Carter Family Camp Out 2009

For as long as I can remember my mother's family has gathered in the mountains of central Utah for the annual Carter Family Camp Out. Since my family has never really lived near any of my relatives I credit these camp outs as the main and maybe only reason I know my relatives as well as I do. In celebration of our new digital camera purchase (!!!!) I decided to try to document camp life for myself and posterity. This post may be more than the average blog reader cares to read. This is more for me than you.

First of all, my mother's family is full of wild mountain men and cowboy types. My immediate family is definitely the odd one out. We are the somewhat helpless city folk that never seem to have the right gear and have to bum from everyone else. In reality that is because this is pretty intense camping.

We drive clear out in the mountains far past running water, electricity, cell phone reception or bathrooms. While I know the roads we use must already exist (barely) it feels like my uncles forge new roads each year and expect our "city" cars to be able to get there. Kudos to the durability of our cars because so far they have always made it despite my strong doubts.

I guess the only thing that could make our camp outs more rugged would be if we went out and hunted our food before we ate it... wait... we often do... or did. Historically, one of the biggest parts of camp were the trips to the fishing hole with Grandpa. Grandpa isn't as mobile as he used to be and most of us are getting old enough to have to pay for licenses so we don't go as much as we used to but back in the day the uncles and Grandpa would load up trucks full of kids and take us all out to the lake. Being an adult I have a much better guess about how much patience those trips must have taken. They were so good to us. My siblings and I were again probably the wimpiest family of them all. We wouldn't kill the fish or gut them or even eat them but we sure liked to catch them. Luckily we have enough relatives that like fried trout.

At least Nate got a trip out with Grandpa this year. Gian went along for a peaceful water color session.

Here is Grandpa driving around camp in his Trooper. Ever since his stroke this is Grandpa's major form of transportation. He drives pretty slow but take his Trooper away and I think the old man would die. He even uses it as a wheelchair at camp and drives over by the fire to be around everyone and then back over to his old beat up camper just yards away. Another great thing about Grandpa is that he has a really thick country accent. My friend once told me after listening to a conversation between my Grandpa and me that he could only tell what Grandpa had said by my response to him. That was the first time it had ever occurred to me that it took a special ear to understand him.

Another favorite past time in camp is card playing. If you are or ever plan to be a Carter you had better know how to play Rummy and you better learn the house rules. There are few crimes that could be equal to a Carter not knowing how to play Rummy correctly and if you don't know, boy, they will teach you fast. Here is the only picture I got of the family playing games and I think it was the only time it was anything but the classic Carter card game.

A less usual but exciting activity at camp is gun shooting. We were lucky this year and got to shoot Uncle Wade's cowboy revolver just before the thunderstorm hit. I'm not sure I actually hit anything but I sure had fun trying. And so did the boys.

Another thing there is a lot of at camp is dogs. The uncles and cousins sure are dog people but I don't mind at all because they are all very well trained. The dogs are eager to please and are certain about who is boss. They follow their masters to a T. Plus they are nice to have around camp at night when one might be nervous about bears or other intruders. They help us feel safe.

If there is one word to describe Carter Camp Out 2009 it would be rain. It's not unusual to have some rain but this trip it just didn't stop. We got a hail storm that knocked multiple tent over and soaked most of the rest. Gian and I spent out second night up there in the back of my mother's explorer. It wasn't as comfortable but at least we were dry and warm.

We were all looking for ways to keep dry. It's a shame I didn't get a shot of my outfit. I had a trash bag vest AND pants. They all laughed until they joined.

Probably the most dangerous part about the rain were the roads. Even with all the uncles' and cousins' huge vehicles it was scary. It probably wouldn't have been an issue except that we had to travel up and down a huge muddy road that ran along a cliff. Only 2 cars actually slid off the road but were rescued with chains and trucks before plunging off the edge.We were stuck in camp all day yesterday and barely made it out today. Gian and I slid sideways down most of the "dugway" (I had never heard that word before) in 6 inches of mud. Now that we are home safe we look back and feel like it was really fun. When would we ever drive a Honda through that other than out of necessity? It probably will never happen again. I thought for sure we'd be stuck on the mountain and I would just have to mysteriously not show up at work since I had absolutely no way to contact them except smoke signal.

Usually if we camp closer to Uncle Wade's house we get to ride his horses on really long rides all over the mountains to go herd up his cattle and take them to water or salt licks. Here are the new (but not improved) gas horses. This year they took the place of Wade's horses. Even though I'm not a huge fan of 4 wheelers (the peace and nature destroying "video game" of camping) I was glad for these rescue vehicles to save a few family members when others transportation wasn't working.

One of the biggest highlights of the whole entire year is the camp out food. Carters sure know how to cook camping classics. They are a meat and potato people for sure and the most delicious traditions are cooked in the dutch ovens.

Breakfast: sour dough hot cakes, bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs to order

Dinner: fried chicken, roasted potatoes and carrots, sour dough biscuits

Here are mom and Grandma peeling the carrots and potatoes.

The things I love about camp outs is that while the women help with jobs like this the men are totally in-charge of the cooking. They pretty much run every stove, grill or dutch oven at camp. I guess it is just because it is against the norm that I think it is so great but there is something great about a man cooking and they cook in such a tough man way. And YUM! The uncles sure know how.

That is Uncle Neal. He is the one that does all the sour dough, too. Here is his awesome two-gallon crock. He has to make the dough on such a large scale to feed the mobs. People are usually really nice in camp but like I've mentioned before, if there is one things people get territorial about it is their sour dough biscuits. The "hot cakes"are delicious, too.

I got to watch Neal carefully this year to try to glean some new wisdom now that I've tried it for a while. He is a master and this year it was more obvious than ever before probably because I've tried to do it myself with less than prefect results.

Between meals, when the kids are bored, there is a whole lot of this going on.

Like most people with a camp fire, we like to roast. Marshmallows, weenies, you name it and we roast it. This year we went to new roasting extremes with Little Debbie marshmallow stuffed oatmeal pies, grapes and apples. Carrots would have been next if the kids could have found any. Secretly I think it happens because it's a way to play in the fire that adults are less likely to put a stop to.

Just like the kitchen is the heart of the home, the camp fire is the heart of the camp out. Everyone spends most of their time around the fire. It's pretty fun when we get old stories about my mom and her siblings out of grandma and everyone is laughing their eyes out. This year I noticed more than ever that this is another time my family stands out. My siblings and I sit around cracking jokes and cracking up at jokes that no one else gets or think are funny. So sometimes it's just us laughing and laughing and laughing. Weirdos! Maybe everyone else is laughing inside.

Here is the main culprit of the jokes, my brother, Garrett. He can make me just so silly... silly, silly, silly. If anyone can make me laugh it's G-baby.

Oh! And if you think our family is a bunch of weird city folk, Gian just took it to a whole new level. With his British upbringing and plans to get a masters degree in ART, in their eyes he is from another planet. I married a real weirdo. They love to tease him but they have come to love him, too ... but probably not because they understand him. They just humor us in our taste for almost everything. But I guess that's what is great about families. We don't all have to be the same and everyone is welcome.

The family camp out is such a part of who I am and where I come from. As I grow older I start to appreciate it and the family who make it what it is more and more. The older I get the more I can see our culture and traditions. We do have them... we have a lot of them. They just always seemed so normal to me because I was in the middle of them.

Here are my roots!