I can still remember arriving at the campsite, and my father paying the $18 to camp. I believe we had hotdogs that evening for supper. But seeing as I was still young, I had forgotten to clean up after eating. This unfortunately was a big mistake due to the fact that there are many raccoons located throughout Florida.

After eating dinner with my family, my father and my little brother went fishing together. Although we did not catch anything, it was about the family camping trip in the time we spent together. And the night started to set all around us, I began to hear, things that would be considered scary to an 8 year old.

I would latter find out just exactly what sounds I was hearing. It was just past 10 o’clock in the evening that the raccoons started to make their way down the trees looking for my hot dog waste. Due to the fact that I did not clean up after myself, this was not hard for them to find out all.

Now unfortunately, I wish I could say that this camping trip lasted all weekend, but it was only for one night. The best part however was that I was allowed to stay up as late as I wanted to. It was the fourth of July and my family and I were able to witness the fireworks across the Tampa Bay.

Now as far as this family camping trip is concerned, I would have to say that it was probably one of the best family camping trips I had ever been on.

Another commonly found critter in the state of Florida, is that of the armadillo. Now I have seen the armadillos on the road side after being hit by cars, but I had never actually seen one walking around until this family camping trip. As far as I was concerned, the armadillo seem to be a rather curious little creature. Slowly waddling from here to there, and checking out just about everything that I could find. It did not bother us, so I did not bother it.

It would not be to about one o’clock in the morning, that I would see where the scariest creatures that any young child would like to see. This creature that I’m talking about, is the opossum. It’s a good thing that this camping trip was a family camping trip, but my father quickly warned me not to bother the opossum, due to the fact that he will bite.

The last thing I remember from that night was the opossum. The next thing that I can recollect was waking up in the morning to the sounds of a peacock. Beautiful birds as far as I’m concerned. But it is their call that is most concerning. To any child, the sound of a peacock calling out to mate in the morning sounds very much similar to that of a phantasm. But of course, there’s nothing like waking up in the morning to the sound of a peacock’s screech.

My mother had made pancakes for breakfast that morning, before we were to set out to return to their home. This, as far as I was concerned was an excellent family camping experience.