Camping

I can now officially say I have been tent camping. I made it 34.5 years without having the experience. And well, while I'm sure I'll go again, I'm not sad it took me this long to go.

Michael, Rehm, Charlotte and I went with Rehm's Cub Scout pack. We went about 1.5 hours from our house to Canyon of the Eagles. We had to take two cars because I needed to come back today and Michael and the big kids are staying until Sunday morning. Last night driving down a winding 2 lane road in the dark in the middle of nowhere following Michael I was sure we were lost and crazy. When the road ended, luckily we were at the right place! In the process of finding our actual site we stumbled on the Lodge - I told Michael I would happily go back and stay there :)

We found the rest of the pack and picked a spot to pitch our tent. Everyone was headed to the Observatory so we sent Rehm off with another family and Charlotte, Michael and I started setting up camp. The first thing we discovered is we had forgotten the adult flash lights. Our only source of light were two kid flash lights - one a lion that roars and the other a zebra that giggles. Oh, and they turn off every two minutes.

About halfway through setting up the tent I mention to Michael that the lights on the van were dim. I went to start the van and yep, it wouldn't start! We had drained the battery! Luckily we had our other car and jumper cables. However neither one of us could find the latch for the hood. I had to get the owner's manual out and look it up, using a roaring flashlight whose batteries died in the process.

Back to setting up the tent. We got the first two poles done properly in no time but the second two just weren't doing what Michael remembered when he had set it up with our friend John (who we borrowed the tent from). Of course I asked where the directions were. Of course we had none. After a few more minutes of fiddling with it we figured it out and had the tent ready to go.

I looked around us at all the other tents and then looked back at ours and asked Michael where he was planning to sleep. It was tiny! He assured me we would all fit and it would be fine. I knew we wouldn't have to worry about staying warm as we were going to be very on top of each other.



From there things started smoothing out. We put the kids to bed and sat and talked to some of the other parents for a bit. When we went to bed it was well, comical. We were completely squished. I swear at points during the night Charlotte was taking up 1/3 of the tent. How can someone so small take up so much space?

When I left today Charlotte was in a tree and Rehm was off with his pack on a spy mission. At least I know they will sleep better tonight as everyone will have more room.

I'll definitely go camping again but only with a larger tent and an air mattress! Oh and a couple of flash lights that don't make any noise.

Here is a link to all the pictures if you can't see the slide show.