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Besides procuring the necessary camping equipment, one must prepare mentally for a camping trip. One must get over one's fears of large mosquitoes, horse flies, and spiders. One must be able to brave chilly nights and forego some of the creature comforts of home such as indoor plumbing. One must realize that for the duration of the trip, there will be times when one wants to get away from one's fellow campers and cannot. And one must be able to give up fast food.

That said, camping is a fantastic experience. Throughout my life, I have done a lot of camping, with my family, as a Girl Scout, and with my kids in the back yard.

I will tell you about a camping trip I took with my parents and sister when I was just starting high school. My mom was organized and thorough if nothing else. However, she had not actually experienced camping before this trip. Certainly she had packed my sister and me up to go to camp many a time. But she had not ever actually spent the night in a sleeping bag under the stars before. She had even been a day camp leader and taught camping skills to young Brownies. But there is no preparation that is a substitute for the real experience.

Our station wagon was packed to the hilt with tent, sleeping bags, air mattresses, coolers, ga cook stove, and all other necessary camping gear. Even the roof of our car was packed with gear. With great optimism, we headed off to the Northern woods, Ontario to be precise.
The first night we set up the tent, started our camp fire, made our dinner, and felt pretty proud of ourselves so far. We were roughing it and enjoying it. Then the temperature started to fall. While we were settling in to sleep, I could hear my mom sighing heavily, and tossing and turning. My dad said, "Honey, you okay?" "Oh, don't worry about me", she replied. But the tossing and turning continued. "Don't worry," she sniffed. "I'll be okay." Poor mom was trying to be so brave, but I could tell she was having second thoughts about this trip.
The next morning, though, mom was in great spirits. She was first up and had already started the coffee. There she was sitting in front of the campfire sipping her hot brew looking very self-satisfied.

The next night we arrived at our camp site in Lake of the Woods, Ontario. What a beautiful spot! But boy were there ever a lot of mosquitoes! Who knew they get larger the further north you go. At night we had this big mosquito sprayer we would have to take with us to the bathroom to ward off the swarms

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