Camping, My Comfort Food

When I was growing up, before my parents made a mess parting ways, we went camping every Summer. Sometimes we went 2 or 3 times before having to go back to school in the Fall. Sometimes we took a friend, sometimes our grandparents tagged along, but most times we went as a huge group consisting of my uncle Todd and aunt Sue and our older cousins and their friends' families.
I loved how much freedom (I thought) I had. If I wanted to hop on my bike and ride laps around the campground, all I had to do was put on my helmet and take off. If I wanted to go fishing, all I had to do was get my dad to make sure my fishing pole was ready to cast. If I wanted to go swimming, all I had to do was make use of the Buddy System and convince someone to go with me, which was never a difficult task.
I miss Summer food. There's something nostalgic about wrapping a hunk of ground beef and slices of potatoes and carrots in aluminum foil. For a second, I go back to being 9 years old whenever I squish a marshmallow between 2 graham crackers with half a Hershey's bar. I miss eating breakfast at a picnic table, having to lift the tiny mesh tent off the plate of scrambled eggs, shooing away any flies that caught a whiff while I got a scoop. Everything tastes better when you're eating it outside. We always made the same few things on our camping trips: foil packet dinners, hot dogs cooked over the campfire, BLT sandwiches with left-over bacon from the morning's breakfast, PB&J's and applesauce, butter-slathered roasted corn, and granola bars.
Things were so simple. Although we took a pop-up camper (think early 1990s model), us kids always slept in a tent. And honestly, I preferred to sleep in a tent.
The last time I went camping was at Fall Creek Falls 2 weeks before I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. It was after my first year of college, and our group consisted of 12 of us who met in an English class we all shared Spring semester. I was in charge, of course, and planned the entire trip out by myself. Everyone chipped in $25, and that covered our food, gas, campsite fees, and sleeping mat rentals from MTSU. I had 1 big tent, a guy that came along brought 1 big tent and 2 small tents, and another guy brought 2 tent hammocks. We went hiking, swimming, and we got drunk every night and told stories and played word games. It rained cats and dogs on our first night, but we were prepared for it. I got up every morning and made a big breakfast. Lunch was a group effort, making our own sandwiches from what I had brought. We never once ran out of anything. Pork chops were for dinner one night, chili another, and hot dogs the last night. Every evening, we sat around the fire and made s'mores and these amazing little banana boat things. You'd take a banana, mash it a little in your hand, slice the peel open lengthwise, stuff it with chocolate (or peanut butter) chips, fill the top of the gap with mini marshmallows, and wrap it in foil. Then you leave it in the fire for a minute or two, just long enough to melt everything into a delicious sweet banana goo. You can eat it with a utensil, or do it fancy-style and use graham cracker pieces to scoop it out of the peel like we did. I promise you, this is so unbelievably delicious.
Tomorrow, Mitchell and I are both off work. I think it's the perfect time to break out the new tent I got him for Christmas and light a fire. I may even pee outside for old time's sake!