Megan and Glenn's Annual Father/Daughter Camping Trip: #3 (August 31 - September 1, 2008)

Ages:

Glenn: 38

Megan: 7

Place: Connecticut (Plymouth - outside Waterbury - decidedly NOT HAMMONASSET!)

Duration: 26 hours

Activities: swimming, shopping (can you believe it!??), the two-story carousel at the Danbury Mall, and introducing Scott to the wonderful world of camping!

This is the second year in a row in which we planned to camp at a known, high-quality State campground - only to get shut out due to the old "no vacancy" thing! A few years ago, the whole family camped at Hammonasset State Park near New Haven. What a hidden gem! Clean, well-run, and right on a beautiful stretch of beach - only two hours from home. "This will surely be the site of Megan and my Connecticut trip," I thought.

All the good, state-run campgrounds are now yoked to "ReserveAmerica" - an online system for booking campsites. The catch: you MUST reserve for two or more nights at most of them (including Hammonasset). And there's no other way to reserve a site there. And we hardly have enough room in our summer schedule to book a one-night getaway - let alone a 2+-night getaway ... SO ... we figured we'd just show up and take our chances.

For various reasons, our trip got postponed - twice. Finally Labor Day Weekend approached - and with our "September is already totally full" calendar, we knew we had to act before it was too late.

As luck would have it, my good friend Scott lives in New Haven - near Hammanasset - I invited him to join us for marshmallows by the fire. He was up for it. Megan is very fond of Scott, and we figured Scott's always a plus to have around.

As it turned out, of course, Hammonasset was booked. So I got on the internet. I figured that we should look for another place near New Haven (hardly the camping capital of the world!) so we could still hook up with Scott. The first 10 places I called were (you guessed it) sold out. Finally, I called a place that was, according to one internet site, "13 miles from New Haven." Perfect, I thought. I gave a call. When I asked the woman on the other line about vacancies, she sounded puzzled - as if the idea of having no vacancy made no sense whatsoever. Now there's a sign! She said they'd have plenty of sites open - and to just come and pick one. Hmm. Well, beggars can't be choosers, of course.

So we trekked to Plymouth, CT - right near Waterbury.At some point, I recalled from my years as a college student in Connecticut some details of the geography of the state. We were a good hour from New Haven. Shucks!

But, as usual, Megan was in fine spirits and was totally up for whatever. The fact that we were going to miss out on the beach experience didn't even make her flinch.

So we got to the campsite. This place needed a little work. The store was literally lopsided - the floor was at an angle. I felt like I was in a psychology experiment. The lady gladly took my money - no tax - or even the slightest hint of tax as an issue - and she said, "there are plenty of open sites - go ahead take one." OK - I've camped at a good 30-or-so campgrounds in my life. Two things: You always pay tax - and you are always assigned a specific site. Of course, the lady had no map for me either - another first!

Megan was unphased. "Daddy, I love it here!" So we drove around looking for a site. It was incredibly hard to see what even was a site - you sort of had to look for picnic tables and see if there was anyplace nearby for a tent. Not to mention the garbage strewn all over.

So I looked at Meg and said, "I don't think I can do this - I think we have to find another campground." "Daddy," she retorted, "this place is perfect!"

OK - so this trip is all about her - so we stayed. And we finally found an acceptable tent site. And, after reportedly driving around lost for over an hour, Scott and his friend Erin showed up. And we swam in the pool, made a fire, and life was good.

Scott had NEVER camped before. Further, I believe this was one of his first times roasting a marshmallow. I guess he's a city slicker. Boy was it fun watching him try to roast that marshmallow! After clearly putting a good bit of effort into the task, everyone's worst fears were realized: the marshmallow caught on fire! Of course, if you've camped much, you come to see this is a relatively benign event. But, as I'd said, Scott hadn't camped much. "Blow on it!" I cried. "Blow it out!" said Erin. "Scott, quick, blow out the flame!" Megan chimed in. So Scott tried. I think I counted five blows. It went out with the last blow - but, as misfortunes often get compounded - the seared marshmallow then fell to the ground. What a sad moment.

Erin, who'd camped a bit more than had Scott in her years, subsequently was able to blow out a flame atop her marshmallow with a single puff. We all thought this was quite funny! Of course, this all was followed by the whole "smores" experience - just as entertaining.

Erin and Scott stayed around as we told camp stories. We all took turns adding to the story - which, of course, had something to do with a poor young man with a burning marshmallow and a super-hero young-woman who could handle fires of all size - who had a 7-year old super-sidekick who is an elementary school student in New Paltz. They had some awesome adventures including a poodle the size of earth, a meeting of superheroes in outerspace, a planet full of Hannah Montanas, and another planet in which every living thing was a form of Andrew. Of course, Megan added in quite a bit to the story regarding iCarly and American Idol. It was fun - and there was no need to be at a better campground. As Megan said, "it was perfect!"

The next day I decided to propose a very Megan-friendly set of activities - something that is usually altogether foreign to me - buying her a present at the mall in Danbury. She liked that. And we have the skunk Webkinz in our house (Webkinz #10, in case you're counting, which, apparently, people do). We also rode on the top floor of the two-story carousel at the mall - now that was fun!

On the drive home, we figured we'd surprise Mommy and buy some food from Trader Joe's for her - she was sufficiently shocked at this news when we returned. Megan also did something very altruistic - she brought three dollars from the outset with the intention of buying little Andrew (who starts kindergarten this week) a present. It turns out that bobble-head Yodas are only two bucks! Andrew was happy with it.

The moral of the story - well, i guess there are two: First, the place doesn't matter - it's the people. Regardless of moral #1, you should always try to reserve good campsites ahead of time!

It looks like Pennsylvania for 2009 - and I have no doubt it'll be a blast. Maybe I should try reserving a site now ...