YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!!!! part 2
by Kim Leady


The following day while the boys were at school and the hubby was at work, I decided I'd do a little internet surfing to see what was out there on the park and the surrounding area.

That's when my rose colored dream of peaceful travels began to cloud with reality. I was having a hard time finding information about this particular park and what I was finding wasn't real encouraging; bear warnings, portages of over 422 rods (320 rods equaling one mile), blackflies, mosquitoes, pit toilets, and all kinds of gear and ideas about which gear was better for which trip, but not the information I was looking for. Like where is the closest place to rent a canoe or kayak outside of the park.

Now mind you, I'm not an inexperienced traveler or trip planner. I have several trips underneath my belt. We have traveled with our children in twenty-nine of our fifty states - mostly by car. One for which I'm famous for is our Disney World trip in 1995. The one my family has affectionately dubbed 'The Leady March'. The same trip, I might add, that my family only had to wait in line one time…one time to ride a ride, and that was because they decided to deviate from my schedule!!! The schedule, which I had worked on for six months, one that was guaranteed to allow us to visit all three parks and not have to wait in line for any of the attractions.

So, this little trip I figured should be a piece of cake. Yeah, right. The information so far was telling me that the park I picked was so unknown, that even most Minnesotans didn't know where it was. This fact was of little comfort to me. I could picture the headlines now 'Family lost in the unknown part of Minnesota, rescuers unable to find party due to the lack of information about this location.'

So, while I worked my way through the black hole of the Internet, still searching for advice and an outfitter to help me plan this wonderful trip, my husband reminds me wearing his warm smile, that we know longer have the camping equipment which he thought we might need for this trip, i.e. tent, sleeping bags, water bags, or mess kits - hence his smile.
If you know anything about the male species, you know they love to buy new equipment. Now mind you, I didn't say shop. I said buy. There is a big difference between those two words in a male's mind.

So, come Saturday morning, we loaded the boys into our van and headed into the city to find this stuff that all three males were sure we would die without. As I drove into this large sporting good complex, I noticed that the parking lot was quite full…nothing like it is during the week. I thought to myself, maybe they're having a sale. This could be good. No luck. It just happened that males prefer do their buying on the weekends.

As I'm walked into the store, I looked over to my husband and asked if he had the list of items we needed to price, which as a family we had made out on our thirty mile drive to the store. He nodded yes, as he stared at all the stuff surrounding him, his eyes dancing with excitement. Seconds later, the boys informed us they were going to find the tents and off they went.

Since the camping gear was in the back corner, we had to wind ourselves through the clothing department to get there. This brought something to mind that I had not thought of yet…clothing, we were going to need lightweight and quick drying stuff, stuff that was not in our wardrobe, yet. However, this little hurdle I felt I could quickly jump, remembering the outdoor clothing web site I had accidentally found the other day.

My husband seemed to be infatuated with the cooking stoves as we ambled down the cooking isle. I couldn't understand why. We already had a white gas cooking stove…a two burner, so I asked him. Beaming at me, he proudly announced that we couldn't take such a contraption on this trip. No, this trip required a little lightweight single burner stove - one like they use when they are climbing Mt. Everest.

Now for those that don't know this, people have died climbing this mountain, so why would I want to use the equipment that they used? I don't know, but my husband was sure we needed one for our trip. As he began to jot down information and cost of this little burning unit he had fallen in love with, I made my way over to the cooking mess kits. In these little compact stainless steel packages, you got a frying pan (very small), a pot (again, very small) a cup and a lid. This is what you were expected to cook and eat out of in the backcountry. Smiling to myself, wondering what my grandmother would have said about such silly little pots and pans, I noticed the price for these little babies. Needless to say, the pleasant look on my face turned to horror as I uttered 'You've got to be kidding'!


Kim