Camping Trip Cut Short

My daughter and I love to go camping. But we haven’t gone for the past two summers. That’s because the last time we tried, it became the camping trip cut short. Let me explain.

I can’t speak for Emma, but one of the things I like about camping is the quiet. We had reservations at French Creek State Park. I like camping in the state parks because of the distance between campsites and that the general acceptance among campers is that camping is for quiet and solitude.  I think you can see where this is going.

It’s a very hot and humid July Saturday and we arrive at our campsite, get the tent set up and the campsite arranged. It is beautiful and the campground doesn’t appear to be very busy. Another plus! We decide to go to the pool for a couple hours.

After the pool we drive back toward the campsite. Not even there yet and we can hear music blasting. At our campsite we can tell that the music is coming  from a van parked at a campsite in the next loop. So, it’s maybe forty feet away with some trees in between us. It’s so loud that Emma and I can’t even talk to each other without yelling. I, who does not like confrontation, have to go ask them to turn the music down.

I go to the loud campsite and ask them to turn down the music. The guy was real nice, apologized and turned it down.  This next part may make me seem prejudiced, but I hope that it was just a recognition of the differences between cultures.  While there I noticed that along with that campsite there were four other campsites of Latino campers. They were all together. I am thinking that quiet may not be on the agenda for tonight.

It wasn’t. Emma and I were trying to get to sleep in my brand new, 2 person LL Bean tent. We can’t sleep! Our neighbors are loud. It is very hot and sticky  humid. My new tent is more of a one-person tent. We are lying there looking up at the stars, frustrated, and hot. I turn to Emma and ask her if she’d like to sleep in a motel instead. Yes, Dad!!!

It’s about 11 pm and we are in the middle of nowhere. We leave everything there and hop in the car in search of a motel.  Desperate, we stumble upon The Rainbow Motel on Route 422. I go in and am greeted by an older man with long gray hair, suspenders, no shirt, and a big pot belly.  He tells me he has a vacancy and I get my credit card out to pay. He tells me that he only accepts cash! He had a sense of humor, because when I told him I thought it might be that kind of place, he just laughed and said that it is but there is a Comfort Inn about four miles down the road.

Emma and I spent a quiet night in our air conditioned, paid for by credit card, well appointed room.  We went back to the campsite about 9 am. We gathered our things and went home.  We were disappointed that we didn’t have a full camping trip, but we sure did have an adventure! I used the adventure as a teachable moment explaining that different cultures have different customs and practices. Another lesson I learned is that if LL Bean says it is a 2 person tent, check the dimensions!

Finally there is this age old lesson, passed down through generations, culminating in this old adage:  When the weather’s hot and sticky…..that’s no time to….go camping! What did you think I was going to say? Hahaha. Have a great Sunday!