Kern River

Last night, I tried to tell _____ that we need to spend more time together. He agreed, but then admitted that it’s tough to spend time with someone who keeps leaving town all of the past 5 weekends. He exaggerates, but he has a point. I’ll be out of LA the next two weekends.

Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t travel so much for the rest of the summer.

I’ll be camping with a whole bunch of family members this weekend at Kern River. I’ve been looking forward to this since last year when my mom reserved spaces at the camp site.

As a kid, my family — and by family, I mean extended family plus my parent’s comadres, compadres and their own kids — went camping almost every year and Kern River was the main destination. I celebrated many birthdays during the Labor Day weekend under more stars than I could count and the sound of the river flowing behind me. There was no need for clothes at the River, as we called it. No, we didn’t run around naked. We simply changed out of pajamas in to bathing suits and kept them on until our parents made us stop swimming in the river because it was getting to dark. There are home videos of me and my cousins dancing to Juan Gabriel’s “El Noa Noa” on boulders. Another video stars Lori as the mini damsel in distress. Her kiddie raft was tied to some brush on the river bank but came loose. Tío Chuy filmed Lori drifting downstream as her hero, my Dad, entered the river fully clothed… with beer in hand.

For a period of about 10 years, my family stopped going to Kern River and camping all together. Our camping equipment lay unused in our garage until last summer. I’m glad we’ve revived this tradition.