F8...
Many years ago my friend Kim and I would take our kids and sometimes our husbands camping in pop-up campers to various local campsites not too far from home. Years have since passed and the kids are now grown up and doing their own thing with no conceivable interest in camping.
On a drive last week, I came upon the campground that we used to frequent. Driving through the park brought back a flood of memories and the smell of campfires was close to addicting. I could not get that "old" feeling out of my head and decided that I must go back and do it again. Only this time it would be in a tent (both campers are gone) and without kids. Just Kim and I to brave the great outdoors.
We decided on a whim to plan our great outdoor adventure this past weekend. Not recalling the layout of the park we deemed it necessary to drive to the park prior to our trip to select the perfect site. Let me just make this short and sweet...you would have thought we were purchasing a lot in which to build a home, not just pitch a tent for two nights. We pulled in, backed up, surveyed the surrounding area, listed our top contenders, starred our favorite, before deciding on F8. We hurried home to register online before someone else got our spot. We then headed off to the grocery store to get all the essential food for camp.
Friday arrived and I felt like a kid, all excited for the adventure that lay ahead. Then the rain came. It came in droves, but we were determined not to let it rain on our parade and did not let it delay our plans of heading north as soon as we got home from work. After a few stops to purchase ice and firewood I pulled into F8. Funny thing about the rain, the further north I drove the sunnier it became. No rain had fallen at the park and all was well. I began to setup the tent, blow up the mattress and get organized. Kim arrived shortly thereafter and before you know it F8 was looking like home! Then we started to put together the screen house. It was at this point that I began to have thoughts about this weekend going down the tubes and going down in a hurry! We spent over an hour on that thing. It had been over 20+ years since we had last put the screen tent up and could not even remember what it looked like when completed. Of course, no directions could be found. Kim even mentioned "I can't believe you don't have the directions, you never thrown stuff like that out!" So we gave up and moved on to start the campfire in which we planned to cook our hot dogs on a stick. Long story short...we burned a ton of paper, twigs, etc. but none of the firewood I purchased would catch. It just smoked and got charred. So now I was feeling pretty defeated, had second thoughts about this seemingly crazy idea and we were both exhausted. So on to the propane grill the dogs went and with baked beans as a side we dined at the picnic table sans a campfire and a screen tent.
Bedtime was a welcome relief as we had thoroughly exhausted ourselves both physically and mentally. So off to bed we went and although our beds were on a slight slope we didn't seem to notice and nodded off with no problems.
Saturday morning brought cold cereal for breakfast and a renewed plan of attack on the screen house and fire. Asking for advice from a camping neighbor, several more hours of not giving up and a trip home for another screen tent that proved ineffective, we had great hopes of an awesome fire with new and improved firewood!
After giving up on the screen house, we decided to get cleaned up and headed to the shower house. I laugh about it now as I recall trying to decide where to put my belongings without them getting wet as we reflected on our kids recent vacations in hotel suites and beachfront condos. I thought out loud, what is wrong with this picture? A couple of laughs later we felt better just being clean and eagerly anticipated a nice evening in which to relax. We took a walk around the park, looked at other sites, took a nap, read magazines and relaxed.
Because we knew there was potential for a campfire disaster, Kim decided to get started on it early thus giving us more time to ensure a fire in which to roast our marshmallows for smores. We had decided early on that cooking dinner was not contingent upon a campfire but rather just the propane grill. It was decided after the "new" wood would not burn that lighter fluid was in order, so off we headed to the camp store to purchase. Kim soaked the wood in the fluid and we waited. It was about that time that our "guest" decided to appear. At first the raccoon spent time at the neighbors site, scrounging around in their fire pit for items discarded. After some shooing away it decided that it preferred the smells coming from our site and proceeded to head our way. This guy was not scared of people in the least. It seemed like he was playing a game, headed off into the woods only to attempt to get into our camp from the backside. After an exchange of words and beating on the ground with screen house poles ( I knew they would come in handy!) he vacated the area.
We had company for dinner as Mike joined us for salad, hamburgers and other goodies. Dinner was delicious and the scent of the new found campfire was heaven to my nose! That lighter fluid does wonders! Even though we were full from dinner we decided after the many hours trying to get a good fire going we had to have dessert. Smores of course! The only camping dessert! Not to disappoint, the smores were worth all the fire hassles! With company gone, we decided to pack up a lot of our belongings as rain was in the forecast for later that evening. With most things in the car we sat back, attempted to watch a movie on the laptop, gave that up and felt that 9PM wasn't really that early to turn in. Kim fell asleep right away, I read a couple of magazines and then it was lights out! Fast forward 3:30AM when I wake up to "get out of here! I see you". Our friend the raccoon was back and attempting to open Kim's cooler. It eventually took off after realizing it would probably never get in there or it was tired of Kim shining the flashlight in its face while yelling at it!
Then around 4:30 or so I began to see lightning and hear thunder off in the distance. We both tried to get a radar screen on our cellphones. Kim didn't have much luck and fell back to sleep. I got a radar screen up on my phone and saw what looked like a sizable amount of green heading our way. As the thunder got closer I began to think about what a pain it is to bring home wet tents and belongings. So at about 6AM we made the decision to pack it up and head home. It didn't take long to break camp down albeit the packing left a little to be desired. Things crammed here and there in a hurry so that we would beat the rain. While it did not rain, I did happen to notice that just south of us garnered a good amount of rain as the streets were puddled with water. Just beyond that it was dry again. I'm not sure if F8 ever saw rain on this day but we did not want to take the chance. I'm sure our camping neighbors thought we were nuts! And maybe we are! Especially since we are considering another trip!
P.S. After arriving home and putting things away I found the directions to the screen house. We were so close to getting it right! UGH! F8, I hope you will welcome us again. Until next time!
