A Little Piece of Heaven

This is my first opportunity to post a blog entry since we got back from our long-awaited camping trip. It was just glorious!

Here's a photo of our campsite very early on our last day there, Sunday.


It began raining soon after our arrival last Thursday, but with Daddy's help I was able to get "under roof" before the rain began. By the time we arrived, Daddy had already had a campfire going at his and Mom's campsite (just down the hill from us) since Tuesday. We enjoyed roasting weiners and a few marshmallows, but a new idea Mom and Dad had tried earlier was bologna roasted on the fire. I didn't try it, but Randy said it was very good.

There were only two less-than-great experiences during our trip:

1. On Thursday night I suffered horribly all night long with leg cramps that literally took my breath. I'd no sooner get through one and settle down again until another cramp would jerk me awake again. On Friday I bought a bunch of bananas; eating them helped considerably, but I still had light cramps each night. Amazingly, my first night back in my own bed at home I had no cramps at all! It occurred to me that I didn't take a bar of soap to put at the foot of my camping bed like I have in my bed at home. (see my blog entry of October 23, 2004) You can bet that on our next camping trip, a bar of Ivory will be tucked under the sheet.
2. On Friday, Daddy took us out riding around mountain roads. We enjoyed a good home-cookin' type lunch at Sugar Grove and saw some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately, as usually happens to me when riding with another driver, motion sickness did me in. I felt really badly most of the time we were riding, and really didn't feel well until the next morning. Ick.

Otherwise, though, it was a really wonderful weekend. It rained most of the day Saturday, but we had a screen tent over our picnic table, so no meals were bothered by the rain. The trees were so thick that you could actually sit under the trees and barely get damp.

The temperatures back home during that time were in the mid- to high-nineties. In the campground it was at least 15 if not 20 degrees cooler than that during the day. At night, it was COOL. We slept under a sleeping bag and even ran a small heater part of the time (mostly to dry the dampness out of the tent and bedding).

We're anxious to get the opportunity to go camping again soon. It's great to get away from the hustle and bustle and to actually be OUT OF TOUCH for a while!

Last post I listed my hopes for the trip. Let's see how we did:

1. I hope the weather is dry. It wasn't, but the rain didn't bother us at all.
2. I hope it's not too hot. It was deliciously cool.
3. I hope there aren't any bears in the campground. If there were, I never saw them. Several chipmunks, a hoot owl or two, and a noise one night that I think was a coyote, but no bears.
4. I hope Randy's health stays good during the trip. Except for the sleep he lost the night I had the leg cramps, he did just wonderfully. The rest did him a world of good.
5. I hope Randy doesn't get bored. He only used his headphones to listen to music a couple of times. Most of the time he seemed entertained by helping keep the campfire burning.
6. I hope I can get some much-needed rest. Even with all the work getting things together, packing the car, setting up camp, breaking down camp, repacking the car, and carrying things back in the house, it was well worth it. I didn't get as much reading done as I thought I might, but I rested A LOT.
7. I hope MeggieDog doesn't get too lonely. She was awfully glad to see us when we returned late Sunday afternoon, but she fared well. I did miss her an awful lot, though.

I wish we could go again this weekend, but we can't. *sigh* Maybe next weekend.