May VayKay Day 9
“Mike never dreams at home,” Mike says on day 9, the day after our first rainy-rainy-all-day day.
We share snippets of our crazy dreams. He and Nick were in a competition involving climbing a wall with personally selected avatars and they chose Matchbox cars. My dream made far more sense. I was helping to raise an American flag in our neighbors’ yard. In real life, they lost a son in Iraq. Memorial Day weekend is more significant to those who understand its true meaning, and our friends have been on my mind this weekend.
We’re living more and more like Ranger, and whenever we’re not moving (and Mike requires far move movement than I), we’re sleeping, reading, or watching old DVDs. Yes, we have a television in our trailer, something we once scoffed at back in the days when from our tent we would see old folks in their travel trailers all decked out with boob tubes, sound systems and heat.
“Wimps,” we’d call them. “They’re not really camping.” We once took pride in roughing it.
And now we’re them.
“We’ve done our time,” Mike says. “We could go to a primitive campsite on Monday, but why?”
We’ve grown accustomed to the little luxuries of home: running water, an inside toilet, heat, an old movie or two.
We’ve also fallen into an unspoken routine each day. Upon waking and wondering how the clock could possible show 08:30, or even 09:00, we acknowledge once more that “we’re on vacation.” It’s great starting the day with a giggle. Then, I make coffee and the bed and sweep out the trailer while Mike takes Ranger for his morning constitutional. I rustle up some breakfast when they return and then we head out for the day, or Mike rides while I read and write. There might be a mid-day nap. Evening hors d’oeuvres of crackers with cheese, smoked salmon or mustard sardines (the best!) and wine wind down the day while we decide what we’d like for dinner. Then more reading, perhaps a movie—we’ve both decided Shrek is one of the best ever made—and while I clean up from dinner, Mike takes Ranger for his bedtime stroll. We’re all back in bed by nine.
It’s glorious.
It’s so easy to live in the present when camping, even when camping in relative luxury.
And I’ll say it again.
It’s glorious.
