Folks, we have often heard, he or she is a happy camper. Or, he or she is NOT a happy camper.

Well, I am here to tell you I was not necessarily a happy camper.

At some point that husband of mine thought we needed the experience of camping. Would be good for the children was what he said. That was his way to try to convince me.

He already had a small fishing boat. So, he starts accumulating the things one would need to go camping.

In time, he added some folding cots. He even spent time and money, building what he called a chuck box. Maybe that was considerate of him, as I know who would be doing the cooking.

So off we go with a ton of stuff and the kids. I thought immediately this is a lot to do about nothing! I’m sure I never closed my eyes all night. I just knew a wild animal would eat me alive or one of my kids, before the sun came up.

I expressed my frustrations to him loud and long.

Finally, the time came to pack up all that stuff and head home. Know what that man did next? He bought a tent! He was sure this would work. Well, it didn’t!

After a night of that and cooking on an open fire to try to feed my kids, we pack up all that stuff and junk and try to get home all in one piece.

I told him loud and clear, “I’ll go camping with you any time you want to, at the Holiday Inn.”

He sold all that camping stuff finally at a garage sale. I breathed a big sigh of relief.

It was many years later, as now the children were grown and gone.

At this time my sister and her husband were avid campers. He said, “Come on and go along, you will love it!” My response was, “No, I’ve tried it and I’m here to tell you, I won’t love it.”

He would not take no for an answer and got my husband all excited. So after repeated invites, I let myself be talked into it.

Their reasoning was, since we now owned a little covered pickup truck, we could take a mattress and sleep in comfort. Oh yeah? It started out not so bad. They had this camping all figured out.

So, off we go, them with their tent and all the food in metal tubs with handles. And, brother-in-law did the cooking.

Things were going along not so bad. However, in the middle of the night a wicked storm blew in. The rain was coming down in buckets. And, it was coming in on us and that good bed!

We both got soaked along with our mattress. Who knew that cover would leak? We hurried into the cab and sat there, till daylight.

Guess what? In the morning light we could see them sitting alongside of us in their truck. What? Their tent had failed them and it was lying flat. And, look all our food is floating around in water in those tubs!

I announced, “OK, folks, I am going home,” and they said, “Wait we are coming!”

Heard this: “It’s so cold my teeth were chattering all night… And I wasn’t even wearing