Our Camping Trip – Diamond Lake, Oregon

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Our Camping Trip – Diamond Lake, Oregon

Growing up my father was an outdoorsman.  He taught me how to drive a tractor, ride a minibike, fish, clean and gut the fish, make a fire, and set up a tent.  He also taught me to bottle feed calves, feed chickens, pigs, and ducks. My mother was a lady. She taught me how to crochet, sew, needlepoint, cross stitch, iron, cook, grow a garden, clean and most of all be a lady. I guess I got the best of both worlds.  

Every year for vacation we went on a camping trip. My parents received a camping brochure from Mel Cotton’s Sporting Goods store in San Jose, CA, their motto was “where successful adventures begin.” This year my parents settled on Diamond Lake in Oregon. Mom called Mel Cotton’s and reserved a few cots for us. Dad picked up the cots and purchased supplies for the trip. He liked to fish. Mom took us girls to the secondhand store to buy pants and t-shirts to wear on our trip.   

My big brother Ricky could not come because he was President of the Senior class and had responsibilities, so his friend Jim offered to come.  Jim was a character and was part of our family.  He was always around the house while growing up and I remember my big brother, mom and Jim watching the Smothers Brothers Comedy and the Laugh-In show.

The day before our vacation dad connected the boat to the International Travelall and checked the brake lights. It was a summer day as we all ran around gathering items for our vacation.  After packing we had dinner and went to bed early because we were excited. We woke up at the crack of dawn and jumped into the truck with our pillows and pajamas on.  We slept while our parents navigated the roads. The first stop was a truck stop.  We ran into the bathroom to change our clothes, wash our faces and brush our teeth.  We ate breakfast and jumped back on the road.  My sister Jessie kept asking my parents “are we almost there?” she finally fell asleep and I overheard my parents saying, “we were making good timing.” As we passed the Oregon stateline we started climbing into higher elevation and it started to snow.  My mother said, this is unbelievable. We had to pull over, Jim and dad tied a tarp over the boat to cover some of his fishing gear.  Everyone became quiet as we slowly drove down the highway.

We checked into our camping spot and dad and Jim immediately set up the tent and used the tarp to block the wind from entering the campsite. Our tent was an army tent like the one used in the tv sitcom M*A*S*H.  Mom organized the cots and made it cozy in the tent.  Jim started the fire and mom put the coffee pot on.  Us girls asked if we could go for a hike.  Mom said, yes, but not too far.  We happily started down a trail until a few birds started to dive-bomb us because we were too close to their nest. My little sister cried, and I grabbed her hand and told her she would be Ok.  We then hightailed it out of there as quick as we could.  We came back to the campsite and sat around the fire listening to music while mom cooked dinner.  The sunset was beautiful that night.  The moon was bright and was glistening on the lake. We ate dinner and afterwards talked

a little near the fire then called it a night.  Jim said he wanted to stay up, so my parents made him the night watchman.  He was funny. 

Daylight broke and the sun came out.  My sisters wanted to go hiking but in the opposite direction.  Mom said, “stay on the trail and be careful,” I was in charge, since I was the oldest.  We thought we could make it around the lake, but it was too long of a hike, so we decided to hike up a hill.  We raced up the hill and when we reached the top the view was amazing, so we sat for a while and talked. A lady came up the hill and we all stared at her.  She was older and she looked at me and my sisters and said.  You girls are very pretty.  We said, “thank you.”  We asked her if she was alone.  She said, “yes: we then heard our mom yelling for us.  We said, it was nice meeting you but we have to go. When we arrived at the campsite, my dad had taken the boys out in the boat to fish, so we decided to take a nap. My mother was sitting at the table writing and drinking coffee.  When we woke up, we looked over at our neighbor and he caught an abundance of rainbow trout.  He had the fish line hanging from tree to tree.  As we turned, my dad and brothers were coming back in the boat. Gary and Dennis had big smiles.  It looked like dad and Jim did not catch anything.  Mom said, I guess we will eat something else tonight.  Just when mom said that, the neighbor came over and introduced himself and gave mom 5 rainbow trout.  The man was older and was happy to give us the fish.  Mom invited him to stay and eat with us and he accepted. He was interesting.  He served in the Army during the Korean and Vietnam war and now lived in Humboldt County. The man stayed for dinner and my dad and our new friend taught me how to filet and clean the trout. We sat around the fire making up a story.

One person would start, then another would add to it, then so on.  Our new friend even added to the story.  He thought it was quite amusing.  We had a wonderful night with our new friend. 

The following days we hiked, biked, and went swimming.  We had lots of fun.  When it was time to leave, we loaded our belongs into the SUV and headed back home.  It was a nice family vacation.  On our way home, we all fell asleep as mom and dad navigated the SUV back home. 

Let me leave you with this quote – To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you must be in their lives today.

 

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