Skip to main content

Return to Coolidge

 Coolidge state park. I just realized that we have not camped here in 13 years! That is crazy! We have come up here for the day many times. Several of these memories stand out. The last time we camped here was memorial day weekend of 2010. We had not booked anything in advance and had a difficult time finding some thing but after dark on Saturday of memorial day weekend, we hooked the Cherokee up to the pop-up and drove up. Noah was four and Liam was seven. On the way here I can still recall getting emergency calls from truck drivers as we were driving past Echo Lake, because I was still working for GMH back in those days, but not for much longer.


Because as a family, we were always late, and we would always arrive after dark. I used to do this thing where I would set the camper up, unfolding the pop-up in pitch darkness, and I was excellent at it. Well, one reason might’ve been that I was being sort of sarcastic about how we always arrived after dark and showing off a little bit that I could do it just as efficiently in the dark as I could with light. The real benefit however was setting up, had we use lights we would’ve been swarmed by mosquitoes, so I would always wait until everything was buttoned up and Velcro’d up and we were inside before we ever turned the lights on. I am certain that even today eight years after we sold that pop up, if you were to put me in the dark with it, I could still set it up to this day just as efficiently.


We went to bed pretty much right off as it was right around midnight. I recall hearing wolves that night, what an incredible sound. Donna slept in and I spent the first hour with my boys. I can still feel that morning today. Liam and Noah got Junior Park Ranger badges while they were here that weekend. 


As I think about all these details, I never regret having camped with them so much while they were growing up. I perceive that it gave them some thing that they will have for the rest of their lives.


Perhaps one of my favorite memories of coming up here for the day was in the spring of 2021. Liam and Haylie came hiking with us. Poor Haylie did not have shoes that were good for hiking and her feet were really hurting. Liam worked on some solutions, and in the end he gave her his shoes and he hiked barefoot. What I love about this is it is so symbolic of how they are with each other, and always have been. No matter what they have to do for each other. They always do it. 


At the end of the hike we cooked backpacking food up at the pavilion. Liam and Noah had the Biolite stove cranking away cooking things. When I see them do all these things, I realize that they’ve learned a lot over the years. Today, each with their own gifts, they run with it on their own terms. I cannot love and appreciate this enough!


Tonight, I walked up to the ranger station because there is free Wi-Fi up there, but no service, but since I have my phone set to Wi-Fi calling, it worked out perfectly and I called Donna. On the way back, I made friends with my neighbor who was also walking back.


He emerged from the shadows on my right flank. We started talking. He is from Connecticut. Amazingly the conversation (I promise through no instigation on my part - really) turned to Asian food. What are the odds? He was on day 5 of a 7 day solo camping trip. He seemed like a really nice guy. (I am serious about the Asian food, I did not bring it up). As we headed back to our respective campsites, I learned he is my neighbor.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You've got to get mad

   I need to create classic recipes. It is the avalanche in me that cannot be stopped. I love seafood. I make excellent mussels. Sweet vermouth, PEI mussels, cream, portabello mushrooms, shallots, garlic, cilantro, bacon. Maybe a Thai chili or two if I want to cook on the wild side.  My oh my! But now, I NEEEEEEEED to make a lobster thermidor, a favorite back in1960s-70s entertaining. The food from those old black-tie dinner party meals is rising into view once again. I know there can be wild spins on what we can do with a meal that Julia Child championed us out of our collective trepidation. 60 years later we are tampering with the maverick. But take your rest here for a moment to cook at the station of that wonderful woman who brought the housewives out of the dark ages, showing us all that family dinner had no limits. Even more so, Julia showed us that ambition and creativity were not owned by men alone. She like my grandmother, did so in a world that said otherwise. B...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Universal Antagonist

There is an underrated movie from 1967 called “The Presidents Analyst”. It tells the story of a presidents analyst who cannot talk with anyone about what he knows. This creates more anxiety than he can deal with. It leads to catastrophic paranoia. In the meantime, various government agencies are trying to kill him. The phone company (a unit with the same power as Facebook, google, and other large personal data collecting monsters) wants what he knows to further their cause of power. He ends up being  protected by a suburban “Liberal” family that has more guns the the “right wing wackos” they are protecting themselves from. With many crazy mind bending plot twists  that were  common in the movies of the late 60’s, the kind that Austin Powers liked to spoof, in the end, the main character realizes the “it’s the phone company” behind all of the evil in their lives, behind all the evil in the world. Hollywood was serious about their message in an insane package. This movie wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Very Personal Trap

   Someone has filled my freezers. That person is me. They are full enough for me to rearrange the contents to fit something new. Something is amiss. I am not shopping more, not hitting great sales, and have not changed my shopping habits. That can only mean one thing. I must not be cooking enough. So what is going on? Winter depression is all around like an unwanted, persistent weather pattern. I remember a time like this a few years ago. I cannot recall how I broke free from its gravity well. My ambition requires a jumpstart, and my motivation has flown south for the bitter winter season. I feel I am left with nothing, like Henry Bemis in the Twilight Zone episode Time Enough at Last. Socially awkward, Henry could not deal with people in any way whatsoever. His only refuge was found between the pages of a book. It was his special place. A catastrophic event takes the lives of every other person on the planet, yet Henry is spared. As he wanders around a post-apocalyptic city,...
Post a Comment
Read more