You know those days where it feels like the universe is rooting for you to fail? Yep, this was one of those days. Silver lining? Oh yea...in the form of a starry sky, s'mores and a crackling campfire.
Penny's engine was doing decently over the last few test runs, so it seemed like a good time to give real, sleep-in-the-bus, camping a go. We are planning a week-long Wyo roadtrip in July, so really want to make sure Penny and our kiddos are up for the challenge.
She was blowing a bit more smoke than ideal when we ventured out, but decided to make a go of it with our AAA card close in hand. Curt Gowdy State Park was our close-to-home destination and we made it there safe and sound...beautiful views and all.
I'm usually a bit more of an off the beaten path camper, but with two little novice campers we decided to play it safe and settle down closer to that beaten up path. Probably a good thing we did.
After a short hike and some firewood scouting, Jason the FireStarter did his bidding, carved some hot dog roasting sticks and we, to the excitement of the littles, roasted our dinner over the fire. With impending storms in site, our little group retired to the bus to eat and listen to the raindrops falling on the fiberglass top.
Luckily, the rain blew over and s'mores were in our future. I can't begin to describe my love for sugar, but getting to see the faces of s'more novices during their first ooey-gooey bite was better than any sugary camping sammie.
As the sun was setting on what was shaping up to be an awesome early summer evening, books were read, littles were tucked in and the big kids returned fireside to take in the Wyo stars.
About an hour after Jason and I declared it was bed time in the tent adjacent to the bus, we heard the telltale nightmare whimpers of our 2 year old. We gave him a little bit to succumb to the soothing hugs of his sister, but to no avail. After a few trips up to give hugs and re-tuck in, our little guy was brought to sleep with Mom in the tent, while Dad took up residence in the bus.
A few hours later I was still up trying to calm our little guy's camping nerves...as the temps kept dropping. We had talked about a late night bail out plan before we went to bed and I decided it was time to press the big red button.
We all sleepily packed up the tent, the bus and the kiddos. We were all packed in and ready to dejectedly head home but the turn of the VW key yielded no results. Her damn battery was dead. We just kind of stared at each other for a few minutes with no solution in site.
The tent was broken down already, so our only solution was to sleep four of us to a double bed in the bus. It was a pretty long 6 hours until sunup and I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to straighten my legs again, but a nightlight put on around 4am was the cure to the restless toddler blues. (Thank God!)
We politely pounced on the first RVer awake to give us a jump. Thank you SO MUCH handshakes were exchanged and we were finally on our way home...cold, tired and hesitantly ready to get back on that camping saddle. (We've got no choice, right?! There's a roadtrip in our future!)
This weekend? Penny camping in our backyard. We need to give that little guy some outdoor sleeping training wheels, because he can't miss out on taking in our gorgeous big sky and breathing in amazing fresh air.