Goin' campin'!

Let me tell you a story about camping and me!!!! I like being in the woods and all that and as I've said before, I love a lake or stream or even a creek for that matter! BUT! I also like a comfy bed at night and a bathroom, etc. One Memorial Day or Labor Day, I'm not sure which, the three boys that I still had at home begged their Father and I to take them camping! To show you how much camping we did, we didn't make any reservations and thought we would just drive from the San Fernando Valley to Lake Isabella to go camping. My brother Don told us he had a nice big tent and sleeping bags, etc. for camping and we were more than welcome to borrow them. So we got the "equipment" and took off on this "Holiday weekend" after Cappy got off work at 5:00 P.M.! Wrong!!!!! We ran into the most traffic I had ever seen and we lived in L.A.! We absolutely crawled behind every R.V. that was ever made and followed all the directions to Lake Isabella which turned out to be the biggest mudhole I had aver seen and of course, no place to camp! Someone told us to go on up into the Mountains a little farther and there was a "Peppermint Creek" campground and we might be able to get s place there. We got a place and that is what it was, a place to put up our tent and they did have little fire-box type things to cook on but no bathrooms or any of the amenities so we could clean up, etc.!!! It was getting late so we proceeded to put up the tent and try to fix something to eat!!! Thank heavens for hot dogs!!!. We were right along the edge of "Peppermint" creek which was sort of pretty in a "small" way. There was a small waterfall which made a wading pool for the kids and of course we saw a small fish or two sailing along in it!!! It was too late for anything except going to bed that night and I swear that they put my sleeping bag on the only fallen limbs and debris around. We could hear coyotes howling in the night and after a certain time, I had to use the "bathroom" which Cappy told me would be a log to hang my fanny over! I was scared to death that some animal would take a bite out of me to say nothing of all the mosquitoes that we had seen around the tent!!! I made Cappy go with me because I didn't know, either, if there were other campers beyond where we were! He checked it all out and told me he would stand by and make sure nothing would "eat" me! Well, I'm not sure if I slept or not all night, but the next thing I knew Tommy was up and wanted to go fishing! We had a couple of fishing poles but they were for Cappy and Bill, I don't think Steve got into the fishing thing! Cappy cut a willow "pole" and put some of his fishing line on it and a safety pin for a hook! In the meantime, I'm trying to wash up in the creek and get to finding the cereal we had brought along and of course, we did have bacon and eggs. Cappy took Tom and got him situated by the little "falls" and came back and got breakfast while I folded up the sleeping bags, etc. (Oh yes, we planned on staying another night!) I sat aroung on a camp stool most of the day etc. but one of the best parts of the day was that Tom caught a fish with his willow pole and a safety pin for a hook!! He, of course, had to have that for his breakfast! The day was not too warm, after all we were in the mountains! There was another camper or two around and I visited with some of them, etc. We had dinner, (from some of the things that we had brought to eat!!!) That night was as bad as the first night for me but I did manage to "bathrooom" before it got dark. Early the next morning, we broke up camp and started home. Everybody that lived in So. Ca. had the same idea!!! We had to follow the Kern River for a little while and what should happen but we got a flat tire!!! As Steve can tell you the road up there is not an arterial highway and we pulled over as far as we could to fix the flat and at this place, the River was "way down there!" After a lot of cussing on Cappy's part, the tire got changed and we were on our way again. Then we hit Highway 99, which was the main highway into Los Angeles in those days! Traffic was backed up all the way over the Grapevine, and we didn't get home till about 8:00 P.M. or after and we had left camp at about 9:00 that morning!!! Everybody was tired and cranky and hungry, etc. AND I VOWED AS OF THEN, THAT THERE WOULD BE NO MORE CAMPING FOR ME!!!!!! I do remember going one more time after I moved up here to the Valley going up to Silver Lake, and that, even though it was somewhat better, was IT!!!!!!!!!!