what do you get when you cross an inferno with a leaky mattress and tired muscles?

last weekend my lover (we have referred to each other as 'lover' on every vacation since we saw an old 'west virginia is for lovers' t-shirt in west virginia once. incidentally we have looked for that t-shirt on every trip since) and i went on a camping trip.
we even went alone. what, what, what?

yep- a.lone. for four days.
i missed the kiddos terribly, but it was blissful.
or at least blissful in the only ways that camping in 190 degree weather can be.
we used to camp all the time before we had kids, but we haven't been in about 6 years. fortunately, it is like riding a bike. it was pretty much like all the last times except this time we played a significant amount of 'jet pack' on the iphone. 6 years ago, i am fairly sure we both rocked some variation of a flip-phone and totally thought we were up on the latest technology. we might have been and there were no apps for that.
.

after the first two nights of leaking air mattresses and the loudest insect symphony you can even imagine, we may have thrown in the towel and reserved an air conditioned cabin for the last night.

i'm not even afraid to admit it, because it turns out that when we camped and traveled all over the united states while we were students, it was less about fun and more about being broke! now that we can actually afford to stay in a hotel, we MAY be spoiled...

nevertheless, we had a GREAT time. we hiked more miles than i have walked this year, swam in cool mountain lakes and pretended we were 19 again.

and also, arkansas... who freaking knew?! gorgeous.

have you heard, arkansas too is for lovers ;)