Thanksgiving Camping Trip Oops!

 

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My family has always enjoyed camping. Our only modern convenience was a two burner propane camp stove and a tarpaulin stretched over a fold-up table. Several years ago, we decided a Thanksgiving campout would be fun. What we didn’t figure on were the ‘oops’ that would happen.

Cooking a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey, dressing, gravy, pumpkin pie and all the other goodies would take a lot of prep time and hours of cooking over an open fire. When I read an ad in the paper that a local grocery store was offering fully prepared Thanksgiving dinners, I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment. I could feed five people for less than $35.00.

The afternoon before Thanksgiving we picked up our packaged dinner. This is when the ‘ oops’ began. You see I, nor my sister, or daughter had ever bought a pre-cooked Thanksgiving meal. We thought thaw, heat, and eat. Right? Wrong! Oops!

We arrived at the campground late in the afternoon, set up our tent. Lo and behold, our daughter and teenage grandson had forgotten their tent. My sister had her pup tent. There was enough room for our daughter and grandson in our tent, but they’d have to sleep on the floor. Oops!

It rained that night. The temperature dropped leaving the tent floor cold and damp. Daughter and grandson dashed to their truck. Sister’s tent leaked. She scurried to her car. Oops and Oops! Have you ever needed to really go to the bathroom it’s after midnight and pouring rain and the campground outhouses are a long way from your tent? Ooops!

Thanksgiving morning was cold and wet. Brrr! We figured if the pilgrims could do it so could we. Sister, daughter and I opened the box that held our store bought dinner only to discover that it wasn’t heat and serve. Nope! Hmm, the oops were stacking up. The dressing was thoroughly mixed, but needed to be baked. The turkey was sliced, precooked and nestled in frozen gravy; the green beans and cranberry sauce were in cans, yay. The pumpkin pie was unbaked and frozen. Oops! What would the pilgrims do?

We set out on a wood gathering adventure. Have I mentioned that we were shivering cold? The thing is we never considered packing up and going home. If the pilgrims could celebrate Thanksgiving without the conveniences of electricity and modern kitchens, then so could we. The wood was wet and wouldn’t light—oops. It began misting rain—big oops. Hubby siphoned a bit of gas from our car to pour over the wood. WooHoo! We had a campfire and warmth.

We women doubled wrapped the turkey and gravy, and the pie in aluminum foil. As soon as we had enough hot ashes, hubby and grandson dug a hole and set the foiled packages inside, then covered them with ashes. Then they bunched a small fire. Thanks goodness for my trusty iron skillet which was perfect for cooking the dressing over the camp stove. While waiting for our Thanksgiving dinner to cook, we sat around the campfire and dined on peanut butter and banana sandwiches and hot chocolate. By six o’clock that evening and by lantern light we enjoyed a fully cooked Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings. In spite of all the oops, that campout remains our most favorite Thanksgiving of all time.

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LORETTA C. ROGERS

www.lorettacrogersnovels.com