The Return

I was up in Vermont this past weekend for the first camping trip of the 2013 summer season, or at least the 2013 camping season as we start in the spring and end in the fall.  There is such a difference between this first weekend of May, now the traditional start of the camping season for me at least, and Memorial Day weekend, just three weeks later when the my wife, son, and I head up together.  While normally cooler during the day than down in Connecticut, this year there was a reverse effect with the days seeing temperatures up in the 70's and night time temps dropping into the upper 30's.  Normally, you don't notice the heat too much as there is plenty of shade, however, at this point there is relatively little shade as the buds on the trees are just starting to push their leaves out.  Down in Connecticut, most of the trees are almost fully "leaved" by now.   In any case, the other big difference between this weekend and three weeks from now is that our clearing has not yet grown its enormous blanket of weeds and grass to be mowed down.  This past weekend it looked like a nice green carpet, soft and low, with no mowing necessary.  The low weeds and little shade is about all the was the same compared to previous years on this first weekend of May.  As I mentioned the temperatures were well above normal and as I was listening to the radio on the way home yesterday, they mentioned that it will probably get up to 80 degrees on Tuesday.  If temperatures keep up like this, it will be one warm summer of camping up in Vermont.  But with shade and relaxation, warm temperatures aren't so bad to deal with.  This past weekend, while I normally go camping solo, a friend joined me up there.  It was a simple weekend, target shooting against the hillside, cutting up trees and splitting wood, nothing more.  To make it even simpler, all we ate was meat, burgers, steaks, bratwurst, bacon, and the exception, eggs (although still technically a meat depending on how you look at it).  In any case, its back to the real world now, always depressing for our dogs who absolutely love the carefree camping lifestyle, and only depressing to me in the fact that I have to go to work today instead of do nothing.  Such is life. 

 

There was another big difference this year as compared to last year in regards to our son.  Last year he was about 7 months old when I went up camping the first weekend of May.  This year, at 19 months old, he has a better understanding of the rhythm of our life and my absence for a couple of days was a major disruption to that rhythm.  Starting Friday, he was wondering where the dogs and I were and according to my wife, Saturday was a miserable day with him looking for the dogs and myself and being generally cranky.  The same went for Sunday morning up until I got home.  He was napping when I got home, but within 5 minutes, he was up.  When he saw me, he was still a little groggy from his nap but soon started smiling.  When I got him in my arms and he gave me a kiss, he looked outside and saw the dogs and got really excited, I think more excited than when he saw me.  So I really don't know if it was me he missed more or the dogs.  (I'm going to go with me, but who knows).  Once we were home, his mood turned around and I couldn't tell that he had been in an ornery mood all weekend.  He was happy and playful, and in generally good spirits despite the allergies that seem to be somewhat getting to him a little bit.  In any case, the weekend is over and done with, life has returned to normal for better or worse, and I am running a little late.  So in an effort to get back on track here, I will cut my writing short so I can get our family out of the house on time and I can pack my van back up with my supplies for work.  Yay, work!  (Please note sarcasm, if I could get paid to go camping, that's all I would do, but I don't, so I paint.)