Skipping our annual camping trip this year
My wife's whole family has been going camping for years and years. I used to enjoy going mainly as an excuse to get loaded for a whole long weekend. But since I quit drinking almost five years ago, I've skipped it. I tell everyone that I hate camping (which is true), and the only thing that made it tolerable was alcohol. And now that I don't drink, I r REALLY hate camping. I did go the first year I was sober and had an absolutely miserable time.
The typical day is going to the beach. Then cocktails while preparing dinner. Lots of wine with dinner. Then beers while sitting around the campfire. The year I went sober, I spent most of the time at our campsite, reading and hating life, in general. It's way better if I stay at home. It's also way too much work preparing for the trip, for a couple days in the woods.
Thanks for letting me rant.
= new reply since forum marked as read
but now I only drink occasionally. I hung out with my drinking buddies at the Eagles Lodge for a while after I cooled it, but it wasn't the same. In some cases, and some situations, you do need to drink to have a good time. I love those guys, but they get drunker and louder and eventually, I'm an outsider. 
I might as well be the only one not frying at an acid party.
Tell me about the prep for a trip. I used to float the rivers here in Idaho with the same guys. Some semi-retired pros that went first class on the Snake and Salmon rivers here in Idaho. Those guys beat themselves to death to make sure they had enough beer, booze and ice for most of the guys to stay drunk all the time. But you wouldn't have wanted to pay the tab on the meals they served if it was a nice restaurant. The food was fabulous.
I went on other shorter trips where we were all about the fishing. We had freeze dried and canned food and weed. I enjoyed those more. It was so much less work.
.... rather than booze,... drink green tea fused with THC.
I run an AA meeting on Mondays just north of here - in Lake George, New York. It's tourist season now and we get visitors from all over. And in the past few weeks we've had several visitors show up at the meeting, and they've said the exact same thing, they're with family or with a spouse's family and they needed a meeting to get away from all the drinking. Kudos to you for doing the next right thing for yourself. I've been sober for 14 years now and I'd avoid putting myself in that situation, too. 
