Camping Memories of the Old Days

Looking at the date makes me feel a little blue.  Summer half over.  Boo, boo and boo.  We don’t start school this year though until August 25^th, so that means we have almost the whole month of August, which is really, really nice. 

When I first started this blog, my dad sent me some pictures of my family camping in the early years.  I really did get my love of camping honestly.  My mom told me that when I was just a baby and we were living in Massachusetts she and Dad would take us girls to the coast somewhere in Maine or New York and we’d camp.  Dad would drop off Mom and get everyone all set up, then he would go back home to work.  Sometimes he’d commute nightly and sometimes he’d just come on the weekends.  Sound familiar?

What a doll!!  Check out those socks.
I never look that cute camping.

I have a few very early memories of camping.  One trip was on the Oregon coast.  The reason this one stands out is because on our last day there, Mom was cleaning up and packing up and Dad took one last walk down to the beach and invited me to go with him.  I was clean and dry and Mom told me to make sure I stayed that way.  Of course as soon as we got to the beach, being a little girl and all, the water started calling.  I asked Dad if I could wade, so he rolled up my pants and I started wading.  Before you knew it I was waist deep.  I’m guessing that Dad and I both got a good scolding for that one.

Mom and little naked girl - oh, I mean, me.

Another memory is when we lived in Burley, Idaho we went camping to some sand dunes not too far away.  I remember climbing up those huge dunes and rolling down, sand getting everywhere.  I also remember lying in my sleeping bag and hearing coyotes howling at night.  One night in the middle of the night, my Dad got up and went out for something.  Apparently, he left the tent unzipped.  The coyotes started howling and our dog Bruiser, jumped up and headed for the door.  Well, my mom felt almost the same way about Bruiser that I feel about Tye and she was having none of it.  She says she flew out of her sleeping bag and literally tackled him as he was heading out the door.

I also remember camping at Bear Lake.  We met our family friend Carl Taylor there and we sat around the campfire and he told us the scariest ghost stories.  Then, of course, it was time to make that dreaded last trip to the bathroom before bed.  Without fail, every time us girls would go, on the way back, Dad would be hiding somewhere along the way to jump out and scare the bejeesus out of us.  This trip was no different, except this time it was him, Carl Taylor, and a white sheet.  You can use your imagination for that one.

Once we moved to Texas when I was in the Fifth Grade, I don’t remember much camping, but I do remember camping at Virginia Beach a couple of times once we moved to Louisa, Virginia, always in that same old canvas tent that you see in those earliest pictures with my mom.

When my parents moved here to Utah, they sold that tent (or perhaps gave it away), which by that time was mildewed and quite the mess.  That was a sad day for my Dad though and if I know him he still laments about the sale of that tent, even today.

Our Day in Pictures

Ready for swimming!

Tiffeny's Terrific Camp Store
- all items 10 or 25 cents.
How awesome is that!

Sisterly love and ice cream.

New Friends.

Swimming together now.  Night Games would come later.

Not too much has changed. I think they need new life
jackets though.  : )

This spider built it's web on our awning arm and
had a feast on the moths that flew around our party lights.

Our Old Guy Tye

Tye has become such an old guy.  Seriously.  It’s a blessing and a curse.  His mellowness is nice.  He has always been pretty energetic.  But I hate what it means too.  He’s really aged in the past year.  Normally when we camp I’m constantly hopping on my bike, grabbing his leash and off we go on a ride/run.  If I ever left without him, he’d be quite put out.  This year though, he’s very hit and miss.  Sometimes I take him and he’s pretty into it.  Often though, he’s just so slow-moving.  I’ve gotten so I mostly just walk him and ride on my own.  He still loves being here though.  He lays in the shady grass and sleeps like the living dead.  He’s an oldie but a goodie!  We can’t imagine our camping trips without him.

He's burying his bone after gnawing on it for a while.
I seriously can't stand the cuteness!

A Day Back Home

Kevin got back to the campground sometime between 4 and 5 am Sunday morning.  He’d worked until 3am and came straight up.  It was super fun to see him, since we hadn’t since Tuesday night.

Unfortunately we didn’t have much time for lounging and visiting, because it was moving day.  We’d been in Woodland for a week and it was time to move onto Coalville.  I’d done some packing up Saturday night, so we finished up and began the caravan about 30 miles away to the Coalville Camperworld.  Even once we got here and set up, there was no rest for the weary.

Kev had volunteered for an extra 6 hours of work that night.  There was a special event in Ogden and they needed some officers for crowd and traffic control.  I had planned on going back to town for a few hours on Tuesday or Wednesday to do some laundry and restock our food a little.  Since Kev was going back that evening, I just decided to go with him.  He dropped me off at the house, dressed and headed into work.  The girls and I spent the evening doing laundry, some house and yard maintenance, and I even posted a couple of blog entries.  : )

We had thought we would drive back last night, but we weren’t sure what time Kev was going to be home.  We really didn’t want to sleep in our beds at home though, so I just kept the girls up.  FINALLY, at 12:30am, Kev got home.  Then we had to get the car loaded and Kev had to get some stuff together and I was waiting for a load of clothes in the dryer.  We finally left the house and got on the road at 1am.  Well, since we are on vacation and since it officially wasn’t Sunday anymore and since Kevin had just gotten off work and 1am is his new lunchtime, we decided to hit Wendy’s for Wendy’s Late Night!  We are normally the king and queen of early bedtimes for the girls, even in the summer.  I don’t know if it’s because of Kev’s weird work schedule, because of the girls are getting older, or just the circumstances of the summer, but our good sleep schedules have been shot to heck.  The girls think it’s the best ever!  I guess we’ll start worrying fixing it in mid-August.  Right now, we’re just having fun. 

