I had been to the Molino Basin Campground (Coronado National Forest), fifteen years ago with my Outward Bound semester course. Desert grasses adorn the rocky hills of this campsite found on Mt. Lemmon.  I did not recognize it when we pulled in but I soon recognized the area after we had settled in.  Even though the campground was relatively bare bones, it had recently received a face lift – there were new retaining walls, stable tables, grills, spruced up pit toilets and groomed tent areas.  I remembered that on one of the nights that my Outward Bound group stayed at this campground, a couple in a site adjacent to us fought most of the night. They were drunk, they threaten to kill each other, he had a gun, she had the car keys and both were used as threats. She would try to leave but was not able to back up the car and turn it around because she was so drunk. He would take the gun out and brandish it at her.  Thank God their fight ended in silent drunken slumber without injury for either of them, but I wonder if a couple who fights like this stays together or continues like that every night. Please don’t be miss led, this campsite is very safe and wonderful to visit.

Well, it happened that we pitched our tent in the exact location where this couple had stayed.  Guess, what?  The second night we were there, Erik and I fought about something or other until the wee hours of the night (without any drunken threatening). Cora was sleeping between us and we argued back and forth, back and forth.  I cried, Erik got frustrated, would fall asleep and all would start again. It made me think of the fight that Meadow Soprano has with her boyfriend in Season Five.  In the morning, we were both tired, could not really remember the issue and Cora was bouncing with energy.

What traumatized me the most was to think that our neighbors had heard our ridiculous bickering.  Tent walls are thin, you can hear everything.  It reminded me of the conversations we had as Outward Bound students about crushes we had on our instructors. The instructors probably giggled in their own tent listening to us just like I did a few years later.  When I was working for the Canadian Outward Bound School I was sewing a broken zipper on the fly of a pitched tent that some of my girl students were resting in. They were discussing sex and what they had done and not done. It was obviously a private conversation but they did not get that tent walls were thin, even after I reminded them that I was there.

Why do I share this with you?  It’s simple, spending time outdoors is about life, and life happens in a big way outdoors.

Heidi