Camping

For those of you that know me, know that I would NEVER actually choose to go camping on purpose. However, I know my husband really enjoys it and thought I would step out of my comfort zone and make an attempt to learn about one of his passions. So, on the morning of November 1, I set out for my first camping trip (1 night only!). We went with some of our friends, Nick and Kristin. The deal is that I would go if Kristin went and we've been trying to find the perfect weekend for a year now (hmmm, intentional ya think? LOL). We were supposed to be up in Charlotte (going to Lake Wylie at the State Park) at 12:30 but had to go to the grocery store and buy food and get the truck packed up. Nick and Kristin were getting firewood ready and were also running behind. We ended up getting at the campsite at around 5:30 (this meant that I would actually only be "in nature" for roughly 18 hours LOL). After unloading everything at our two campsites, the first order of business was setting up the tent. Nick got his tent up quite quickly and came over to our campsite to get the firewood chopped up. Things are going pretty well so far and I was actually kind of excited about it. I hadn't run across loads of creepy crawly spiders just yet. Well, we got the tent set up and the fire was blazing and Kristin and I set out to find the bath houses. They turned out to be very clean surprisingly and each little room contained it's own toilet, sink and shower. Both of us were thankful for that! When we got back to the campsite, we set our chairs up around the campfire as it was getting chilly. The temp wasn't supposed to get below 45 but we all brought heavy duty sleeping bags and a blanket. I was pretty comfy around the fire so far. Dan and Nick made steaks on the grill and some type of sliced up potatos in the dutch oven. They were super yummy! Next up, why s'mores of course!! I have never had them before and they were awesome!! Almost makes me want to buy a fire pit for my backyard just to make them again LOL. I was really starting to get cold and couldn't get warm. At around midnight, we all decided to call it a night and go to sleep.



So, my hubby and I decided that the best way for us to sleep is to unzip both sleeping bags and lay one on top of the air mattress (yes, I had an air mattress!) and then cover up with the other sleeping bag with a blanket on top. We brought our own pillows but failed to think about bringing something for the doggies to sleep on. So, we're laying there, I'm freezing my ass off at this point - my teeth were jattering and my insides were litterally shivering. However, my hubby said he was just fine and didn't understand why I was so cold (usually I'm hot and he's cold!). Our poor dogs were shivering too so we decided to put them under the blankets with us. After laying there for two hours or so, we both decided that was not working out and kicked them off the bed. We gave them our blanket to sleep on so they wouldn't have to sleep on the hard ground. So, we thought surely we'd be able to get some sleep now! Um, no ... so, after a few more hours of restlessness, we decided to get up and walk to the bathroom as we both had to go. The sun wasn't even up yet! When we returned, Dan got the fire going again because I was so cold. At this point, I'm thinking about all the sicknesses I'm going to get after being so freakin' cold for so long and wondering when this is all going to end. I knew Nick and Kristin wouldn't be up for several more hours so I decided to take time to read my book, Twilight, by the fire. One good thing came of this trip, I was at least able to finished my book!



So, once Nick and Kristin woke up, we took turns going to the bath house and monitoring the fire. After we finished, I started packing stuff up. Kristin enjoyed the fire (one of their chairs broke and we were testing it's "flamability" LOL)! Dan started making breakfast - bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches! The doggies were very hopeful that he would drop a morsel for them LOL! They really seemed to enjoy being in nature and had a good time.

After breakfast, it was time to pack up - yeah!!!! I was really looking forward to getting home. We had a bit of a drive back to the house and got on the road quickly. Once home, I realized I had numerous loads of laundry to do and couldn't collapse just yet. After about my 5th load, and my hubby's nice long nap (lucky him!), we grabbed dinner and called it a night. I went to bed super early (around 8:30) and fell asleep rather quickly. We talked about what could make this experience better and decided that we needed to get seperate mattresses, use our own sleeping bags and go when it's a little bit warmer. I'm still undecided as to whether or not there will really be a next time. Maybe Kristin's schedule and my schedule won't be able to coincide for a while ;)...