Fake Camping Enthusiasm

 I wrote about the Screwpile Lighthouse Challenge in my last blog post & I mentioned that I was camping during the days I was down there.  Xing Fu & I decided that to save money it would be a good idea to find a campground & pitch a tent.  Sounded like a great idea to me except for one little thingy....July heat. But we decided that perhaps an addition of electrical & a box fan might help.  The tent was something I'd purchased 10 years ago in the hopes that my ex-husband & I might find some way to work towards saving our marriage--it obviously didn't work because it has been sitting in storage under my house completely unopened.  And it's a great tent--6 person dome with 2 "rooms".  So I found it, dusted it off & now it has a new life.  My mom said to me that I had "fake camping enthusiasm"--meaning that I was too much of a princess & that roughing-it was decidedly not my way of doing things.  She really doesn't know me all that well.  I have camped before--I do like it & I was truly enthusiastic about camping out during Screwpile--sure beats $150 a night at the Holiday Inn for 3 nights.  Plus the bathhouse was very nice--rustic certainly, but clean & serviceable--and if necessary I can really rough it--bucket use has not been ruled out in the past--I am not really such a girly-girl.  Even after sailing all day & then partying later, it wasn't too difficult to come back to the campgrounds & chill.  But this camping adventure had even more meaning to me:  another test.


Xing Fu & I have decided that we don't shrink away from testing the boundaries of our relationship quite often.  It seems to be a trend in fact, starting from the very outset.  Remembering back to the huge snow storm (now that it is a blistering & record-setting 100+ degrees, it seems soooo far away) in February very early on in our relationship, we were stranded together for 3 days.  That was a test--so early--I remember writing about it.  Certainly our recent road trip was yet another test & now here we were camping out for 4 days--could we pitch the tent, & take it down without killing one another?  What about the rain?  We did have a thunderstorm the last night & we had to take down the tent after the rain--certainly more difficult.  As has been with everything we've thrown up to pluck the ties that bind us together, we are both as even-keeled & goal-oriented--therefore no drama.  Xing Fu asked what else are we going to do to test our relationship?  I said mebbe we should give it a rest--but I think we both agree that these "tests" are more adventures & explorations and have brought us closer rather than farther apart.  There has been some discussion about camping this fall in the Shenandoah when the leaves are turning....