I learned several things on our camping trip over the weekend the most important being to always plan ahead. My husband is not known for his trip planning even if he is anal about everything else in life and so that means that I always have to be relied upon to map out our course and to reserve camping spots and hotel rooms. A big part of the reason I take charge of this side of vacation business is because I freak out when we get lost or when we pull into a hotel just to find out that we’ve booked a night at the Hooker Hotel.
Mapping out our course in the 2010 Chevy Equinox was the easy part with the Turn by Turn navigation system. I get so annoyed when I tell the hubs which direction he needs to turn and he either fails to listen (most likely) or plain just doesn’t hear me (only likely when the kids are screaming). Rather than get annoyed with him for asking me fifty times where he needed to turn I showed him the repeat button on the onscreen map. Life was never so beautiful.
This trip I did no planning ahead. Literally, I got up at 6:30 am and started packing. I just didn’t see why I always have to do the trip coursing and packing all by myself while The Hubs plays World of WarCrack in dreamland. So you can bet as we pulled onto the ranch road leading to Enchanted Rock that I started to panic and my mind went blank as I couldn’t even remember at that point if this park had camping or not and I certainly didn’t want to be embarrassed when the lady at the gate told us to pay in cash and we weren’t even carrying cash and the nearest ATM was thirty minutes away.
So, The Hubs parks and walks into the main building to see if any camping spots are available while I try to relax inside the Equinox. Over the Hedge that was playing for the twentieth time on the DVD system was not making me feel any better. Finally my husband got back into the Equinox :
The Hubs: “I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news.”
Me: “Oh Dear Goodness what? Just tell me–I can’t take it any longer.”
The Hubs: “There is camping available…that’s the good news. There is camping available, but it is primitive and we have to hike in at least 1 1/2 miles. I already paid.”
The decision was made (ie he paid and neither of us like to waste money) and so we parked, rearranged the backpacks and tried to stuff as many camping supplies as we could into two small backpacks and a wheeled tent pack. Then we began the long hike to Buzzards Roost primitive camping area on the far side of the park–but not before Lily had fallen into a patch of prickly pears and we had all nearly stepped on a rattlesnake. I was exhausted and just a tad grumpy by the time we set up the tent.
A restless night with kids’ feet on my face and a sore back afterward, I then I remembered–this is why I do all the planning. Of course, no one could have planned for this:
