Ah…camping.

Thursday I left work early to go shopping for the trip with Birdgirl. Our shopping styles don’t exactly match (girls will know what I’m talking about here) so it was a bit of a process to get everything that we needed…food, water etc. After all the grocery shopping and Spagging, we went over to DaveGrips place and waited around for an hour or so until Blixx & DaveGrips came back from their adventure of borrowing a trailer then loading it up with the borrowed canoe and kayak. Blixx & I took BirdGirl's Jeep (loaded with 2 boats) for the night. It was a long night.
Friday morning came WAY too soon, but we were up early and picked up the rental kayak. With Blixx’s boat, that makes 4 boats total for those of you counting). Back to our place, we had to sit around and wait for our landlord to come for a visit with the bankers, just to check out the building. She doesn’t seem concerned at all about the water stains on our ceiling from the leaky roof. Fine, we want to move anyway. Goodbye kitties, we’re off! Once they were gone, it was into the Jeep and off we went. I mention here that Friday was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the low 70’s under partly cloudy skies.
We arrived at the campsite at around 2pm, only to find that they had drained the lake to do repairs on the dam. Damn dam! Our waterfront campsite was now 40 feet of mud from the water, what little of that there was. Blixx almost lost it right there, but to his credit he didn’t create any new swears or throw anything, but I could see in his eyes that he wanted to, bad! Water levels would be getting higher, we were assured, but there were families who arrived with a car-full of kids in bathing suits, only to be told that there wasn’t deep enough access to the beach. People were ticked, and Blixx is currently looking into getting a discount since we didn’t really have waterfront property. We had a few hours to set up our tent and gear before the rest of the troupe arrived. We had the best site available, but it was the farthest from the parking lot, meaning that we had to hump everything in via strong backs and carts. Poor Blixx and DaveGrips were the token men of the clan, so they got stuck with most of the work here. Once we set up the two other tents, screen house and tarps, it was time to eat. After dinner it was time to drink. The weather was partly cloudy with some sprinkles, but nothing major.
Saturday’s breakfast was eggs and bacon, with toast done on the open fire. Yummy!!! I swear when I get a house we’ll have a fire pit in the yard – food just tastes better on the open flame. After breakfast there was talk of a kayak adventure, but V (the almost 2 year old) had to have a nap. Three hours later it was time to eat again so out came the sandwiches etc. We did manage to have a boating adventure (in the rain) to bring the boats around from the launch to the site. V was pretty ticked off at her mother for not letting her run around in the canoe, but all in all it was a good ride. Blixx went out on his own when scheduling everyone got to be too much, and found a beautiful cigarette case in the mud. He always finds something interesting on kayak adventures. In between all of this, there is talk of going to the store to get more tarps and some rain gear, but that motivation escapes us until after 8pm, so all the boys could bring back was ice. Today’s weather is increasingly cloudy with intermittent rain showers and the possibility for severe thunderstorms late in the evening and early morning.
Damn weather guys were actually right for once. It POURED! Then it poured. Then it poured again. Thank heavens that the guys are in the movie business, because the two of them can rig just about anything and make it work. The park rangers stopped by, not to hassle us about having beer on state property, but to see how the tarps were rigged. I won’t bore you all with talk of the business, but a couple of c-stands and some spring clips and we were in paradise. The only problem was that we were all huddled under this great tarp, instead of hanging out under the stars. Did I mention that it rained like a bastard? Through all of this, the baby was wonderful. She played in the mud and had a great time.
After drying out everything on Sunday, there was again talk of boating, but the baby needed breakfast, then a nap again. By that time, we’d all split off to take showers and do our own thing. I went with the boys to WalMart to pick up those tarps, as well as some rain gear for his wife and V. By the time we got back to the site, it was baby-feeding time again so we all ate. As mentioned before, V was terrific. The only problem was that she has a schedule that needs to be followed so by the time we all got around to making a plan, we had to feed her or nap her or something. It was always something. Almost dark out now & still sprinkling, the ladies opted out of an adventure so the boys went out boating for a while. Actually, DaveGrips took Blixx away during the meal preparation at our request, so that we could calmly cook. I love Blixx, but for some reason he gets all upset if the campsite (especially the cooking areas) aren’t exactly how he wants them set up. He gets mad that he HAS to cook, but none of us will do it the right (read Blixx’s) way so we just let him cook. I don’t know why he’s such a control freak when camping, but it was just as bad this time as it was when we went rafting last year. Why we need to fight every mealtime is beyond me, but there he was yelling that the plastic forks had been moved, and that I hadn’t se the table for him. I don’t think he relaxed once the entire time we were there, except maybe when he fell asleep next to the fire on Sunday night. The boys and I went on a canoe adventure in the rain that was actually pretty nice. It wasn’t cold, but a soft misty rain was falling. We went to Funky Stump Island and hung out for a bit, smoking and drinking. That was the most relaxed I had felt all weekend. After that, I was tired and sore and drunk, so I went to bed early (yes, early) at around 2am. Blixx intended to stay up all night, despite my warnings that Monday’s move out was going to be a bitch, but I guess he didn’t make it. He was found sleeping by the fire, and apparently fell out of his chair when they woke him up. Man, I wish I had been awake to see that.
Monday was move out day. We’d gotten permission from the rangers to take our time, since we had so much stuff and a baby, but it took all morning of packing and lifting. Blixx & I brought WAY too much gear that all had to be packed away, so it took forever and a day to get it all together. While he spent hours making sure all of his gear was stowed away, DaveGrips brought at least 100 cart-fulls of crap to the cars, while watching the baby. We still had the boats to get back over to the launch and load onto the cars at 11am, when we were supposed to be cleared off the site. Blixx loaded up the canoe with the bigger items and stowed some gear into the kayaks, thinking it would be easier than lifting it out. Well, Mother Nature pulled a fast one on us yet again. Today’s weather was beautiful and sunny, with a brisk wind blowing right at us. Paddling over to the launch (not a huge distance) took forever and it was a tough ride the whole way, especially for Blixx in the canoe filled with crap. Then we hauled the boats and crap out of the car, fed the baby and Blixx…once again he & I were the last one’s to load up and go. In process of loading up the little kayak on his car, he whacked his head on the trunk so hard that he fell over. What a weekend for Blixx – nothing but stress and pain. And a pain on all of our asses. I don’t imagine that we’ll go camping with anyone else for a while. I don’t notice the Camp Nazi aspect of his behavior when we go alone, because I just let him of off on his own little trips with cooking or cleaning up camp, but with other folks around to notice it really got to me, and to them. He was upset that there were toys and sippy cups all over the campsite – she’s not even 2 for god’s sake!
In the midst of all this packing and arguing, I get a super bad sunburn on my face that still hurts today. For those of you keeping track, the weather was nice to put up tents and to take them down, with nothing but rain in between. It was an OK weekend, but certainly not the relaxing get away that I’d hoped for. There were just too many people to schedule around, I guess.
It’s Tuesday now, and since Blixx didn’t get to use the rented kayak hardly at all, he told me today the he was going to extend the rental to go with his friend Toad. He also reserved a hot tub for us for later tonight, then cancelled on me when he got stuck putzing around today. It’s 4pm and he hasn’t even gotten in the water so I guess our romantic dinner and hot tub experience will have to be put off for another day. He was supposed to be working that CT job this weekend, but not the scheduling might be off. I’m hoping that the job is on so he’ll be away for a few days and I can cool off. I know I’m contradicting myself again by saying that I want him away, but… that’s just how it is.
I suppose I should try to do some work today. I hope all reading this long account of a less than terrific weekend had a better time than I did.

Into the future…