A long, long time ago in a far off campground, my parents thought it would be fun to take their three daughters camping. All was great until we get into the tent. The small cub (that would be me) says to her father, "Dad, it's wet". Father says, "Don't touch the tent". I responded, "Too late". After a few minutes or so, I say again, "It's getting wetter". Father says, "Ignore it". As soon as he says ignore it, the tent blows down on top of us. Everyone screaming and trying to escape into the car. We drive around town trying to find a hotel but there isn't one. My mom finally remembers an old relative right outside the county line. So, at 1:00 AM we are knocking on her door, looking like drowned rats asking to spend the night. That's my camping story.
My family and I went camping in New York on a farm owned by a family that "Lived off the Land" with no electricity or a car. This family gave week long classes about how to live the way they lived. (FYI: They weren't Amish) During this week we weren't allowed to have a flashlight or any electronics whatsoever. It was forbidden...doesn't that sound like fun? Haha, it wasn't. So, ummm...yeah, we broke the rules. Cell phones, flashlight, etc. I'm not ashamed. Oh, girls couldn’t wear pants either. We set up our enormous 3 roomed tent right by the edge of the woods. Sleeping bags were laid on the ground. I don't see why we couldn’t bring cots or a mattress?! My back still hurts! Also, no furry friends came to visit us (enter sad face) probably because of the snoring boys! We made a fire every night and fetched our own water. We even made wooden spoons! The guys chopped down trees and the girls made pancakes which turned to mush... we ate them anyway! I mean, isn't that what it looks like in your stomach?! The week flew by, I think the boys were praying that it would, and by the time it was up we were ready to get back to Civilization. We went to Burger King as soon as we left that farm! Ah memories...
I don't know if this is entertaining or not...but I know my family occasionally laughs about our New York camping trip.
When Chris and I became engaged, my parents and we decided to celebrate the engagement by going camping. We went to Mille Lacs lake (up in MN, about 2 hours from my parents' house) and went fishing. We had a great time fishing for walleye and northern pike. All went well that afternoon and evening. We shared a tasty dinner of fresh fish and a lovely campfire. We stayed up late into the evening.
The following morning, Dad (also known as Butch) woke up early to cook everyone breakfast, and Chris woke up shortly after that. (Mom and I were still asleep in the tent.) Dad had brought his camping supplies and told Chris to just relax while Dad cooked him breakfast. Dad sprayed the skillet with nonstick spray and fried some eggs for the two of them. When the bacon, eggs, and toast were finished, the two of them sat down to eat. Chris took one bite of his eggs, stood up, ran over to the woods, and spit them out of his mouth.
Dad laughed and said, "What's wrong with you?"
Chris replied, "Butch, what are you doing, trying to kill your future son-in-law? Those eggs taste just like bug spray!"
Dad looked at his can of nonstick spray. It wasn't the nonstick spray; it was Off bug repellant.
Okay, here goes..... One glorious autumn weekend my spouse, Eileen, and myself decided to camp in the White Mountains. Shunning a camp ground, we decided to camp out in the forest and "rough it". It was late afternoon by the time we found a beautiful, scenic and quiet little spot that overlooked another mountainside and pitched our tent. We managed to cook a meal before it was too terribly dark, and with no more daylight available to us, we crawled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep, but not for long. After sleeping for what seemed like only a few minutes, we awoke to the sound of an elk bugling....right next to our tent! It sounded like it was close enough to trample us! It was pitch black out, with no moon to illuminate the area enough to see, but it became evident that there were quite a few elk wandering around near our campsite and all across the mountainside. We started making some noises, talking out loud, anything to scare them off, and it seemed to work.....for a while. I wish I could say that we were more frightening than frightened, but I would be lying. The entire night was spent trying to sleep while having to listen to their bugling back and forth to each other. We were exhausted by the time the sun arose and decided to pack up and leave. No sooner were we up and trying to break down the tent, then some hunters came along, and either saw some elk just beyond our campsite, or felt like scaring the tar out of us, because they proceeded to shoot their rifles in our general direction! You never saw two people pack up a tent and get the heck out there as fast as we did that day! Not only was it elk hunting season, it was also their mating season, and we managed to camp right smack in the middle of their favorite hang out. Moral of the story, never camp in the White Mountains in October, or you may find yourself in a shotgun wedding with an elk! True story by the way.
These are all hilarious stories. They have given us something great to laugh about. Keep posting your funny camping stories. You just might be able to knock off the front runner here. We have the goodie bag ready from the store.
Okay, since you insist, although this doesn't really involve camping per se........
