Urban Camping

Marc tells me on Saturday that we're going to pick up Austen at a piece of property his great-grandfather owns off of 441 in Hollywood. Austen was playing paintball with his cousins, while their dad, Tommy, prepared to cook and camp out on this 1/2 acre piece of land in the middle of concrete city.

So, Marc, Dalton, Ashton and I pile into Marc's car and head over to this lot the boys constantly beg to go to.

"What the hell is this place?" I asked Marc as he drove into this place.
"A boy's wet dream," he replied as he laughed at my question. As if to say,
"You're a girl. It's a boy thing."







Several huge dirt piles for the boys to ride their dirt bikes, quads and place paintball on. Lots of wood to burn in the home made pit. A beat up trailer to sleep in without needing to take a bath (not that there is a bathroom anywhere in this place ... if you got to pee, there's the tree).

I wasn't prepared to spend the day among dirt. Dressed casually, but wearing flip-flops I choose not the make this a barrier to me experiencing a little of what the boys talk so much about.



So we spent the day with the boys, Tommy, Marc, the property's owner, his wife and a few friends who stopped by to hang out, talk, drink a beat (or two, or three), watch some football (Go GATORS!) and eat hamburgers off of another home made pit.



Night time came and we enjoyed the cool air by a big fire pit as the kids played in the dark, Man Hunt.



We all got dirty ... the boys more than anyone else. And, I now have a better understanding of this place ... and the boys.