Most RV owners know how entertaining it can be to sit around and watch the new RV folks try to get their RV into the designated campsite, but staying in a state park we have a high percentage of families around us who are staying in tents. Even more fun than parking of RVs is the activity associated with putting up a tent for the first time, and best of all is cooking over a campfire!

Next to us at the moment is such a family. They really didn’t keep the show going all that long when putting up their two tents, although it will be more interesting if it should rain with the way that they are up, but cooking dinner last night was quite a show. As a former Scoutmaster who taught fire building, I am frequently fascinated by the complete lack of understanding about a fire for many who attempt to build one. I am sure that most of them have few mosquitoes from the smoking mess that they build. Now add to that, momma standing by watching with a skillet in hand and several hungry kids anxiously calling for food and you begin to get the idea! At the first sign of flames the skillet was put on the fire and some meat placed into it, a big can of beans was opened and set next to the skillet, and to hold off the mob, two big bags of chips were opened and fed to the kids!

There really isn’t room here to tell the entire story but consider that the cooking tools in evidence were a can opener, a long handled meat fork, a pair of kitchen tongs, and a meat thermometer. It seems that the cook determines when anything is done with that thermometer, which requires that she stand over the smoking fire and hold it unit she takes the food’s temperature! When the temperatures were not going up much, everyone began to blow into and fan the fire, which of course produced flames, and also blew ashes and dirt into the skillet and the bean can.

The entire event required well over an hour was far more entertaining than anything on TV. From the look of their camp this morning as I write this, it may get ever better when folks start to come out of their tents to discover that the food left out last night has been strewn about the campsite in the night by raccoons, ravens, and blue jays! I think that we may have a soap-opera in the making.