Car Camping

My home away from home...our little Marmot backpacking tent.  Sleeps two rather cozily.  Plenty of room for your shoes outside under the fly.  Cool in the summer.  Warm in the fall and spring.  Have yet to try it out in the winter even though our sleeping bags are good to 0, or so they say.

On our recent trip east to see Gus and family we camped going out and coming back.  Truly, I never sleep as well in my bed at home as I do on my thin backpacking pad enclosed by my down bag when it is cool, or on a sheet and blanket during the warmer part of the year.

Andy and I have to relearn how to put the tent up when we haven't done it for awhile.  Usually either he forgets something and I remember..or I forget and he remembers.  I am in charge of choosing the spot that is as level as possible.  He is in charge of getting rid of all the rocks and sticks.

We have gotten a little lazy in our camping.  Before we always packed food and cooked some.  Now we depend on what we find along the way...breakfast,lunch, and dinner.  Part of the fun of traveling this way is stopping in mid-afternoon and exploring the local offerings of food and entertainment.  One time in Kentucky we found a dance in Cave City that was so much fun we made sure we stopped there on the way back.  Food is not a problem.  Locals are always glad to suggest where they eat and we have never been disappointed.  Cafes, diners, bbq stands...they all are delicious.

This time around we ate at a bbq place near Morehead , Kentucky where they offered fried MoonPies, fried pecan pie, fried cinnamon rolls,  When asked what they were fried in the waitress said funnel cake batter.  We didn't try this treat, but we were tempted.

The weather is always on our mind.  Luckily we have only had to find a motel once in our travels because it was raining.  Sometimes it rains when we are in the tent.  Sometimes it rains when we are out of the tent.  Unfortunately, this trip we arrived back at the campsite to find the tent swimming in water.  One time it was just because of a bad choice of placement.  The other was because one of us, and that person shall remain nameless, left the fly open and the rain poured in.  Both times we were able to dry things out enough and have a dry place to sleep for the night.

The part I like best about car camping is closing my eyes at night and listening to the sounds of the frogs and the crickets as they lull me to sleep.  And then waking early as the sun peeks above the trees and pink morning surrounds my little place in the woods.  Smiling, ready for a new day.  Wouldn't have it any other way.

Rock solid....

I guess when we get older and our family gets smaller we find the need to search back and find a place where we find solid ground.  This was my second visit to Bakers Summit PA, a very small village in the southern reaches of Morrison Cove in the southwest part of the state.  And this is the church my great-grandmother Holsinger's family founded.  My dad never talked much about his family.  His father and his uncle moved to Illinois from Kansas in the late 1800's.  All I have are some pictures of them.  Try to guess what your grandparents are like from a small photo from the 30's?  Very hard to do.

And so I just scrape up bits of information here and there.  The last time I was in the churchyard was a Sunday morning a few years ago.  I could hear the congregation singing one of my favorite hymns.  I was not drawn to go in and join them.  I just wanted to wander the graveyard, looking for familiar names.  

This year we arrived on a weekday.  There was no one around.  The church door was open so I went in.  What lovely little country church it was.  Smiling to myself, I could imagine the many families who worshiped here every week.  Comfort in a rock solid faith.

I next turned my attention to the cemetery.  I wandered from north to south, searching for Myers, Miller, Holsinger.  I found a few but I didn't identify any of them.  Until I came to a small stone engraved with these names and dates...Catharine Dallas, 1839-1916.  James A. Dallas, 1854-1916.  This was where my great-grandmother Catharine Holsinger Myers Dallas and her second husband James were laid to rest.  Rock solid.  Here where she belonged, among her family and friends.

Tears came to my eyes.  And part of my family longing found a place to rest...here among the fertile fields and tall mountains framing this rock solid place my family called home.