Our camping journeys begin....

One Saturday morning last June, I was taking full advantage of the opportunity to sleep in that resulted from the kids spending the weekend with their grandparents when my partner rudely awakens me to the pronouncement: “we are buying a pop-up camper!” My first response was “no, we’re not”, my second was “what’s a pop-up camper”, and my third was “where’s my coffee!” I should have known then that I wouldn’t win the battle over the pop-up purchase, but I gave it my best shot for a couple of days. My best argument against buying one was compelling: it had been twenty years since either of us had camped and we had no idea whether we would like it or not. It seemed imprudent to go spend thousands of dollars for something that we may use only once. So, off we went to purchase camping equipment in preparation for a tent-camping trip to test the waters. We bought a tent the size of a small conference room along with all manner of other fun and interesting camping items. I have no idea why we thought we needed a gargantuan tent; we aren’t very big people and there are only four of us, but honestly we could have slept a small army in that thing! Since we already owned an inflatable mattress we thankfully didn’t waste another hundred dollars for one of those, because by the time we got out act together and figured out where we wanted to camp, we were the proud owners of a brand-new pop-up. Our arena-sized tent only saw action in our yard!
I recognize that it sounds as if, suddenly and without warning, a new pop-up appeared in our driveway without any involvement on our part and that certainly wasn’t the case. But I have to say that once we began looking at campers we were sort of drawn into this camper-shopping vortex that just wouldn’t let us loose. After a while of looking at hundreds of photos of pop-ups on scads of websites we simply had no choice but to buy one. And not the used variety we initially agreed on; oh,no we had to buy a brand new one. After all, we didn’t want to sleep on someone elses bed, right?
So, armed with our new pop-up we set off on our first family camping trip. I must say, there was quite the learning curve at the beginning and it had much less to do with understanding the intricacies of camping and much more to do with selecting the campground. My partner, who has perhaps some obsessive-compulsive tendencies when it concerns investigating new things (not a bad trait, I must say) searched for days for the perfect campground to go to on our first trip. We wanted someplace in the mountains that would be fairly easy to get to since neither of us had ever towed anything in our lives. Since we had two kids under the age of 4 we needed a kid-friendly place, preferably something with a river or stream and not too terribly far away from home lest something happen while we’re gone. Finally, after days of searching on the web and making telephone calls, Dawn found the perfect place – or so we thought. It’s a place called Enota Mountain Retreat and it’s located near Hiawassee in the North Georgia mountains. D read every review that could be found on the place and while there were a few negatives the overwhelming majority were glowing reports raving about the organic gardens and small farm on the property. (Having now experienced the place in person and been able to compare those reviews with reality we’ve figured out that owners of places that advertise on the internet (not to mentioned their employees, their friends and relations) can write reviews pretending to be customers when in reality they aren’t. I’m not saying that happened at Enota, but, well, let’s just say we couldn’t figure out how anyone who stayed there could possibly come away wanting to write a glowing review.)
Upon arrival, we had this sense that maybe someone was playing a trick on us. Another visitor noted that it felt like a scene from one of the “Family Vacation” movies when they drive into the run-down closed theme park. Our virginal camping ideas were that we would have this beautiful, private camping spot where we would only be able to see our neighbors if we went looking for them. Our visions did not include setting up our pop-up in the middle of a field next to a dirt road with virtually no shade and absolutely no privacy. Seriously. There was a stream. There was a farm. There were animals. It was, in a way, kid-friendly. But it was not at all like what we expected or wanted. I’m not exaggerating by saying the camping area was a field without shade or any form of natural separations between the sites. I can’t count the number of times I retrieved both my Scottie and my 1 year old daughter from the neighboring campsites. While that may make me sound like a bad parent, actually they merely wandered a matter of a few feet before they were technically in the other campsite. Having now camped a number of times we can safely say that was one of the worst set-ups we’ve ever experienced in terms of privacy and shade.
