If I could freeze time...

4 pm. Friday afternoon.

No more work was going to happen for us.

Trucks were loaded, coolers packed, and destination locked in.

The work week was over and it was time to escape into the wilderness.

We arrived on a cool Friday afternoon in Gardner Canyon at sunset. The campground was absolutely perfect--plenty of places to set up our tents, a canopy of trees, and a fire pit with Chad's name on it.

We got to work setting up camp. Chad and Rod got to work on the fire, which was soon a roaring, hot blaze that kept us warm in just a sweatshirt and shorts. I think all the credit goes to Chad who carried a log about the same size as him down from a nearby hill and threw it on the circle of stones. (What a man!)

This was ultimate car camping. We even had a grill with us (ohh yes). Ted BBQ'd some delicious hotdogs and hamburgers and Lauren grilled up a celery root (which is actually quite tasty compared to its celery offspring). Dylan shook his booty as he shook up a bagged-cornbread and cooked it in a dutch oven over the coals.

Country music blasted from Rod's truck as we carried on into the night. (Dylan was not shaking his booty at this point.) We stuffed ourselves full of dinner and s'mores. Did a little two-stepping. And later crept away into our tents.

Goodnight moon.

Morning came with the sun beaming through the tree leaves as we got a fire started to help get us out of our sleeping bags.

Rising with the sun to the sound of birds chirping in the trees and stepping out of a tent into the cold morning was so refreshing. Therapeutic in fact. I had officially escaped what was back in Tucson, and I realized I hadn't thought once about anything but the moment I was in. True bliss. 

Dylan began cooking up some bacon and I got to work on some buttermilk pancakes. We stood around jet-boils, holding our mugs of instant VIA coffee grounds waiting for it to brew.

I can't wait to go back. Escape and live in that moment again. Isn't that what it's all about anyway? 

Just some good company, the outdoors, great food, and some smoke from a campfire was all I needed to recharge my batteries.