A few years back, we (my siblings, myself, our collective spouses and children), decided to celebrate our father's birthday, on a picnic, in the mountains. It was decided that we would all drive up to a scenic point* and spend the day hiking around the area. Food was purchased, packed, and transported up the mountain. Lots of great food was spread out for all to enjoy, including the ultimate picnic treat, fried chicken.
A few days later, there was a news article published about forest rangers being dispatched to the same campsite we had just been visiting, because a bear was disturbing the campers and tearing up the trashcans. What a coincidence, the day after we’d been on the mountain picnicking, a bear wanders into that very same campground! At first, it felt like we’d just barely avoided a disaster, because if we’d gone to the site one day later, one of us might have been hurt by the bear! However, it slowly dawned on us that bears have an incredible sense of smell. Could it be that the remains of the fried chicken we’d left behind in the garbage can caused the bear to go crazy? The poor bear had to be tranquilized and relocated, too. Was the bear incident our entire fault? I’ll never know for sure.
Thankfully, no one at the campground was hurt, so without much more consideration we proceeded on our journey home via the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Once there, we spent a couple of days seeing the sights in the canyon and taking lots of pictures, the children awed and amazed by the expansiveness of the canyon, and of course the views were incredible. After staying for a few days, we proceeded to head home.
A day or so after arriving home I found a news story about how a man had driven his car off the south rim, at the El Tovar Lodge! We’d just been at the El Tovar Lodge the day before it happened! Talk about strange! We escaped danger and disaster, again, by a mere day! I don’t think he was going after any fried chicken, though, and if he was, we had nothing to do with it!
So, what is the moral of this story? Never trail behind us on a trip because danger seems to follow. Oh, and never leave fried chicken scraps in a National Forest, even if it is in a proper trash receptacle.
*Side note: the scenic spot where this picnic occurred also happens to the very spot where our wedding took place many years ago.
By the way, Skip Dover is another brother, and my mother's maiden name was Crye. Our children's names are: Flip, Fell, Run, and Bowl.
I'll give it a go....
ReplyDeleteA long, long time ago in a far off campground, my parents thought it would be fun to take their three daughters camping. All was great until we get into the tent. The small cub (that would be me) says to her father, "Dad, it's wet". Father says, "Don't touch the tent". I responded, "Too late". After a few minutes or so, I say again, "It's getting wetter". Father says, "Ignore it". As soon as he says ignore it, the tent blows down on top of us. Everyone screaming and trying to escape into the car. We drive around town trying to find a hotel but there isn't one. My mom finally remembers an old relative right outside the county line. So, at 1:00 AM we are knocking on her door, looking like drowned rats asking to spend the night. That's my camping story.
Mrs. Hall
My family and I went camping in New York on a farm owned by a family that "Lived off the Land" with no electricity or a car. This family gave week long classes about how to live the way they lived. (FYI: They weren't Amish) During this week we weren't allowed to have a flashlight or any electronics whatsoever. It was forbidden...doesn't that sound like fun? Haha, it wasn't. So, ummm...yeah, we broke the rules. Cell phones, flashlight, etc. I'm not ashamed. Oh, girls couldn’t wear pants either.
ReplyDeleteWe set up our enormous 3 roomed tent right by the edge of the woods. Sleeping bags were laid on the ground. I don't see why we couldn’t bring cots or a mattress?! My back still hurts! Also, no furry friends came to visit us (enter sad face) probably because of the snoring boys!
We made a fire every night and fetched our own water. We even made wooden spoons! The guys chopped down trees and the girls made pancakes which turned to mush... we ate them anyway! I mean, isn't that what it looks like in your stomach?!
The week flew by, I think the boys were praying that it would, and by the time it was up we were ready to get back to Civilization. We went to Burger King as soon as we left that farm! Ah memories...
I don't know if this is entertaining or not...but I know my family occasionally laughs about our New York camping trip.
~Brandy
MY FATHER'S ATTEMPT TO KILL MY FIANCE
ReplyDeleteWhen Chris and I became engaged, my parents and we decided to celebrate the engagement by going camping. We went to Mille Lacs lake (up in MN, about 2 hours from my parents' house) and went fishing. We had a great time fishing for walleye and northern pike. All went well that afternoon and evening. We shared a tasty dinner of fresh fish and a lovely campfire. We stayed up late into the evening.
The following morning, Dad (also known as Butch) woke up early to cook everyone breakfast, and Chris woke up shortly after that. (Mom and I were still asleep in the tent.) Dad had brought his camping supplies and told Chris to just relax while Dad cooked him breakfast. Dad sprayed the skillet with nonstick spray and fried some eggs for the two of them. When the bacon, eggs, and toast were finished, the two of them sat down to eat. Chris took one bite of his eggs, stood up, ran over to the woods, and spit them out of his mouth.
