There's a Fire on the Mountain Tonight (yee haw!)

There is nothing more delicious than a burnt marshmallow on a graham cracker that's been dropped in the dirt.

Stars.
Campfires.
Hammocks.
Headlamps.
Gin Rummy.
The PK Game.
No cell service.
No Interwebs.
Peeing outside.

All good things, no? It has been soooooooooo long since my last camping trip, I'd nearly forgotten all these tiny pleasures, not to mention their cumulative & relaxing effects. As if the dirt under the fingernails wasn't enough of a good time -- the sunburned nose and the slightly long leg hair outta count for something.

Look, 6-ish years in New York (City, rumor has it that there is a State too but have yet to see any proof) doesn't make for easy camping. Doesn't make for any camping really. The last real camping I did involved keg stands and skinny dipping - Thanks Libby - not that there's anything wrong with that. Suffice it to say, I've missed all that nature (not *that* nature - the trees and the dirt and the pine cones kinda nature).

But it's really the campfires that get me. Those hours at the end of the night when there's nothing left to do but sit and stare into the flames, nursing the last few beers and hoping that the smell of this smoke is seeping into every sweatshirt and bandanna so as to prolong the magic once home. Depending on the company, it's either play silly games or tell awful truths; either way it's the whole point of the trip. It's sweetest when most of the team has zipped into their tents, leaving behind those that just. can't. bear. to see it end for the night. Seems to me those of us that hang in there are always those that need the extra quiet time, that crave the extra wide open space, that miss seeing stars in a way that we simply can not explain.

Is it city living that makes us love being out there? Or is it nostalgia from being drug along on similar trips as kids? Again, either way, same glorious result.

I'm looking forward to Colorado for many reasons. Not the least of which though is the easy, peasy access to campfires. Bring on the banana boats and point me to the trees that are precisely far enough apart to string up the hammock... it's gonna be a loooooooong night.