The Crazy Campers Guide: Post 3

Starting from a young age, almost all of us have experienced an activity or event that becomes somewhat of a family tradition and reoccurs every year. For my family and our fellow camping families in our group it had become the annual trip to the Cadillac State Park. This was our groups favorite park to camp at each year and the one we looked forward to the most. Though it wasn't just the confines of the park that made it so great. It was mainly the surrounding places and the memories we shared there that made it our favorite.

One of the best places we looked forward to going to every year was Adventure Island, which was located right across the road from the camp ground. It had everything us kids could ask for, starting as basic as the arcade room and the putt-putt golf, all the way to the hot spots of the go-karts and bumper boats. But the attraction that made this park so fantastic was its two waters slides. The one slide in particular though was a crowd favorite. It was the steep and wild green slide. This slide was a dark tunnel that only allowed a haze of green tint to be inside. When kids rode down it you could hear their screams echo all the way to the bottom where they would plunge into the wadding pool. We would run up the stairs so fast after each ride and zoom right back down the slide with joy and excitement. The trip to the slides was always a high light of the trip for all the kids of the group, but could be a rather tiring day for the parents trying to keep a watchful eye and still enjoy their time in the sun.

There was one time that the parents let there tiredness get the best of them. It was a day that all of the mothers of the group decided to pawn the kids off on the dads and go shopping. This was no easy task for the fathers to handle, especially after a long night before of bon-fire and poker games. The 4 of them were in charge of watching over 12 children who all varied in age and different interest of activities. The day had been a long one but the dads managed to conquer and keep us herded in the water park area. They began packing up all of their cards and helped us get dressed and ready to leave. We were all stuffed into the two mini-vans and departed back to the campers. Upon arriving we all sat around the fire and waited for the moms, who were on their way back to start dinner. All of a sudden one of the dads asked where his son Jack was. Jack was the youngest of all the kids at an age of 5 and was tiny, so he was very easily hidden in the crowd.

The dads knew they had to act fast before Jack's mom got home and had a primal fit over her lost cub. Three of them jumped in the car a raced back to the park. They searched and searched, looking high and low for little Jack. What was really only 5 minutes, turned into hours as they thought he would be right in the open. Finally they discovered him sitting in the corner at a racing game seat watching a older kid play. Snatching him up quickly rushed back home just pulling in right behind the mothers. Jack's mom asked her husband why Jack was the only one in the car with them, and to eager to reply he said they had went to get ice cream. Jack's young brain quickly took note of what his dad said, and asked "When did we get ice cream?", and lets just say that Jack's dad felt the wrath after that!

So whether or not a memory of a place or day is good or bad, Just remember this. Those make for the best camp-fire stories down the road.