Are you pitching a tent, or just happy to see me?

Prompt: Have you ever been camping?

Have I ever been camping?

Have I ever been camping?

I was a Cub Scout, a Boy Scout, and a Brussels Scout growing up.

We’d go camping, hiking, and log countless miles helping old ladies cross the street.

My fondest memory of Scout camp involves the Assistant Scout Master’s son waking me in the middle of the night by wrapping a chain around my neck and demanding I stop snoring.

I play fast and loose with the facts here in this blog, but that’s a true story.

And why my kids didn’t go into the Boy Scouts…

I have other pleasant camp memories. 

Stomping through a field of poison oak.

Going out with my shovel to poop, only to find the frozen ground hard as a rock and having to ‘shallow grave’ it.

Putting on every stitch of clothing I’d packed in a vain attempt to stay warm when a blizzard unexpectedly hit.

Discovering I had forgotten half of my cook stove.

The kiddos, in their first camping trip, so excited they ran around the inside of our tent until they threw up. And then, because we spent so much time in the van after, the battery died, and it wouldn’t start. And the ranger just shrugged and said, “That’s too bad.”

Oh yes, I’ve been camping all right…

Oh man, when you enter “An old man in his underwear struggling to pitch a tent” as an AI image prompt, boy, do you get some rude images!