Oh, why oh why am I still awake? I'm very tired, I don't think it'll take long before I pass out, but for some reason, I am resisting it. Emily and I are camping right now. I don't know for sure what will happen to the camper amidst our recent separation, but it's very likely it'll have to go. We only went camping once this summer as a family. We were planning on going again but I had an allergic reaction the day before which put a hold on those plans.
So last week I was thinking, I should take her before the summer is over. Our campground will move your camper out of storage and onto a site and then off again (for a fee of course but well worth it) so I didn't need the truck to go. I've done a lot with getting the camper set up, but mostly the inside stuff. I'd never stabilized it, leveled it or hooked up the sewer, water and electric. But I thought it can't be that hard, right?
I hadn't planned on telling my husband (er, ex? I don't know) because I didn't want him to unnecessarily worry that I would break something and discourage me from going. But, I realized he had both sets of keys, so I had to get keys from him and thus tell him we were going. He was kind enough to offer to set it up for us, which I declined, but I did take him up on talking me through it on the phone. I watched a few youtube videos and asked a few people beforehand, so I was pretty confident I would do ok. Our campground is pretty "groomed" so when the ground people put it on site, they had it basically leveled already, I didn't have to do anything to level it.
I just had to put the stabilizer jacks down, and hook everything up. I had the basic idea of how to do everything, but we have this awesome thing that hooks up on the sewer hose that allows you to also hook up a hose to it so you can blast water in the black tank to help clean out any gunk that didn't freely flow out. There were several parts to put together to hook that up, and I had NO idea the sewer hose was literally IN the bumper. We've owned this thing for 5 years and I had no clue that's where the hose is stored. So talking to him on the phone for that part was quite helpful.
But, I got it all. I've always taken care of putting the slide out and awning out, turning on the air and fridge and hot water tank, so that was all a cinch. I've sort of started campfires before, but not a ton but I did ok with that. Friday night the stars aligned and I had awesome wood and got the fire started very easily and it burned well all evening. I figured with getting in kind of late and having to get the camper all set up, we'd just go out to eat that night, so we went out for Mexican.
I will say, those are some of the times I am the saddest. In some ways, not much has changed because Em and I often spent a lot of time together just the two of us. But we would fairly regularly go out for dinner the three of us, so those outings feel kind of weird now. I used to really enjoy our day dates when he and I would just go out running errands and go out to lunch. So after dinner, we came back to the camper, had a fire, tried to have s'mores but all of our supplies for it were old. The chocolate had turned white and the marshmallows were super sticky and hard to pull apart.
Saturday morning we woke up to lots of rain. My brother and his wife were talking about coming for the day, and maybe even staying the night and trying out their new tent. It was rainy/gloomy all day off and on, so we mostly stayed in the camper, except for when we ventured out to go to the store. I was just about to get dinner started when my brother called to say he was on his way. My sister-in-law couldn't make it because she had plans early the next morning. So when he got there he helped me get the fire going...I just didn't have any success that night, and even he had to keep using lighter fluid but eventually got it going on its own. So we grilled hot dogs over the fire (the best kind) and I put a pot of beans on the fire too. Yummy!
He brought new s'more stuff, but we were so full after dinner and we had let the fire go out, so we never got around to them. By then it was time to go in and get Em to bed, but not before she challenged her uncle to a game of checkers. Once she was in bed he and I stayed up pretty late shooting the shit. I am glad he made it, the more the merrier I always say. While I was preparing dinner he set up his tent. I don't know, maybe if we have to say goodbye to the camper, I'll give tent camping a try. It always looks like fun, but it never seems as fun when you actually do it. Not sleeping well, waking up feeling kind of wet....but who knows. Maybe I could hack it in the fall. I hate HOT weather, so maybe I would fair better by trying real camping in the fall.
So this morning we got up and sat around for a while. He had to get going home soon so we packed a lunch and had a picnic down by the beach under a weeping willow tree. It was pretty idyllic. He had to get going after that so then Emily and I went swimming in the lake. She had fun collecting seashells and seaweed which she kept naming. Haha, goofball. I had heard that previous summers quite a few people got swimmer's itch from the lake. I had never heard of it and never got it from swimming in that lake before. But now that I knew about it, I was kind of paranoid, but I heard swimming in a chlorinated pool afterward should kill whatever causes it. We had never checked out the pool before and since this may be one of our last few times at the campground I figured it's now or never.
