Camping Trip

I started getting up at the sound of my alarm clock. I hate that sound. It usually means it is time to get up and go to school. This time it woke me for something different. It woke me up for our yearly camping trip. I’d almost want to go to school instead. I like the camping part. The part I don’t look forward to is spending all of that time with my family.
This trip is one of my least favorite times of the year. Everybody in my house goes, and my cousin, but he basically lives here. I live with my Dad, Mom, my cousin John, my brother Josh, and my sister Sarah. My cousin is fine, but I don’t look forward to being with everyone else, especially my little brother and sister. I don’t know why, but it seems like they have to follow me around and annoy me all day long.
I finally managed to get out of bed. I don’t know why we have to get up at four in the morning to go. I already had all of my stuff packed so I wouldn’t have to look around for it in the dark. I put it in the car already so I would be ready to go in the morning. I went downstairs to get breakfast. My brother and sister still weren’t ready yet, they take so long.
“Josh, Sarah, get down here!” Dad yells.
“We’ll be down in a minute” they yell back.
They always say that no matter how long they take. It will probably be more like ten minutes before they start to come down.
“Who wants breakfast?” Mom asks. “I made some pancakes last night.” She added.
Dad replies, “I’ll have some.”
I say, “I’m not hungry.”
Mom says, “You have to eat it’s a long drive.”
I say, “I’ll be fine Mom.”
Mom replies “Just eat your breakfast.”
I give up and say, “Fine.”
Dad yells, “Come on it is almost five o’clock already.”
Josh and Sarah are coming down the stairs. They sound like they are arguing about something. It seems like they are always arguing about something.
“I get to sit in the front seat”, Josh argues.
Sarah argues back, “I called it first.”
Dad finishes, “Neither of you get to sit in the front. Your mother and I are going to sit in the front.”
They both are complaining about how it’s not fair. They can be so annoying.
“Go get something to eat”, Mom pleads.
They listen. They finished eating and we got in the car. The drive to our camping spot took four hours. I hated going for this drive. I don’t know why we had to pick a spot so far away. Dad turned the key and the clock said five o’clock. This was going to be a boring two days. I can’t wait until it’s over. At least I could sleep during the drive there and back. During the rest of the trip I couldn’t though.
We stop on our way there to pick up my cousin. He is sleeping because of how late Sarah and Josh made us. We pretty much have to carry him to the car to get him to come with us. We got him inside the car and he fell asleep right away. I was tired myself.
I fell asleep for almost right after he did. I woke up a little while later. I was still tired, but I could not fall back to sleep. I look back and see Josh and Sarah. They were both sleeping. I look forward and see Mom sleeping. Everyone else is asleep. Well everyone except for Dad because he was driving. Dad did not notice that I was awake yet. It seems like the only times it is peaceful is when everyone is sleeping.
I asked, “Dad, how long till we get there?”
He replied, “About two hours.”
It didn’t feel like I slept for two hours. It felt more like two minutes.
He also said, “We are halfway there we should stop at a rest stop soon. Don’t wake them up yet. Wake them up when we get there. Let them sleep for a little bit longer.”
I say, “Okay I will.”
I saw a rest stop about ten minutes later and pointed it out to Dad.
He pulls over while I wake them up. The peacefulness is gone. Sarah and Josh rush in to go to the bathroom. I am the first one to get back to the car. I try to fall asleep while I was waiting for them. Even if I do fall asleep I will only be asleep until they get back. They can be so loud. I hear them coming now. I was right; I knew they were going to be loud. They climbed in noisily then slammed the door shut. I wonder how I can ever sleep with them in the same house.
Dad starts the car again and starts to drive. Somehow I manage to fall asleep again. I am glad I was tired. A little while later we got there. I wake up as Dad parks the car. My cousin and I jump out of the car and start to unpack everything. I hear something moving towards us. I think it is just John trying to scare me.
I say “Very funny. It’s not going to work.”
He asks “What’s not going to work?”
I answer “You trying to scare me.”
He asks “Scare you how?”
I say “By throwing a rock to make me think something is in the woods.”
He says “I did not do that.”
I did not believe him and resumed taking everything out of the car again. I heard another loud noise behind us and I turn around. I saw a giant bear charging toward us.
