Our last camping trip

Our First and Last Camping Trip (in a tent)+

It was 1983, and we had a Mikkelson Family Reunion at Twin Lakes, Michigan. Seems like a strange place to have a reunion, but it was half way between Detroit and Wausau. Since half of the people involved lived in Detroit area, and the other half in the Wausau area, and since some folks from Detroit were at a cottage there, it seemed like a good place to have it. All the Mikkelson relatives were there, and since the distance was too far for them to travel home the same day, we all decided to camp nearby in a campground. Bob and Dennis were seasoned campers, so they arranged for Lloyd and me to camp near them in our own tent. I don't know if they overlooked the problem or if there was no other spot. At any rate, our tent was pitched right on top of some rocks. Besides that, it rained hard in the night, and the water ran into our tent soaking our ground cover. That, combined with the rocks made for a miserable night. To make it even worse, the people in the tent next to us were having a party and making a lot of noise late into the night. Evidently someone complained, because at 3:00 A.M., the police came and evacuated them. Neither one of us got much sleep that night, but the reunion was worth it. The next day, later in the afternoon, we all left for home. In spite of the bad night, it was a weekend well worth remembering.

When we got home, the first thing we did was to put a paper mill felt, (which Lloyd had acquired at work) into the trunk of the car, in case of running into this kind of "camping emergency" again. It was there, ready for use, for 12 years and we never did use it. So this was our last camping trip in a tent. In fact, I just removed it this past summer. (1995)

I have gone camping several times since with Bob and family in an RV, and enjoyed it very much, but camping in a tent is just not "my thing".