Camping disaster 2010

Don't think I have forgotten to write....O No, this is a good one!

Honey Buns wants to camp. Because we are so busy, I arrange to take the day off on Monday and we plan to camp on Sunday night and then mosy home on Monday...then back to the real world on Tuesday. Sounds like a plan, right?

That is when Camping Disaster 2010 starts...

We get it all loaded up in the little pick-up (I have been on a campaign to trade it in, get something we can all fit into...this trip has helped my cause)

We get loaded up (Honey Buns, Sweet Pea, the dog and me) the bed of the truck is full with camping stuff and 3 coolers. (food cooler, drinks cooler and cooler of extra ice, in case you were wondering!)

We get there...we are camping at a state park about 40 minutes from the house...as we are paying our fee...the ranger says...we are expecting rain tonight. If we have severe weather, we will open the storm shelter between the 2 bathrooms at the shower house.

We continue and pick a campsite...to which I made sure it was appropriately close to the shower house and we set up the tent. Sweet Pea and I go check out the playground and swimming beach and Honey Buns gets everything settled and goes fishing. Dog is loving the outdoors and smelling everything, runs with us girls towards the swimming beach.

Sidenote: we are the only ones in the tent camping area...dog is running free because of that.

We check it all out and we start back to tent to get on our swim stuff. All of us walk back down to swimming beach, even Honey Buns. Swimming beach is typical lake beach...but this time it is flooded, meaning that the water is covering some of the parking lot therefore we really can't see the beach...but we want to swim and I decide it will be fine if we are careful. When HB goes back with us, I explain that there is some parking lot under water and then huge boulders before the swimming beach...be careful. I have Sweet Pea take off her shoes and put them by the bag and we wade in. She has on her life jacket, but I only let her stay in the parking lot area and don't venture into the boulders that we can't see or anything like that. Honey Buns...doesn't listen too good. He decides and then lets us girls both know that we should be wearing shoes since it is a parking lot...to which Sweet Pea runs back and puts on her flip flops and wades on in. What do you get when you combine flipflops, water and a 3 yr old? A FALL headfirst into the water, where the child is sputtering then crying because she has skinned up both knees on the parking lot and the flip flops are now floating away, into the boulder area and she just realizes it and is crying harder, meanwhile blood is gushing from the knees...Honey Buns is in the deeper water and I am scrambling to get her upright and then I have to figure out the flooded boulder area to rescue the flip flops. Swimming time...is so done.

Start walking back to camp. Should be noted that to be nearer the shower house is to be the farthest away from the swimming beach.

Girls go take a shower, HoneyBuns will start on dinner. Girls return from shower clean and happy. Honey Buns...sitting and stewing.

FORGOT the MATCHES

How can we have this great campout without fire, marshmallows or even a hot dinner?

His solution???
Eat cereal for dinner.

My suggestion...go to the store and buy matches, ask the ranger station or beg from a camper on the other side of the campground.

If it is cereal for dinner...we can go home now.

He begs the matches, starts the fire, cooks the pork chops.

Cell phone rings...my parents ask if we are taking cover...sun shining, blue sky...so I ask why and tell them that we are camping. They tell us that storms are coming our way. I tell them we are close to shower house and it will be fine. (they call 3 more times to check on us)

Dinner goes fine, Sweet Pea loves the marshmallows...I clean up after dinner and proceed to make the beds and put everything in the cab of the pickup and clean around the campsite in preparation of the the rain. It begins to get dark, the ranger comes by again to tell us the storm is about 40minutes away and has strong winds.

Watch lightening bugs and the girls get into tent. start fighting about touching the tent...finally sweet pea falls asleep. Honey Buns gets in tent...lightening starts to flash across the sky. Dog begins to howl at thunder...I wonder out loud how long until the dog is in the tent. Honey Buns says what do you mean...put her in here with us? Yes, because it is going to rain and I would rather you just put her in here than wait until she is all wet and then let her in. So he grumbles around and open the zipper and lets her in.
Get settled...more thunder, more howling...Ranger stops by again and tells us storms coming.

Rain drops...Dog moves to air mattress...Ranger stops by to tell us that it was raining.
DUH!

It rains and blows ALL NIGHT LONG. soon the tent is so saturated that it begins dripping on my feet. I start to whine. Sweet Pea sleeps thru the night. Dog sleeps fitfully.

5:30am Honey Buns says...are you awake? I am. He decides to make a run for it and let's get out of here. I put Sweet Pea in her car seat and we break camp. We are on the road by 5:50am headed home.

I should note here that while it was dripping on my feet, it was also dripping on Honey Buns head...but he is a better man than me and was not complaining or even mention it until we got home and I was talking about how hard it was to sleep with all the dripping on my feet.

It takes all day to dry out the tent, air mattress, sleeping bags etc. Everything is put away.

We start itching. All of us covered in bug bites. We determine it is chiggers, that crawled off the dog in the night and it is the most horrible thing I have seen. My little sweet pea has them in her hair it is that bad. Honey Buns also has sensitive skin and it looks like he has the pox, there are that many. Dog was sleeping right by him or on him most of the night. I have some, but nothing like him.

4 days later...itching is starting to subside.

We won't be going camping for quite some time!