A-Camping We Will Go (or, "To Helen Back")
When I was a little kid, my parents used to take us camping every summer. No, not tent-in-the-wilderness camping; rather, RV-at-the-bluegrass-festival camping. We first went in our little pop-up Scotty, when it was just my parents and my one sister. (One of my earliest memories is from when I was about 4 or 5 years old and my dad put us to bed in our little bunk, then stood right outside our window with his guitar singing The Big Rock Candy Mountain. And The Fox and the Goose. Anyway...)
Later, with the arrival of my next sister and my baby brother, we traded up to a Terry. My parents still own it - my dad keeps it at the hunting grounds, so it's not in too nice a shape anymore. (Ewwww!) But I remember getting a lower bunk in that camper, which was oh-so-nice and a privilege of being the oldest. I taped pictures of my boyfriends to the walls and practiced my banjo over the drone of the air conditioner.
We pulled that Terry all over the southeastern U.S. Up to North Carolina and Tennessee to see extended family; to the mountains for the North Georgia State Fair; even to Disney World! (That was one of my favorite vacations ever. Ft. Wilderness at DW is awesome. They have the pools and playgrounds, but they also have shady bike trails, an evening campfire, and outdoor movies and singalongs. Kid heaven.)
Now that I am a grown woman, I am still going camping with my folks! But in a different way. About 10 years ago my parents bought a couple of memberships in a campground near Helen, GA. This means that we can rent two campers at a time and go up for a week together. At first, it was me and my two boys and Mom and Dad. My family in one camper, parents in the other. Over the years we've expanded - both my sisters and their kids go as well. (We have to get creative with the sleeping arrangements - it helps that one sis has in-laws nearby.) We've now been doing this for almost a decade.
The campground is a really nice place. There are two pools, a big playground, tennis courts, a lake for fishing, and a clubhouse for playing bridge and checkers and shuffleboard. (Yes, there are lots of grandparents there! LOL) But I've noticed over the years that the demographic has subtly shifted to include more of the younger families - not just retirees. And even the retirees often bring their grandkids, so there's always someone for my kids to play with.
We have this little routine we follow up there. Every morning, dc get up early to go eat breakfast with his grandparents. (Meatma and Doc. (I'll explain another time why we call my mom Meatma.)). I get up a little later, go for a little run, then come eat with my parents and see what the kids want to do. After we get cleaned up and dressed, we head down to the playground for a little while. Boys ride bikes, dd plays in the sand. Cousins show up mid-morning. We suit up and go swimming. Then it's lunch and naps or TV time.
Afternoons we sometimes go shopping - NOT in Helen, which is... touristy? bizarre? No! Kitschy! That's the word I want. Think little gnomes dressed in Alpine liederhosen and you'll have a fair idea of the Helen vibe. No, the best shopping to be had in these parts is at Mark of the Potter (which sells, of course, pottery!) or the Burton Art Gallery. There's also a little cottage-garden shop I love that sells plants, picture frames, statuary, gardening gifts, etc. Very eclectic. And once I discovered a little hole-in-the-wall place that sold beads and gemstones, and I made my own necklace. I haven't been able to find it again, though.
There's also the tubing - a good way to spend a hot summer day in North Georgia. The Chattahoochee River runs through Helen (way north of where it gets all icky with industrial waste). The water is shallow but moves at a pretty good clip, which makes it perfect for floating down in a big, neon-pink (or lime green - your choice!) innertube. This is a favorite activity for camping week.
But I think what I love best about going camping, now that I'm an adult, is how "unplugged" it feels. No, we're not sleeping on the ground or roasting venison over a spit. We still have our refrigerator (albeit tiny) and our sheet-enclosed mattresses. But camping, even RV camping, has a very life-stripped-down-to-its-bare-essentials quality to it. You sleep, you eat, you lounge around in lawn chairs. You read for hours at a time. You don't plan anything; it just happens as you feel like it. You only take the minimum of clothing and food - there's no place to store the excess, and besides, you need room in the truck to carry the bikes with you! (grin)
All this to say... soon, yea, the end of this week even, I embark upon Annual-H-Family-Camping-Adventure, with offspring, parents, sisters, niece and nephews. (DH doesn't go. He never goes. He is a camping snob, being convinced that only tents-in-the-wilderness-camping is worthy of the sacred name "Camping." Besides, he craves that week of blessed quiet, alone in our house, that comes but once a year.)
