The Camping Trip That Wasn't Meant To Be

It's been a few days since this happened. I needed the time to develop a sense of humor about this...We decided about a week ago that we would try to take our new tent trailer out for its maiden voyage the past Saturday. Plans were underway. Food bought. Car gassed up. Blah, blah, blah.

Saturday morning comes and I am just in a funk. There is a list of things to do around the house that is at least a mile long and I am not in the mood to spend the weekend camping and falling further behind. Matt, once again, is on a mission. He is going camping come hell or high water. I am working on 'the list.' He proceeds to pack for a family of 6 single-handedly while I comment that he is going to a lot of trouble for a family that is NOT going camping this weekend. He just ups his pace and takes off for a moment returning with a Coke and an Almond Snicker bar. What can I say, it was KING SIZE! I asked for minute to change clothes and we were on our way!

Matt hooks the tent trailer to the Suburban. It didn't look secure to me so I ask him about it and he says its fine. Five minutes and 2 blocks later, we hear a repetitive CRASH into the back of the truck. The tent trailer has come loose and the only way that it is going to stop is if we do and let it crash into us. I was screaming like it was the end of the world. We finally stop and get out to survey the damage. The Suburban is amazingly enough only minimally damaged (scraped up plastic bumper coating) but the tent trailer is in bad shape. The battery is on one side of the road and the propane tank is on the other. There's a 2 foot crack in the outer shell for good measure. Matt gets his bearings and patches us up well enough to get us home.

I get straight on the computer for some theraputic blogging and he continues to work on the tent trailer. I feel vindicated that I was right to not want to go camping in the first place. Besides, I knew the darn thing wasn't attached properly! So, I'm off the hook for camping, right? WRONG!!!

About an hour later, Matt exclaims, "I can't let it beat me." So, his masculinity on the line, we set out once again for the camping trip that is not meant to be. Two hours later, we pull into the campsite and find ourselves faced with a sign that says, "NO CHARCOAL OR CAMPFIRES." Great. We have foil dinners in the cooler and plans for a dutch oven breakfast the next morning. Matt says, "we're just going to play stupid" which won't be much of a stretch considering how the rest of the day has gone. We drive through the site and there is nothing but concrete and grass, not even a place to fake a fire ring. Everyone is out there cooking on their wimpy Coleman stoves with thier smug faces, so proud of themselves for being law-abiding campers. We have a propane stove in our trailer. It's just too bad that the propane tank had just met it's doom on the highway and was unusable.

What are we going to do? There was a Taco Bell about 20 minutes back on the highway. We could eat that for dinner and let what we have go to waste. We could eat raw s'mores for breakfast and head home earlier than planned. Nope, it was man against machine and the man was not going to lose.

We had checked out a place a few weeks back that was about another half hour out-that's right, a full 2 1/2 hours from home. When we checked it out a few weeks prior, it was supposedly "just south of downtown." (Another story...) so we head back on the highway and finally get to that campsite. It does have fire rings but it does not have a VACANCY. I'm ready to go home but Matt has a plan. We are going to share a group site with some homeless people who are sleeping in their van. Yep, thats safe! Let's just take our 4 children right on over there and make ourselves comfortable. Just to make things a little more interesting, there are no hookups and our battery is sitting at home in our garage. We ate our "hobo dinners" (new meaning to that considering our campmates) in the dark and found the bathrooms by moonlight. As you can see from the pics, we did end up having a good time afterall.

Man vs. Machine

Guess who won?