5 Great Days...Camping for Halloween.

Even with the heavy rain and 35 MPH winds on Friday into Saturday a.m. it was a great trip!
Of course for my family it wouldn't be a complete trip without the rain. Somehow, it would just seem....wrong. To all who know us, this is common knowledge, a joke we laugh about later...even during.
In any case, we all had a blast, and if we can't do that despite the rain, what's the point, anyway? Heheh.
My family always has a great time camping, but the Halloween trip just sort of caps it off...one final party for the season; going out with a bang! Hey, as far as I'm concerned, that is right up my alley when it comes to most things in life.
We all really get into Halloween too. Every year we go with close friends of ours and their family, get side by side campsites, go nutzoid decorating, send the kiddos trick-or-treating, candy for the kids; a couple of drinks for the adults, go cut loose with a bunch of other adults and kids as a DJ pumps some music for a while at the campground pavillion, go hang out and laugh 'til our sides ache around the campfire...
We just have a great time.

But this year was even better than most...
My birthday almost always falls in tandem with this trip, and sometimes through no fault of anyone involved, kind of gets lost in the shuffle a bit.
Not this year.
My dear husband got me a cake from the best bakery in our area, managed to bootleg it into our house without any awareness on my part, and then smuggle it out into the camper without arising any suspicion. Once we got to the campground, he waited until the coast was clear to covertly slink with cake in tow over to our friends' camper, the final hiding spot.
In the meantime, I had spoiled myself the day before with a pumpkin pie (one of my favorites) to bring along on our trip. I jokingly referred to it as my "birthday cake." Little did I know that at that time, Ed was thinking "Oh shit...no it ain't!"
There were several times before we hit the road that it got a little hairy.
Ed laughed after the fact about how whenever he saw an opening to shift the cake's location, I would pop on over to wherever he was for some reason or another. But when he came out with our friends singing Happy Birthday my jaw was on the ground, and then I turned into a blubbering fool.
I had no clue whatsoever.
And that was the first night.
Just five awesome days. Is there anything better than that?
I even forgot about melanoma for a good part of it, and when I didn't, it was just remembering in response to a question someone asked me about how things were going.
I kept it distant from my thoughts as much as possible.
It would not wreck my fun...
At least for now.
Coming home was infinitely harder...
Coming back to reality...
Coming down...
I can feel myself falling; my stomach clenching up, my chest tightening...
STOP!
I refuse to go there.
Not today. For now, I will dream of better things; a brighter reality with only great possibilities.
This past trip cannot be the last. The dark cloud of fear won't blacken my mood if I don't allow it.
For today, I will dwell in all that was and is amazing...soak it up and enjoy it for all it's worth.