by Cheryl Kottke

Created on: August 13, 2009

Our first camping trip together was definitely memorable and we'll never forget it. My new husband and I decided to spend a few days at Fletcher's Floodwaters in Hillman, Michigan. It was our first trip together. I hadn't been camping since I was a teenager and was excited since I loved camping and fishing. We loaded up the truck with everything except the kitchen sink and headed out.

When we arrived at Jack's Landing it was an absolutely beautiful day. The temperature was in the mid to high seventies, clear skies with a slight breeze. Choosing a spot in the rustic section of the park, we set about to unload and set up the small pup tent we had, which was just big enough to sleep in. We didn't plan on spending our vacation cooped up in a tent anyway. We were going to go fishing, so most of our time had been planned to be out on the lake.

After getting the tent up and the campfire started we began unloading for dinner. I put the plastic table cloth on the picnic table and secured it. We put the hamburger buns, mustard, paper plates, and plastic silverware out and waited for the fire to die down enough to cook. I had bought some "sizzle steaks", which my husband had never eaten before. Sizzle steaks are a quick meal, only needing to be cooked about 3 minutes on each side. It took what seemed like forever for the fire to die down enough to cook dinner. It was dark out and the fire was still blazing too high to cook. I was more sleepy than hungry at this point. So, telling my husband I was going to go to bed, I crawled into the pup tent and quickly dozed off.

I was awakened with a hamburger bun being held before my face and my husband saying, "Here, you need to eat." Sitting up, I tried to wake enough to eat since I actually was famished. As I looked down at the sizzle steak burger I saw this burnt mass of meat wedged between a bun and nothing else on it. I asked, "Lord, what'd you do cook them till they resembled the leather on the bottom of my shoes?" He admitted he must've overcooked them or the fire was still too hot and he apologized profusely. Oh! Well! I told him not to worry about it; I was too hungry to care. After eating and securing everything for the night outside so that any leftovers wouldn't attract wild animals we headed off to bed for the night.

As I occasionally do, I woke needing to go to the bathroom. My husband, being the gentleman he is, said he would walk me to the porta potty. When we reached it, he handed me

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>