Dad laughed and said, "What's wrong with you?"
Chris replied, "Butch, what are you doing, trying to kill your future son-in-law? Those eggs taste just like bug spray!"
Dad looked at his can of nonstick spray. It wasn't the nonstick spray; it was Off bug repellant.
I married him anyway.
Okay, here goes.....
ReplyDeleteOne glorious autumn weekend my spouse, Eileen, and myself decided to camp in the White Mountains. Shunning a camp ground, we decided to camp out in the forest and "rough it".
It was late afternoon by the time we found a beautiful, scenic and quiet little spot that overlooked another mountainside and pitched our tent. We managed to cook a meal before it was too terribly dark, and with no more daylight available to us, we crawled into our sleeping bags and fell asleep, but not for long.
After sleeping for what seemed like only a few minutes, we awoke to the sound of an elk bugling....right next to our tent! It sounded like it was close enough to trample us! It was pitch black out, with no moon to illuminate the area enough to see, but it became evident that there were quite a few elk wandering around near our campsite and all across the mountainside. We started making some noises, talking out loud, anything to scare them off, and it seemed to work.....for a while. I wish I could say that we were more frightening than frightened, but I would be lying. The entire night was spent trying to sleep while having to listen to their bugling back and forth to each other.
We were exhausted by the time the sun arose and decided to pack up and leave. No sooner were we up and trying to break down the tent, then some hunters came along, and either saw some elk just beyond our campsite, or felt like scaring the tar out of us, because they proceeded to shoot their rifles in our general direction! You never saw two people pack up a tent and get the heck out there as fast as we did that day!
Not only was it elk hunting season, it was also their mating season, and we managed to camp right smack in the middle of their favorite hang out.
Moral of the story, never camp in the White Mountains in October, or you may find yourself in a shotgun wedding with an elk!
True story by the way.
I had a bad camping story... it was cold and that is all.. it WAS TERRIBLE!!! And i was happy its all done!!!!!! NO MORE CAMPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThese are all hilarious stories. They have given us something great to laugh about. Keep posting your funny camping stories. You just might be able to knock off the front runner here. We have the goodie bag ready from the store.
ReplyDeleteOkay, since you insist, although this doesn't really involve camping per se........
ReplyDeleteA few years back, we (my siblings, myself, our collective spouses and children), decided to celebrate our father's birthday, on a picnic, in the mountains. It was decided that we would all drive up to a scenic point* and spend the day hiking around the area. Food was purchased, packed, and transported up the mountain. Lots of great food was spread out for all to enjoy, including the ultimate picnic treat, fried chicken.
A few days later, there was a news article published about forest rangers being dispatched to the same campsite we had just been visiting, because a bear was disturbing the campers and tearing up the trashcans. What a coincidence, the day after we’d been on the mountain picnicking, a bear wanders into that very same campground! At first, it felt like we’d just barely avoided a disaster, because if we’d gone to the site one day later, one of us might have been hurt by the bear! However, it slowly dawned on us that bears have an incredible sense of smell. Could it be that the remains of the fried chicken we’d left behind in the garbage can caused the bear to go crazy? The poor bear had to be tranquilized and relocated, too. Was the bear incident our entire fault? I’ll never know for sure.
Thankfully, no one at the campground was hurt, so without much more consideration we proceeded on our journey home via the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Once there, we spent a couple of days seeing the sights in the canyon and taking lots of pictures, the children awed and amazed by the expansiveness of the canyon, and of course the views were incredible. After staying for a few days, we proceeded to head home.
A day or so after arriving home I found a news story about how a man had driven his car off the south rim, at the El Tovar Lodge! We’d just been at the El Tovar Lodge the day before it happened! Talk about strange! We escaped danger and disaster, again, by a mere day! I don’t think he was going after any fried chicken, though, and if he was, we had nothing to do with it!
So, what is the moral of this story? Never trail behind us on a trip because danger seems to follow. Oh, and never leave fried chicken scraps in a National Forest, even if it is in a proper trash receptacle.
*Side note: the scenic spot where this picnic occurred also happens to the very spot where our wedding took place many years ago.
By the way, Skip Dover is another brother, and my mother's maiden name was Crye. Our children's names are: Flip, Fell, Run, and Bowl.
If anyone out there can POSSIBLY come up with something that could beat Ben than I might have to change my name to Roll Dover!
ReplyDeleteAre you sure we weren't separated at birth Ben?