Book 2 is out. The camping trip is over but the story lives on. If you’ve already read Callie, the Mud Doesn’t Care, this is the story that happened after everyone came home.
Some trips don’t end when you unpack the car. They follow you home.
Once home the blankets go back where they belong. The cast iron skillet gets cleaned. The cooler gets emptied. The mud mat gets rolled up and tucked away until next time. We didn’t want to leave.
But somehow the mountains stay with us and follow us home.
When we finished writing Callie, the Mud Doesn’t Care, I kept thinking about something that never actually made it into the book… what happens after everyone gets home?
Callie probably went right back to keeping her bows perfectly straight. Cody probably resumed his important research into whether leaves deserve getting barked at. Or which rocks get included in his secret treasure spot in the backyard.
As it went, life returned to normal. Except… It didn’t. Because once you’ve watched Callie, the self-appointed Queen of Everything step into mountain mud, laugh until she couldn’t stop, and discover the world didn’t end… you can’t really unsee it.
That’s the funny thing about growth. It rarely announces itself. It just quietly changes the way you look at tomorrow.
A few evenings after the trip, we lit the outside fire pit. We were having a rerun of our camping trip.
The familiar camping table came back out. The iron grate found its place over the flames. Hot dogs replaced fresh trout, but nobody seemed to mind.
Cody was already telling the story of “The Great Mud Incident” with the dramatic enthusiasm of someone who exaggerates every detail.
“You should have seen her face!“
“I was composed.”
“You were covered in mud.“
“I was… briefly less composed.”
Some stories improve with retelling. This one definitely did.
Then Cody remembered something else. “The tent.”
Nobody laughed immediately.
That storm had been… educational. The faithful old pup tent had mostly survived, though we spent part of that evening reconsidering tent options for future trips. Callie’s choice won out and we all agreed that an upgrade was in order.
Not only did we have a campout rerun in the backyard, we had a new tent waiting for the pups’ discovery!
Just around the corner of the house stood a brand-new inflatable glamping tent.
No more bending fiberglass poles. No worrying about whether the next gust of wind was going to redecorate the campsite. Just a roomy, sturdy little cabin waiting for its first adventure.
Cody sprinted inside before anyone finished explaining it. “We’re moving!” he barked, spinning in circles.
Callie entered much more carefully… “No Cody, it’s for camping.” She seemed a little nervous as she took in the vast space and the big windows. She moved slowly… right up until she noticed the skylight. “I can see the stars from my bed!”
Now that got her attention.
“When are we going camping again?”
Sometimes the best gear upgrades don’t happen because something failed.
They happen because experience teaches us what matters next.
That’s when we started looking for something that would make the next camping trip a whole lot easier.
Hopefully with a little less structural commentary from the wind.
The old tent gave them a story.
The next one will probably give them several more.
One of my favorite lines in the entire book isn’t actually about mud.
It’s this:
“Sometimes what we hold onto so tightly holds us right back.”
Callie is probably still pretending she was never afraid of the mud.
Cody is almost certainly carrying snacks he packed himself, which somehow still includes one completely inexplicable item.
And Lady Cavalon?
She’s already looking at maps.
Because the best adventures don’t end with the last page.
They end with someone quietly saying,
“Next time…”
Some of the camping gear in this story can be purchased through the links that we provide. We share links to practical, useful, and often times ridiculously fun items, and we may make a small commission. If you’d like to check out the tent that Lady Cavalon and the pups pitched when they arrived on site, you can find it here .
if you want to check out Callie’s Choice Glamping Castle, you can find it here.
Iron grate for campfire cooking:
Lodge cast Iron is not just for camping, it’s for life. Get it here
Callie’s Pink Donut Bed
Round Backyard Firepit Shell
