Just got back from the annual campout.
Ever since 1993, a group of us get together once a year to go camping. I’ve missed the past two years, but before then I’d never missed one. So I was really excited to go this year. The guys who go change slightly each year, but there are some standards, which are Clint, Jason, Hay, Schultz, and myself. This year Jenkins finally made it to a campout (he has suppsed to go three times in the past, but never made it).
We went up to Pike’s Lake in the Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin. Friday afternoon we set up camp and went hiking; Friday night was spent listening to the Cubs game on the radio and playing cards.
Saturday we went horseback riding (I’d never been on a horse before), which was fun. Although at the end, my horse got spooked by a truck and just took off! That was exciting and a little scary. Saturday night we listened to the ballgame, ate delicious food from the Dutch oven (Schultz is a outdoor cooking genius), and then had to repair to the screen tent because of the typhoon that hit our campground :)
I just got home and am going to go shower to remove the smell of campfire from myself. It was a really great trip though – these are all guys I’ve known for over ten years, but we rarely see each other anymore; Schultz, Jason, Hay, and Clint are all married, and Clint and his wife just moved to Austin (he flew in for the campout). While the conversation may have generally changed (lots of talk about wives, houses, and pets), there are still some things about this weekend that are exactly the same as our trip to Danville in 1993 – we still eat food made in Dutch ovens, we’re still using the same Coleman stove, and despite the fact that we were all Boy Scouts, we still have trouble starting the fire.
I hope we do this for ten more years.