First time Campers

2024 was filled with many challenges and changes in my life. Almost all of those have lead to some personal development on my end. In short, I’ve experienced a second work crisis, progressed my relationship with my wonderful girlfriend, contemplated a different life entirely as we looked at RVs and dreamed about getting on the road, oh yeah, and I found God! However, all of that will have to wait for a later date, for we are here to discuss Danielle and I’s first ever camping trip.

It all started a few months back. The weather was HOT and we both had some extra money in our banks (God bless). Looking for a way to escape the heat and to also get some exercise, Danielle and I discussed the possibility of getting into kayaking. Fast forward a couple weeks, and I’m a card carrying Academy Sports enthusiast. We buy a kayak that supports my obnoxiously high value in the weight department and the love of outdoor adventure soon took over my mind. Danielle and I started planning trips to different rivers and lakes to take our kayaks to. We got the car mount, we got the the little dolly with wheels, we got a rack in our backyard… It was safe to say that we were in deep.

“Rare capture of the kayak above water and not capsized.”

After a few trips to Sports Academy, Danielle felt comfortable enough to throw a tent into our shopping cart. She said the only thing she wanted for her birthday this year was a camping trip. The same trip she wanted last year, mind you, but we were unable to get that plan off the ground.

Who am I to deny such a wish?

Fast forward, again, but this time all the way to December. I’ve asked for a survival knife and my mom purchased me the obligatory, “Get a load of this guy…” survival knife that I holster on my belt. Things sick, it’s got a little ferrocerium rod so I can start fires, It has a serrated edge for sawing, a sharp edge for, well you know, cutting stuff. The hilt has a sharpener attached to it. Heck, this thing even has a bottle opener!

Why am I sharing this? Well, if you think the knife was the only preparation I made, then allow me to introduce myself. I’m super ADHD and I LOVE learning new skills. Since Danielle mentioned the desire to go camping, I self evaluated my skillset and realized that even though I love the outdoors, I don’t know jack! I’ve only been camping once in my life and it was a with a large group when I was younger. I never learned how to pitch a tent, start a fire, or even how to gather properly dry tinder. So, with that in mind, I’ve spent lots of time on YouTube learning all the little odds and ends that make up a camping trip. I even started making my own fire starters. It’s just a bunch of matches wrapped in jute and dipped in wax, but this was the first practical thing I’ve ever crafted (and I’m itching for more, so if you know any cool crafts, please reach out!). Check out how easily my first ever campfire went up with one of these bad-boys!

Not bad for a first timer of I do say so myself! This trip really needed a fire too, as even though we live in Florida, the lows went down to 32°F. We actually had family plans that we were going to attend immediately after the trip and we decided to call the trip a day short to get a proper nights rest. It was just too cold for us to sleep and we basically stared at the ceiling of the tent the whole night.

Even though we froze our butts off, we are both very proud to have followed through with our plans. We did pitch the tent, we did start a fire, we did enjoy nature and we did tough it out when even more seasoned campers were calling it quits.

Now that we’ve outlined the details of the trips, let me share a funny little anecdote: Even though the intention of the trip was to disconnect, I was super excited to get some amazing captures of the sky during the night and some of the campsite animals during the day. As fate would have it, I left my SD card at home and was unable to take even a SINGLE picture while we were on this trip. MAJOR BUMMER, I know, but it did allow me to focus on just, well, existing and letting go. Exactly what I needed. Sometimes we get so caught up in what we want out of something. It’s easy to focus on what’s not working and lose grip on what is working, and thankfully, God allowed me to quickly drop the idea of taking pictures and I ended up thoroughly enjoying this trip. I almost don’t even miss the pictures… almost.

This is my first blog post, and I’m not too familiar with how to really do this or end the post, so I’ll just share a time lapse of us setting up the camp! If you made it this far, thanks for reading and I hope to see you next time! =)

-Matt