Tuesday, August 6, 2013

This past weekend was a big one for me and my husband. We went camping in our camper (which has somehow gotten the name Barbie Camper, which is not as cool as Atreyu, but whatever). I figured I should probably write down our adventures, because...well...holy crap. It was pretty fierce.

We got off to a rocky start, because, although the county said it would be done paving our street (good timing, no?) by 4 p.m., I got home at 4 and they weren't even close. I had to park my car in a very kind neighbor's driveway and hop through people's yards to get to my house. Two hours later, they were looking like they were about finished, so we prepared to close up the house and be on our way. The problem was, we couldn't find the car keys. 45 minutes later, keys found, we were actually on our way. At almost 7 p.m. Nice.

We arrived at our destination just before ten p.m. and pulled into the campground, which had been nearly deserted when we stayed there previously, and even the campground website said this campground was rarely even busy. Guess who couldn't find any open sites? Yep, that's right. It was packed.

Keep in mind that we plan EVERYTHING. Major freak-out moment was happening. We decided to just keep driving, since we knew there must be more campgrounds further up the road.

After a ten minute drive, we saw another campground and decided to give it a shot. Seeing as how it was pitch black with no street lights, and the thunder was starting, we were kind of in a hurry. We pulled in and, after going around a loop, went for the first spot, right by the entrance. We figured it was better than nothing and we could always go to another campground if this one was horrible by daylight.

We set up in record time, with a minimum of loud cursing, and just as we finished, the rain started. It was fine, though, as we were both exhausted and went right to sleep.

In the morning, we realized that the highway was facing our campsite, and we would be getting all of the road noise. Ugh. However, we discovered that the campground was actually very nice and very foresty, so we were pretty happy. We used the campfire waffle maker I bought my husband for his birthday, and it was INCREDIBLE. Seriously. I just put the wet ingredients in one jar, the dry ones in another, added an egg and shook it all up. Best camping breakfast of all time. We also used a percolator for the first time, and, although I'd heard it makes craptastic coffee, it was actually kind of amazing. Don't believe me about the waffles? Check this out:


Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh!

Anyhow, while we were sitting there, enjoying our lovely breakfast, the campground manager guy came by (seriously, this guy was the New Mexican version of Milton from Office Space...I wanted give him a stapler) and told us that two other sites had opened up this morning and we should go take a look. We thanked him (but really thought it would be too much trouble to move, as we are basically lazy in the morning), and went to take a look.

Um....heck yes. We moved.

Our new site was much further from the road and had a lot more privacy. As we set up, we realized we'd have to level the camper, and as my husband went about doing so, he had to go inside for something and, of course, one of the wheels slipped and the camper began rolling down the hill.

Seriously. I almost wet my pants.

I don't know how, but I pushed it and kept it from moving any further, and my husband jumped out and got it blocked.

I think that may have been one of the scariest situations ever. I had a whole mental story that involved him being inside and the whole thing rolling over me and crushing me and then bursting into flames as it rolled into a ditch. Maybe a little dramatic, but that's how I am. Deal.

Anyway, we got set up and were happy we'd switched. It was lovely. There were chipmunks that were a little too friendly, bluejays that responded to baby talk (I am totally that girl) and a deer that was just walking through people's campsites, which was pretty cool. We got some nice relaxey time in and then went into town and walked around and looked at stuff and had a hamburger (don't judge....it was delicious).

That night, we got to rain-test our camper. It was the kind of torrential downpour that we don't get in the desert. I fell asleep, but my husband was awake half the night, worrying about waking up to an inch of water on the floor. Fortunately, the camper had no leaks except one teeny little drippy place by a seam, and we survived. The poop tent, however (yeah, we have a port-a-potty...I get scared using an outhouse in the dark because SOMEBODY told me a story about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre...), was completely flooded, but we had an extra roll of toilet paper, so that was good.

One more day of nice camping stuff, including my husband learning how to kick my butt at gin, and roasting marshmallows over the camp-stove, because with my allergies we can't do a campfire, and then it was time to go home.

Sad times.

All in all, it was a great trip and I'm glad we got the rain-testing of the camper over and done with, because it was a bit scary. I'm also glad to discover that I, too, can stop a camper with my Hulk strength.

Yay for camping!




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