Looking Forward to Vacation

As a kid, I used to camp and canoe quite a bit. Sometimes it was with my family, sometimes with my Boy Scout Troop. But time went by, life got in the way, and eventually I found myself no longer doing this type of activity, which was a shame because I really enjoyed it. One day back in 1994 or so, some of my friends and I started lamenting how much we all missed camping, hiking, canoeing, cooking over an open fire, and so forth. One of us realized that we couldn’t do anything about the years that we missed, but that we could start doing it again. Next thing we knew, we were planning a canoe trip.

We decided to do a three-day run on what's considered the most scenic river in the state. It had been a long time since any of us had done this sort of trip, so we were under prepared in some areas (I neglected to bring a raincoat), but we improvised (I cut holes in an extra trash bag that I had brought along and used that as my raincoat), and had a blast. We had so much fun in fact, that we determined that we’d do it again the next year. Not long after, it turned into an annual tradition.

Over the years, our trips have changed considerably. Some years we’ve had six to eight people on the trip, other years it’s been the “core four” of us. The trips got progressively longer – we’re up to weeklong trips now. We moved from open canoes to whitewater kayaks, and we’ll probably go back to open canoes on flat water before long, because one guy says that he's "too fat to kayak," and another one’s got problems with his wrists that prevent him from whitewater kayaking. We started doing our trips over Memorial Day weekend instead of Labor Day weekend. We’ve stopped being completely self-contained, which requires us to set up and tear down camp every day, instead choosing to “homestead” in a state campground and taking day trips. We’ve kept going a little farther from home each time. We’ve hit around fifteen different rivers in three different states. Our tents have gotten progressively bigger, in order to accommodate an ever-increasing inventory of camping gear, designed to make our lives a little easier. We’ve gone from sleeping in tiny sleeping bags in pup tents, to sleeping in big fluffy sleeping bags, on top of cots, in huge three-room Taj-ma-tents.

One thing however, is always the same. We have a grand old time. There’s too much beer, too much food, plenty of laughter, playing practical jokes on one another, retelling old stories from past trips, creating new stories for future trips, reminiscing about things we miss from our childhood, sharing hopes and dreams for the future, and always wishing we had “just another day or two” when the trip inevitably comes to an end (yet secretly looking forward to a hot shower, a soft bed, and a massage from the Mrs.).

And these trips always seem to come when they’re most needed. Even in the years when it rains every day, these vacations are a welcome relief from the day-to-day grind of everyday life, providing necessary breaks from work, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the endless list of domestic chores. It gives us a little time away, a chance to appreciate what nature can still offer us, as well as an opportunity to take stock of our lives as a whole – a chance to appreciate what we’ve got in life.