Drinkers with a camping problem...
 

Been spending time with my parents at a campground this weekend. The campsites around us are packed with folks who have a constant drink in their hands. Stumbling, loud, swollen, puffy, ignoring their children...

Nothing like a holiday campout to give stark reminders of things to be grateful for in sobriety.

None of it looks like 'fun' to me. It looks sad. A number of people my age from my past are here too, as it happens. Universally, they are overweight.

Happy sober weekend..... Remember; sobriety is fun.... That drinking stuff? An illusion of fun that is actually just sad.

It is sad to see sick folks, but to remind
myself, But For The Grace of my HP,
there goes I. One of many sayings I
have in a frame hanging above my TV
and one we often see in meetings on
the wall or plaque.

I have to remind myself to not
make fun of them, not to take
their inventories, but remain
humble and grateful that I learned
about addiction and its affects on
myself and those around me and
that today I have a choice to live
sober.

Just seeing and knowing that alcohol
or drugs is still kicking butts big time
out there, even 24yrs later after I entered
recovery, is a constant reminder that
it hasn't changed nor ever will.

I think i'll stay right where I am today
continueing to incorporate tools and
knowledge of an affective recovery
program in my everyday affairs.

Stay safe on this holiday weekend. :)

Thank you for this post and reminder of why staying sober is so worthwhile, FreeOwl! :)

So true. I agree, it does look sad. I don't even enjoy camping anymore and find myself getting annoyed with the people around me when I have gone.

Yeah, I'm seeing quite a bit of that activity on Facebook from folks back home. One group even brought out a 48" TV, so they could watch some UFC while out camping / drinking.

Reminds me of back in the day. I don't know what we were thinking. We were at some of the most beautiful locations you could imagine -- waterfalls, crystal clear water, well off the beaten path, etc. Yet, after 3 days of camping most of us never even bothered to wander around a bit to check it out. We were too busy sitting at the camp site drinking.

Sounds like drinkers with a camping problem.

How cool is it that you find their drinking sad instead of fun

I am going camping next weekend at Wildwood state park in Long Island, luckily I will be there with 3 other non drinkers.

I am not looking forward to drunks next to us, hopefully there won't be any.

Shuddering right now as I remember the one camping trip where I passed out just outside the tent and was nearly eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Sounds awful, SoberJennie. Closest I've come to that is one night I decided to walk the two miles home from my favorite bar at two in the morning. (Didn't have a license or car because of a DWI a few months previous.) I made it about halfway before I then decided to "camp" in some random stranger's front yard. Woke up an hour later with approximately 150 fire ant bites on my right arm.

And yet I still drank for ten more years after that. Sad.

I had my first sober camping trip with my daughter last month. It was a great trip, and is isn't miss the drinking much at all. I did struggle to fall asleep due to the drunken sing alongs a few sites away. I wouldn't go near a campground with a mile long pole this weekend.
Camping was something that used to be heavily associated with drinking for me. I'm glad to have a sober camp behind me to start a new experience. It's nice to wake up refreshed (camp hangovers suck) and enjoy the morning with coffee and a walk.

Oh how I hate this! Had a super scary experience in my early 20s too that involved camping and alcohol. We had some rowdy drunk campers next to us and when my partner's friend asked them if they could simmer down (it was late and we were camping with young children) one of them came barreling into our campground waving a gun. Needless to say we got out of there very quickly and reported them to the forest service. ugh.

no offense FO, but how long have you been sober? Maybe YOUR having been out of the loop is more the eye-opener? This is very real life in western society---esp. Memorial day. Just folks doing once or twice a yr. what we did daily. Waxing philo is a bit of a diversion or I should say HAS ALWAYS BEEN my default ...DENIAL setting. Maybe THEY are not the abnormal ones? Not trying to be in-your face but....you DID accept the invite correct? You're sort of being the fisherman and cook at the same time and that has been in bad taste since Louis the first.

The best camping is the camping you do with just what's on your back.... Nobody else for miles

That makes it even worse...amateurs!!!

annattta, I don't care if they're amatuers or pros,, That behavior is just wrong

Funny how I have discovered that all things are better sober. Even if I could drink I wouldn't. To be fully engaged in life is so much more rewarding than the haze of alcohol

It's not worse...or better. The sun could care less what we think of it. It just shines. Be like the sun. And poop does NOT care either. If you can't pick it up and move it.....move yourself or learn to accept poop.

I'm not sure I follow your post....

But what I can say is that these folks I refer to spent the whole day (and well into the night) drinking their heads off.... I know several of them personally and this isn't 'occasional' behavior - it's just a new venue for it. Their swollen guys and faces tell the tale.

I felt for them this weekend, at the same time feeling gratitude to be drinking fizzy water and going to bed at 10pm.

As for my sobriety.... It's young to be sure... Not quite a year and a half. I don't know whether that somehow colors what I saw, but I can say that there have been MANY times I've been the drinker with a camping problem.... I'm really glad to be camping sober instead.

Also: I didn't accept any invite from the people I'm describing. I was coming with my little girls, my dad and his wife. Along with my lady and her son. None of us were drinking.... It was the campers all around us.