Something Stinky This Way Comes

A couple of weeks ago we went on our first Oregon camping trip. The campsite was beautiful, right along the Clackamas River. We enjoyed the gorgeous drive and were excited to arrive and find such a lovely scene to call home for the weekend. BUT, it didn't take long for us to learn that camping in the Great Northwest is a little different from camping in New Mexico.

NW Camping Tip #1 - When you go camping in New Mexico there is a slight chance that you will need a tent with a good rainfly. Here, you would be wise NOT to go camping unless you have an exceptionally good waterproof tent. Here's why.....it rains here....A LOT! Lucky for us, we had brought along air mattresses, so we just sort of floated around in our tent. Folks, these types of tents are costly, but let me tell you, they are worth it.

NW Camping Tip #2 - Duct tape, though one of the best inventions of our time, does not fix holes in air mattresses, no matter how much you use.

NW Camping Tip #3 - When raccoons get sprayed by skunks, they don't like it, and might just run shrieking through the forest in the middle of the night and smack into the side of your cheap, wet, New Mexico tent, where you lay floating with your spouse, and 3 young children, and scare the heck out of you. This, skunk sprayed raccoon, might then bounce off of your tent, only to then smack into the other side of your tent, before finally taking off shrieking in a different direction. This brings me to...

NW Camping Tip #4 - Cheap tents are NOT water OR skunk-smell resistent. BUT, they do trap water and skunk smell inside pretty well.

NW Camping Tip #5 - If you have survived that first night, and have decided to stay for a second night, keep track of how many doritos your kids eat. Otherwise, when you finally go to bed that night, and finally fall asleep, one of your children might start vomiting up doritos all over his bed, your wet stinky tent, and his younger sister, and you might find yourself straddling a partially filled air mattress, holding your last rain soaked towel, and having no idea what to do next, besides stand there and blink.

NW Camping Tip #6 - It's a good idea to go camping with good friends, so that when you morph into the Griswolds, they will still love you, and not give you a hard time for taking off in the middle of the night to bathe your wet, smelly kids, even though you accidentally take some of their camping supplies with you in your mad dash to leave.

Despite the things that went wrong, we had a great time and learned a lot. We were fortunate to have some veteran NW campers with us who helped tremendously. We are now in the market for enormous tarps, miles of rope, and a good tent! The plan is to go camping again this summer, better prepared, and with a great story to tell around the campfire!