On a drive last week, I came upon the campground that we used to frequent. Driving through the park brought back a flood of memories and the smell of campfires was close to addicting. I could not get that "old" feeling out of my head and decided that I must go back and do it again. Only this time it would be in a tent (both campers are gone) and without kids. Just Kim and I to brave the great outdoors.
We decided on a whim to plan our great outdoor adventure this past weekend. Not recalling the layout of the park we deemed it necessary to drive to the park prior to our trip to select the perfect site. Let me just make this short and sweet...you would have thought we were purchasing a lot in which to build a home, not just pitch a tent for two nights. We pulled in, backed up, surveyed the surrounding area, listed our top contenders, starred our favorite, before deciding on F8. We hurried home to register online before someone else got our spot. We then headed off to the grocery store to get all the essential food for camp.
Friday arrived and I felt like a kid, all excited for the adventure that lay ahead. Then the rain came. It came in droves, but we were determined not to let it rain on our parade and did not let it delay our plans of heading north as soon as we got home from work. After a few stops to purchase ice and firewood I pulled into F8. Funny thing about the rain, the further north I drove the sunnier it became. No rain had fallen at the park and all was well. I began to setup the tent, blow up the mattress and get organized. Kim arrived shortly thereafter and before you know it F8 was looking like home! Then we started to put together the screen house. It was at this point that I began to have thoughts about this weekend going down the tubes and going down in a hurry! We spent over an hour on that thing. It had been over 20+ years since we had last put the screen tent up and could not even remember what it looked like when completed. Of course, no directions could be found. Kim even mentioned "I can't believe you don't have the directions, you never thrown stuff like that out!" So we gave up and moved on to start the campfire in which we planned to cook our hot dogs on a stick. Long story short...we burned a ton of paper, twigs, etc. but none of the firewood I purchased would catch. It just smoked and got charred. So now I was feeling pretty defeated, had second thoughts about this seemingly crazy idea and we were both exhausted. So on to the propane grill the dogs went and with baked beans as a side we dined at the picnic table sans a campfire and a screen tent.
Bedtime was a welcome relief as we had thoroughly exhausted ourselves both physically and mentally. So off to bed we went and although our beds were on a slight slope we didn't seem to notice and nodded off with no problems.
Saturday morning brought cold cereal for breakfast and a renewed plan of attack on the screen house and fire. Asking for advice from a camping neighbor, several more hours of not giving up and a trip home for another screen tent that proved ineffective, we had great hopes of an awesome fire with new and improved firewood!
After giving up on the screen house, we decided to get cleaned up and headed to the shower house. I laugh about it now as I recall trying to decide where to put my belongings without them getting wet as we reflected on our kids recent vacations in hotel suites and beachfront condos. I thought out loud, what is wrong with this picture? A couple of laughs later we felt better just being clean and eagerly anticipated a nice evening in which to relax. We took a walk around the park, looked at other sites, took a nap, read magazines and relaxed.
Because we knew there was potential for a campfire disaster, Kim decided to get started on it early thus giving us more time to ensure a fire in which to roast our marshmallows for smores. We had decided early on that cooking dinner was not contingent upon a campfire but rather just the propane grill. It was decided after the "new" wood would not burn that lighter fluid was in order, so off we headed to the camp store to purchase. Kim soaked the wood in the fluid and we waited. It was about that time that our "guest" decided to appear. At first the raccoon spent time at the neighbors site, scrounging around in their fire pit for items discarded. After some shooing away it decided that it preferred the smells coming from our site and proceeded to head our way. This guy was not scared of people in the least. It seemed like he was playing a game, headed off into the woods only to attempt to get into our camp from the backside. After an exchange of words and beating on the ground with screen house poles ( I knew they would come in handy!) he vacated the area.
We had company for dinner as Mike joined us for salad, hamburgers and other goodies. Dinner was delicious and the scent of the new found campfire was heaven to my nose! That lighter fluid does wonders! Even though we were full from dinner we decided after the many hours trying to get a good fire going we had to have dessert. Smores of course! The only camping dessert! Not to disappoint, the smores were worth all the fire hassles! With company gone, we decided to pack up a lot of our belongings as rain was in the forecast for later that evening. With most things in the car we sat back, attempted to watch a movie on the laptop, gave that up and felt that 9PM wasn't really that early to turn in. Kim fell asleep right away, I read a couple of magazines and then it was lights out! Fast forward 3:30AM when I wake up to "get out of here! I see you". Our friend the raccoon was back and attempting to open Kim's cooler. It eventually took off after realizing it would probably never get in there or it was tired of Kim shining the flashlight in its face while yelling at it!
Then around 4:30 or so I began to see lightning and hear thunder off in the distance. We both tried to get a radar screen on our cellphones. Kim didn't have much luck and fell back to sleep. I got a radar screen up on my phone and saw what looked like a sizable amount of green heading our way. As the thunder got closer I began to think about what a pain it is to bring home wet tents and belongings. So at about 6AM we made the decision to pack it up and head home. It didn't take long to break camp down albeit the packing left a little to be desired. Things crammed here and there in a hurry so that we would beat the rain. While it did not rain, I did happen to notice that just south of us garnered a good amount of rain as the streets were puddled with water. Just beyond that it was dry again. I'm not sure if F8 ever saw rain on this day but we did not want to take the chance. I'm sure our camping neighbors thought we were nuts! And maybe we are! Especially since we are considering another trip!
P.S. After arriving home and putting things away I found the directions to the screen house. We were so close to getting it right! UGH! F8, I hope you will welcome us again. Until next time!
This is pretty funny. Sounds like one of our trips minus the fire starting issues. LOL
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