On top of that the dirt road that accessed the campground was about 10 feet from our pop-up. Between the staff and other campers trying to get to their sites, there was a constant flow of traffic kicking up plumes of dust to cover our site. The site itself was not large enough to hold our pop-up and our mid-sized SUV so we had to park our vehicle across the dirt road – in the mud. To add a bit of insult to injury we also discovered that since it’s all organic up there, they did nothing to contend with the overwhelming number of flies that infiltrated the campground. We had flies everywhere – in the camper, in the car, in our luggage, in our food – everywhere.
We checked out the organic garden and were not particularly impressed. Having grown up on a small farm myself, I was surprised at the weed-filled rows of very dirty vegetables. It just didn’t seem that much care was given to the garden and land. The farm animals were sweet but could have used some TLC. And, for God’s sake could they get some of the flies off of them?
We returned from our venture to the garden and farm to let the kids play at the playground. What a mess that area was! There were countless ways a kid could get hurt on each item of equipment. The in-ground trampolines, which were a good idea, were in horrible shape with springs missing everywhere. The playground equipment was in terrible shape and needed repairing or replacing altogether.
Feeling that perhaps we were being camping prima donnas having never really camped like this before, we began asking others around us how they were enjoying their experience. The loudest complaints came from those with travel trailers or rv’s who were unable to open either slides or awnings because of the tight spaces. Others were just as off-put by the dusty field of camping as we were. Some actually seemed to enjoy themselves, though for the life of me I can’t figure out why. About noon on day two of our three-day adventure, we threw in the towel and gave up the campsite to the flies. And when I say flies I mean you can start counting them and get to 100 without having to move. We just couldn’t take it anymore. We asked the management if we could possibly get some of our money back but all they offered was to give us a credit towards our next visit; like that was ever gonna happen! I do think the kids had fun and we made the best of it…..
You might wonder what on earth would make us ever go back on another camping adventure again and frankly I wondered that myself for a minute. But, it didn’t take long for us to figure out that in a different setting camping would really be a blast. So, off we went in search of our next campground and thus began our love affair with Georgia State Parks. Our first State Park experience was at Fort Mountain and my God what a beautiful place that is. The campground is very wooded and most sites are quite private. We were lucky enough to get an extremely private site on the top of a small hill in the campground. We were a short bike ride or walk to the bath house as well as the lake. When we went the temperature up there was close to 100 degrees so the public swimming area of the lake attracted a ton of locals as well as campers. It was so hot we actually went swimming with about 150 of our closest friends – at least they were after that experience. We learned to truly appreciate the fact that the camper had AC. We are not even close to hard-core campers and don’t function well without modern conveniences like heat and air. We loved cooking out on our grill and the food was so good. We went hiking up to the top of the mountain, which was absolutely spectacular. Learning about the wall and its history/mystery was interesting as well. All-in-all despite the heat, the Fort Mountain camping trip restored our faith that we really could and would enjoy camping. Our son got to experience and enjoy his first real campfire and marshmallow roast.
Not all was roses at Fort Mountain. The bath house was a little scary. Spiders and critters occupied most corners and the whole thing needed a facelift. We had our first experience seeing a school bus modified into some form of an rv – quite interesting and entertaining. We also had a couple of ‘Deliverance’ moments where we were fairly certain there were banjos playing somewhere in the background and bad stuff seemed imminent. Not surprisingly, the occupants of the modified school bus played a role in a couple of those moments. They also brought their own mid-sized freezer that they towed behind them. To each his own, I suppose.
All-in-all, the Fort Mountain experience restored our faith in our earlier belief that we would truly love camping. For me, personally, I discovered that my soul seemed rejuvenated by being back in nature. Not by being in a manicured city park but out in the wild with all manner of creatures, plants and trees. For whatever reason, it’s the only vacation where I truly feel that I get away from it all and can decompress. We also learned that many, if not most, campers are really good souls – folks who care about nature and making the world a little bit better place. Our final lesson from Fort Mountain was that food cooked and eaten under the stars tastes much better than that cooked inside. Once home, our then 3-year-old kept asking when we were going to go camping again. I think he enjoyed himself as much as we did.