We were able to carry on our almost annual tradition of spending a few days inside the famous Blue Line, Adirondack State Park, last weekend. This year it was at our favorite spot — Lake Eaton State Park. The campground was quiet except for the pleasant chatter of children playing. A family across from us was having a camping family reunion of sorts.
Planning Helps
JoAnne and I have our annual campout pretty much down to a science. The food box- now a big plastic storage container- has enough in it for our stay, including a box for tea for me and supplies for s’ mores, of course. The cooler contains goodies like homemade strawberry jam, cabbage relish, and pickles. The Long Lake grocery store supplies the rest. Air mattresses are the key to a good night’s sleep in a tent. The packing list helps us not to forget little things like flashlight, ax, clothes line and matches. And keeping the tent seams sprayed with sealer helps survive the storms with a dry tent–well, most of the time. It rained so much this time that we had a little water get under the tent on top of the plastic groundcover and seep in a bottom seam that was not sprayed. New this year was phone service that reached our campground, and my outdoor recliner – both very helpful.
Friends Make it Special
The most fun this time was that our friends from Philadelphia, Bill and Kathy Mell, were also vacationing inside the Blue line, about 20 minutes away from us. So we got together three times. One night we played spades under the dining tent by lantern light after eating s’ mores. Another night as it rained some more, we ate a good dinner at their rented cabin.
Taking on a Challenge
On the last morning of our stay, the weather was perfect for JoAnne to swim across Lake Eaton. She has an annual goal to swim across an Adirondack Lake while we are on vacation there, and she stays in physical shape to do that by using her treadmill and jogging. She had persuaded Hannah Mell, Bill and Kathy’s daughter, to swim with her, so we rented two of the park’s aluminum canoes to accompany them and they were off. It took about an hour, but they both completed the swim, crossing the lake from the swimming area to the area closest to Owl’s Head Mountain at a small rock landing under the hemlocks that we “discovered” years ago.
A Time for Good Reading
We always take good reading too. I often get up early, make tea, and read. In addition to devotions, and Bible reading, I took Chuck Colson’s book, The Faith, which I had barely started, and finished it in a few mornings of reading. It would make an excellent Bible study for serious students. It would also make a good Lenten study as its outline is like an adult catechism. I find that time away is a wonderful time to enrich myself in devotions and spiritual reading.
