On a recent canoe trip, I realized that there is a need for this article. A bunch of my friends got together and went down in the boonies for a two-day canoe trip. It sounded like a great deal at first, pay $110 per person, bring your tent and whatever you want to drink, and we'll have a couple extra pup tents if anybody needs a place to sleep. For $110, it included the canoe rental, campsite, and all the food so no need to bring groceries. Sounded easy enough, thank goodness old habits are hard to break as I still brought my own pup tent and own cooler and of course couldn't resist the sale on Pringles and Little Debbies, when I was at the store.
It was hotter than blazes and forecast to be in the upper 90's all weekend, nice on the river, however not so nice in a tent. Anyway, the first night was set up tents, (none of the expected extras available either; thank goodness I had my own). Then it was time for the adults to wrestle up dinner while the teenagers, kids and dogs went to the river to swim, (and get eaten by mosquitoes).
So, I asked, "What's for dinner?", to which the response was "Spaghetti". Now, I'm thinking and then I said it, "I never had spaghetti on a camping trip before", figuring she had some secret way of making it over the campfire. Well, she didn't. Her plan was that she had a huge stockpot to boil water and a couple skillets to make the hamburger/canned sauce in. Unfortunately, it's hard to balance a big pan of boiling water on a round log that's flaming, (since she didn't bring any type of grill to set it on). So I practiced the old triangle of flaming logs trick, set it on there and stayed back. It did work albeit barely. Anywho....don't ever make spaghetti on a camping trip, especially when you have forgotten to bring the plates and forks.
Lunch the next day on the float was sandwiches. I still had Pringles and Little Debbie's in my bag. Of course after the previous nights fiasco with the spaghetti I had wisely stashed some in the tent for later. Good thing too, because, after the river canoe float, the evening meal was to find a stick and grill hotdogs and bratwurst over the campfire. Now this is more like it when camping. However, when teenagers are involved, this is something that really needs to be thought through, because teenagers can be so inconsiderate most times. Guess what? Teenage boys can eat 5-8 hot dogs or bratwurst each, and not care if there are any left for the adults, which is what they did.
So dinner for the adults would have to be smores, as we did have two boxes of graham crackers and the chocolate and marshmallows hadn't melted in the heat. Well, we THOUGHT we had two boxes. However, the teenage boys had eaten one of the boxes while they were waiting for the spaghetti to get done the previous night, because, "we were starving". I was too, I could hardly wait to get in my tent and have the usual Pringles and Little Debbies for dinner.
The moral of the story is make sure you take your own gear and food when you go on any canoe or camping trip.
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