I'll start this post by saying that camping has always been a bit of a love/hate thing for me. I love being outside and sitting by the campfire at night and having a few drinks with friends. I love the parts where everyone is having fun, and getting away from real life for a while. But every camping trip no matter how long or short has it's extreme ups and downs. This weekend was no different.
There were 12 of us, a good mix of people all set out to have a great time. We arrived to find a family setting up camp on one of our sites, but it was ok because they had made a mistake. But I felt bad that they had to take down their tent and start over. But soon enough, the tents were up, the mattresses were pumped up (we camp in style) and the first beers were cracked. We started a fire, got the guitars out, and had a great night.
But, as always, someone has to be the first one to fall asleep / pass out from drinking too much =)
Saturday most of the people went to the beach, drank too much again, and came back to the site to get lunch. I spent most of the day in the shade under a tree on an air mattress with Gemini, hanging out and chatting. My idea of a great day. When everyone returned, they set up a game. Truly a fun camping game, we like to call "Cups". The set up involves two dowels placed about a foot apart (the width of a frisbee). Two cups are placed upside down on top of the dowels, and the same set up about 20 feet away. The idea is that you have to toss a frisbee from your side to the other side and try to either hit the cups off, or get the frisbee through the poles. It's hard. Now, we play this as a drinking game. So if you knock a cup off and the other team doesn't catch it before it hits the ground, then you get a point. If you get it through without knocking cups off, then you get two points. A new twist was added this camping trip. If you hit both cups off at the same time, you had to funnel a beer.
So basically there is a funnel attached to a long tube that is filled with beer. As soon as you let go of the end of the tube, the beer flows fast into your mouth. You basically end up drinking a beer in about 4 seconds flat. It's not generally a good idea, but camping is a time of heavy drinking for all (or almost all). I chose not to participate in this game until the last day for fear of having to funnel. But the others played for hours.
Saturday night was quiet around the fire (everyone was tired from the daytime). I didn't drink at all, but got called "mom" several times. Something to do with packing little baggies of trail mix and being too responsible I think. Haha. There might have been a watermelon that was spiked with booze, but I'm not going to tell...
By Sunday, everyone had consumed far too much alcohol. They used more alcohol to combat the inevidible hangover. I hadn't been drinking, so I felt fine, and was happy to go to the beach and catch a few rays of sunshine. We hung out there for the day. When we got back, there had obviously been a lot of "cups" being played. A few people were already in the tents taking mid-afternoon "naps". There was a bit of a tiff over getting firewood (ie. I was the only one sober, so I had to go, but I needed car keys which seemed to be MIA). But everything got settled, firewood arrived, and more alcohol was consumed.
Monday went much the same way for some, though I just packed my stuff up with Gemini, hit the beach one last time and headed out. My liver is still well and functioning, but I'm not sure I can say the same for the rest of the bunch!
I don't know why I do it. I'm too old for group camping. Or at least I feel like it...
