Remember the camping of your youth?

Now before anyone gets their skivvies in a bunch……….Im not some entitled rich bastard that is gonna bemoan the fact that having a mountain cabin is a lot of labor………….oh wait…………well we are not rich….that’s for sure………but Im a gonna bitch………its what I do…..its like a hobby…….its like needlepoint for some…or golf for others…..I long for “perfection” in my bitching……I wanna break 80, in a round of bitching

Each year as you gather equipment and supplies to open the cabin….staging it in the garage so it can look like some pile of misfit rejects from a garage sale

You ask…”how in the world did we acquire AND require sooooo much crap?”

All I know is I remember camping with Jimmy , Duncan, Robert and Terry among others when I first arrived in Wyoming….sleeping on a tarp and sweeping snow off when we woke…………..very hungover of course………so we went from what some would call “minimalist “ camping to glamping ……but its been a gradual change …..encompassing over 40 years. My great, first friends in Wyoming , taking me , the greenhorn city slicker from Pa. out to experience the wilds of Wyoming for the first time. Robert expertly preparing breakfast….eggs complete with campfire ash…..this is why the the pioneers never got colon cancer…all the ash in their food.

One stark difference between 1980 and 2020 ………..we dine much better…..notice I said dine not eat…..1980 would consists of

Now instead of slurping a room temperature $2.50 a six pack of “large intestine cleaner”

We savior a chilled Kendall Jackson or a top shelf Scotch swirling around a giant “ice ball” ……..that’s how ya wanna camp

Of course we…..ok I’m ………not so fancy that i dont love a forgotten afternoon that escapes memory after a 10:30 am Bloody Mary followed by several beers into the lazy afternoon….maybe with some Red Ryder BB gun plinking….or horseshoe throwin…..or Bocci Ball…..or just sitting enjoying the light breeze that funnels thru the covered porch .

Remember brushing your teeth with beer because nobody ever considered bringing water? At 19-20 the only water I drank was by accident in the shower each morning. Digging a cat hole for your morning constitutional? Squatted on blended knees that supported a 140 # frame? Not sure I wanna try that at my age and certainly at my current weight….which might require one of those poolside crane thingies.

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Remember packs of hamburger floating in the cooler of pink water? Trying to flip burgers with a stick because the camping groups shopping focus was mesmerized by the Jack Daniels display offering two for one?????

with nary a thought of utensils…buns…condiments…….the worry of forgetting the beer and ice,,,, screaming in our collective frontal lobe……….I remember being enthralled by Jimmys demonstration of washing pots and pans with the sand in the creek…..the clear cool water dislodging the bits of carbon that began the culinary experiment as eggs…..watching the minnows downstream …..just feet away….feasting on the blackened specks ………..only to go belly up …..succumbing to the Jack Daniels marinade that Robert applied to the egg scramble……in his heartfelt attempt at staving off the imminent hangover that awaited us as we sobered up…..Ahhhh those where the days and what a thoughtful bastard …that Robert

We were lucky enough to be invited to Jimmys family cabin many times….sometimes with his families knowledge….but most times it was on the down low……..what adult in control of their mental faculties. would want 3-4 or 6-8 drunken 19 to 23 year olds invading the family compound……a cabin that survived 40 + years of the worst that Mother Nature could throw her way? NO ADULT…that’s who…that’s why Jimmy normally ….as any good son would do…..sparred his folks the mental anguish that accompanies any gathering of very young adults near cherished family heirlooms!!!……..A very wise son that Jimmy…..always being vague about that particular weekends camping location….” I dont where we’re gonna camp ma….somewhere in the Big Horns….maybe around the cabin somewhere”

I’m happy to announce that some images of those camping trips have been discovered by none other than…….Geraldo!!!!!

Apparently Geraldo didn’t come away empty handed in Al Capones vault all those years ago!!!!He FOUND these photos!!!

Somehow by the grace of the cosmos……..we all survived……..I for one have survived “into” an old guy who likes to go to bed at 8:30 WITHOUT the aid of JD !

Karen and I are lucky to have the cabin…….a real bed to sleep in,not the bed of a pick up with dogs farting all night and waking you by standing on your crotch

But most of all a place to share with family and friends.

No more waking up with someone else’s underwear on your head either!!!