it in their hearts to let us in, and it was so cozy with four of us trying to sleep side by side, entirely cramped and uncomfortable, squished in the back of Dawn's station wagon. You guys, she drove an old station wagon, and I'm not lying when I say that it was awesome.

So then we got the bright idea to drive to my parents' house and just go and sleep in my old bedroom, but when we got there, at three in the morning, I realized my parents would probably freak out when we knocked on the door to come inside. And so we went back to camping site and spread ourselves out in the back of the car and at this point I doubt that there was so much sleeping going on, but whatever.

We woke up in the morning at around six a.m. and enjoyed some bread and some orange juice and laughed and then we swore ourselves to keep this little adventure a secret. But you know what? That is honestly one of my favorite memories and I love my friends. We laughed and laughed over our ridiculousness, and I'm so glad I have people like these gals in my life. They are amazing.