Monday, September 6, 2010

Second Verse

Worse than the first?
I decided to get over the accidental deletion of my first blog in the fiasco I have named "The Great Hacker Caper of 2010" and try my hand at this again.

We went camping this weekend.  It was supposed to be something we did a lot this summer but with Brian's injury it just didn't happen.  When the fliers for boy scouts came home the boys started clamoring for the chance to join.  Not wanting to sell our souls and mortgage our house, we asked for the things they thought they would get to do with boy scouts that they wouldn't get to do otherwise.  They want to shoot bb guns, race model cars, camp and canoe.   Except for the pinewood derby I can recreate all of that at half the price and without the uniform so.....

After church on Sunday we packed up the truck and went to Meijer to get all the things we forgot we needed.  Light packers we are not.  We managed to load the entire back of the Pathfinder with all the stuff we needed for an overnight stay at a "primitive" campground.  Among the "necessities" were some nerf dart guns that my husband had so enjoyed at the BBQ Birthday party Saturday night.   I am hoping that is as close to a BB gun my kids get.  Since my husband comes from a hunting family, I have my doubts.

But I digress.  We finally made it to the campground at just before 3pm.  Got everything set up.  Decided against putting the rainfly on the tent.  It was a gorgeous, cloud free day.  A breeze blew through the campsite and sent butterflies and dragonflies scattering through the clearing.  The boys decided to take a mountain bike ride (and no comments about the lack of mountains in IL...you know what I mean).  Dyl's first ride lasted exactly fifteen min from helmeting up and getting back.  Evidently he wiped out and cried and came back to camp.  I have one sports boy and one mini me....

We decide to play nerf guns, croquet, frisbee and just hang out for a bit.  Then it occurs to us that it will get dewy....THATs why we needed the rain fly.  By then the breeze had graduated to a mild wind.  We manage to wrangle the damn thing over the top of the tent and straight over the other side.  Take two....we pull it gently half way then quickly attach two hooks while the thing blows over.  We grab the unattached side and drag it across again.  At this point I should mention that I am five foot three.  Reaching over the top of our ridiculously big tent is not in my skill set without a step stool.  But with a combination of jumping and tip toeing we get it across and fastened on the other two corners.  Step back and look....ummm...its the wrong way.  We take it off.  It flies all whackamajammy.  We try to put it on again.  Wrong again.  Try again.  Finally four tries in we get the dang fly on.  The tent adventure was done till we had to put it up today.

Camping is not generally my thing.  The hole in the ground potties.  The lack of running water.  The weird bugs and strange night noises.  I really enjoyed this though.  Life has been so chaotic and loud lately it was nice to be surrounded by silence.  There were other campers at the site but we rarely saw or heard them.  For fifteen minutes I was sitting in the sun looking up at a scalding blue sky and just feeling balanced.  It was just what the doctor ordered....along with a side of benadryl....

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