Field Notes #31: Exploring the Campground

Before I came to Hill's Chapel UMC, this is what I thought was meant by the phrase "camp meeting": Dad doesn't wear a robe for 6 Sundays during the summer and we sing really old hymns.

I quickly learned that this is not what people around here are talking about when they mention camp meeting.

I started hearing words like "tents" and "weekend," and finally someone explained to me that the Rock Springs Camp Meeting goes on for 2 weeks and people actually stay in tents (which are really more like shacks that cost upwards of $40,000). My first reaction felt something like morbid fascination. I've never thought of myself as a city girl, but since coming here I've realized that to some extent I definitely am one.

Well, today Don Grice took me and LeaAnne out to lunch, and when he found out neither of us had seen the campground, he insisted that we take a tour after we ate. Camp meeting doesn't start until August, but there were already people there working on their tents and getting ready--and they knew right away that LeaAnne and I had never been there before. I was amazed. Someone had told me that parts of the campground looked like a third world country, and they were not wrong. Don showed us the inside of his family's "tent"--they have concrete floors, carpet, a second floor and a balcony, so their place is nice by comparison to many others.

After I got over the initial shock, I realized...this place is AWESOME! Thousands of people come to camp meeting, and yet you can let kids run around unattended without worrying about them getting lost or hurt, and everyone has benches and porch swings, and the arbor is actually really beautiful. I totally want to stay an extra day or two in Denver to experience camp meeting.

I didn't have my camera on me, but I took a bunch of pictures with my cell phone. Check these out: