Camping

As we are nearing the time of our annual Lake Hartwell family camping trip, I think that I will write about a memory of Carol camping.  As some may know, Carol was not in love with camping nor of sleeping in a tent.  She was a trooper though, and came each year to our huge group camping trip where many of the Clarkston High alumni would bring their families.  Last year, we were set up in our usual spot next to Stuart and Carols tent.  We, however, were in our air conditioned camper.  Evening came and we tied our dog to a long leash and left her outside as Mike does not like dogs in the camper.  We slept soundly in our nice cool camper. However, I kept hearing our dog fussing and howling.  I kept fussing back at her through the window and finally after many hours, got up to check on her.  Turns out she had wrapped herself around a tree and was barely able to move.  I felt terrible for our dog but worse for Carol because I was afraid that she had not slept in the tent right next to our dog.  If you knew Carol, sleep was an important part of her daily routine and she would not be happy if Sable had kept her awake.  Well it was pretty obvious when Carol crawled out of the tent that sleep had not been her friend.  That morning many of the campers were asking whose dog was howling all night and most were placing the blame on "Tina's dog".  We happily went along with this as we did not want to admit that we had kept Carol awake all night.  I love our annual trip, and loved being able to catch up with Carol as we didn't get to see each other as often as we had when our kids were all younger.  She will be missed this year by all of us at Lake Hartwell.

 

Teresa Swinehart