Todd's Stories #8

When you were younger, do you remember going out with your family and friends on a camping trip? Do you remember how much fun it was to go kayaking and canoing and sleeping in a tent? Well I sure do. It was always a blast to go camping in the wilderness and enjoying the fresh air and good company. I would sleep like a baby in those tents, breathing in the crisp, clean air and listening to the water in the brooke flow near by. That is, I slept like a baby every night except the worst night of my life.

I had been on camping trips before so I had already popped my camping cherry. I was by no means an expert, but I knew how to get around in the great outdoors and was not afraid to get a little dirty. I had gone camping on several previous camping trips with my good friends the Princes', but we had always gotten nothing but blue skies and great weather. Well, that was not to be so on this trip, and I would pay the ultimate price.

On the previous trips I had brought a little inflattable mattress to put my sleeping bag on top of. By no means was it the most comfortable mattress out there, but it got the job done. This trip however I thought that I would try something new. From the years my sister had gone to sleep away camp she had a couple of little cotton mattress that provided the comfort and cushion that I oh so desired. I decided to bring one of those cotton mattresses instead, and it's a decision I have regreted ever since.

The first night everything went smoothly. The cotton mattress worked to perfection and I was as comfortable as a fat little boy could be. The second night, however, was a completely different story. Apparently during that night it rained quite a bit. Under normal circumstances, that would have been no big deal. However, I had brought along a cotton mattress. As we all know cotton has a nasty little habit of absorbing water. Well, I found that out the cold and wet way. I woke up in the middle of the night to a mattress soaking wet and freezing cold. At first I thought I had peed my pants because I couldn't for the life of me figure out why all my stuff was wet. It wouldn't be until much later on that I would discover it was simply rain water, but either way I was cold and extremely uncomfortable (in retrospect I may have preferred pee because at least that would have been warm for a while.)

Not wanting to disturb anyone else, I simply just laid there, shivering and wide awake in my giant puddle of a mattress. It wouldn't until be hours later until the sun finally rose and I felt a tiny bit of warmth. I immediately got out of the tent, and although I was still very cold, anything was better than that pneumonia trap of a cotton mattress. When the parents finally awoke and started making a fire I could not have been more relieved, finally able to feel my hands as they roasted over the hot flame. The next night I just slept on the ground in my sleeping bag, but anything was better than that giant sponge I had previously called a mattress.

The moral of the story is sleeping in freezing cold water sucks and don't bring a cotton mattress on a camping trip.