It was nice, very good size pool, the bathrooms were apparently just redone last year. I don't know what they looked like before but they look nice. I wish they would redo the bathrooms and showers in the campground. Those are pretty scuzzy. Though last fall I took the leap and showed in the camper. It's quite nice. Yes, the shower is small, but it's fine and while you can't dawdle, you can take a decent shower. You don't have to take a speed shower in order to not run out of hot water. And Emily's been taking baths in the camper, the tub is the perfect size for her. It's way better than having to pack up all your bathroom stuff to go to the communal showers.....I'm always on the warm side, so unless I am freezing, I take cool to colder showers. But even then, it's so steamy in communal showers, I am sweating again by the time I get done showering, it sucks. So I am happy to not shower there.
So after the pool, we stopped at the campground store and got some ice cream, and then we headed back to the camper for quiet time. Em laid in my bed and I put a movie on for her and I took a shower. When I was done, she was already out. So then I cleaned up some around the camper and called my stepmom to talk for a while. When Emily woke up, I grilled burgers and made mac and cheese for dinner. I hadn't wanted to start the campfire yet so I made the mac and cheese by putting the pot on top of the grill. That took forever. I probably should have just used the gas stove top in the camper....but then I would have been going back and forth to check each part of dinner.
By then it was getting late and dark so we took the dog for a walk. I love that it's a very dog-friendly place. Though that does come with some downfalls. I have flea bites all over my feet and ankles, and my dog doesn't have fleas. Treat your dogs people! So then Em took a bath and then we made a fire. I was having trouble with it again tonight. Some wood and pinecones got it going pretty good, but I also had to keep using lighter fluid. We made hobo pies. We have these plates that you put bread in and then pie filling, closing them up and put them in the fire....they came out pretty good. We're going to use those to make grilled cheese tomorrow for lunch.
I tried popping some of that Jiffy Pop that you pop over the fire, but I never got it to pop more than a few kernels. It reminded me of when we were kids, we were staying up north on our other piece of property. The place we have now is right off the road, and the area is all mowed like a yard...but that place, which my dad still owns is way down a two-track road off from a dirt road, way back in the woods with lots of woods and trees and growth around. So we were headed back to our camper at the time, and we took our cousin with us so he could enjoy the campfire before we went to bed. I think he's a few years younger than me, so he was probably 5. So being real wilderness, all we had was the light of the campfire, so my dad put some jiffy pop on the fire for us to snack on. After a while, he was like it should be done by now. He found a flashlight, cut the bag open.....and it was all solid black char! My cousin thought that was just the funniest thing in the world. He talked about it for days and months later.
So tonight I snapped a picture and tagged him in it on facebook. He was like oh man, your dad and jiffy pop will forever be connected in my head. So, day number 3 of Em getting to bed pretty late. But it's summer and we're "on vacation". If you can't stay up late on vacay then when the hell can you? So today was Sunday, we're going home sometime on Tuesday. My stepmom might come up tomorrow for a few hours. That would be nice if she can because I need to get some work done tomorrow so it would be cool if she can take Em to the beach or pool while I get some work done. I was going to work some tonight but by the time I got her in bed it was after 11 and I still had to pay bills. Blah.
I don't know what we'll do tomorrow. It's supposed to be hot again, so maybe we'll go back to the pool...get ice cream again. I'd like to take her out in a paddle boat but I have a feeling she may not like it. We'll see. I've got to take her to the playground too, we ran out of time today. And do an arts and crafts thing with the seashells she got today. Well, I'm off to bed. I know it wasn't a lot of work given the fact that I didn't have to tow the camper and put it on the site, but I am pretty proud of myself that I got it all set up by myself for the most part and was still able to take her camping despite our situation right now. I hope she'll have great memories of our camping trips. Or at least see pictures and know she had fun....she may not remember some of this so well being only 4.
