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bif

(24,002 posts)
Wed Jul 19, 2023, 03:29 PM Jul 2023

Skipping our annual camping trip this year

My wife's whole family has been going camping for years and years. I used to enjoy going mainly as an excuse to get loaded for a whole long weekend. But since I quit drinking almost five years ago, I've skipped it. I tell everyone that I hate camping (which is true), and the only thing that made it tolerable was alcohol. And now that I don't drink, I r REALLY hate camping. I did go the first year I was sober and had an absolutely miserable time.

The typical day is going to the beach. Then cocktails while preparing dinner. Lots of wine with dinner. Then beers while sitting around the campfire. The year I went sober, I spent most of the time at our campsite, reading and hating life, in general. It's way better if I stay at home. It's also way too much work preparing for the trip, for a couple days in the woods.

Thanks for letting me rant.

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brewens

(15,359 posts)
5. I quit drinking competitively, but not altogether. I used to really pound them down with the boys,
Wed Jul 19, 2023, 03:51 PM
Jul 2023

but now I only drink occasionally. I hung out with my drinking buddies at the Eagles Lodge for a while after I cooled it, but it wasn't the same. In some cases, and some situations, you do need to drink to have a good time. I love those guys, but they get drunker and louder and eventually, I'm an outsider. I might as well be the only one not frying at an acid party.

Tell me about the prep for a trip. I used to float the rivers here in Idaho with the same guys. Some semi-retired pros that went first class on the Snake and Salmon rivers here in Idaho. Those guys beat themselves to death to make sure they had enough beer, booze and ice for most of the guys to stay drunk all the time. But you wouldn't have wanted to pay the tab on the meals they served if it was a nice restaurant. The food was fabulous.

I went on other shorter trips where we were all about the fishing. We had freeze dried and canned food and weed. I enjoyed those more. It was so much less work.

Ocelot II

(120,858 posts)
6. Stay home. Don't be dragged into a vacation that won't be fun for you,
Wed Jul 19, 2023, 03:58 PM
Jul 2023

regardless of the alcohol issue. I also hate camping, so I feel your pain. I enjoy being outside and walking in the woods or on a beach but I really hate having to live there, even for just a weekend. I insist on indoor plumbing, electricity, and an actual bed and I do not like having to fight off mosquitoes while relieving myself in the shrubbery, or trying to sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent full of mosquitoes while there are bears outside the tent just waiting to eat me, or it rains and the tent and my sleeping bag get wet. Or one time in the winter on a cross-country ski trip where we camped in subzero weather. Freezing your ass can be a real thing. If camping is not fun - and it's not - and it makes you want to drink just so it doesn't suck quite as much, you very definitely shouldn't go. Stay home with Netflix and popcorn.

bif

(24,002 posts)
8. Lots of movie viewing and good food is on the agenda.
Wed Jul 19, 2023, 04:04 PM
Jul 2023

My wife started getting things ready on Monday. She's not leaving until tomorrow afternoon. So it's a two plus hour drive. Setting up the camper. Dinner and then bed. Two days camping. Driving home on Sunday. Then a couple days unpacking. Does that sound like fun?!?!?!

RainCaster

(11,545 posts)
10. I get it bif- you have my permission to stay home
Wed Jul 19, 2023, 06:16 PM
Jul 2023

I'm sure your wife understands. Just enjoy a weekend at home in an uninterrupted state of chill.

Rhiannon12866

(222,223 posts)
11. I certainly don't blame you and you're definitely not alone
Thu Jul 20, 2023, 03:21 AM
Jul 2023

I run an AA meeting on Mondays just north of here - in Lake George, New York. It's tourist season now and we get visitors from all over. And in the past few weeks we've had several visitors show up at the meeting, and they've said the exact same thing, they're with family or with a spouse's family and they needed a meeting to get away from all the drinking. Kudos to you for doing the next right thing for yourself. I've been sober for 14 years now and I'd avoid putting myself in that situation, too.

Peregrine Took

(7,503 posts)
13. I thought you were going to say you hated going into trump country.
Thu Jul 20, 2023, 09:46 AM
Jul 2023

That is a thought of ours -when we did venture into red areas in our European car with the blue state license plates, our "frou frou" dog and the masks (inside) and we do get some looks.

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