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The first time my husband and i took our children camping we were roughing it. First off, we were broke!, we had $50.00 for the whole 7 days on us. We brought our food, drinks,and entertainment with us. We also had 4 kids and a dog! This is how it went, we arrived in Daniel Boone national park on Friday, found a free camp spot.( which means anywhere 300 feet off roads, water ways or trails.) Ours was 1/4 of a mile from where we parked, next to an beautiful rambling creek, not so close as to be a problem. ( or so we thought!) It took quite awhile to get the equipment back there, two tents, one was an old army tent, no floor. the other my husband saved from the horrible fate of the garbage. Our food, which we had brought in a very strong and large wooden box,( seemed like a good idea.) was very heavy and could only be haul back by the adults. We get everything set up, so i start to cook our first meal when i realize we have no grill, camp stove. The only thing we had to cook on was an open fire pit. After some thought i walked back to the car to get a 4 way lug wrench, that and foil was our cooking method for the whole trip. The first couple of days were great! we hiked,fished,swam,told stories around the camp fire. Then it began to rain, being the hardy campers we were, we didn't let it dampen our spirits. Trash bags became raincoats, the fire was moved to cover, so on we went. It rained the next day, the creek rose but we were o.k., it could never get high enough to reach us! Then our wonderful tents began to leak, rivers not drops. Alright, we got plastic drop cloths,a little rain wasn't stopping us. The next day was mothers' day, i spent part of it in a small town doing laundry,( everything was wet.) Thoughts of going home ran ramped through our minds at this point. Just as the laundry was finished, the sun broke through, the worse was over, we could handle 2 more days. Back at camp that evening as i made dinner. Our oldest son who was 12 yrs. took the hack-et and buried it in his foot! 52 miles one way to the hospital, stitches, out of gas and money to get home on, we had to have money western union . My husband almost arrested when the w.u. guy said to come back tomorrow. We finally get the money, back to camp again,it will be over tomorrow thank god! It's raining again, the creek is rising fast and we are worried. God bless my husband, he took cans put them in a plastic bag and tied a rope to it, throwing it over the side of the creek. It would warn us if the creek rose too high. Then he slept in the rain all night. We woke up to the creek two foot from our tent! Quickly eating and packing we left. As we drove away the sun broke through in all its strength. GETTING HOME WAS A BLESSING! By night fall we were planning our next camping trip!

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