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The Way It Should Be Bear and I both love camping. Really, camping is where I�m happiest, although floating down-river or running rapids in a canoe are a close second. This summer we were so busy that we weren�t sure that we�d be able to go camping at all. After careful planning, we were able to take a trip to our favourite campground during the first weekend of June.
Bear is in school on Friday night so we left on Saturday morning and both of us had Monday off. We packed up and set off, tunes blasting, singing at the top of our lungs and occasionally bouncing up and down and yelling �Yay! Camping! Whooo!� Our destination was Watson Creek Campground, a long-time favourite of mine, near the Cadomin Caves. We ended up at a lovely little walk-in site and set up the prettiest camp you will ever see.
We finished setting up to the pitter-patter of rain drops on our tarp�yes, rain.
Rain is an integral part of my camping experience. It always rains when I camp, unless it snows (the first time Bear and I went to Watson Creek there was 3 feet of snow on snow on the ground, at the end of May!) Soon it was pouring. Gaps in the drippy weather were opportunities to go for a quick walk and take a few pictures. After dinner it was too cold to stay up and too wet for a campfire so we retired to our tent to play crib and cuddle.
The next morning we awoke to sunshine, it was gorgeous out! We had blue skies, sunshine, the birds were chirping and you could hear the river rushing. It smelled like after-rain, all fresh and green. We ate our cereal sitting in the sun and then sat in companionable silence, reading our books and eating sliced strawberries. After a bit, Bear wandered to the truck and fished out his guitar. He sang goofy Arrogant Worms songs and laughed at himself while I took pictures of the blazing sunrise. Bear set down his guitar and declared that he was too warm and was going into the tent to change into shorts. I told him that he was insane and if he was changing could I have his sweatshirt, please, because I was freezing. I was wearing SIX shirts, including a hoodie over my legs and had mismatched socks. He came out of the tent and I could feel him looking at me so I looked up from my book. He was standing staring at me, shaking, wearing a tux and holding his guitar in one hand and a black scrap of fabric in the other. My heart stopped.
He said, �Canoegirl, I have something I want to ask you.� He threw the pant-leg he was holding onto the gravel, knelt on it and started playing �If I were a carpenter�. If I were a carpenter (by Tim Hardin) If I were a carpenter and you were a lady, Would you marry me anyway? Would you have my baby? If a tinker were my trade would you still find me, carrin' the pots I made, followin' behind me. Save my love through loneliness, Save my love for sorrow, I'm given you my onliness, Come give your tomorrow. If I worked my hands in wood, Would you still love me? Answer me babe, "Yes I would, I'll put you above me." If I were a miller at a mill wheel grinding, would you miss your color box, and your soft shoe shining? If I were a carpenter and you were a lady, Would you marry me anyway? Would you have my baby? Would you marry anyway? Would you have my baby? After the first chorus he changed the lyrics to: If I were a computer geek and you were my lady, Would you marry me anyway? and someday have my baby? Save my love through loneliness, Save my love for sorrow, I'm given you my onliness, Come give your tomorrow. Then, trembling, he carefully set aside his guitar and, still kneeling, said, �Canoegirl, I love you so much and we�ve been through so much together; I want to spend the rest of my life with you�will you have me as your husband?� I hugged him as tightly as I could, my face pressed into his neck, and said to his neck, �You know I will� Get up, get up, your knee must be killing you from kneeling in the gravel.� (Now you know which of us is the romantic one and which of us is the practical one). He kept trying to give me the ring, but I was too busy trying to hug him.
After we had finished shaking and smiling and laughing and crying and kissing, he went and got the bottle of champagne that he had smuggled in the truck. We drank champagne out of travel mugs and ate strawberries and were just generally giddy.
Within the hour it was pouring again, cold and gloomy. We ate our hamburger stew and buns and then decided that we didn�t really have to spend our first night as an engaged couple freezing and wet so we packed up and drove to a hotel in Edson; to hot showers, good snacks and comfy beds.
It was a perfect engagement, including all of the things I had dreamed of (camping, the guitar, the song, and even the exact ring) with the addition of a few surprises (the timing, the tux and the champagne). It was the most romantic experience I have ever had, which is the way it should be.
2004-06-13 || 7:09 p.m. |
