the great outdoors

On a whim to take advantage of the oddly cool July temperatures-- and to test out our tent (which we received as a wedding gift nearly three years ago and never opened)-- we decided to go camping. The thing with camping is that I never know that I want to go, until merely minutes before we start packing, so it's always a last minute scramble to see which park is open and... crap!... do we have bugspray? and where is that 3-in-1 tool that we'll probably not need but should bring anyway...??!

...so needless to say, our history with camping has been pretty rocky-- every single time we try, we spend hours loading up the car, lists in hand, packing what normal campers would probably bring for a two-weeks' stay, just to drive all the way to the campground and find all the spots are taken.

Right. So the planning started Friday, and I picked out a local forest preserve as our best option and this private park over 1 hour away as our backup. Of course, upon driving to the forest preserve only 1 hour after the camping office opened, all the spots were filled... hmmm. So ,we turned the car around and pointed towards Earlville, which I would totally tell you all about and post a link, except there aren't any. The don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it town has more barns than people, and I think I saw a field with two donkeys, but we were driving fast.

70-ish year-old Marilyn is the owner/manager, and she's turned her wood-paneled living room, into an office. A sign out front boasts that the park opened in 1979, and I think nothing has been updated since. Upon paying our $15 per person, we hopped onto Marilyn's golfcart and whizzed through some of the 40 acres of her property-- pointing out possible spots near the creek, or maybe the big yard... There were four total campers, so it was pretty quiet. The main campground circles around an elevated spring-fed pond, which is stocked and open for fishing, if that's your thing.

(trail around the pond)

We picked a spot near the creek-- the last spot before the trails in the woods-- and it was super quiet, except for the babbling water that rushed over a cluster of rocks at the bottom-- perfect.

Not sure if I paid attention to how huge the tent was when I flippantly click-added it on to registry at Target-- the thing measures 15' x 10', and that doesn't include the little doggy den on the side-- totally adorable!

our little campsite

Poppy posing in the doggy door

the inside-- huge! this fullsize bed only took up half the tent.

Wecould have easily fit a table/chairs in there, and it was 6 feet tall,

so you could stand all the way up.

Dinner was tinfoil 'hobo packs'--steak, potatoes, garlic, onions, and peppers, and baked beans, and then we read magazines and played cards. We enjoyed the campfire and some sprinkles, and then retreated inside when the sprinkles became rain. I don't think it actually rained that hard, but when you're laying under pieces of plastic that magnify each raindrop, it sounds like it's coming down pretty hard. Around 3:30, we both woke up to a crazy animal screeching noise (freaky... but probably just a raccoon or something) and bright lights of a patroling police officer. Of course, it was nothing (dude, this is Earlville, what else do they have to do,) but my mind started churning middle-of-the-night absurdities: what if the police officer is looking for someone...? why did he drive all the way out to our tent at 3:30am? i wonder if someone is on the loose... ??

Darby chewing his bone in the doggy den. He later cuddled up with us in bed, which was good, because it helped keep us warm!

Right... so back to bed and up at 8am with the dogs. Overall, I didn't sleep WELL, but it wasn't terrible. The mattress we brought was nice and cushy, and I didn't get cold. The dogs didn't stir too much, but they are wiped out today-- which means they didn't sleep well. Breakfast was exceptional- Jed can still cook a mean omelet over woodfire, and we made coffee with the frenchpress.

Jed cooking a cheese omelet. Also, our water boiling for coffee- on a piece of wood. Yeah.

So, Camping trip #1 is under our belts. There are things we definitely learned for next time-- like, buy one of those tri-pod cauldron holder things, because wood BURNS when you put it over the fire. And buy tongs, because it's hard to retrieve a scalding-hot pot with a stick...

Until next-time... when we'll pack lighter, prep more, and have more time to enjoy it all!

I think Darby was ready to go!