Wednesday, June 14, 2017

The Not Quite a Complete Disaster Camping Trip

Five years ago, we took the boys on a day trip to Fairy Stone State Park, and had such an excellent time we thought we'd like to camp there at some point (for fun, here is my first post about Fairy Stone - they were so little!)

So Friday night we got all our gear packed up and Saturday morning we were out the door around 7 am, to get to the park by 8.  We wanted two full days of fun.  When I booked our site, there was no chance of rain, but two days later the weather had shifted.  We were hoping that the storms would pass quickly, if at all.

 Once we were set up, the boys were already complaining they were hungry, so we decided to fix an early lunch.  It was supposed to storm in the evening, so we decided to make dinner for lunch and save the sandwiches for storming weather.  Sweet potatoes and corn on the cob and hot dogs hit the spot. 


Our roomy REI Kingdom tent.  We hadn't used it in rain before, so we were hoping for the best.  REI makes high quality gear, in our experience.  You can see my comfy camping cot.  Paul and I can sleep on the ground, but with plenty of room in the tent, I figure why not bring a cot. 
After lunch we hit the lake.  They have a playground for the kids that is so much fun.  Luckily, it wasn't too terribly crowded.  The boys had a blast.

The water was cool but not too cold to enjoy.  I wished I had brought a swimsuit, but at least I remembered the boys'.

While the boys were swimming, Paul took our kayak out.  The boys each took a turn, too.  By the time it was my turn, the first storm was rolling in, so I decided to wait until the next day. 

After dinner, we went to look for fairy stones.  After all the rain we've had, we found tons and tons of fairy stones!  Reid found over 100!  Everyone had bulging pockets on the way back to camp (you can see my old post for a chart of how they look).  The evening was the perfect time to search, because everyone else seemed to be back at camp for the night.  We had the whole place to ourselves.

 
 
Reid checks out his fairy stone collection by lantern light that evening.  We went to sleep around 9, but then the storms started rolling in.  We really got pounded!  Over and over again waves of storms rolled through.  Thankfully, our tent with rain fly was excellent.  Not a single spot got damp.
 
Unfortunately, Reid woke up around 4 am complaining of stomach pain.  Then by 6, Cort was up as well, and started vomiting in the woods behind our tent.  Having kids struck down by the stomach flu in the middle of the woods when you have a bunch of gear to pack up is not a good thing.  Cort threw up again and again as we rolled up sleeping bags and put away chairs and such.  No coffee this morning.  It seemed like we would never get everything packed up. 
 
Thank goodness we were only an hour drive away.  It was a VERY long hour.  We were sad we didn't get our second day of hiking and kayaking and fairy stone hunting.  We'd had such a great time the day before.  Paul said, "Maybe next time we can just do a day trip again".  I have to say - I second that!  And hopefully our next overnight camping trip (wherever we go) will be much smoother.  

25 comments:

Tom said...

...this all brings back memories for me!

Sunnybrook Farm said...

Sounds like fun, well most of it. Carrie is taking a hiking class this summer for a PE class and they are doing all kinds of local hikes, I'll bet the boys could keep up with them.

Tina Fariss Barbour said...

Aww I'm sorry the boys got sick. No time is good for a stomach bug but especially when you're trying to have fun. Sounds like you packed a lot into one day though!

Kim@stuffcould.... said...

My your boys are growing up! Such fun til the stomach flu hit....then no place like home

Monkeywrangler said...

Oh no! Stomach upset & barfing on a camping trip...that is never fun! My oldest picked up some nasty virus on her flight two weeks ago, and managed to share it liberally with my sister's family. I share your misery.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hello---Your camping experience reminds me of some that we had when our 3 sons were little... We didn't ever go through a stomach virus situation --but we usually always had some kind of 'drama' happening when we camped....

Back then, tents weren't made to be put together easily... Think we had 100 poles we had to figure out WHERE they went... ha ha .... ALSO---one year a bear came and got our styrofoam cooler and ate almost everything inside such as a pound of bacon... He even ate the styrofoam... YUK....

Great pictures... Getting things packed up and getting back home was probably the longest couple of hours in your life.... YIPES...

Hope the little guys are all okay now. Hope you and hubby didn't get that virus.

Hugs,
Betsy

An Apel a Day said...

Camping looks like so much fun. I just don't think it's going to happen for us this year with my surgery. I love everything about this post. The lake looks so refreshing!

Ginny Hartzler said...

Oh, the poor boys! And I know they were so disappointed, too. I hope it was only a 24 hour bug, and they are all fine now. I also hope neither you or Paul caught it.They WERE so little last time you went! Well, at least you all had ONE day of fun.

Becca said...

Your poor kids! It would stink to get sick while camping! At least you had one fun day!

Vera said...

What a lovely memory to share, despite the sicky ending! But what are 'Fairy Stones'?

21 Wits said...

I sure can relate to some of those it seems camping is often a bit of good and bad! But you've got some happy kiddos there!

Harry Flashman said...

I thoroughly enjoyed your camping pictures. In the late 1950's and early 1960's my family used to go camp at a place called Bass Lake that looked a lot like where you were. Brought back a lot of good memories.

Sorry the boys got sick, that really did put a damper on things. I'm glad you are all home safely.

Karen thisoldhouse2.com said...

Well now I'll have to go check out the fairy stone description... sounds like a great place for your family to enjoy some time together - minus the bug! Ugh!

Jenn Jilks said...

What a beautiful time! I've never camped.

mail4rosey said...

Aw I'm sorry to hear they got sick. You got some great pics on the day they were feeling good though!

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Well it sounds like it was the perfect trip until the boys got sick. Happy that you at least had those moments of fun!

Linda said...

What a shame they got sick!

HoneyBeeHelps said...

Aww ~ looks like you were having a great time until that nast little bug snuck in :(
Hope everyone is on the mend soon.

Bill said...

I have good memories of searching for fairy stones there, but felt lucky to find one. What a thrill it must have been for them to find so many!

Unknown said...

The poor kids with stomach flu. Still, I must say you guys are excellent planners!

Annette said...

I never heard of fairy stones. I have to look that up! I'm so sorry to hear your camp adventure ended with heavy storms and two sick boys! It sounds like you created lasting memories the day before though. Here's to planning another day trip at the park!

Jenn Jilks said...

That's so sad! We have people camping on a trip from Kingston to Ottawa, 200km.
It's 10 days long, and thunder and lightning just blew through!

Corny said...

Probably they got sick from the lake.

Sally said...

I'm so sorry the boys got sick! That was a bummer for all reasons, but especially for them.

Glad the rain didn't get through the tent, that's a good one for sure.

This reminds me of when I used to take the kids from church camping when I was a youth counselor. I remember one time we had a storm also; I had the girls in the car and the boys in the tent since one of the parents had brought them as they wouldn't all fit in my car. Some good time back then. :)

xoxo

Thomas Venney said...

Thanks