I enjoyed this ... the author's note at the beginning is enlightening. It tells how the author/Father sat down at the computer and wrote out the events after they returned. Not writing a book, just getting the memories down on paper. Also writing up some other memories from previous ventures. Then after the daughter found the notes, she and her father wrote them up into this book. As I write up journaling for scrapbook pages, and family blog posts, and we have life histories written by ancestors ... at what point does a personal experience translate into a book? What memories may be interesting to family/ancestors, and what of interest to the world at large?

Here - the title story of the family camping trip is broken up with lots of memories of earlier events. This was a little hard for me to stay on top of. I was going with the audio ... I think maybe it's a bit more clear in print? Starting off, it's the story of bear encounter. Is this with his family? Who is Mel? One of the kids? The guys ... now I know lots of people don't read the Author's Notes/Introductions to even realize that there are other recollections in addition to the family experience. It's not until the end of that section (several paragraphs) that it's indicated that was 1972. The second section (still chapter one) then starts off with "two decades later" ... I know the excitement of starting right off with the BEAR, but I can't help but wonder if the date at the start would have helped, me anyway.  At the end of that chapter, we get a list of the kids (Julie, Grace, Mollie, Max and Angela). Back when Mel (one of the buddies from the earlier trip) was mentioned, I wondered if we'd get a list of names.

Chapter two starts with the family vacation ... and then has a shift to the 1972 memory. Again (in audio) I was a little confused, when van issues and costs were being mentioned, I wasn't positive which timeline we were in. I had to stop the audio and shift to the Kindle copy (text was available in KU, and audio was on Hoopla) to reread and clarify. One moment it was talking about how Woody ended up in the hospital, followed by "our vehicle was operational, we weren't broke and no one was in the hospital. Yet." There HAD been a slight pause in audio, but maybe not enough. In print,, there was a *** to create more of a distinction (and instead of asterisks, they were cute little bear paw prints).   I think after that, I really paid attention to any slight pause in the audio, listening for any indication of timeline changes. The pie situation ... I honestly can't remember which timeline that took place in. 

Nonfiction can be a bit of a challenge, because it doesn't always have the characters and story arc that fiction does. Here, I did like the "characters" (the family) ... if this wasn't labeled non-fiction and was being told it was true, I'd shake my head and say one family couldn't possibly have this much bad luck happen to them like this! Again... with fiction, I can say "well at least that was just imagined" so it almost makes it too hard to read (even when written with humor, never laugh out loud presentation for me, but ...) if this indeed really did happen. Horrible really!  I do have to wonder just a little bit about the "angels" ... magically appearing and helping.

Written in 1st person, from Marty's POV, past tense. There were 23 chapters, each with a heading. Reading back over them, they didn't totally trigger memories of what happened in those particular chapters as headers often can do for me. 

Some pictures included in the Kindle copy.
Completely clean (although discussion of a nude beach, and a picture from the back of a bare bum in Kindle).