Here's the thing about camping- I used to think it would get easier as our children got older. 🤣 While it is easier to pack with older children, it's much, much harder to get them all rounded up simultaneously -when everyone has a job and their own social calendar.
Every year we say "ok, now this year we're going to go camping more often. No sense in having a camper [taking up space in the shop] if we don't use it." But it wasn't happening. Last year we didn't go camping at all. We kept waiting for a weekend it suited all of us, which never happened. So this summer I decided we are going to camp when it suits "mom & dad" and the kids can kinda show up if/when it works out for them.
This time we went to a local campground, to make it more do-able for the kids to come & go since they were both scheduled to work. Because the sites get booked up in advance, the only way to snag a site on short notice is to do a walk-in reservation prior to the weekend (the park keeps about 20 sites as walk-in only, first come first serve, not available online for advance reservations) -I managed to get one of the last sites on Thursday afternoon.
Can we talk about camping food for a minute? We LOVE camping food! Mountain pies [BBQ chicken, Philly cheese steak, chocolate-peanut butter-marshmallow, or breakfast ones are our favorites] tin foils, dutch oven recipes, s'mores... YUM! Almost anything cooked over a fire. I think we'd go camping for the food alone!
Tinfoils cooked to perfection- 20 minutes on the bottom, 7 minutes on the top.
And no cabbage leaf on the bottom, thank you very much.
Jeremy took his kayak out on the lake
There is a cave at the park that I had never hiked to, so that was on my bucket list this weekend.
About 15 years ago a girl fell to her death from above this cave so there are many warnings posted and the trail ends here (a distance from the entrance)...
but you can hike on back into the cave, at your own risk.
Walking for a mile in Crocs is ill-advised. May cause blisters the size of a quarter on one's heels.
But a foot spa -especially with Lemongrass Spa products- is prescribed.
We had a friendly butterfly visiting our camp site all afternoon & evening Saturday.
My camera shutter speed and the wing movement of said butterfly were not compatible.
Madam Butterfly was especially attracted to Josh
Our favorite little person came for a visit 👏
She likes foot spas, too!
Having the whole family together makes this mama a happy camper!
I'm of the opinion that it's the people who profess to hate camping that should be the ones to own the campers. It makes camping infinitely easier. Our camper contains all the bedding, towels, paper supplies & assorted camping paraphernalia we need; so all we need to gather up is some clothes & food. We can camp spur-of-the-moment if we want, with minimal fuss. We started out with a tent when we were newlyweds, then moved up to a pop-up camper for about 10 years, and currently have a 22' travel trailer for almost as long. Each upgrade made camping a little more convenient. We didn't spend much on any of our campers -just doesn't seem justified for something you use a couple times per year. This one was resurrected from a field and took considerable elbow grease to clean up [and removal of a snake skin under one of the beds! 😦], but for all it's redneck qualities, it has a great a/c unit. We're not yuppie campers with the latest & greatest gear, but considering we have a knack for camping on the hottest weekends of the year, that is our one creature comfort we're shameless about using when we're "roughin' it".
It's a good thing we weren't far from home, because the pickup brakes gave out just when it was time to pull the camper home. The man of the house made it safely home, but we won't be camping again until we get the pickup fixed. This wasn't exactly traveling, but remember we are drama-magnets when we go away, so the weekend wouldn't have been complete without a little excitement like that. 😄
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