While I am gone, I will not be blogging. So I am going to try and blog every day before I leave. And I might even do some paper-and-pen writing while I am gone... I usually do at least a little, every year. Maybe I'll even type it up when I get home. Or not. Freedom! That's what camping is all about.
Later, with the arrival of my next sister and my baby brother, we traded up to a Terry. My parents still own it - my dad keeps it at the hunting grounds, so it's not in too nice a shape anymore. (Ewwww!) But I remember getting a lower bunk in that camper, which was oh-so-nice and a privilege of being the oldest. I taped pictures of my boyfriends to the walls and practiced my banjo over the drone of the air conditioner.
We pulled that Terry all over the southeastern U.S. Up to North Carolina and Tennessee to see extended family; to the mountains for the North Georgia State Fair; even to Disney World! (That was one of my favorite vacations ever. Ft. Wilderness at DW is awesome. They have the pools and playgrounds, but they also have shady bike trails, an evening campfire, and outdoor movies and singalongs. Kid heaven.)
Now that I am a grown woman, I am still going camping with my folks! But in a different way. About 10 years ago my parents bought a couple of memberships in a campground near Helen, GA. This means that we can rent two campers at a time and go up for a week together. At first, it was me and my two boys and Mom and Dad. My family in one camper, parents in the other. Over the years we've expanded - both my sisters and their kids go as well. (We have to get creative with the sleeping arrangements - it helps that one sis has in-laws nearby.) We've now been doing this for almost a decade.
The campground is a really nice place. There are two pools, a big playground, tennis courts, a lake for fishing, and a clubhouse for playing bridge and checkers and shuffleboard. (Yes, there are lots of grandparents there! LOL) But I've noticed over the years that the demographic has subtly shifted to include more of the younger families - not just retirees. And even the retirees often bring their grandkids, so there's always someone for my kids to play with.
We have this little routine we follow up there. Every morning, dc get up early to go eat breakfast with his grandparents. (Meatma and Doc. (I'll explain another time why we call my mom Meatma.)). I get up a little later, go for a little run, then come eat with my parents and see what the kids want to do. After we get cleaned up and dressed, we head down to the playground for a little while. Boys ride bikes, dd plays in the sand. Cousins show up mid-morning. We suit up and go swimming. Then it's lunch and naps or TV time.
Afternoons we sometimes go shopping - NOT in Helen, which is... touristy? bizarre? No! Kitschy! That's the word I want. Think little gnomes dressed in Alpine liederhosen and you'll have a fair idea of the Helen vibe. No, the best shopping to be had in these parts is at Mark of the Potter (which sells, of course, pottery!) or the Burton Art Gallery. There's also a little cottage-garden shop I love that sells plants, picture frames, statuary, gardening gifts, etc. Very eclectic. And once I discovered a little hole-in-the-wall place that sold beads and gemstones, and I made my own necklace. I haven't been able to find it again, though.
There's also the tubing - a good way to spend a hot summer day in North Georgia. The Chattahoochee River runs through Helen (way north of where it gets all icky with industrial waste). The water is shallow but moves at a pretty good clip, which makes it perfect for floating down in a big, neon-pink (or lime green - your choice!) innertube. This is a favorite activity for camping week.
But I think what I love best about going camping, now that I'm an adult, is how "unplugged" it feels. No, we're not sleeping on the ground or roasting venison over a spit. We still have our refrigerator (albeit tiny) and our sheet-enclosed mattresses. But camping, even RV camping, has a very life-stripped-down-to-its-bare-essentials quality to it. You sleep, you eat, you lounge around in lawn chairs. You read for hours at a time. You don't plan anything; it just happens as you feel like it. You only take the minimum of clothing and food - there's no place to store the excess, and besides, you need room in the truck to carry the bikes with you! (grin)
All this to say... soon, yea, the end of this week even, I embark upon Annual-H-Family-Camping-Adventure, with offspring, parents, sisters, niece and nephews. (DH doesn't go. He never goes. He is a camping snob, being convinced that only tents-in-the-wilderness-camping is worthy of the sacred name "Camping." Besides, he craves that week of blessed quiet, alone in our house, that comes but once a year.)
While I am gone, I will not be blogging. So I am going to try and blog every day before I leave. And I might even do some paper-and-pen writing while I am gone... I usually do at least a little, every year. Maybe I'll even type it up when I get home. Or not. Freedom! That's what camping is all about.
posted by Mamabird @ 4:57 PM
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