Wherever We Land

Hey, camping always makes me lose track of time. You won’t believe what happened to Nikki and me when we went camping at Warrior Creek Campground in Boomer, NC. So, we got there a bit late and rushed to set up our tent. We were excited to wake up early the next day and explore the campground and the area. But guess what? The night didn’t go as planned. Right when we were about to fall asleep, we realized there was a hole in our air mattress. Long story short, we ended up sleeping on the cold, hard ground.

So, it was like 2 in the morning, and we were lying on the hard ground. I was like, “Let’s just pack up and go home.” But Nikki surprised me. She was like, “Nah, let’s make a comfy spot on the ground with our blankets. It’s 71 degrees out, so we don’t need ’em.” And she said we could patch the hole in the air mattress in the morning.

After a restless night, we woke up around 6:30 am, got ready, and started our day. Nikki tried to find the hole in the air mattress. There was a beautiful lake just a few steps away from our tent, so I went there to do some fishing. It was an amazing view. There was mist on the water and fish jumping everywhere, eating the bugs on the water’s surface. The sun was slowly rising through the trees. After fishing for a bit, I thought I should capture this incredible scene on camera. I ran back to the tent to get my GoPro. When I got there, Nikki told me the hole was on the top of the air mattress, and she wasn’t sure if we could fix it. I told her not to worry about it, to grab her camera, and come with me to the lake.

So, we reached the lake, and Nikki was like, “Wow, this place is stunning!” We recorded the mist on the water, the fish jumping, and the sunrise. I went fishing while Nikki relaxed and took in the view. Before we knew it, it was almost lunchtime, and we had to figure out how to fix our broken air mattress, or should we just break camp.

We decided to Walmart in Wilkesboro, which was like ten minutes away from the campground. We bought a new air mattress, a box fan, worms, ice, and some other stuff. It was like after 2 p.m. when we left the store. We totally lost track of time in there, but it was cool in there, and it was like 94 degrees outside, so we didn’t really mind. When we got back to the campsite, we started filming for our YouTube channel, Wherever We Land. We like to document our journey and share our experiences with our subscribers. We filmed ourselves sleeping on the ground, going to the lake, heading to Walmart, and now we’re setting up the new mattress and fan. While Nikki was working on the mattress, I started setting up the grill to cook. Nikki was like, “Snatcher, why are you setting up the grill now?” And I was like, “It’s 5:45 p.m.” And Nikki was like, “WHAT? Where did the time go?” And I was like, “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

After setting up our Flatpack Grill, I added some hickory wood to it and got the grill nice and hot. I mixed up some seasonings, chopped some onions, and mixed it all into some ground meat. Nikki patted out four large burgers, and I grilled them on an open grill. I started noticing a lot of foot traffic by our campsite. As people walked by, they asked what we were cooking and complimented us on the smell of the burgers.

We sat in front of our tent with the fan behind us as we ate and took in the awesome view of the lake. Time quickly passed us by as we enjoyed the peace and tranquility of our campsite. When Nikki looked at her phone, she said, “Wow, it’s 10:30 p.m.!” We made our way into the tent and as we lay on our brand-new air mattress, which was larger and raised off the floor, we laughed about our previous night and waking up on the floor. We both agreed that we made the right decision to tough it out and stay at the campground.

After a great night’s sleep, we woke up early. Around 5:45 a.m., I went down to the lake to fish and take in the amazing sights. Nikki stayed behind to relax and read her devotional. When I returned to the campsite, Nikki prepared breakfast, and after eating, we sat quietly for what seemed like a few minutes, reading our books, but it turned out to be a little over an hour. We decided we would start breaking down the tent and packing up because checkout was at 12 p.m., and it was now 10:40 a.m.

The moral of this long story is that when we go camping, I find that time slips by quickly. My wife was a little unsure of the idea of camping on our first few camping trips, but she quickly came to enjoy camping as much or maybe even more than me. This brings me back to the old saying, “Time flies when you’re having fun.”