Cold nights and hot s'mores

(photo by Anvilcloud on flickr)

We decided to go camping. We hit the road about 2 in the afternoon. When we arrived at the campground we knew our campsite was going to have only water and electric, no sewer hookup. Not really a problem.

The water and electric were set up on the site as if you had to pull in. We wanted to back in so that the side door opened onto the area where the fire pit and tables were located. Luckily, I have extra power cords and hoses. We covered the lines with an outdoor woven rug, so there would be no tripping.

We purchased a mesh fire screen to conform to the burn ban laws. We're camping right next to a creek, the ground is still soggy from last week's rain, but the VA governor is going to keep the ban going until we have snow. The ban feels like a symbolic act of solidarity with the people of southern California at this point than any effective fire prevention method. (Many campers were ignoring the ban and it's lengthy list of exceptions altogether, but that isn't what we're here to talk about.)

I build the fire, adding a few logs as they burn down, not for warmth (that is how I use the fire) but to build a bed of hot coals. You know it's hot when all colors of the visible spectrum can be seen in the glow.

At this point, the rest of the family enters a state of high agitation. They have lined a table with graham crackers, bars of chocolate, and a bag of marshmallows. They each are gripping a long wooden stick with a big white marshmallow skewered on the end.

These are held over the hot coals and slowly rotated until the marshmallow gets plump and tan like me on summer vacation. Then they press it between a sandwich of graham crackers and chocolate, twisting the skewer as it is removed.

At this point, ravenous consumption begins. If all has gone well, there is a hot squishy marshmallow mildly melting a square of milk chocolate, all sandwiched between two squares of graham cracker.

Many people like to preconstruct their s'mores and place them on a makeshift flat surface and hold that over the flame. This heats everything up and melts the chocolate. You do run the risk of losing the entire s'more in a fiery accident with this method.

Either way, I'm not a big fan of these things. But they bring great pleasure to everyone else in the family and I enjoy watching them build and eat them.

Full day of activities planned, but we probably won't do half of them. We'll see. I have to wake my sugar-ladened family now.

Share your campfire ritual in the comments.

The last camping trip of the season?

Ah, the rig. This is a photo of our first trip with it last spring. We spent our spring break in Arkansas last year. Gorgeous place. However, this is Ft. Donelson National Battlefield in Tennessee. That's the Cumberland River on the left.

Monica is working on a Junior Ranger badge as I look on. The kids' bikes and the Scion are attached to the rig, a 31 foot Minnie Winnie.

Our first time out with the rig and we encountered every type of precipitation possible in North America. Day One brought snow and freezing rain. Day Two tacked on small hail, some sleet, and more snow before warming up to a mild rain. The week before spring break, Arkansas had temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s. The week we were there averaged in the low 60s during the day, but near freezing overnight. We had two decent days of weather.

Someday, I'll write about the spots we visited and some of the stupid things I did. We're not quite the Griswolds, but I'm not too far off from Clark after I've been on the road for a bit.

We might be going camping this weekend. We're running out of decent weather and with the holidays approaching, there aren't many weekends left. We'll see what happens tomorrow.