Miles From Monday: Beach Camping
"Find yourself a place you belong in the universe,” she said, “a place where the dirt feels like goodness under your feet." -Pam Houston
April 29, 2013, Washington, DC: We went camping this weekend on Assateague Island,140 miles from our neighborhood in the city and even more distant than that from our weekend routine. It'd been way too long since we spent a Saturday night unplugged at a campsite with just the necessities -- things like kitchen utensils and board games and a few close friends. It'd been way too long since we'd pitched a tent on a beach.
We'd nearly forgotten the allure of someplace where dinner cooks on the fire and the East is all ocean and the smell of morning coffee floats onto clean salty air. We'd nearly forgotten how good it feels to shuffle around in ski socks with the sand beneath our feet. We'd nearly forgotten there are many places we belong, and that a campsite on the beach is most certainly one of them.
When is the last time you went camping? Do you find that phases of your life can be demarcated in part by the way you travel? What type of travel do you associate with each?
Related Posts on Neighborhood Nomads:
- Miles from Monday: A Place to Play on Fraser Island (February 2, 2012)
- Lessons in Living From the Backcountry (February 27, 2013)
- Miles from Monday: Moreton Island (September 24, 2012)
- Miles from Monday: Moosehead Lake (May 14, 2012)
- Where It's At: Cities and Change (January 11, 2012)