Thursday, September 22, 2011

Camping Post Mortem

Larry and I have perfected the art of always, but always, having all maps but the ones we need in the car during a road trip.  Our camping trip this past week was no exception.  Thus, we were forced to get our bearings by consulting one of those very vague maps found in a state-specific travel guide. 
We need one of these.

Where are we, exactly?

Well, we are east of Big City A and west of Big City B.


I don't think it's good driving to bang your head on the steering wheel like that, do you?  And no, we do not have GPS.  Sometimes David will read the MapQuest directions aloud in a GPS-like voice, however, just to make us feel more modern.

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I will NEVER trust a weather forecast again.  I mean, unless "scattered showers" really does mean "constant torrential downpour."  If so, then Weather.com nailed it.

On the bright side, our brand-new used pop-up camper does not leak.  And I got to spend the entire camping trip reminding the kids not to get mud inside our canvas/aluminum abode.  I nagged them more in 2 days than I have the entire past 2 decades.  

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This was a sign at a pizza place we stopped at.  It seemed funny at the time.  I must have been giddy from lack of sleep.  Something to do with rain pounding on the roof of the camper all the previous night...

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Have I mentioned it rained?

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My rain-induced fatigue apparently affected my judgment.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have marched into the campground bathroom and assumed that it was my 6-year-old daughter I heard washing her hands.  "I hope you didn't pee on your pants again!" I announced, loudly, as I rounded the entrance wall.  I must say, the grown woman standing by the sinks looked rather startled by my belligerent accusations of incontinence.

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In my defense, Susie had managed to go through all her pairs of pants by the evening of our first day there.  The photos of our picturesque waterfall hike on the second day are diminished somewhat by the fact that she is wearing pajamas.  And crying, because she doesn't like to hike.  Guess who was born into the wrong family, eh?



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Despite the fact that Larry and I packed almost everything we own for this camping trip, we still had to visit WalMart  to pick up things we needed.  These items included (but were not limited to) pants for Susie (see above),  rain ponchos for the kids, and a sweet little 1500-watt ceramic heater for the camper.  That's right, we now have both an air conditioner and a heater for our camper.  I never claimed to love roughing it, you know.






[Right/wrong sign: bobsgear.com]
[GPS image: ChristineKane.com]

11 comments:

  1. Hey, you have to mix it up a little to keep it all interesting. And boy, does your life sound interesting! ;) Hey, at least you have blog fodder.

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  2. "belligerent accusations of incontinence."
    My family wanted to know what was so funny when I was supposed to be making dinner.

    I love you, and I vote. Often.

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  3. You have a wonderful sense of humour. It's a great blessing, especially when it raining, you're camping and all the undies are used up. A honk for you.

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  4. The sign IS funny.

    You need to come camping by me . . . it never rains in Southern California!

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  5. You nearly brought me to tears. Ha ha.

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  6. Our friends were like that when we went camping. "no shoes in the camper!" OMG kids spent more time taking their shoes on and off and getting yelled at.

    Too funny about the lady you asked if she peed her pants again. hahaaha

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  7. That woman shouldn't have been so shocked. That's good advice at any age.

    Also, how was the pop-up compared totenting? Did you love it? Was it everything you expected? Disappointing? Comfortable? We're really focused on getting one next year . . .

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  8. I can just imagine the expression on your face when you turned around after saying that...
    I don't GPS either. I do tell myself while reading off a map "Recalculating."

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  9. OK, I'm posting this here even though I *want* to post it on your newest post entitled "Not Yet Famous," but because there are no other comments, it won't let me go to the comments page... AND I can't click on the title of the blog post to bring it up as a separate page because I'm guessing you updated to Blogger's newest interface, which means that the title is no longer a separate link. It also means that when your blog goes through my Blogger Dashboard, I can't click on each article. I have to go straight to the main blog. I do not like the new interface. I switched back. Just FYI.

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  10. My family had one of those! We drove from Md to Tx to Ca to Ca as in Canada this time (it snowed on the Fourth of July in Banff!) and finally back home again. With six kids in the car. And that was just the longest trip. It was a great investment in childhood memories, and during 1969, there were a whole lot of other families driving the country that summer to, as Simon and Garfunkel put it, "look for America." The real one, with real people everywhere.

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  11. I grew up camping in a tent trailer: vinyl top, canvas sides, all snapped together.
    My husband prefers backpacking, so we compromise with a tent. If I'm lucky, we get running water and flushing toilets!

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