Almost Moving Day

Today is our last day at the Camperworld in Woodland.  It has been much like any day.  Reading, games, and swimming in the river.  The girls actually discovered that they LOVE the game RackO.  We’d played it Thursday with my Mom.  She’d been Lily’s tutor and when I sat down to play Lily this morning, she beat me three games straight.  Thanks Mom.  Brinkley won games four and five.  Finally, I won the sixth game, so I could quit and go read my book.  : )  The girls kept playing though forever.  They’re in love with it.  At dinner when we played Old Maid Dice and Phase 10 Dice they would have still preferred to just play RackO.

They also swam in the river one more time.   As soon as Lily arrived, and before I knew what was happening she had Tye in the river floating down with her.  Needless to say, he was very unimpressed and the next time they tried to pull him in he fought hard and won.  

Go Tye!

Work It Brinks!

River Rats

Trying to get Tye BACK in the river.

No Way!

Well, maybe just for a wade.  But I'm not swimming!

Sunshine and Free Slurpees

It’s 5:45pm and FINALLY the rain has stopped, the skies are blue and I think it’s going to be dry from here on out.  I said we kind of liked rain days while we were camping but the leaks last night made it not so fun plus rain is not as fun when Mom is here.  We don’t want to be holed up in the camper watching movies.  We want to be out and about in the sunshine and around the park. 

My gerry-rigging job last night did hold through the night.  No more leaks.  It rained a couple of times, but not as hard and not a lot.  This morning though was still really wet, over-cast, cool, and it rained more this afternoon. 

With words like this, it's no
wonder I won Banangrams!  : )

We had fun though.  My mother’s mother, my Grandma Lula, loved playing games, reading, and working puzzles.  And guess what?  My mother loves playing games, reading, and working puzzles.  Don’t you love it?  Today we played more Bananagrams, Farkle, and Racko.  Then after lunch went into Kamas.  Someone reminded me it was Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven.  Yay!  That was our first stop.  Then we did a little shopping at some little shops and boutiques here in town.  Our favorite stop was High Mountain Drug Store.  They have hand-dipped ice cream and we all indulged.  Brinkley and I decided that next time we were sharing.  The scoops are way too big.  We felt like big pigs afterwards.  It was yummy though.  I’d wanted to call Kev.  I hadn’t talked to him since he left on Tuesday night.  We have zero cell service in the park.  But of course when I called in town it went straight to voicemail.  He hadn’t gotten up yet.  Boo.

Mom left  in the late afternoon and we were sad to see her go.  Now I’m just sitting out at the picnic table, typing, enjoying the sunshine and my dinner.  The girls and I decided it would be fun to have a Freebee Evening, meaning we can all do pretty much what we want until bedtime.  They’ve chosen to lay out the table bed, eat Totino’s Pizza, and watch a movie of course.  I’ve chosen to enjoy the great outdoors while on my laptop.  LOL.  What kind of camping is this anyway?!

Fun Visitor . . .Not So Fun Weather

Today we woke up to our favorite Dorry Lou Wharton pulling into the campground.  I always invite my mom up to spend a night while I’m camping alone and luckily, she’s usually able to come.  She’s only staying one night so she got up early and arrived about 9:30am.  I was up changing sheets and getting my room ready for her when I saw her pulling down the little road.  That announcement elicited whoops from the girls, especially Lily who loves when her family visits.  We all hurried and got dressed, then I made Chocolate Chips Scones for breakfast and the fun began.  I was afraid it would rain all day, but the morning and most of the afternoon were beautiful.  We took a walk, played Ladder Golf, did lots of yakking, and took the girls to the river again to play for a bit. 

Go Brinks!

Lily, letting you know that
she won 4 Ladder Golf
games in a row.

We ate an early dinner and had just finished up when the rain started.  It started slow, so I ran around and button downed the campsite, closing vents and windows, bringing things undercover.  Pretty soon the rain started coming down HARD, so we moved inside, got our jammies on, and started played games – Bananagrams, Racko.  It was fun, but as we were sitting at the table playing, Brinkley said, “There’s water leaking in from the window.”  I looked and sure enough.  There was water streaming off the top of the camper, down the side, and down a big window we have in the kitchen.  Well, the bottom of that window slides open and closed and the water stream was running right into that little window well.  Apparently something wasn’t sealing there because it was leaking in from that well.  It was raining really HARD and coming in pretty steady.  The girls sat there with towels absorbing the water.  They quickly soaked several towels and I was thinking that if it kept raining all night, I was going to quickly run out of dry towels.  I texted Kevin on my Kindle because we sometimes have WiFi, but the service was so spotty I never did get a good response.  I finally had an idea that if I draped towels over the top of the camper and hanging down the side, the towels would absorb the water and it would still drip off, but either a little away from the camper or at each corner, which would be away from the window.  So off I go into the rain.  I had to drag the neighbor’s picnic table over and use it as a ladder.  I got the towels up and it seemed to work . . . at least until the towels got so heavy they slid off onto the ground.  So, off I go again into the rain.  This time I didn’t leave so much overhang and also put some rocks on top to hold the towels down.  Not pretty, but success!!  Even with more rain during the night, we stayed dry.  What a blessing!