Father and Son Camp Out: Guest Post

Luke is here to share his camping experience with Truman.  Sit back and enjoy!

This weekend I took Truman to our stake’s Fathers and Sons campout, and something that happened on this campout has definitely made this campout one of the most memorable, and sad, campouts I’ve ever been on. Like, maybe even more memorable for me than the time I got all messed up on that icy snow campout and Ashton freaking out trying to get a first aid kit.

So in Florida, the stake does the Father’s and Son campout in the winter instead of in May mostly because we would die in the sweltering summer heat in May. Camping in Florida is ideal from October to March in Florida. Any other time you camp you sweat all night long, and if you do camp out in the summer, you almost have to make sure the sites have electricity so you can bring a fan to keep you cool. It’s seriously murder. Anyway… I digress.

We arrived at our site and as soon as Truman got out of the car it seemed he knew why we were there. To camp! When he gets excited he talks a lot and runs like crazy. He got super-excited to set up the tent and as soon as it was up he was inside and laughing hysterically. Aubrey and I have taken him camping before, so he knew that the tent was for sleeping and was inside pretending to go “night.”

This campout was tons of fun for me, watching him just do whatever he wanted to do for the afternoon and evening, and following him around. He was really good around the fire, stayed with me the whole time, and he really enjoyed running in the dark with his headlight on. It was fun to see his little head bobble in the complete darkness. I will say that Truman literally has no fear of being outside, or even of being alone. This kid has become really independent.

At night, we had a big fireside activity, and we had fun singing songs and Truman zoned out watching the fire burn. He fell asleep on my lap, and I considered laying him down in the tent and coming back out to be by the fire for a while,  but our tent was pretty far from the campfire, and since he was asleep already I decided to just hold him and let him keep me warm while he slept. It was a good thing I didn’t put him in the tent.

At around 9:30, I decided to go to my tent and put Truman down, and maybe call Aubrey and go to bed. I had just been in the tent at around 7:30 or 8 when I put his pajamas on, so it hadn’t been very long since I had been in the tent. As I walked up to the tent, I saw through the screen that there were some chips on the floor of my tent. My first reaction was “what idiot 5 year old came into my tent and ate all my chips?!” But then I began to open the tent door, and as I still observed the tent, I realized that there weren’t just chips on the floor, but the chips were EVERYWHERE. On my bed, inside the sleeping bag, all over my bags and inside my tent case. EVERYWHERE. I then realized that this might not have been a child. I quickly closed the door of the tent and only one word went through my mind… “RACCOONS.”

I backed away slowly from the tent. I had a sleeping baby in my arms, and I almost walked into a tent with raccoons in it. Those things are mean! I was in shock. I walked around the tent cautiously, trying to figure out how they would have even got into the tent, and saw some small holes in the windows mesh, but it still didn’t seem large enough to fit a raccoon. At this point I was freaking out. I had no idea if the raccoons were in the tent, or if they had left if they were coming back, or if they were stuck in the tent because they made it in the tent but couldn’t get out…. If I wasn’t holding Truman, I probably would not have freaked out mentally as much, because I could have at least gone into the tent and tried to assess the situation without risking Truman getting attacked.

I found a picnic bench and sat down in the dark. I had no idea what to do. I was embarrassed that I was stupid enough to leave food in my tent, even after years of campouts with dad and every scout leader ever that had told us never to leave food in the tent. I wanted to just clean up the mess without anyone finding out, but I had Truman sleeping in my arms and I didn’t want to enter a possibly raccoon-infested tent with him. So, humbled and without any other option, I decided to go ask for help.

It was so embarrassing. I went up to my really good friend from the ward, Greg, who was still by the campfire. I had just told them I was going to bed, so they all saw me returning and said “changed your mind?” I didn’t even know what to say. I walked up to Greg and I said “I think something got into my tent.” Originally, I just wanted to have him hold Truman by the campfire so that I could go back and take care of it. But Greg and Lane, both from the ward, really wanted to see what happened so we walked back to the tent and took a look.

We walked around the tent again and didn’t see much damage. Lane was the brave one. He went into the tent, and made sure he was alone. Then we all went in and tried to figure out how they even would have gotten in. Then we looked up….

They had somehow jumped onto the top of the tent, UNDER the rainfly, and fallen into the tent. And getting out, they must have jumped up and out again. There were no marks or holes on the walls of the tent. Only on the roof. And the rainfly was on! Lane, Greg, and I were amazed at the determination of these raccoons. Because of the number of huge holes in the roof of the tent (FIVE), we assumed there were at least 2-3 raccoons in the tent. I tried to make Greg hold Truman so I could take everything out of the tent and clean up my own mess, but they were both so nice and just took care of it for me. I was really embarrassed, but really grateful for them both. Lane shook out my sleeping bag and air mattress, and I was able to lay Truman down.

Once we had everything cleaned out, I FaceTimed Aubrey and showed her the damage. Throughout this whole thing, I couldn’t help but laugh. It was a sad experience, and frustrating, but what else can you do but laugh at this story?! I laid down with Truman and tried to go to sleep. At about midnight, I heard noises outside my tent. Like RIGHT OUTSIDE my tent. The distinct noise of someone eating chips outside my tent. THE AUDACITY! Those stupid raccoons came back for seconds, and were wandering around the tent chewing LOUDLY on the chips that had fallen out of my bag when Lane had shook it out. Not just chewing, I heard them chewing, smacking, and licking their paws RIGHT OUTSIDE my tent. It was extremely frustrating. I was angry and terrified at the same time. I was scared they might try to re-enter the tent, but completely angry at the same time, and almost ran out of the tent to beat them to a pulp for ruining my tent in a raccoon-retaliation fashion. It was a long night.

Truman slept great all night, and of course, I didn’t. He stayed really warm and pushed me off the air mattress multiple times in order to reclaim MY pillow. The rest of the campout was uneventful, mostly because the raccoons had ruined my tent and I was still in shock about it. Truman had pancakes, sausage, and orange juice for breakfast.

And he figured out how to put his hands in his pockets, which was a good thing because his hands were like ice that morning from eating breakfast. He was excited to see and pet some horses we saw while on a walk that morning, and didn’t want to get in the car or clean up to go home. The only way I could get him in the car was my mention of Mom. I said, “Do you want to go see mom?” and he got SO excited and shouted “YEAH!” and jumped up into my arms and was like “let’s go!”

Overall, this campout was a success, even though I am still really ticked off about my tent, Truman was never once sad on the campout and we really had a good time. They say hindsight is always 20/20. I don’t know if anyone else has ever left food in the tent, but now I can say FROM EXPERIENCE that you never, EVER want to leave food in your tent. Not even an unopened bag of chips. ESPECIALLY in raccoon country.

You are all welcome to make donations to my “new tent” fund (totally just kidding). This story is sad, but I am doing pretty good at just accepting what happened. Without the raccoons, the campout was perfect, and I really enjoyed my time with Truman. I can’t help but laugh at this whole situation. As we always say, “what the random?!”