Water "play", Camping, and Hiking

This weekend we decided to go camping. I wanted to couple this with a friend bringing his boat to the lake on Saturday. So I took Friday off to spend camping with the family, so that I could play on the water most of Saturday. I want to tell you the tale of our adventures. Sit back, grab your popcorn, and enjoy my little tale.

Wait, back up!!

Prior to any of this happening we had a TON of rain on Thursday. It was only by God’s grace that I happened to look down in the crawl space around midnight to find our sump pump was not working as it should. The water level was right at the line, 30 more minutes, and we would have had one very wet basement.

To make a boring tale of woe short, I got the portable pump down there, and I grabbed a bucket and started baling. Baling consisted of me doing a leg squat with the bucket, filling it with water, and then coming up and dumping it in the toilet. Imagine doing this 50 – 100 times. My leg is better now tho, thanks for asking.

Friday, I spent some time replacing the bad pump, and then we packed up for the campout. Only a few hours behind…

We found a perfect little camping spot. And only 8 dollars!! This is cheap in today’s world. We had a shade tree, closest spot to the playground, and there was NO ONE THERE!! It was great.

After setting up camp, we decided to go on a hike. This was a decision we’d soon regret. AnnaMay wanted to see “Totem Rock”, which was talked about in the hiking guide. It was about 1.25 miles one way, no problem for a family that had done Abrams falls (2.5 one way) last year.

The hike was going along just fine, and my only worry was that we possibly started the hike a little late, and that it might get a bit shadowy before we got back to the truck. I thought this would make the kids nervous, so I was keeping a good pace. I would soon find out, that a little dark would be nothing compared to what we were about to encounter…

We found the rock just fine, and we enjoyed the trail. I took some pictures of AnnaMay and the kids next to the rock. We were about to head back, when all of a sudden, Zion started screaming. I didn’t know what could be the matter, he was waving his arms like crazy. Then he seemed to start screaming again. It was then I noticed there were yellow flying things coming out of the hole in the tree he was near. Before I could react, Glorianna started waving her hands in the air and screaming.

“RUN” I shouted, shooing them up the trail. AnnaMay and Azariah were still on the other side of the trail from the tree. “You’ll have to run past it quick!!!” as I trailed after Glorianna and Zion who were running down the trail like mad screaming lunatics.

After clearing everyone from the hornets nest we discovered, I picked up Glorianna who had been stung in the finger. Zion had been stung square in the middle of the forehead, and once in the back of the head. We calmed them down as best we could and began our hike back to the truck. I ended up carrying Glorianna for at least 1 mile of the trip back.

Halfway back was a crosstrail and a bench. I needed a breather after the 1/2 mile hike with a 30 pound child. Zion, Glorianna and I sat on the bench, waiting for Azariah and AnnaMay to show up. All of a sudden a big bug of some time started buzzing around us rather angrily. Zion, very gunshy of bugs at this point, shouted “A BEE” and he went running down the trail screaming again. Glorianna starts crying…well, she hadn’t really stopped at this point as it was, and I just started trying to swat the bug to the ground. It was about this time Azariah and AnnaMay showed up, and the bug started buzzing around them. AnnaMay and Azariah got spooked as well, and started running down the trail.

The bug seemed to follow them, in hot pursuit, keeping them all running and screaming (well, AnnaMay wasn’t screaming) for a good little while. It would leave them and come back to me and Glorianna, and I’d try and swat it down again. Finally, whatever it was, gave up the chase and we were able to cool everyone down again. (sorta)

We made it back to the truck alive, and went back to our campsite. The boys declaring “I’m never going hiking again!!” I think it will be a year at least before we get them on a hike again. There goes my September plans.

Back at camp, we began to make food. Our motto seems to be “we’ll eat when it’s dark” and so we got the coals going and the latern lit and settled down for a nice quiet evening at the campsite.

HA!! Did someone say QUIET evening?? The campsite that NO ONE was around when we arrived became a buzzing metropolis of mostly loud people. I’ve never been to a campground where people were so inconsiderate.

We got our dinner, cleaned up, and decided to just call it a night. AnnaMay and I didn’t sleep much on Thursday night because of the pump problem, so we were tired.

Around 11:20 or so, our neighbors with a big boat showed up. She was trying to direct him, he couldn’t see, the dog was barking, and they didn’t really seem to care if anyone around was actually trying to sleep.

Since we couldn’t sleep, and were mostly annoyed, my sarcastic humor began to get the best of me. The conversation at the next campsite went something like this.

“I can’t see woman, it’s dark!”
“You need to swing it out a little more”
“I been at this all day…C’mere“

After the boat was finally parked…

“Woman, you get that tent set up. (to the dog) OH! Who’s a good girl…snooky wooky ooshy boooshy. (to the wife) What do you think you’re doing?? Get this or that or something! (to dog) ooooh, who’s a good doggie??”

Well, you get the idea… moving on…

Also at the campground were some campers with a vehicle that lacked a muffler. Now, I have nothing against someone whose car is in a state of disrepair. I have no problem with them being at the same campground. I would EXPECT however, that they wouldn’t be driving said vehicle back and forth through the campsite EVERY OTHER HOUR OR SO!!!! AHHHH!!!!

Night 2 of little to no sleep…

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful day. I got the coffee going, the fire, and the gravy. Glorianna slept in awhile, which made it easy to relax and rest. We were really beginning to enjoy the morning. My friend, Harold, was coming with his boat around 9:30 and Steve was supposed to show up about then too.

Glorianna woke up, we all had breakfast, and then we helped the kids play on the playground. Azariah and Zion have mastered the monkey bars now, so that was the hot item. The morning was quite wet, and there was dew everywhere, so the monkey bars were slippery. Azariah didn’t want to do them without me.

After playing, we got things cleaned up and packed up as much as we could for that part of the day. We planned to do lunch at the campsite before checking out, so we weren’t putting away everything. I then sat down by the fire to relax. AnnaMay and I were chatting and having a nice time. It was too good to be true…

I looked up just in time to see Riah, on the monkey bars, slip off, and land flat on his back. I’d say he was 5 feet up, they were tall monkey bars.

I ran over to him, and checked him all over. There were no broken bones or ribs, and he was fine, but quite winded.

There went the nice peaceful morning!! I spent the remainder of the morning in the chair holding Azariah.

Finally, Harold and Steve arrived which got everyone’s minds off of hurting tummies, bee stings, mufflers, doggies, and loud obnoxious people. To the lake!! Swimming!!

We swam for awhile and did some kneeboarding, skiing, and the like. Then as it was about time for lunch, AnnaMay noticed Zion’s forehead was starting to swell. We headed back to the campsite for lunch, and the boys got jumpy about bugs again. AnnaMay just made some sandwhiches and took the kids home. I stayed and had lunch with the guys and did some more boating and kneeboarding. I almost stood up on the kneeboard. A good time was had that afternoon. FINALLY!!

I got home and Zion’s forehead had continued to swell. Also, he had some sunburn stripes under his eyes and it was red down the center of his forehead because of the sting. He could have walked on to any Star Trek set, without seeing a makeup artist, and fit right in!!! The poor guy. We’d post pictures, but he seemed to be quite self conscious about how he looked, and actually mentioned we’d post them on facebook if we took pictures, so we didn’t snap any.

We really did have a decent time. Of course, I’m not complaining about our little trip one bit!! It’s just that it could have been so much better, and seemed so odd that we had such a rough go. No matter tho! I’m sure we’ll try again, on another Emond family adventure!!