I’ve got some studying to do, but first, a recap from camping:
Woke up late on Friday, so we left at around 2 rather than noon. Packing was a nightmare. I managed to fit 3 people and myself, all our luggage, food, water, beer, equipment, etc into one Honda Accord. Basically everyone was surrounded by equipment and the trunk had every cubic inch used. We also had to leave things behind, as well as forget things because of the hectic packing.
We got there — with a small detour because I didn’t print directions and went by what I remembered — around 4. The sites were very nice. We set up camp within an hour, started a fire and were drinking by 5. No one brought any cards or games, so we just talked the whole night. We went around naming everyone’s 10 favorite TV shows. We might have talked 20 minutes about Are You Afraid of the Dark? Everyone had a favorite episode to talk about.
Saturday we were woken up by a truck a few campsites down, blasting Kid Rock at 8:30 in the morning. I finally woke up at 9, giving up. We cooked a huge breakfast: french toast, hashbrowns, sausage and eggs. At 1 we headed for the river for our tubing trip. It was really fun, but I have a horrible sunburn on my stomach from it. We were passing this huge group who had stopped to watch some of them climb a tree about 20 ft up and plunge into the river. I looked at one and mentioned that he looked like my cousin, Scott. I quietly said his name, to see if he’d look. Chrissy thought it was too soft, so she screamed “SCOTT!” and sure enough he looked around and saw me. I rarely even see this guy around the holidays, so to meet him randomly on the river was crazy.
None of the girls were tempted enough to flash anyone for a free beer (we ran out an hour into the ride), but Chrissy freaked out when one of the guys egging her on was later discovered to be a father residing in her new school district.
We got back to camp and decided to take a shower, however when I returned I found out that Chrissy and I were the only ones to take a shower, the other two went back to the site and passed out. We all took a nap before the rest of the group arrived.
We started another fire and began to cook dinner: I grilled up the steaks and set the cooking fire (yes, we had two fires), while Brian assisted Lauren with the potatoes and dutch oven apple crisp. The seven of us sat around the fire being ridiculous until we passed out.
The next day before packing up, I decided we needed to get rid of as much food as possible. We had hashbrowns, hotdogs, fruitsnacks, beer and oreos. Packing was a pain, but not a nightmare. We managed to fit most of the stuff in the trunk.
As our tradition holds, we stopped at Birch Run for lunch at Tony’s. If you have never heard of Tony’s, they serve everything HUGE. Omelettes are 6 eggs, BLTs have a pound of bacon and sundaes — as Araz discovered — are a half gallon of ice cream. No one leaves without a take-out box. As we were leaving (take-out boxes in hand) someone spotted a HS teacher and a few talked with her.
After Tony’s the weather suddenly became really terrible. We decided not to get on the road and to go shopping at the outlet mall. We spent a few hours there and everybody bought something (I got a nice watch from Fossil). We got back on the road after the storm and were back at my house within 90 minutes.
Everyone had a great time. There’s a few things that need to change for next year, but I think the trip will grow each summer.
