Braum's Saved My Life

My wonderful wife, Rebecca, and I went camping this past 4th of July weekend with another couple from our church small group. Let me tell you what. I had a terrible attitude almost the whole time.

Rebecca and I got there early, say around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. By 4:35, I was drenched with sweat, tired, hungry, and pretty much miserable. While Becca's over there at the camp table whistling Dixie - or maybe it was the Battle Hymn of the Republic. That's pretty much how it went on for the rest of the afternoon. However, at about 8:15, the McBrides show up and by then the weather has cooled down, the shadows have lengthened, and I'm still drenched with sweat, tired, hungry, and pretty much miserable.

We do the traditional camping thing--eat, clean, play cards, etc. And by about 11:30, the weather has cooled down enough for us to enter our tents. But Rebecca and I had an inflatable mattress with one sheet on it and another sheet to use if we got cold. We didn't use that other sheet either night for very long.

The next morning, I got up around 8:00 (not bad for a camping trip) and we had a great breakfast by April McBride. But, by 8:15 a.m. I was already drenched with sweat, tired, hungry, and pretty much miserable. The rest of the trip went pretty much like that.

Only, there were some good things. At some point on Sunday, we decided that it was too hot to stick around at the campsite (or website as I accidentally called it once on the trip). So we decided to take a drive in the air-conditioned car. We took our dogs (Joan of Barc - age 2, weight 20 lbs.; and Oliver - age 7, weight 1.2 tons) because they were tired of being in the heat too. In Hillsboro, we stopped at the Braum's for some ice cream, drinks, and A/C. I think we stayed there for 2 hours'ish'. But while we were in there, the dogs stayed in the car and continued to get really hot. Oliver decided to drool and then bark at people, making a real droolish mess in and on the outside of the car.

Braum's saved my life. Without Braum's, I would have died of heat exhaustion. April (who's carrying twins) also really appreciated the respite. The Braum's experiment changed everyone's demeanor, most notably mine.

You see, I look back on the weekend now, and I think about how absolutely wretched I behaved. Yes, I was rightfully miserable, but everyone else was at least trying to have a good attitude about it. I was never shy about how miserable I was, and it really brought the mood down.

I was fortunate to be in God's nature, having a time of fellowship with friends, but I failed to see that while I was there. Oh, and Donnie, if you should ever read this, you should really seek professional help for wanting to go hiking in that weather.

I'm not much of a camper to begin with, but it's a blessing to get to do that periodically with people you love. I'm also glad to say that Joan of Barc, our dog, is not much of a camper either. She didn't have a very good time getting near the lake.

Rebecca, I'm sorry for my attitude.

Moral of the Story: When you are feeling drenched with sweat, tired, hungry, and pretty much miserable, go to Braum's and stay there for about 2 hours. I got the banana split, and that seemed to really help.