I scream “Run!”
My cousin and I run like our life depended on it because it did. After a minute I did not hear the bear anymore so I turned my head and saw that the bear was gone.
I yell to my cousin to stop. We take a minute to catch our breath. I start to think about what would happen if my family didn’t get away. We both decide to go back to see what happened. We start the walk back. I am scared of what I would find. We are walking slowly back. We are ready to turn around and run at anything that scares us. I do not want to see that bear again.
We are close enough close enough to see where the bear chased us. We could not see the bear anywhere. We want to be sure though. I decide to climb a tall tree to get a better view. I climb up and still do not see the bear. I tell John that and we walk forward. There was both good and bad news. The good news is that I do not see them. That means they are still alive. The bad news is that I do not see them. That means that we are stuck here until they come back and find us.
It looks like I got my wish. I don’t have to spend an entire two days with them. John and I scavenge for anything we could use. We only got to take out a couple of bags. We found a couple of things we could use. We found John’s fishing pole, several blankets, a pan, extra clothes, a hunting knife, and a lighter. Everything else was too destroyed to use.
I tell John “The first thing we should do is find somewhere to stay.”
John asks “Why can’t we just stay here they will find us easier that way.”
I say “The bear will probably come back here.”
He says “Then the best thing would be to find a place near the water.”
I say that we should start looking now. We still walk carefully looking for the bear. The lake was not too far from where we were going to set up camp. We find a good level spot and pile our scavenged stuff there.
I say “We should make a tent where we could sleep.”
John says “I will find the sticks we will set it up.”
I say “Okay.”
John comes back with the sticks. We used the hunting knife to sharpen the sticks to stay in the ground and poke through the blankets. We use three blankets to make the tent. We used one on each side and one on the ground. There were still three blankets left. To my surprise the tent came along fine.
John says “We also need a fire and food.”
I say “I will make the fire and you can get the food.” I hand him his fishing rod.
I head out of the clearing to look for some wood and kindling. It was not hard to find a lot. I also grab some rocks to put around the fire. I come back and set up everything for the fire.
I can’t remember which way we came. I am going to find it out. I remembered that we weren’t that far from the road. I try going several different ways, but I can’t find the road. I try one more time and I find it. It took a couple of hours to find. I looked up at the road. I didn’t see any cars. Now I know which way to look.
I was done so I went to find John. He was finished finding worms for bait so he must be at the lake fishing.
I ask “How is it coming along.”
John says “I haven’t gotten a bite yet.”
I knew things were going too smoothly. I ask “Do you want me to try to find something else we could eat.”
He says “Even if I did catch fish I would still be hungry.”
I go back to see if I could find anything else we could eat. I can’t find anything though. I decided I would look for a little while longer. I am glad I did. I found an apple tree and brought several back to our camp. I took two and showed them to John. I toss him one and we eat them.
John says “Good thing you found them I was getting hungry.”
I ask “Did you catch anything?”
He answers by showing me the two fish he caught. We decide that the fish and apples were enough for tonight. We head back to our camp. I got the lighter and started the fire. We cook the fish in the pan. We weren’t full, but it was enough.
I say to John “I think one of us should keep watch tonight.”
John asks “For what?”
I say “To see if they come back and get us and to watch for the bear.”
He says “I think we should do it in shifts.”
I take the first shift and John gets some sleep. I grab my blanket from inside the tent and start to watch. I can’t see anything. This was going to be boring. After a couple of hours I was so tired I felt like if I closed my eyes I would fall asleep. I go inside the tent. John was sleeping so I woke him up for his shift. I was so glad I got to sleep. I slept all the way through the night so everything must have been fine.
We decide to go see if they came back. I show John the right way. We got there and they weren’t there yet. We try up on the road. I see a car coming! We run out in the middle of the road to get their attention. It was my parents! I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so glad to see them. I’m even happy to see Sarah and Josh. I’m so glad that they’re back. I won’t hate spending time with them anymore. I missed them a lot. The camping trip isn’t bad it’s a lot more fun than being stranded in the woods with barely anything you can use.
They stopped the car and we ran up to it and got in. I looked at my Mom and she was crying. I could tell everyone was happy to see us here, even Josh and Sarah.