Wilderness Adventure

What do King Kong, Marshmallows, and smurfs all have in common? The camping trip that Beckham and I took. Let me explain. A few weeks ago I got an email from a good friend in Chicago. He was bringing a group of guys from the HS youth group I used to work with down to the Smokies to do some camping. Beckham has been asking to sleep in a tent for months (although Julie had thought maybe the playroom or the backyard was a good place to start). So Beckham and I made a trip to Target to buy a sleeping bag, camp food, bug spray and the next thing you know we are in the car heading for Tennessee. Four short hours (roughly 2.3 DVDs in kid time) we arrived in historic Gatlinburg.

Gatlinburg can best be described as a red neck's Vegas. All of the velvet - just no Elvis. I had been when I was about Beckham's age so we had to park and see what had changed in 20 years. Not much - its still a blur of candy stores, t-shirt shops, those bears carved out of huge logs, and the Ripley's Believe it or not (yeah - believe it or not you just paid $17 to see a plastic replica of the bearded lady). Beckham of course was very impressed with the glitz. He was especially taken with the 30 foot King Kong in front of the wax museum. He had never seen King Kong so when I told him the story he said - "that is a very sad story - lets take pictures". Maybe he is heading for a career in journalism.

After we pryed ourselves away from the lights of Gatlinburg it was time to go to the Great Smokie National Park to set up camp for the night. We checked in with the park rangers and found our friends camp site. I had borrowed a 2 man tent from a friend at work. I remember thinking when I picked it up that it seemed really light - tent technology has come a long way. When we unrolled it I discovered that 2 man tent really should be more like a 2 smurf size tent. I think when they size tents they still must be using dimensions from the 1700s when the average height was 5 ft. Even Beckham felt a little cramped in there.

After setting up the 2 smurf size tent we met up with our friends and looked around for animals. We spotted a huge woodpecker and some deer. Then it was time for a traditional camp dinner. Beckham had selected a hot dog main course, fritos on the side, and a Smore for dessert. While he enjoyed the Smore - he quickly became impatient with the process and said "Dad can we just eat the marshmallows out of the bag - this takes too long". Then it was time for stories around the camp fire. And of course that night he insisted that we both sleep at the feet end because that was where the screen was an we could watch for falling stars and bears. We were wedged in there cheek-to-cheek for hours. I had forgotten that feeling the next morning after sleeping on the ground then getting the first waft of bacon on an open fire. It really is a great way to wake up.

In the morning there was a deer walking through our campsite and Beckham was looking to feed him poptarts but the deer didn't seem interested. Then it was time to pack up and do a few little park hikes on the way out. We saw some rapids and few waterfalls. It really is a very scenic park. Beckham especially loved the waterfalls. Although he quickly decided that instead of the ranger hike at 11 - he preferred to go see King Kong again and a McDonalds happy meal. So with that we were off for some fast food and then the four hour trip home for a much needed shower.

Bag of Marshmallows - $1.19
New sleeping bag - $30
2 tanks of gas - $86
Spending two days with Beckham on his first camping trip - priceless