Over beers at Jimmy’s last week, my friend Darrick and I decided to go camping in a moment of sponteneity. This was not because either of us were wild life extraordinaires. In fact, I had only camped one other time in my life, during which I learnt that I was incapable of putting up a tent or starting a fire, and my legs are the favourite food of mosquitoes, but Indiana Dunes offered beaches, bonfires, and adventure – a fitting end to our time in Chicago. So, on Saturday morning, we set off for Indiana with a tent, sleeping bags, and a lot of excitement.
I should have known it wasn’t going to be an easy trip. This was the weekend of the NATO Summit, and Chicago is ON EDGE. I was waiting for the train on the platform when a policeman approached me and screamed, “Step away from the pole, and move twenty steps towards 55th street!” Later, the phrases “suspicious package”, “bomb”, “caution tape”, and “WHAT SHOULD I DO” drifted from his walkie-talkie conversation, and of course, all trains were stopped. We waited for over an hour before deciding to just rent a car and drive there. Reaching the campground hot, dizzy, and hungry, we snagged the last slot available – one minute later and it would have been a camping fail.
Still, Indiana Dunes exceeded all expectations.
With the sand dunes stretched out for miles around, I felt like Lawrence of Arabia. If I don’t make it to the Sahara any time soon, at least this gave a taste of the wonder of sand and desolation. The majestic combination of pristine waters, azure skies, and sand dunes just made me feel so small and insignificant.
The meeting point of the Dunes and Lake Michigan – breathtaking.
Back at the campsite, we began the tedious process of starting a fire. It is NOT as easy as it looks in movies, even with a fire starter! Roasting food over an open fire, however, was immensely rewarding. The ritual stretches back to our ancestors tens of millenniums before us, and to this day remain unchanged, yet the human civilisation, from its discovery of fire till the present day, account for but a sliver of the earth’s history. How intimidating is the scale of time!
Dusk at the lakefront left the beach awash with tranquility, and beautiful colours on the horizon. Watching the seagulls and the rising tide, I was utterly mesmerised.
And finally, the stars came out. I regret not being able to capture the night sky with my camera, but experience was surreal. For the first time in years, away from the light pollution of big cities, I could see the Big Dipper, and Venus shining brightly on the horizon. The star charts I memorised once upon a time for Astrophysics had completely vanished from my brain, but despite not distinguishing Cancer from Andromeda and failing to identify the North Star, stargazing certainly helps put one’s life, and all its trivial concerns and frivolities, into perspective. Our fates are written in the stars, and they’re telling us to follow our dreams.
Musings of a Leaf 
beautiful :]