Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camping. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The Wild West

Interesting story...

We had every intention to do some camping at Lake Emily this past weekend. Our friend Darren even brought his kayak's for the lake. As soon as I got out of work, Tom has the truck all packed up and ready to hit the road, so we were on the road by 5pm. Just getting out of town about 25 minutes or so, Darren calls. He had just made it to Lake Emily and they are FULL! What?!?! They can't be, both campgrounds? FULL? What in the world...What are we going to do? So Darren is going to take another lap around the place to check again while I start on the phone. Luckily Tom brought a couple internet print outs of the disc golf courses and they had ph#'s on them. I called and got info on 3 campgrounds. Each one I called said they were all full as well. Ugh! We were so not turning back, darn it! Finally, Jordan park suggested this place called Wild Wild West campground in Amherst, on 54W from Waupaca.

Since we were just coming up to the Waupaca exists, I called and they had one site left....sorta. So we get there and the dude was all shady about the last site left. I was like So someone got here in the last 15 minutes and go it? No, it wasn't that, it was that someone had called about it earlier in the day. BUT.... they don't take reservations, AND it was nearly 7pm and no show, but we were there NOW. He pointed out a group site available and we could plug into the electrical nearby the other site he apparently was saving for the mystery people. Tom and went to check it out and wait for Darren. Once Darren got there with this camper, kayaks and all, he figured out a route to get in, so I went up to pay for our site. The whole while this is going on, J and Nikki are on their way from up north not knowing where we are camping. We had kept in touch with them, so once I paid I called to let them know what was going on and gave them directions to the Wild Wild West.
Once we got Darren's camper on level ground, the guys started getting set up. First task was to take off the kayak's. Wow- much fun they would be this weekend.... All we could do was to sit in them and pretend to paddle....pretend there was water... but we never got that imaginative - ha! Once we got the camper set up, I took over on the inside getting beds ready, etc... J & Nikki made it just as the sun was setting, and we had the first camp fire rolling. The night was calm and nice, the s'mores were super delicious, and the gang had some fun around the camp fire. All the while there are three, yes THREE, open sites available right next to our group site. But we were fine where we were... Actually glad to be sort of away from the general public. That especially came in handy Saturday night when we had more people join the campfire fun.

Saturday morning, we got up, made breakfast, and they guys were off to meet Greg and Kory for some disc golfing. Nikki and I cleaned up breakfast and proceeded to find the showers. Nice hot showers, but we had some company.... Nikki had three little frogs spying on her, checking her out, and one even jumped on her as she grabbed for her towel. Her screetch made me jump and screem a little myself!! Then that little jumper frog jumped right over the wall to my shower stall!! Ahhh!!!!! At least he stayed in the corner where he had landed. Little bugger!

In the afternoon on Saturday, Nikki's friend Missy came up from Madison to camp for the night. I like Missy, she's a ton of fun, and she brought her dog, Chase, to keep Daisy company. The dogs favorite part, I think, was getting each other tangled in their tie outs. Once the guys got back from golfing, we all ate some lunch. Then the guys went back out to hit up another course while us girls relaxed, read a couple chapters in my book and enjoyed eachother's company. We took a walk up to the Corral (main office) and pet the horses who had just come back from giving rides to other campers. They were friendly and sweet! It was a nice and relaxing afternoon--just what I was looking forward to!

(not anyone we know - got it from their website)


Sunday morning came way too fast, and it was time to pack up and head out. We had breakfast and started organizing our things. It was nice to get home at a decent time to wind down and get more laundry done. All in all, it was a fun weekend camping and I'm glad we got it in before baby comes. Who knows if we'll go next year.... to be determined :)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Camping!

I'm so excited for this weekend!! After work today, we are heading out of town to Stevens Point to do a little camping for the weekend! I'm looking forward to relaxing outdoors, smelling campfire in the air, a crisp cool breeze coming off Lake Emily, and friends to enjoy our time.

On Saturday, Tom, J and Darren will meet up with Greg and Knuckles (Kory) for some disc golfing at the local disc golf courses. While the boys are away, the girls will play. Actually, Nikki and I love to do some relaxing and chatting by the constant campfire we'll have going, preparing food, and taking Daisy (Theo's girlfriend) for a walk. Theo will be staying at Gma & Gpa's house for the weekend. They enjoy his company and it's his 2nd home, so he's happy to sleepover whenever he gets the chance.

Oh, and this is the really exciting part....about food! The treats I am really looking forward to are pudgy pies and s'mores!! Uh, Can you say YUM!?!?! I was a little worried about the food thing for lunch and dinner (I LoVe our breakfasts') because I haven't been much into brats and hamburgers this summer. Corn, yes, but we're not messing with it camping. So what to eat....? Nikki suggested pudgy pie pizzas. Yah, YUM! Thanks Nikki! I hope Tom gets everything on that grocery list today so I can have plenty of pizzas! :)

That's right, Tom is doing to grocery shopping and packing of the truck. It's hard when you don't see or get to talk to eachother for more than 20-30 minutes a day in total. I've been leaving him post-it notes, an organized grocery list divided out be sections of the grocery store. I could probably grocery shop at Copp's blind, so I had my own little virtual shopping experience as I wrote up the list for him. ya, that was an interesting mind trick probably only women can do...

This is our first camping adventure this year... Each year we plan a trip, and each year we say we are going to go more often the next year, but every year it's just once. One great camping experience. We enjoy it a lot, but would you believe life is so busy? I wonder when it will slow down? Well, seeing as little schwandt is on the way, I doubt slowing down is anywhere in the near future. If I could just shake the whole job thing and stay home to enjoy life, it would be perfect. But WE Energies says differently if I want to keep my home heated this winter, and the Mortgage guy also says differently if I want a roof over my little head. So until then...we'll keep dreaming of winning that lottery and enjoy camping once a year! :)

I hope you all are looking forward to your weekend plans.