My First "Real" Camping Trip

My first “real” camping trip was in the summer of 1990. We traveled to Marietta, Ohio for a family reunion. Yes, there were hotels close by, but almost everyone was camping out on the property of the family member who was hosting the reunion.

I remember pulling up to the home and seeing all of these tents pitched in the field behind the home. Being that I was just ten years old, what caught my eye was all of the other children running around. I didn’t know any of these kids, but that didn’t matter. But what I won’t forget is the overall camping experience.

Unfortunately, I was not very open to camping at first. I wondered where I would use the bathroom and I had a preoccupation with getting dirty. The idea of having to sleep in a tent with my mom, my brother, and my stepfather was not at all appealing, especially since it would more or less be on the ground.

So that night we got ready to pack it in for the night. I was still not too up on the idea of sleeping in cramped quarters, but I was quite tired. We designated a place to “do our business” and readied ourselves for our sleeping bags. What I found was that sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground was not at all that bad and being so close to my family was kind of nice. After sleeping that first night, we woke up to the smell of grills cooking away. There were several of them going all at once and it smelled great. It was everything you would expect when spending all of your time outdoors.

That day I met the kids that we saw running around and played with them. We would occasionally stop and have a grilled hotdog or hamburger. It was fantastic fun and this is what really turned me on to the idea of camping.

Never again would I dread the hard ground or sleeping in close quarters with my family. Eventually, I would find myself in later years camping out with various family members and friends. Even if we just pitched a tent in the backyard, having that time away from telephones, computers, and televisions revived everything in those relationships that would sometimes become muffled by all of the hustle and bustle.

What I learned is that you really have to try something before you judge it and I’ve lived by that ever since.