Pickles & Dimes

Hey, you know those last two posts? Yeah, I wrote them ahead of time and set them to post in the future. Anyway, remember when I said camping was simplistic? Well, I take it back. While you guys were responding to my posted-from-the-future entries, Jason, Shorty & I were camping in the wilderness, where Mother Nature was being told by yours truly to suck it, as it started raining the precise moment we started to set up our tent, and it stopped for only one day before capping off our much-looked-forward-to-for-MONTHS camping trip by pouring as we took down everything.

There’s nothing like damp sleeping bags, jeans soaked so thoroughly you have to use one hand to hold them up while you stuff sopping heaps of canvas into bags, sitting on a towel on the drive home (while suffering from an out-of-nowhere sinus infection), and having to set up your tent again at home to dry that makes you want to kill everyone in the universe.

But, in trying to see the silver lining (in the miserable, constant rain clouds), we took total advantage of the 24 hours of sunshine to go on plenty of hikes, enjoy a walk into town for ice cream (while Shorty hovered behind us as people walked by, ever the scaredy-dog), and even eat dinner at our favorite outdoor eatery. (They didn’t allow pets, but we ordered our food to go and ate our burgers around the corner on a park bench, while Shorty sniffed our cheese curds cautiously but behaved marvelously well by not begging or mauling us as we half-expected.)

In fact, the highlight of the weekend was Shorty. He is the quintessential camping dog. He hardly barked, only whined if we were out of his sight, and generally experienced doggie heaven for 3 days. (Sunshine! Squirrels to chase! Outdoors! Walks! Sleeping with the humans!) We brought along a portable crate for him to sleep in, but he was being so cute we let him up on our air mattress with us, where he promptly curled up at our feet in a tight ball and resumed snoring. He didn’t move at all during the night and so, the next evening as soon as we got into the tent, we let him clamber up to the head of the mattress, where he tucked himself into another impossibly teeny ball of toasted-just-right-like-a-marshmallow-colored-fur between our two pillows and was asleep, instantly.

Some pictures:

(more…)

Did everyone have a nice 4th? We did. The weather was hot and beautiful and we spent the holiday either at the pool or following the shade around our campsite. We camped at a place called Town & Country (where the “Country” is hilariously lacking, as we can walk to a pizza joint and the view is mainly of electricity towers). But it’s actually a great campground with a nice pool and close proximity to a building with an automatic underground sprinkler system. (CUE FORESHADOWING MUSIC: Dun-dun-dun)

Scene: 4:00 am

[Sounds of rain splattering against the tent briefly before stopping.]

Shauna, thinking: Wow. That was the shortest storm ever.

[Sounds of rain starting up again.]

Jason: What the hell?

Shauna: Um…oh, I think we’re in the path of the sprinkler.

Jason: Oh, THAT’S what that is. I’ll go check.

[Jason crouches next to the tent door like a tennis ball retriever, awaiting his opportunity.]

Shauna: Go, go, go!

[Sounds of water splatting forcefully against the side of the tent.]

Jason: Ahh! It got me!

[More water hits the tent.]

Shauna: It’s like being in a car wash!

Jason: Look out! Here comes another one!

Shauna: How long do you think this will last?

Jason: I don’t know, but now I’m wide awake.

[FYI: The sprinklers last for 20 minutes.]

Scene: Next day

Jason: Let’s move our tent over here so it can dry out.

Shauna: It’s really windy. Should we stake it down?

Jason. No.

[Gust of wind grabs tent and sends it flipping over a car.]

Shauna: I told you s-

Jason: Shut up.

[Tent now has 10-inch gash in side.]

We are looking to buy Jason a small pickup because his car cannot be trusted at all. Oh, you want to go to the grocery store? Perhaps I won’t start. You want to drive 90 miles? Well, I’ll just start making weird flapping noises that multiple trips to the mechanic can’t diagnose. Oh, it’s July? Guess what? The air conditioning no longer works.

Anyway, we had the perfect truck picked out online to test drive and when Jason called today to see if it was still available, he found it sold on Thursday. Now I’m calling other possibilities and dealing with pushy salespeople.

Sales dude: Nope, that one sold. But I have another older truck here with 50,000 more miles for $10,000 more, are you interested?

Um, NO.

We camped last weekend at Jason’s parents’ place. They invite family and friends to park their campers and pitch their tents on their property. It’s a great time. Also, Jason’s grandma makes the best hotdish EVER.

(more…)

We went camping this weekend, and it was glorious. We went for walks along the crunchy trails, read a ton, played games and just enjoyed the forced relaxation imposed on us. No responsibilities, no human interaction, no reason to shower since the need to spray on a thin veneer of Repel becomes apparent after you discover 942 red welts on your bare feet.

On Saturday, I finished my book and raided the campground library for another one, which I read while lying on the hammock. At one point, I just listened to the birds (the ominous forest sounds from last year were nonexistent this time, thank god) and watched a thin swatch of clouds float by, dissipating before they reached the end of my vision. I took lots of deep, piney breaths and remembered how much I love to be outside. I went for a walk to gather kindling and saw a startled wild turkey land awkwardly in a neighboring camp site, where it wandered wildly in circles, its head bobbing furiously. It flew away, crashing into tree branches as it left.

On Saturday night, right as we were listening to the Twins on the radio going into extra innings, it started raining. We packed away our non-essentials and moved our chairs under some trees. It was nice, I proclaimed, listening to the rain.

Then the wind came in, grabbing the tree limbs and shaking them hard, while cold gusts blew the campfire menancingly. And I got a bad feeling. Jason asked if I wanted to leave and while I didn’t, I didn’t like what I felt in the air, either.

I decided we should bail, and Jason started making room in the car while I packed up the things inside the tent. The rain was coming fast and furious, and I was mentally counting “1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi” between the lightning strikes and thunder.

Lightning flashed and before I could mumble “1-,” thunder crashed and the ground shook. I heard something in the forest crack and splinter, and for a brief second, thought a tree might be heading my way to crush me inside the tent, leaving my legs twitching underneath the leafy rubble.

A few minutes later, I heard another giant, simultaneous lightning/thunder combo, followed by Jason screaming, “OW!” I called out his name. No answer. I called again, more loudly. Nothing.

Turned out he slipped on some mud while carrying our heavy cooler and fell flat on his back, knocking the wind out of him.

I honestly thought he got struck by lightning.

We shoved our half-rolled tent into the trunk and collapsed sopping wet into the car to drive home. Tree limbs were down on our street, but we didn’t have any damage. A pine tree further down the block was completely uprooted, and another tree looked like it was struck by lightning.

I’m glad we came home early.

Highlights:

It was already wet throughout the campground when we arrived. This was the area right next to our site. The mosquitoes…um…thrived here.

It looks like it here, but we are definitely NOT low-maintenance campers, even though we only use a tent. We have a ceiling fan for our tent, for god’s sake. And a hammock.

Also, we’re the kind of people who make their bed even while they’re camping:

Want one? Too bad, this one’s mine. And I ate it…on the hammock.

I also ate one of these. I don’t really believe in cooking them; they’re much better raw:

Jason was horrified, and demanded that I learn the proper way to make a s’more:

Fine, this looks pretty tasty too, I GUESS:

I am still down by 34 games. Shameful. Please note our high-class playing cards. They scream “fancy,” don’t you think?