Well folks, I'm back in one piece, and the camping trip was fun. The weather held up nicely -- not too hot or cold, with no rain. Perfect for our picnic meals. I had brought fruit juices and pita breads for rollups with mustard, luncheon meats, cheeses, lovely juicy tomatoes and cut veggies. Together with various pasta/potato and bean salads plus home-baked goods, it was more than enough. So we didn't get around to being starved. ;)

Our camping trips are more social events than opportunities to "get in touch with nature." We can no longer rough it, because the demographics of our little group has changed -- most everyone has infants or very young children in tow. Of course, when children are involved, you pretty much have to drag civilization into the bush with you when camping. Nature hikes become shortened to scenic trips to the latrine. So instead we played a lot of group field sports and enjoyed sitting around the bonfire singing lusty campfire songs. All of us are former Scouts, Guides, Pathfinders and Rovers so it was just amazing how many tunes came back to us!

Wolfspirit

P.S. Happy birthday, Howard. My friends did bring along fishing rods, but there was pretty well no lake and no fish -- and no mosquitoes for that matter. ;)