The Adventure Continues!

So now that my wife and kids are geared up to go camping it's time to select a campsite. Now people may think this is the easy part, hell NO. There are all sorts of campsites available in parks owned and operated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and privately owned campgrounds. And each park has a ton of different sites to pick from. I decided to go online and try a government operated campground. I really don't believe it matters which park you actually pick, it's all about the site! When you call up a park it gives you a wonderful map that you can navigate to select the perfect site, and to your horrow there are 800+ sites to choose from! The sites show up as circles, triangles, and squares of different colouirs depending on the size, electrical stuff, available or not, blah blah blah. So instead of selecting a site you spend several minutes figuring out all the map legends. Now it highly recommended to UNDERSTAND the map because the last thing you want is the nice and cozy site the cpark people thought would be funny to place tight next to the outhouses! And then there are sites in the wide open that EVERYONE can see what you're doing or even who you're doing! Me, I like sites with decent privacy, very little traffic, decent shade, relatively large to fit the monster size tent I own, and within a decent distance of the toilets and, as shameful as it is to admit, the comfort stations (more on these facilities later). Now, the type of site I have just described is coveted by almost all campers so finding it can be a real demanding task or one heck of a long car ride! With small kids tagging along you either need to find a campsite that is relatively close to home OR, if you pick a far off and distant campground, you have to leave right at their bedtime so they sleep for the entire trip. I got lucky and found a really good site only 45 minutes or so from home so I quickly booked it knowing that some other camper on some other PC was eyeballing that very site at the exact same time I was. Once I had the site booked and payed for I sat back in my chair to rest from the stress of the event and came to the stark realization that now the family was comitted to the camping trip! While that is exciting, it is also worrisome because Mother Nature can be one cruel witch when camping. Now it's time to wait and try not to worry about anything until the day before you have to leave.

Thursday quickly arrives, the day before the great adventure begins. It's time to think about what the menu is going to be. Great thought must be employed while generating the daily meals and the grocery list for a camping adventure. Depending on where the site is located a mistake will either be forgiving or make for a challenging meal. What I mean by this is the proximity to a grocery store and restauraunts! Preparing food for camping is a delicate balance between too much and too little, too fancy and too simple, clean and ultra messy. You want well balanced meals that are appealing and very easy to prepare and clean up. This maximizes eating pleasure and minimizes the pains of preparing and cleaning. So what did I decide on? Breakfasts: Day 1: Eggs, ham, english muffins; Day 2: Cereal and Pastries Lunch: Sandwiches Dinner: Turkey Apple Burgers and canned corn. All weekend I dirtied about 6 dishes that required cleaning when we got home (my wife may argue with that figure since she's the one that had to wash them!) If I may say so, the meals were satisfying and very simple to prepare. Back to Thursday! Made a grocery list and went to purchase groceries AFTER my son's T-ball practice (I'm the head coach!).

Friday finally arrives, the day of the GREAT ADVENTURE!