Grindstone in June

Home Away From Home
June 2008

Mom, Dad, Meggie and I toddled off to Grindstone again during the last week of June. Mom & Dad went up on Wednesday, and Meg and I went on Thursday. We had another trip of scattered showers, but all-in-all a very good, relaxing long weekend!

My site was just across the road from Mom & Dad. Daddy helped me set up, then he grilled pork steaks (yum!) which Mom served with baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw and rolls. I ate too much, but it was really good. Soon afterward, our friends Beth, Joey, and Amy came to visit with their cute little Yorkies, O'Reilly and Heidi. They were camped on another circle in the campground, but it was close enough to walk and visit comfortably.

The Yorkies were so cute....MeggieDog doesn't quite know what to think of them, being so tiny and so full of life! At one point, Beth and I were sitting on the same bench of the picnic table. Meggie was on my lap, and Heidi was on Beth's. Beth put Heidi down on the bench. She didn't make a sound, but bared her teeth at Meggie as if to say, "This is MY bench, and don't you dare move a muscle in my direction!" Meg moved further up on top of me with a "SAVE ME!!" look on her face. It was so funny to see that tiny little Yorkie staking out her territory!

We had rain off and on all weekend....one rainstorm would pass through, the sun would come out for a bit, then another storm would pass through. One day (Friday, I think?) Mom and Dad took me to a neat old antiques store over in Mouth of Wilson. I saw all KINDS of goodies I wouldn't have minded having, but restricted myself to buying a couple of very old (1920's) geography books and some 50-cent copies of Lewis Grizzard books. I also bought a couple of aluminum lids for saucepans for a quarter each. I have a 1-quart saucepan I take camping that didn't have a lid. All the lids I can find now are GLASS, which I don't want to take camping. Too easy to destroy! So that problem was easily (and cheaply!) solved.

Joey and Beth provided us with plenty of great campfire wood, so we were able to enjoy cozy fires on the cool damp days. I'd never have believed it, but there we were in late June wearing jeans....and occasionally sweatshirts! We're going back the end of July. I don't really expect to need a sweatshirt then, but will take one all the same. Just in case. You never know!

I always say that I really don't mind rain on a camping trip, because it gives me a good excuse to curl up with a big ol' book and listen to the rain falling on the tent. The only thing I don't really like to do is set up in the rain or break camp in the rain. Sure enough, Sunday morning when I was trying to get my camping gear all broken down and packed up, it rained off and on all morning. Daddy tried to dry things off as best he could with a leaf blower he gave me to carry with my camping gear. But everytime he seemed to be making a little headway, the wind would rustle the trees and dump rain all over everything all over again!

So, I finally just wrapped the canopy and tent up in a plastic tablecloth and stuffed it in the trunk. When I got it home, I spread it all out over the shower rod in my spare bathroom and over a folding drying rack to get it all dried out good before putting it away. I certainly don't want to risk any mold or mildew!! There's just no getting rid of that once it takes hold.

Driving home that afternoon, I ran through four different rainstorms, all really hard ones. People were pulled off on the side of the road waiting for the rain to let up. It was just awful. When I got back into Bristol, water was running down the streets, gushing up out of storm sewers. Terrible, terrible storms! We still need rain, but DANG, not all at once!

When I got home, I wrapped Meg in one of her baby blankets and carried her in so she wouldn't get drenched. I got the food and cooler out of the car, but waited a while to unload more to give the rain a chance to let up. I unloaded some more later in the afternoon, but got rained on again. I finally gave up and unloaded the rest of it a few items at a time in the afternoons after work!

Even with the downpours at the end, though, it was a fun trip. I always enjoy my camping trips. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

By the way, check out my Flickr site (there's a link to it over on the right) to see photos of the most recent camping excursion.