Sometimes, it is just totally awesome to be Dad, husband to a fantastic Mom, to be family, and to be together and free.

This past Sunday afternoon, we all decided to take a drive up to Gainesville and look at a Jeep CJ5 I was thinking about buying. The Jeep was completely cool; jacked up with huge tires, and all the off road goodies it takes to make your kids look cool when you go to drop them off at school! C’mon, admit it, you feel good when your kids look cool in the drop off line.

Anyway, we were planning the trip, and Cheryl realized that our favorite camping spot was just 30 miles further up the road, not to mention the children were out of school until Wednesday. Can you say spontaneous camping trip? We can!

Before we knew it, we were on our way to Boggs Creek, just north of Cleveland, and the children were beside themselves with excitement. Now, you must realize that with a family as large as ours, it takes a ton of gear for us to do something like this. The tent has to be huge, there has to be food, and a lot of it, we require gallons of water, and tons of clothes, because if there is dirt, my kids are going to find it, and do the does it stick to my pants test.

There is another piece of equipment I have come to regard as genius, having six girls in the family, and that is the Camping Port-A-Potty.

We borrowed the 12 man tent from a friend, which was terrific, but let me just suggest you make sure your borrowed gear comes with instructions before you arrive at the primitive camping location in the mountains at dusk. Setting these things, up in the dark, by guess work, is a little challenging. Especially when all your precious little ones are looking at you with a sweet look of despair that seems to say, oh no, we’re all going to die!

We got the tent up, eventually, and proceeded setting up the toilet. Who invented this thing? The box advertises an easy set up, but it’s not! I think the inventor should have put himself in a realistic situation like, oh I don’t know, six children and a wife who have to go real bad and are all waiting for you to figure this thing out! We finally got it all in order and settled in for a great campfire, smores, laughter, and a good night’s sleep in the woods beside a creek that sang us all to our dreams.

Monday was fun. We began with bacon, grits, and eggs under the morning sky, had lunch and fudge in Helen, went swimming in Dick’s Creek by the unbelievable waterfalls, and ended the day with pork chops cooked over the open fire; it was magical.

Monday night was a different story.

At about 1:00 in the morning, Cheryl woke me up out of a dead sleep to look for a flashlight. One of girls had an accident and she needed to clean her up. After about five minutes, I was still feeling around for the light in the dark. Cheryl was done, and back dozing off. Evidently she said baby wipes and not flashlight. Its amazing how alike those two words sound when you’re asleep!

I laid back down, feeling stupid, and a little annoyed, and that is when it began’the strange sounds of the night in the woods. I swear I have never heard such a noise in all my life, and I was a Boy Scout! This thing sounded like a cross between an owl, a hyena, a mountain lion, and a crazed killer loose in the woods. Once the, whatever, got started, he found friends! There must have been seven of them, and I was freaking out! I scurried around the tent and found my trusted weapon of warfare, a buck knife with the awesome 4-inch blade, and then laid back down in the safety of my impenetrable fortress made of polyester fiber, canvas, and a zipper. Then my brain kicked in and started making up things like footsteps, snapping branches, and growls and stuff.

Hoping for an ally, I turned to my wife who was sound asleep and could not be wakened! Realizing that the safety of the family was solely in my hands, I tried to remain calm. Julieann, who is eleven, woke up thirsty at about 2:30 and decided to go get some water to drink. She unzipped the tent, and walked out of the protection of the polyester fiber fortress like there was no impending threat, no danger, no man eating woods monster, only thirst and water. When she got back in the tent, Julieann glanced at me laying there gripping my trusted buck knife like I was an idiot, and went back to bed. I think I fell asleep somewhere around 3 a.m.