A while back I read that the inhabitants of the great Biosphere experiment ran into some unexpected difficulties when they realized they were understocked on provisions and had to send for take-out.
These dedicated scientists who have undertaken a two-year experiment living in the totally isolated Biosphere environment realized that human beings can go just so long without Big Macs.
It doesn't surprise me that the Biosphere inhabitants didn't pack enough to last them. I've been on enough camping trips to know that, no matter how long you plan to be gone, you will never be able to pack everything you need. And what is Biosphere, after all, but a giant camping trip under glass?
Part of the problem packing for camping trips is that you forget to plan for the unexpected. It's easy enough to prepare all the food and utensils you'll need for the three regular meals you expect to eat each day.
But what do you do when your two teenage sons get into the grub box one lazy afternoon and gobble down all the hot dogs you had planned for dinner that night?
Or what is the solution when your daughter takes the sack of marshmallows you had saved for dessert and feeds them to the raccoons living on the perimeter of your camp?
And how do you react when your husband gets into the canned vegetables and uses them for fish bait?
One solution is to sneak out of camp during the middle of the night, drive back home, pack your favorite belongings, sell your house and move to a foreign country to start a new life under an assumed name before your family back at camp realizes you're missing.
The other answer, probably the more practical, is to learn to make do.
Making do is really what camping is all about. If you didn't want to try living without hot showers, decent mattresses and microwave ovens, you wouldn't go camping in the first place, right?
I've learned a lot of making do tips through the years. I can do things with pork and beans even the Frugal Gourmet doesn't know about. I've discovered that leftover pancakes can double for sandwich bread, dessert, even dishes if you accidentally burn all the paper plates.
And even when you run out of fresh fruits and vegetables, there are things in the woods the pioneers discovered were edible, and you can eat, too, as long as you've got plenty of ketchup.
If there is one constant in camping it's that you'll never have everything you need and you'll have to learn to improvise. But that is an experience that builds character, teaches you to appreciate the little things, and lets you discover, above all else, what the Biosphere scientists found out: There's no place like home.