Spring Break Camping

With the girls having Spring Break, and us having little income, we needed to get a little creative to keep them busy this year.

Luckily we had a brand new RV to break in.  And we were a little nervous.  All our previous family camping had been with a tent.  This was a whole new world.  With sewage.  Ewww.

But we put our big girl and boy panties on and made reservations at one of the State parks.  I know I've mentioned about a million times how great Ohio state parks are.  I am so not kidding.

We went mid week to avoid the weekend crowd and get a decent spot that would be easy to back the trailer into.  That had us pretty nervous also.  But it was really not that bad at all.

We managed to get the trailer into its spot - straight even. Hah. That means I wasn't driving. But newbie mistake number 1? Picking a pad with a tree over the awning.  We didn't hit the tree but it dropped all kinds of crap all over the awning which we watched get rolled right up into it when we were prepping to leave.  Note to self.....

In no time at all we were exploring the woods behind our site.  Of course Mouse found herself a big stick right away.  That is some unwritten rule with kids, isn't it?

Cinder was less than thrilled.  I already suspected that she is slightly claustrophobic - and she cried and barked the whole ride.  She has been banned riding free due to her inability to obey commands and climbing all over my girls and trying to climb into the front.  She is a crazy spaz in the car.  So, she now must ride in her crate for everyone's safety - including her own.  She hates it.  And she is very verbal about it.  I see sedatives in her near future.

We also learned this trip that she REALLY does not like change.  She cried every time Hubs was out of sight.  Not very impressive from a guard dog point of view.  She does like being outside though. And will happily stay out all day as long as Hubs is out there too.

Of course its hot dogs and hamburgers cooked over the camp fire for dinner.

Mouse will eat her weight in hot dogs she roasts herself over the fire.  Its the best we ever see her eat.  That alone makes camping worth it.

We really roughed it that next morning.  Poptarts, hot chocolate, cartoons.  Man that camping stuff is rough. (Why yes, Hubs did steal the tv from my mom cave/sewing room.)

We had a busy day.  We found lots of foraged firewood for the fire.  Because camping is ALL about the fire, right? I mean, why else would you even go?  Who doesn't love playing with fire? And Mouse has been well trained in fire-making and wood gathering through Girl Scouts.

The firewood carriers I made from tote bags weren't as great as I hoped.  It was nice to be able to carry that much wood, but I actually think it would have been better to just use them as they were and not alter them. Mouse got the most use out of them.

This is Hubs and his face full of hair.  I don't like it.  Seems like almost everyone else does.  The funny from the trip was when I called him Mr. Crocodile Dundee.  Mouse thought I said Mr. Un-Done-Dee.  Yep. A new nickname.

We went for a hike and then a walk.  We ended up down by the lake.

What is it about throwing rocks into water? Its almost as mandatory as making a fire.

And speaking of rocks, what is it with girls and "collecting" rocks? Songbird drove us nuts with this and now Mouse is following in her footsteps.  These were in her pockets from the lake.

Hubs and I collected something else: wild garlic (sometimes called wild onions).  This stuff is everywhere in Ohio.  Hubs cleaned a bunch up and we put it in our (mine and hubs) foil dinners that night.  Oh my goodness! Talk about making the meal.  Hubs even brought some home.

Some of our other adventures from the day were the chicken hawk that wanted Songbirds Chihuahua and the Dobbie pushing me down the steps of the trailer and taking off to parts unknown....twice.  Luckily she came back both times.  She is faster than any other dog we have owned or even seen so there is no chasing her down.  Luckily she really doesn't want to be separated from us, she just wants to stretch her legs...so she comes back.  But its not good to have a 70 pound doberman running loose where people have their children because they tend to think she will eat them.  Even though she won't.

Mandatory s'mores.

MMMMmmmmmmm. Hah! Caught the teen eating!

Hubs kept rather busy keeping the firewood stocked.

I tried out the fire starters I made.  They worked so good.  The toilet paper roll ones were easy to light with the wax dipped fabric strips I left hanging out.  And the muffin shaped ones with the wicks I pushed down in the were also great.  The brownie shaped ones had to way to light so I threw them on top of something I had started to keep it going and that worked well.

In the evening it got too cold for me and Bogart.  We wimped out and went inside the trailer and kicked back and read a book.  The rest of the clan stayed out until well after dark.

We were having so much fun that we actually paid for another night and extended our stay.  Unfortunately I had a hole in my pants.  Right.  You might be a redneck if....you use duct tape to fix your pants while you are camping.  Well.  The pants from the day before got ripped in the seat when I was shoved out the trailer by monster dog.  I had to make do.

And just to prove that it really was cold enough for me to be indoors wimping out..... This is what greeted us in the mornings.  No way I would have tent camped this week.  LOVE the heater and the air conditioner in the RV. Both work excellently.

And then we loaded up and came home- after dumping the black and grey water. Wasn't bad like I expected.

It was a really great time and reminded everyone (except the dogs) why we love camping so much.  No phones.  Minimal electronics. Lots of fresh air and exercise.  Fire.

Can't wait to do it again.