We took the kids camping this weekend. We left Kamloops after I got off work on Saturday and we drove a bit out of town to a forestry site and camped overnight with the kids. We had a great time.
The drive there was a bit of an adventure. We were towing an old tent trailer behind us, the tent trailer is older than I am, and only has a table and some beds. It is perfect for us, just enough to get us off the ground and have a clean, bug free place to get the kids ready for bed and what not.
As we were crossing the Overlander Bridge just heading out of town I heard a big "CLUNK" and Paul looks out his side mirror just in time to see one of the tires off the tent trailer go sailing by him. "We just lost a tire!" Paul pulled over down a little side road and got out to inspect the damage. We watched the tire go sailing across 3 lanes of traffic, while praying that it did not hit anyone.
We watched the tire roll into the parking lot of a church, it finally stopped when it struck the retaining wall that surrounds the sign announcing Sundays topic. (Sign from God?) While Paul surveyed the damage I ran across the road to retrieve the tire.
Canadian Tire (the name of a hardware store, hmmm, another sign from God?) was right up the road so we disconnected the trailer and went to get some the parts to put the tent trailer back together. Another run up the road and I found one of the bolts on the street so we knew what size to get when we got the store.
Did I mention it was 100 degrees out and there is no air conditioning in the truck???
It only took us about 15 minutes to get what we needed and to get back to the tent trailer. I asked Paul if maybe this was some sort of omen and perhaps we weren't supposed to go camping this weekend. He shook off my suggestion and had the tire on in no time at all.
We were ready to hit the road again. I did make him check all the bolts on the other tire before we set off again. The bolts off the tire we lost were stripped. We made it to the forestry site without further mishap.
We were the only ones at the campground. Just us and 9 million bugs, comprised mostly of mosquito's and wasps. You could hear a constant drone in the air, the buzz of the bugs overpowered the sound of the river. I have never heard or seen so many bugs in my life.
I would reach down to smack a mosquito that was biting my leg and I woulds kill four in one swipe. I put jeans and a long shirt on everyone and that seemed to help. It also helped if we kept moving. The bugs settled down in the evening and we had a nice night out there.
The kids watched the first stars come out and then PJ said she was tired and I put her Quentin to bed while Sebastian stayed up and helped Paul find some fire wood.
Sebastian stayed up quite late a watched the fire with Paul and myself. It was lots of fun hearing Sebastian ask his dad a million questions: "Daddy, where did the sun go?" "Is it daytime where Grandma Judy lives?" "Why are there stars?" "Where is the moon?" "When will you put out the fire?" "How" "Can I watch when you do it?" and on and on it went.
Around 10:00 at night Phil and Leanna came by with a bottle of wine. We drank that and talked around the fire until about midnight and then the Linfields headed home and we went to bed. We had a good nights sleep, the tent trailer is very comfortable. The drone of the bugs woke up early in the morning.
By the time we had breakfast and a walk down to the river to throw stones for a while everyone but Sebastian had been stung by a wasp. We were tired of the bugs and ready to go home.
We packed everything up and headed for home. We got home around one in the afternoon. We all had a great time and everyone wants to go again when the bugs have settled down a bit.
I have so many fond memories of camping with my family as a kid. It is very cool to be passing on this tradition to my children.
The kids started Adventure Summer camp this morning, they have a week of it from 8:30 to 12:00 every morning. They had a great time. PJ is so worn out from playing softball and running around in the water park that she is actually napping. Let's hope she doesn't wake up grumpy.
Dad called last night. He and Corrine got as far as Belingham yesterday and they expect to be in town sometime this afternoon or evening. The kids are looking forward to seeing them (So am I!)
I will post some pictures of their arrival for you, if you are lucky I will even get a picture of the ever elusive Lola posted for you.
3 comments:
Sounds like you guys had a great time. I want to take my family but unforunately Will is the princess in the pea when it comes to sleeping on the ground. I bought some air mattresses but we've yet to use them. Maybe we'll camp in the back yard first to test things out.
Shannon- I think the idea of camping in the backyard is a good one. Sebastian wants to give it a try, I think I will let him and PJ next week if they still want to.
Keeefer- Same sh*t, different pile, rough day for anyone, especially a 6 year old. It sounds like your mom was not having the best day of her life either, she did afterall have to clean that sh*t up, you need to call and thank her, it's never to late.
I was hoping you girls would do some camping as adults. There is nothing wrong with camping in the back yard. If you really need to get away and need a country atmosphere you can camp in my back yard. There's a fire pit for campfires and a spa for midnight skinny dipping. And indoor plumbing. Leave your cell phones at home and you have to stay outside except for showers and bathroom stuff. But you guys can do all that at your homes. Just use the barbeque for a fire pit.
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