The Camping Trip

The Camping Trip - Lucy demonstrates her shooting skills by shooting the rifle with her eyes closed

The Camping Trip – I Love Lucy episode 64, season 2, originally aired 6/8/1953

After hearing of another couple divorcing, Lucy is determined to keep her marriage together by sharing all of Ricky’s interests.  So, when Ricky announces a camping trip that he and Fred will be taking that summer, Lucy is all excited about joining.  Fred wants no part of camping with their wives, so Ricky hatches a scheme – he will take Lucy away camping that weekend, and make her so miserable that she’ll never want to go camping again!  A brilliant idea, until Lucy learns about it, and enlists Ethel’s help to turn the tables on Ricky

The Camping Trip - Lucy demonstrates her shooting skills by shooting the rifle with her eyes closed
The Camping Trip – Lucy demonstrates her shooting skills by shooting the rifle with her eyes closed

With Ethel’s help, Lucy is able to out-fish Ricky, beat him back to camp by several hours, and the next day demonstrate her shooting skills.  The routine with Lucy shooting a remote horseshoe is inspired (with Ethel hitting a sheet of metal with a hammer to imitate the sound of a hit), complete with Lucy shooting with her eyes closed and over her shoulder.  But she goes a little too far when she shoots a duck (“these look like good duck trees to me”) and Ethel throws down a duck bought from a market – already plucked and stuffed!  Ricky quickly figures out what’s happening, and threatens to shoot the fat duck in the tree – Ethel!  All is revealed, Ricky reassures Lucy, and she agrees to stay at home during Ricky’s camping trip with Fred.

Camping Trip is available on the season 2 I Love Lucy DVD collection.

Funny quotes from The Camping Trip – I Love Lucy

Club member: Oh come now, Lucy.  Every marriage reaches a point when the honeymoon’s over.
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Yeah, our honeymoon was over on our honeymoon.


Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): Oh, no I won’t!
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): You haven’t even heard my idea!
Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance): You thought it up, that’s enough for me!


Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): I’ll race you back to camp.
Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): I’ll take you up on that.  And just because you’re a woman, I’ll give you a head start.
Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball): And because I’m a woman, [pause] I’ll take it.


Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz): You know, that’s really good shooting! Not only did you kill the duck, but you knocked off his feathers and you cleaned it too!

About tom.raymond 1590 Articles
Professional clown for over 25 years - happily married, with 5 children and 1 grandson