What Happens At The Masonic Park, Stays At The Masonic Park

This weekend my wife and I went camping in a Masonic Park. We were invited along with a 3rd-Degree Mason and his girlfriend, friends of ours that we met through a gaming group. And in contrast to what the title of my post suggests, I'm actually gonna talk about it a little.

We were camped in a remote corner of the woods, yet still within jogging distance of a flush toilet, which makes it almost too easy to call it camping. Mother Nature decided to make up for that low degree of difficulty by dumping rain on our heads all day Saturday, so we could never forget that in the wild we survive only at the Earth's whims.

In all seriousness, it was a beautiful private park, and we had tons of fun despite the rain. Happily it turns out my firebuilding skills are stronger than I'd given myself credit for. Our camp was just up from a shallow river bed, so we had a constant sound of the rapids, plus the rain lightly falling on our roof-top, in the background all night. Funny the way sounds that would signify a burst pipe back home end up being awesomely beautiful out in nature.

The whole weekend was really serene and peaceful, with the exception of one little part during the open-air ceremony taking place at the far end of the camp, when a cacophony of noise rolled and echoed across the canyon. I'm not sure exactly what was going on, and since I'd promised to stay out of that area during a particular four-hour block, I couldn't go satisfy my curiosity about the noises. From the sound of it, though, it must have been a sight to behold - an epic riot on the order of the Orcs attacking Helm's Deep. Made me kinda envious of whatever Masonic secrets my friend is in-the-know about.

The place we put our tents was somewhat isolated from people (largely at my request), but those we met (all of them either Freemasons, or accompanied by Masons) were really nice. I was quite impressed with how friendly everyone was. As a long-haired freak with unusual hobbies, I often expect any strangers I meet to be distant and unwelcoming. I would have expected that those belonging to a secret brotherhood (which I am not a member of) to be even more so. Quite to the contrary, they never made me feel like an outsider at all.

As an added bonus, since it wasn't just some public park with totally random anonymous strangers, you could feel safe leaving all your stuff sitting out at night or while you were off on a nature hike. As a hardened city-dweller, I sometimes find it difficult to let down my guard when in the sorts of neighborhoods where they don't lock the doors. In retrospect I'm pretty sure I could have left my wallet sitting out on a random picnic table all weekend, and it would have been just fine.

Damn good weekend.