Camping....Do you hear that noise?

I never claimed to be a nature enthusiast, thank goodness. However once a year I join my sister and her family for ONE night of camping at Lake Sherwood. Tracey (my sis) and her family stay for a week and tent camp. It really is beautiful there and I love spending time with my family...however there is a limit to how much nature I can enjoy.

First, I must inform you that I enjoy swimming in things with a filter and chlorine....this lake did not have either one of those. I do not like things touching my legs or gently nibbling at my toes. The worst thing I'm going to run into in my pool is a vicious dragon fly or a thristy bee. So when I gingerly walked into the lake I didn't appreciate it when I was attacked by my loving neices and sister, and thrown out into the water where there were hungry minnows ready to pounce on me.

Second, walking a city block to the bathroom is no fun. Maybe when I was a young person this wouldn't have bothered me..but you carry three children in your body and see what it does to your bladder capacity. When I have to use the bathroom, I have to use the bathroom. I don't have the ability to figure the mathematical distance to the community bathroom and I can't figure out if riding a bike will help me get there faster or make me just want to pee myself.

Third, and this is the most important thing that I have to impart on you! When you wake up during the night and hear a noise....people who are sleeping do not care about you. They will sacrifice you and your children to the bear/squirrel/raccoon that is digging through all of your belongings outside of the tent. I was soundly sleeping....until I started hearing the rustling. To distinctly describe the sound I heard..it was SOMETHING digging through bags. Not a little something either, it had to be pretty big and NO I am not exaggerating. Now, my brother in law was soundly sleeping..so much so that his snoring was impeding my ability to hear the animal. I woke my sister who was alarmed enough to wake her snoring husband. To say that he was not happy is putting it nicely :)....he did investigate the situation and said it was nothing. Now he lays back down and starts back to snoring before his head hit his blow up mattress. Tracey and I laid awake, holding hands like the frightened fools that we are. MORE DIGGING..LOUD DIGGING...and it woke the snoring man up and he acknowledged that YES there was a sound. OK THANKS.

So I drift off back to sleep eventually...all the while thinking that there is only a thin layer of some canvas between me and something that is equally as nosey as I am. Visions of headlines ran through my head..."Mother of triplets mauled during one night camping trip"....."Woman who never camps found running screaming from killer deer".....You get the point.

I now realize why I enjoy my condo at the beach. The worst thing we may run into is a drunken college kid. Tarballs. Jelly fish.