Our Maiden Voyage--Miami Whitewater Forest

I know many Moms like to be pampered on Mother's Day, breakfast in bed, the whole shebang. But I wanted something different for this Mother's Day. I wanted to go camping! Mind you, I planned this all out in my head two weekends before Mother's Day, when it was a gorgeous 73 degrees and not a cloud in the sky! Great camping weather! Besides...Phillip had plenty of time to play with his toy, so I felt it was time to play with mine. And driveway camping doesn't count!

Since Archie is still in baseball, we had to work around his schedule. After poking around a bit, I found a close camping place that was within a fifteen minute drive of his game on Saturday. Miami Whitewater Forest has a lot to offer. It has a super-awesome sprayground. Fishing, paddle boating, biking, hiking, archery trails, camping, and a nature center, among many other options.

As a matter of fact, we went there last winter and I blogged about it here. It is absolutely gorgeous all greened out in its spring finery!

I knew our first time in the camper would have some bumps, mostly I figured it would be hardest to back it in a spot and dealing with all the stuff we were bound to forget. Little did I know...

Friday comes along, and wouldn't ya know it...Dutton Camping strikes again! It was due to storm, with a wind advisory, and then get COLD! I did a little research on just how much wind a pop-up camper can take, and decided that we'd probably survive. And hopefully right-side-up! Besides...the weather people tend to reaaaallly exaggerate their 'severe' thunderstorm warnings. Cincinnati storms are no match for those Mobile, Alabama Gulf of Mexico fueled storms with torrential rain and the terrifying pull-the-covers-over-your-head thunder and lightning events. No sir-ee. Cincinnati folks don't know what a real thunderstorm is.

All we had to do was be outta here around 7 pm and get to the park and be set up by 8. Yeah. Eight o'clock came and went as we struggled with a last-minute tow-wiring problem. Finally, around 9:30 pm, we were off! And no rain yet! Woo-hoo! The park was only about 20 minutes from the house, so we arrived at 10-dark o'clock. Not a good idea for those of us who aren't familiar with the territory, nor have we backed our rig into a campsite before. Did I mention it was dark? Not only that, but we arrived too late to officially 'check in', so I supposed it would be just fine to take an open spot. It wasn't. While we were making a spectacle of ourselves trying to get the camper backed in, a Forest Ranger drove up. After chatting her up, I found out we were supposed to make reservations for a particular site. So while the one we were backing into was available that night, it might not be for Saturday night. Which meant we might need to move. *sigh*. You'd think someone would do her research before arrival at 10 dark o'clock.

Phillip did a great job backing and parking for a first timer who could see absolutely nothing around him! I dunno how he successfully got right next to the power pole!

Fortunately, by then, the little kids had sacked out in their car seats. It was a good thing, because just as we exited the car to begin setup, the rain began. Due to my improper stowing of the door, it got ripped off the bracket during our hurried set up. I guess I'll keep Phillip around for a while, because he was able to take the bracket down, hammer it out and put it back up so we were able to have a door. By then, it was around midnight, and we were all exhausted. I fixed some quickie hot dogs (not the nice dinner I had planned!) and went to bed.

It was a very good thing Phillip was able to fix the door, because it poured! Biblical proportions kind of rain with a side order of hail. We couldn't hear each other speak it was so hard. Then came the extremely loud, intense thunder and lightning. Having had a close call with lightning as a child, it's something that, quite frankly, still scares the crap outta me. All I could do is lay there with my head under the quilt curled up in a ball around Lydia and just wait for it all to end. Which it did. And then the wind started.

The wind was monstrous! I've been through hurricanes with less wind! Fortunately, the wind was its most intense above us in the tops of the trees rather than at ground level. However, the clatter of debris on the roof and canvas was a bit frightening at times. I just lay awake trying to remember if we secured the wheels good enough...was the rain going to wash away my wheel chocks and would we end up in the ravine behind us? Would a large limb fall on us? Needless to say, I didn't sleep well that night. The wind and on-again-and-off-again rain kept me up.

When we woke up, it was cold. It was a bit weird because we turned on the camper's air conditioner after we set up the previous night because we were hot from rushing around trying to get everything done in a hurry. Plus it was humid. We only ran it about 20 minutes or so, but we used it all the same. When we woke up, I was pretty cold because my hair was still damp from the last night's rain. It was probably in the high forties, which is pretty cold if you're still a bit wet!

I went straight away to the camp office to get 'legal' before anyone wanted to claim the spot we were in. And, of course, someone had already reserved our spot. So the mad dash was on, since we had to be at Archie's baseball game that morning also. We hurriedly put everything back down and pulled the camper out of the old spot and into our now-reserved spot. We're pretty good at popping our camper up and down now!

The field at Archie's baseball game was a sloppy mess, so the game was late starting. I'm glad the four innings went quickly, because it was so cold out there! I think the boys were ready for it to be over as well. A typical game lasts about 2 hours. They were done in an hour and fifteen minutes. If ever there was a game to hurry through, this was it!

It got to a temperature of 51 degrees, with high winds and clouds all day long. So we didn't get to take advantage of all the neat stuff the park has to offer. We didn't feel like hiking, (too tired and drug-out feeling from no sleep) and it was too cold to fish. Lunch was a sad affair of burned and torn grilled cheese sandwiches. I contemplated just leaving, since it was, well, miserable out. We took advantage of the only indoor thing the park had to offer, which was the nature center. And it was pretty neat. That evening, we drove back home to get all the stuff we forgot (paper towels, a dish rag to wash dishes, warmer clothes) and we got some firewood and drove back to the campsite.

After that, things went much better. The wind began to die down around 6 that evening. Fifty degrees with no wind is much more tolerable. Archie and Phillip threw the baseball, Lawrence and Archie found some kids to play with at the playground, we had a lovely camp fire, dinner went very well. Phillip went in to lay down with Lawrence to get him to sleep, and I had a nice mother-son time with Archie chit-chatting by the camp fire. It dipped down into the thirties that night, but cold weather camping is okay as long as you're properly prepared. We all slept really warm with Phillip and the boys having the electric blanket on one bunk and Lydia and me in my cold-weather sleeping bag under a quilt. As a matter of fact, I had to take a layer of clothes off Lydia during the night because she was too warm!

We slept soundly and didn't get up til after 10 on Sunday. Breakfast went very well...I cooked the best pancakes ever! They got rave reviews from everyone. Or everyone was really hungry, I don't know which. And wouldn't ya know it, Sunday was absolutely GORGEOUS! The sun was shining and the temps were in the 60's. Lawrence kept squealing at and running after all the birds that were landing near our campsite. Archie found a friend with whom he could toss the baseball. We were having a great day. So we had to leave. Why, oh why couldn't it have been that nice on Saturday????