Our Infamous Camping Trip Part 1

It's camping season, so I thought I would share this little adventure with you. This was my first and last camping trip with Hubby. You will soon see why.

The week of August 8, 1982 was when Hubby's vacation officially began. We had friends who were going to be married on August 6. We wanted to go to the wedding, and we also wanted to go camping, so we decided to combine the two events. We found a state park near the wedding location. Our plan was simple: Leave as soon as Hubby came home from work, drive to the campsite, set up camp, and get ready for the wedding. Why that seemed like such a good idea at the time, I can't imagine. I should mention that  J.T. was 2 years, 4 months; B.D. was 14 months, and I was five months pregnant.

Hubby got home from work around 1:30 in the afternoon. The campsite was about a two hour drive, so I wanted to have everything packed and ready to go. I was very pleased with my efficiency. Everything was packed in the camper, and the boys and I were ready to go. This is no small accomplishment with two toddlers running around. Hubby just had to crank down the camper, hook it up to the truck, then get cleaned up. That all went very smoothly, and right on schedule (much to my surprise), then Hubby got out of the shower. He yelled out to me, "Honey, would you bring me some clothes?"  fully expecting and trusting me to accommodate his needs. I suddenly went very pale, and felt very, very sick. I realized that I had packed  all of his clothes in the camper, which was now very securely closed up, cranked down, and hooked up to the truck! He had nothing to wear! I wanted to be sure I didn't forget anything, and I certainly didn't! I wanted to impress hubby with my efficiency, but I got the distinct feeling that "impress" was not quite the word he was thinking! Anyway, we scrounged around the house trying to find something, anything he could wear. We did find an "outfit".  He ended up wearing an old, raggedy t-shirt, and some old cut-offs, which at one time were white, but were now a dingy gray with just a hint of pink, due to the unfortunate circumstance of being washed with something red! To make matters worse, the cut-offs had a hole in the behind. He had no underwear, no socks, and his big, heavy workboots! Needless to say, he was not too pleased with my through packing  job. He was a sight to behold! I just wanted to be sure he had plenty of clothes for the week! He finally decided that he would be in the truck, so no one would see him, and he slightly forgave me.

We left the house by 3:00 and found the camp site with no major problems, which was nothing short of a miracle!  We arrived at the campgrounds two hours later, but then we realized, with a fair amount of horror, that Hubby would have to get out of the truck to register for a camp-site! So, he decided that if he took off his boots and went in barefoot, he would look less like a hillbilly! I waited in the truck with the boys, and waited and waited, and waited, for what seemed an eternity.  They finally found an available campsite for us. If we had been just 10 minutes later, we probably wouldn't have gotten anything. (At the time, we thought we were lucky that we got there "just in time".)

We got our campsite set up, had a bite to eat, then got dressed for the wedding. We left in plenty of time, to allow for getting lost. We did get lost, which came as no surprise.  However, as we sat at a stop sign looking at a map, a woman in a van stopped to see if we needed any help. It seems we turned right when we should have turned left, so we followed her back to town and found the church building in plenty of time. In fact, we had too much time, because by the time the wedding was ready to start, we had two restless boys.  J.T. wanted to sing "Power in the Blood", and B.D, kept throwing the attendance cards, and various other things on the floor.  Hubby finally had to take J.T. out, just as the bride was saying her vows. After the wedding and reception, we were ready to get back to camp and get the boys to bed. B.D. slept most of way back, so by the time we got to the camp, he was wide awake! It took me a while to get him back to sleep. Hubby and I were so tired, we just went to bed, too. End of first day.

Stay tuned for Day Two!

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