I loved going to Girl Scout Camp at Greynolds Park in Miami and I loved going to church camp each summer in Leesburg. I especially loved it when my parents bought a pop-up camper, took a month off after I graduated from high school and we traveled to New Mexico - camping all along the way.
As young newlyweds, and until our son was about four-years old, we roughed it in a tent.
When we first bought our little tent, we practiced setting it up in the living room of our one-bedroom apartment and then spent the night in it. Ahhh, young love! (And young joints and muscles)
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| Our tent is set up in the living room of our first apartment in Hollywood, Fla. |
We camped all over - in the Florida Keys, Lake Worth, Lake Placid, and even made a trip up to Illinois for a family reunion, camping along the way. Those were the days!
Then we went in with my parents in 1981 and bought a pop-up camper, which made life so much easier. We had two queen-sized beds that were NOT on the ground, and we had a cute little kitchen that folded up into place that included a sink with pumped water and a two-burner stove.
Our first camping trip in the pop-up was just two days after buying it - we went to a local park
and watched the first Space Shuttle launch. This is my husband and our dog Button.
Our son was fishing in a small pond right in front of the camper.
We had that pop-up for 18-years and traveled all over the place in it -- Georgia, Washington DC, New York, Canada, Pennsylvania, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina and, of course, most of Florida. Such good times remembered in that camper; spending the best quality time with our son and with many friends. Often there were as many as 35 of us camping with our children - rain or shine.
We eventually gave the pop-up to my nephew, who continued the tradition for about five more years.
In February of 2010, we bought a trailer, which I call our "home away from home" and my husband calls our "emergency shelter in case of another hurricane season like 2004."
Mom and I standing in the doorway of our new camper.
Mother was thrilled when we bought the camper - she enjoyed camping as much as we do and, thank goodness, we were able to take several trips with her, savoring every moment.
Which brings me to the point of today's post...
My husband and I were camping on Pine Island on the west coast of Florida this past week. My younger sister even came and camped with us for two nights. I warned her that at 5 a.m. every morning, this one particular bird would sing and would keep it up for about an hour. I told her that it might wake her.
It wasn't until Sunday morning when we were packing things up to leave, that I realized what kind of bird it was. As we were making the final check to ensure we had everything, the bird began to sing. I looked up and it was a cardinal sitting on the branch right next to the back side of our camper.
It was my mother.
If you've been following my posts, you know that's how my mother makes her presence known. Sometimes it's both Mom and Dad, and sometimes it's just her.
That morning while having breakfast, I sadly said to my husband that I hadn't heard from Mom in a while, and then this!
It was just the perk I needed.
So, there she was - with us camping, again.
PS -- The first two photos above are from the "missing photo album." Yes!! I found it, but it wasn't just one I was missing. It turns out there were two missing -- but I found them and all is well in Liebman-land.
