I found this old video of a bunch of us cook­ing burg­ers on the old Coleman while camp­ing in 2004. Back before Trolley or Tyler were mar­ried (or even engaged). I love the way Adam, as the only gay mem­ber of our crew, puts a t‑shirt on his head and sidles up to Tyler to join in the mer­ri­ment. Every time I watch this clip, I laugh at this exact point, in the exact same way.

I haven’t been camp­ing in too long. Even though I’m a city slick­er, I love to get out and away about once a year. Waking up in the cold, fresh air; talk­ing around a camp­fire; for­go­ing the lux­u­ry of show­ers and the inter­net; these are the things that bring you back to your human­i­ty. And often it’s as much about the peo­ple as the event, because there are bare­ly any oppor­tu­ni­ties for us to get togeth­er. I miss those guys just as much.