Trial Run #1 for A Road Trip of Grand Scale
As you may know, we will be embarking on yet another road-trip-to-California shortly. But this time for money-saving and vacation-fun, we are planning on camping all the way. Our motto? Until we have somewhere free to stay? We pay $10 per day.
So
we decided that since we were having such BEAUTIFUL spring weather, we would
start 'trying out' some camping with the girls... It's been almost a
year, and it was successful then, but who knows, right? Anyway, we want
to gauge whether or not we need any essentials, if we could streamline,
what we would do with 2 dogs, etc... Plus, camping is fun! So we head
out yesterday at around 1p.
After gas-getting, and tie-out-buying, we arrive at Sam Houston National Forest at around 3. Both girls napped on the way there, and were REALLY excited about camping. The site was pretty, a little close to other campers, but really nice. The Ranger Station didn't have firewood available, but in SHNF, you can gather downed wood for fires. We snagged a decent pile of wood from someone else's campsite (they were gone!) and a huge pile of kindling. That damn wood didn't burn for anything. Grrr. So after hot dog roasting and marshmallow toasting, it simmered down to a measly little flame. For the rest of the night. Well, that's not completely true. We bummed some wood off of some campers down the way that seriously had an entire cord of wood. So he spared us 3 logs. Which lasted us about 30 wonderful minutes. So we never actually got to relax around the fire. It was constant, nudging, poking, prodding, begging. And then we went to bed.
The girls were way too excited to sleep and then misunderstood the line between their sleeping bag and our sleeping bags. We forgot the pillows. It was cold. Like really cold for what our summer-camping-sleeping-bags are rated for. Solstice woke up at least 20 times. It was COLD. And then this morning when Sol got out to start stabbing at that poor fire again? I hear, 'uh-oh, looks like we have a flat.' Great news.
So he gets down under the van and starts messing with the spare. FOR AN HOUR. We cannot figure it out. So we decide to just call someone. No reception, obviously. SO we try again. He finally gets it. The thing to unscrew the tire thing is in the back thing. So he gets the spare on and it is LOW. Like maybe lowering by the minute. So we pack up the entire campsite in what feels like 5 minutes (probably more like 15) and get the girls in the car, the dogs in the back, and then.... wait for it.... the back door (a lift-gate-hitch-thing, think minivan) will not close. Something in the mechanism is not working. What. the. hell. We cannot very well drive home with the van hitch wide open. The van was too full of crap to put the dogs in front - we just went camping! We sit and stare at the thing for hours. The girls are SCREAMING in the van, the dogs are getting restless and I have to pee. So Sol gets the bright idea to start the car. click. click, click. Again with the click, click, click. DAMN it. SO we all head out to the bathrooms. Looking for the ranger or someone to give us a jump. I bet you think that since the girls turned on a light in the van last week and we had to get a jump start then, that we would have moved the jumper cables from the civic into the van. Well. If you think that, you are WRONG.
Sol finds some guy in a big truck who is not only friendly and gregarious, but also has a big truck and a set of jumper cables. All is well, as long as the hitch-issue is due to the battery and as long as the battery can hold a charge. So now I get to go to the bathroom. With Solstice. Which takes a LONG time generally. I figure that if Sol is waiting for us outside, we are good to go, and if he's not, well - we're not.
So we walk out of the bathroom where Sol is not waiting and start trekking back to our campsite (which happens to be the furthest one because we love our privacy oh-so-much.) I feel sort of discouraged at this point (quick shout-out to my new best friend, Lexapro... 2 weeks ago, I would have flipped my lid at 'uh-oh. looks like a flat.') But then a choir of angels began to sing and I see Sol, in the van, hitch closed, cruising towards us. Yay. All is well. Except for that Sol says, 'get in the car fast, Blitzen attacked the guy.' Please see this post or this post (less graphic) for reference to Blitzen (our big scary German Shepard) attacking people. SO I ask what does he mean 'attack,' and he explains that Blitzen gave the guy his patented threatening scrape-face maneuver. The guy was ok, but rattled and a little pissed off about the whole thing. SO we got the hell out of there with our bad battery, bad dog, and bad attitudes.
