Saturday Stories. #25-08 Camping Fun!

Hello everyone and welcome back to another story from my past! The story today goes back a number of years and involves my dad, my brother, and myself. Oh my, did we ever have a time that time but it wasn’t the time that we envisioned having that time though it was a fun time even though it didn’t really seem like it at times during that time. But I digress.

It was a beautiful week in the month of June, and it was very hot that June, which is a bit unusual for us. Temperatures were in the 95F range (35C) each day, and it was sunny with very little wind, actually being calm most days. Nights stayed warm between 80 and 85 (27 to 30C). It did result in a lot of forest fires that year too.

Anyway, my dad, brother and I decided to go fishing and try out a different lake that we had never fished before. That was our first mistake. We were going to stay there for 3 days. Second mistake. We packed everything we needed for our trip, each of us having a list of things to bring. Third mistake. Anyway, off we went.

Dad had assured us that getting our boat into the lake would be easy, we could drive right up to the lake, there was even a place to park our truck. Normally this is something that I would say. Now Dad said it. First, we could not drive up to the lake. From where we parked the lake was about 500 feet (about 152 meters) away.

We had to cross 2 railway tracks, then walk downhill on a very rough path to the lake. Dad and Doug, my brother, carried the boat and I carried all of our “stuff”. It took me 7 trips. At one point Dad said to stop for a rest. He was carrying the back of the boat, but he was walking forward with the boat behind him. Doug didn’t hear what Dad said and kept walking even though Dad had stopped.

That pushed Dad onto his knees, he then screamed. Then he kind of fell backward just a bit and the boat landed on one of his hands. He screamed again. “Dad screams a lot,” said Doug, “good thing no one is around.” Finally, at the lake, the boat was now in the water. “How are we going to get all that stuff into the boat, along with us?” I asked.

“No problem,” said Dad, “it will fit easily.” He was sounding more like me all the time. We loaded the boat and got in. The boat was barely above water, good thing it was calm that day, any kind of wind and we would have sunk. We had to go slow, however, or the back of the boat would have gone underwater. We aimed for a certain island where we would camp for a couple of nights. Fourth mistake.

There was a big, flat rock along one side of the island which was perfect for unloading all of our stuff. “Looks like we’re moving,” I said. Dad did his sarcastic laugh. That got my brother and I laughing. Loud and long. Anyway, we got everything organized, Dad told my brother to set up the tent on the hill, in case it rains. Better to be at the top than at the bottom of a hill if it rains.

“It’s supposed to be sunny all week,” we said. “It could still rain,” said Dad. “It could snow too, but it’s doubtful,” I said. Dad did his sarcastic laugh. We laughed loud and long again. With the tent up and everything organized for later, off we went to fish. Well, we were fishing, but the fish were not cooperating. It was hot that day.

We did bring a lot of water to drink, plus pop (or soda, or soft drinks, whichever you prefer). “Where’s the ice?” asked Dad as he opened the cooler. “I don’t know, it was on your list,” I said. “No, it was on your list,” he said. “We traded lists, remember?” I said, “You said there were things on my list you didn’t trust me with, so we traded.” “No, ice was on your list,” Dad said again, “I have my list in my pocket.”

He took it out and looked. Then he put it back in his pocket. “No ice,” he said. That got my brother and I laughing again, loud and long. “You’re scaring the fish,” said Dad. “What fish?” asked Doug and he stomped on the boat, which was aluminum. I bet that noise could be heard over the whole lake. Dad just looked at him. “Maybe you would like to go for a swim?” asked Dad.

My brother looked over the side of the boat. Dad was standing at the time. The boat dipped over to that one side. Dad screamed, lost his balance and fell, landing on his bench seat. I thought he was going to go through the bottom of the boat. I bet that noise could be heard over the whole lake. He screamed again.

“You’re scaring the fish,” said my brother. Dad started with his sarcastic laugh again. I started laughing and couldn’t stop! Finally it was time to eat so we headed back to our camping spot. And I will leave it there for now and continue this story tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.