August 31, 2023
This is another monthly Blog dedicated this year to my wife Cynthia, forever loved and remembered. I learned a lot from her about relationships and life in general.
Summer Camping
It's the Labor Day holiday weekend.
The traditional end to summer and back-to-school preparation time.
I'm told that Walmart and Costco are good places to avoid if possible?!
Me... I'm on my backyard patio reflecting about the summer just past.
It was the first time back to Pancake Bay Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Superior without Cynthia alongside.
Always our favourite summer get-away destination!
Far from easy this year, setting up a large tent and dining fly on my own.
Then organizing food and meal preparation amidst a campfire ban and a 350 lb. black bear roaming freely through the campground!
But it was good to do and helpful for my soul, with the memories of Cynth everywhere.
She taught me so much in all of the camping and wilderness canoe adventures we shared together.
Namely:
1. Patience is the most important thing one needs when setting up camp in a swarm of mosquitoes... at dusk.
2. Coffee is ALWAYS the first priority in the morning.
3. One can cook almost anything on an open fire (“Leave Your Wieners at Home" was the campfire cookbook Cynth was always intending to write!)
4. There is nothing like bathing your feet in a warm basin of water before tucking into bed at night.
5. Always try to get dinner going before the insects arrive.
6. Unplugging from the daily responsibilities of home and work life is THE primary virtue of going into the woods for a ‘recreational experience’!
7. Sitting by a’nice campfire’ with a full moon rising on the lake is one of the most memorable experiences ever!!!
Camping may not have been your ’thing’ this past summer, but whatever it was:
- what did you learn about yourself?
- who helped you learn it?
- what can you carry with you into the fall season ahead?
