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Show Roughing it - NOT Last week I wrote about Dutch ovens but what I really wanted to write about was camping. Sorry, I do that all the time, have a perfectly good story and be- then would be hard pressed to call what we were doing camping in the great outdoors. Sleeping in a camp trailer isnt exactly what I think the scout handbook had in mind when they came up with the fore Camping Merit Badge. I checked the list of skills to be am talki- learned and nowhere did I see: charge battery, fill propane tank, connect sewer line, align satellite for TV, and hook up laptop computer. Not exactly wilderness survival, is it? It doesnt matter how many days you don't shave, how many weenies you roast over the fire, how many cans of Chili Con Came you eat, you are not roughing it if you are I know it, I ng about s o m e -- thing else and com-plete- ly byGaryTorres forget what I started to talk about. Is this because I am getting older and I am having a se- nior moment" and does this ever happen to any of you? So we went camping with Bubba and his family. Based on my experience I think real camping is becoming extinct... a lost art form. My long gone Uncle Ralph used to go camping with just his gun, some salt, and a knife... and was gone for days. Now, when I go camping, and I would be the first to admit that I am unsure if its even called camping, I take a trailer with lights, running water, a toilet, a stove, fridge, air conditioner, and furnace. My first college apartment had less luxuries. One not sleeping in the dirt with a saddle as your pillow and yer faithful dog by yer side. Yup, Im afraid I have turned into a Gomer. That is what I used to call people that camped the way I am camping now. Me and my friends would ridicule them, point fingers and yuck it up and generally abuse their pathetic outdoor experience. We were sure we would never turn into them... or our parents. We were wrong about both. Back when I was young I could sleep on the ground in a sleeping bag and walk 20 miles the next day. Now, if I sleep with the wrong pillow I can be laid up for a week with a tortured neck and going to that dang back doctor to be adjusted and ease the pain. More embarrassing is that now instead of walking I just fire up the Owner Did I forget to mention that? Yup, we have Plumbing Fax Email rsdMrdtMi.nd 333 N. 300 W. Heating Cooling anywhere. What a wuss. You can hardly call me a CaveGuy if I need a Serta Perfect Sleeper to answer the call of the wild. Frankly, I am embarrassed that it has come to this, but it has. I tried to take the family out and rough it once in a tent, but in the middle of the night we got up, went to a local motel and in the morning ate at the Village Inn. If you don't count the times we slept in the G.I. Joe tent in the living room or on the tramp, we didn't go camping again for ten years. Sprinkler Systems BlanAng, UT 84511 rairie campfire smoke. My too kind and loving wife doesnt think it is a primeval urge at all but a large gas bubble that is having a hard time deciding which way to go in my newly designed digestive tract. I resent her suggestion, but none of my dear children or dog offer even so much as a character reference when I look at them for support. To a certain extent, I feel that I have betrayed my hardy heritage when it comes to camping. I mean, my kinfolk used to camp because they had to as they were famous vaque-ro- s or sheepherders. I am sure my Uncle Ralph is in heaven right now underneath a tree looking out at the stars sharpening his knife and shaking his head in disgust at his wussy CaveGuy nephew that doesnt know the first thing about camping or Killin a Bar with nothing but a dagger (knife) or catching a fish with PIPING m S4 I North Main DEVONISIRERATR Monticello BEN MUSSELMAN & RON MUSSELMAN W Hollingsworth Construction Contractor New Home Construction Mobile and Wheelchair Accessible Special Occasion Flushable Units Available ALANS BODY SHOP CAR CARE CENTER In All Specializing Of Your Car Care Needs Tires Alignments State-Of-The-- Air Conditioning Service & Maintenance Brakes Exhausts Safety Inspections Gasoline rock chip repair East Central Monticello BLUE HERON Small Engine APPLIANCE REPAIR Most makes and models RePair Household Appliances Vacuums Sears Authorized Service 432 N. 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But as much as I may have strayed from a way of life, a heritage rich in outdoor adventure, my too kind and loving wife comes from stock. According to family journals she should be able to pull a hand cart thirty miles, carry her ten children across a freezing river, collect buffalo dung for the fire, and still git me some biscuits and gravy and be a tendin to them thar chillen as I am resting from driving the ox all dang day". All I can say; and I still say this with all the tender love of a man that still pinches himself every time he looks at his beautiful bride; is that, on her best days camping the most we get is cold canned and we watch as the kids roast marshmallow's and put them between chocolate cookies. Next time I am hankering after some outdoor ad- 435-587-28- 49 i'Vk l'A (30-23- ) s, the family in the great outdoors under the stars telling stories around the campfire and roasting slabs ofraw meat on a stick. 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