Summer Camping

We haven’t been camping in some time, so we decided that we must rectify this situation this summer!  Gary and  I had talked about a weekend that we could take off a Friday and go camping. We tentatively put it on the calendar.. “camping ?”  When it was time to flip the calendar to July Brandon noticed this little note on the calendar. He asked us about it and we told him that we were thinking about camping, but wasn’t positive we were going to do it. He was okay with that answer for the night… but it started driving our little Turkey boy nuts!   It seemed like every evening he would walk to the calendar on the refrigeration and point out to us that we had yet made a decision on the pending camping trip.  At this point Gary and I had both already asked for that Friday off and knew that we were going to do SOMETHING, just not sure where.  So it became a game with us for a few days.  Finally we gave in and told him that Yes! We were going camping for sure at Junction.  He raced to get a pen so he could change the calendar to reflect that it was a POSTIVE we were going camping. No more question marks!  Oh, that boy cracks me up. 

We loaded up the new truck and headed off to Junction for a long weekend.  We have stayed at the camp site a couple of times before and were ready to get back and kick our feet up for a couple of days.  We got to the camp; set up our tent and took in the camping atmosphere.  

 I got the bright idea to ask the camp owners if we would be able to go tubing down the river. Sounded like a great time!  Well, it turns out that yes.. yes we could go tubing, but we would have to drive several miles up the river and park our truck    at a designated point alongside the road. From that point we loaded into our camp guides car and he took us up stream another 1 1/2 miles.  He told us that it should take 1 ½ -2 hours for the trip. Okay that sounds good! We had all covered ourselves in sunscreen so we were set. We tied all five tubes together (Cyanna was with us) jumped into the middle of the tubes and we were off.  The water felt wonderful.  The river was nice and opened so we didn’t have to dodge trees hanging over the top of us.  90% of the trip was so deep that we weren’t able to touch, however there were a few spots along the way that were so rocky and shallow that we would drag our butts, or stomachs across rocks.  This made for the entertainment, right!?  The first rocky spot caught us all off guard.  Brandon got tossed out of his tube and Gary hit a rock so hard I think me may have broken his tailbone.  Once we were passed that first shallow spot we were able to lay back and enough the peace and quiet of nature. WRONG!! Brandon is not able to sit still, keep his mouth closed and just take in the sights. Crazy kid!  He was squirming around and talking the entire time we were on the river.  At one point we had to tell him to cork it!  He did for preciously 3 minutes and he was back to talking and squirming around again. OH well, this is who he is we love him for it.  I am thankful he was with us and having fun.  None of us had any idea what time it was, or how long we had been floating on the water, but we were certain it was taking longer than the 1 ½ -2 hours it was supposed to take.  We tried to relax and enjoy nature, but it is still an odd feeling not knowing if you are ever going to make it back to dry land or not!  We kept floating; I mean honestly what other choice did we have? We had to float back to where we left our pickup. After a few more rocky spots, and a couple of small “waterfalls” we could finally see the spot where we were supposed to be out of the water!  I really did enjoy the time on the water, but I could feel myself roasting in the sun and my nerves were just about shot not knowing how much longer the trip would take. We got out at the designated spot and found our pickup safe and sound where we had left it.  We got into the truck and looked at the clock to find out that we had been floating the river for FOUR hours!! FOUR hours!  No wonder we were all starting to get a little antsy and ready to get out.    We had talked about doing this little adventure the next day as well, but after we did it the first time we all decided that once was enough for us, Been there done that!  

After our tubing fun we got back to camp and tried to relax for awhile.  It didn’t take us all long to realize that was going to be a little difficult to do with the sunburn we had all gotten while on the water for so long.  Even though we all put on sunscreen we quickly realized the places that we all had missed!  Boy-o-Boy I have not been that sunburned in many years.  Kelsey and I had spent most of our time lying on our stomachs on the tubes so that exposed our backs and the backs of our legs to the sun.  Gary stayed sitting in his tube most of the time so his stomach took the most of the sun. Brandon and Cyanna most have moved around so much that they got a pretty even suntan/burn in random places. It made the rest of the camping trip a little less fun as it wasn’t easy to get comfortable. 

Saturday morning we were welcomed by some friends that happened to be in Junction the same weekend at a family reunion.  Ms Terry and Mr Bill found our camp site and came by for a short visit. It was so neat to see them there.

 The rest of our time camping we spent lying around talking, playing games, fishing and more time in the water. During one of our talks Gary and I told the three kids that it was a requirement that when they all have children that they teach all their children the fun of camping. It is also going to be required that we all have a family reunion camping! This is not negotiable. Other than the horrible sunburn we all sustained we all had an amazing time and are looking forward to the next time we can go camping again!