All in all it was a successful trip (The Lexapro is really talking here) the girls had fun, we have four new tires for the Road Trip, and we know what to change for NEXT WEEKEND/Trial run #2
After gas-getting, and tie-out-buying, we arrive at Sam Houston National Forest at around 3. Both girls napped on the way there, and were REALLY excited about camping. The site was pretty, a little close to other campers, but really nice. The Ranger Station didn't have firewood available, but in SHNF, you can gather downed wood for fires. We snagged a decent pile of wood from someone else's campsite (they were gone!) and a huge pile of kindling. That damn wood didn't burn for anything. Grrr. So after hot dog roasting and marshmallow toasting, it simmered down to a measly little flame. For the rest of the night. Well, that's not completely true. We bummed some wood off of some campers down the way that seriously had an entire cord of wood. So he spared us 3 logs. Which lasted us about 30 wonderful minutes. So we never actually got to relax around the fire. It was constant, nudging, poking, prodding, begging. And then we went to bed.
The girls were way too excited to sleep and then misunderstood the line between their sleeping bag and our sleeping bags. We forgot the pillows. It was cold. Like really cold for what our summer-camping-sleeping-bags are rated for. Solstice woke up at least 20 times. It was COLD. And then this morning when Sol got out to start stabbing at that poor fire again? I hear, 'uh-oh, looks like we have a flat.' Great news.
So he gets down under the van and starts messing with the spare. FOR AN HOUR. We cannot figure it out. So we decide to just call someone. No reception, obviously. SO we try again. He finally gets it. The thing to unscrew the tire thing is in the back thing. So he gets the spare on and it is LOW. Like maybe lowering by the minute. So we pack up the entire campsite in what feels like 5 minutes (probably more like 15) and get the girls in the car, the dogs in the back, and then.... wait for it.... the back door (a lift-gate-hitch-thing, think minivan) will not close. Something in the mechanism is not working. What. the. hell. We cannot very well drive home with the van hitch wide open. The van was too full of crap to put the dogs in front - we just went camping! We sit and stare at the thing for hours. The girls are SCREAMING in the van, the dogs are getting restless and I have to pee. So Sol gets the bright idea to start the car. click. click, click. Again with the click, click, click. DAMN it. SO we all head out to the bathrooms. Looking for the ranger or someone to give us a jump. I bet you think that since the girls turned on a light in the van last week and we had to get a jump start then, that we would have moved the jumper cables from the civic into the van. Well. If you think that, you are WRONG.
Sol finds some guy in a big truck who is not only friendly and gregarious, but also has a big truck and a set of jumper cables. All is well, as long as the hitch-issue is due to the battery and as long as the battery can hold a charge. So now I get to go to the bathroom. With Solstice. Which takes a LONG time generally. I figure that if Sol is waiting for us outside, we are good to go, and if he's not, well - we're not.
So we walk out of the bathroom where Sol is not waiting and start trekking back to our campsite (which happens to be the furthest one because we love our privacy oh-so-much.) I feel sort of discouraged at this point (quick shout-out to my new best friend, Lexapro... 2 weeks ago, I would have flipped my lid at 'uh-oh. looks like a flat.') But then a choir of angels began to sing and I see Sol, in the van, hitch closed, cruising towards us. Yay. All is well. Except for that Sol says, 'get in the car fast, Blitzen attacked the guy.' Please see this post or this post (less graphic) for reference to Blitzen (our big scary German Shepard) attacking people. SO I ask what does he mean 'attack,' and he explains that Blitzen gave the guy his patented threatening scrape-face maneuver. The guy was ok, but rattled and a little pissed off about the whole thing. SO we got the hell out of there with our bad battery, bad dog, and bad attitudes.
All in all it was a successful trip (The Lexapro is really talking here) the girls had fun, we have four new tires for the Road Trip, and we know what to change for NEXT WEEKEND/Trial run #2
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