I'm Chasing Daydreams of a Green Thanksgiving

So, Thanksgiving is coming up, and this year we are doing something completely different (for us that is). We are going camping. Now I don’t know how many of you are campers, but I happen to love it. It is one of my favorite pastimes. I don’t mean “camping” I mean CAMPING, none of that air conditioned, live in a white aluminum box with wheels, “wait, I need to aim my Direct TV dish or I will miss Peoples Court” sort of stuff.

I enjoy packing a bag, and going on a walk, when I find a place to camp, I set up a tent (or hammock) and call it a night.

My girlfriend seems to enjoy the concept, though she has never actually gone hiking. We have however gone camping together. We spent a weekend at a local state park about this time about two years ago, and while we haven’t really had time to go since (you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever had a job working for a national corporate retail chain), but have threatened to many many times… I don’t think that it is our way of avoidance so much as truly lacking resources. At any rate, my girlfriend seemed to really enjoy herself, even though the bath house situation worked on her “tendencies” a bit. Our puppy dog however, LOVED EVERY SECOND!.

By the way, a certain someone brought up ownership of a certain furry somebody. That being said, I would like to clarify that the puppy actually belongs to my girlfriend. I am on the other hand an adopted pack mate. In the hierarchy of our pack, my girlfriend is the alpha, and the puppy and myself are pack mates.

At any rate, the puppy dog loved laying in the dirt, walking through the woods, wanting to chase all of the wonderful squirrels as they bounded through the canopy.

I guess my girlfriend and I romanticize nature a bit. Both of us enjoy the quiet, seeing what happens if we weren’t there to mess it up…

We have been talking about and planning an Appalachian Trail hike this coming May for the better part of six months now. I can’t go an entire day without thinking about the trip, I spend a few hours a week fiddling with my pack, or some part of my hiking gear. I have created at least a hundred different lists detailing what to pack, what I need to practice, read up on, or master the skill of.

At the present, I have successfully started a fire without matches using no less than Six different methods. My personal preference is for the fire steel method. There is something very satisfying about running a knife blade down a fire steel and catching sparks in some dry tender which in turn quickly results in a fire. The bow method is also quite effective though a lot more time consuming and tries my patience as does solar magnification. Natural flint and a steel blade works amazingly well, so does the magnesium fire starter, and flashlight battery with steel wire methods. Unfortunately the only one that could be pulled off without any carried along gear is the bow method…

Beyond that, the Thanksgiving Camping project is coming together nicely. I can’t wait to get out into the woods with my family and have a delicious meal of the finest vittles one can muster in the woods. There is talk of turkey cooked in a tin-foil tee-pee, genuine Dutch oven cookery, possibly some cobbler or even fruit pies… YUMMY!

I think the part I am most excited about is getting to camp out in the tent with my girlfriend and our puppy curled up in a big ole pile. I haven’t seen my girlfriend since August 16, and I want nothing more than to feel safe in her arms again… She is the center of my world and when I am with her, nothing else matters.

And since I am feeling mushy at the moment, here are the lyrics from “our song”

P.S. Sorry for the typos, but the lyrics are a cut and paste job…

Shades Apart
Chasing Daydreams

Watch the night sky at my window
While the world is fast asleep
I stare into the unknown
I will have no fear as long as you're with me

I will catch your fall- i'll keep the world away
Chasing after daydreams- i am unafraid
Catch me if i fall- in your arms i'm safe
Chasing after daydreams

World gone mad outside my window
Try to buy a higher life
I won't need another thing
I will go on dreaming if you stay with me

I will catch your fall- i'll keep the world away
Chasing after daydreams- i am unafraid
Catch me if i fall- in your arms i'm safe
Chasing after daydreams

Let them tell secrets about us
Jaded words don't mean a thing
We are just beginning
There's no limit we will go on chasing dreams

I will catch your fall- i'll keep the world away
Chasing after daydreams- i am unafraid
Catch me if i fall- in your arms i'm safe
Chasing after daydreams