Each spring we try to plan an early camping trip to sorts of "get the bugs out" (hopefully not literally) of the camper etc. It gives us an opportunity to see if there is anything that needs to be fixed or any improvements we want to make for the year before we get into the full swing of summer. This spring we camped with the Brackemyers at Devil's Lake. We've not camped there, at least as a family...and it was so nice!
We sold our old camper a few weeks earlier and, having had this trip planned for a few months already, we quickly turned our attention to looking for a new one. Of course, if you know Ryan, once I gave him free rein to start looking and find us a replacement it took us less than 2 weeks to be driving home with our new purchase. Of course, since I'm writing this post about 4 months later, I can tell you now that we absolutely LOVE the new camper. It's just what we wanted. A 35 foot, hard-sided tow-behind with a bunk room in the back, two bump outs on the one side and a queen sized bed up front for us. I should really do a post about the camper with pictures. Maybe I'll get around to that once I catch up again.
Anyways, back to camping. We had a GREAT time. We lucked out with weather and of course we lucked out with our co-campers. The kids always play so nicely together and we vacation so well with the Brackemyers that we are usually destined to have a good time. But course, in true McGrath fashion there is always an adventure that makes things interesting.
Devil's Lake is less than a 2 hour drive from our house, or so we thought. Or so the GPS told us. We left a little later than planned (again, typical McGrath) but we figured the drive was short and we'd be there before dark. That is, until we had to stop 4 times on the way because poor Hazel hadn't been feeling well for a few weeks - we had quite a few emergency potty stops along the way. But that wasn't the end....we were about 30 minutes out and finally making good time, until the GPS told us to turn onto Ferry Road. Neither Ryan or I liked the sound of that. With our 35 foot camper and his full cab, extended bed pickup truck we are a pretty large vehicle to be trying to go on a ferry. And! What in the world is a ferry doing in the middle of Wisconsin?
Well, turns out you can use this ferry to cut some time off your trip - but of course we didn't know that and we didn't expect it so when we got to that point we tried to just drive past and let the GPS reconfigure another route. It wouldn't. I mean...like it would NOT give us a different route. We probably drove in circles for about 40 minutes trying to get cell service (to get a map) or to get the GPS to redirect to no avail. Eventually we figured we'd circle back and see if the people at the ferry could give us some direction. Well, turns out we could get right on. Our size was not an issue and the kids LOVED the added adventure. I mean, so did we, but we could have done without the 45 minute screwing around to get to that point.
By the time we finally pulled into camp it was dark and we had still had to fill up the water tank, find our campsite, park and set up. But, the good news was, we could finally open the cooler and pull out drinks. Setting up camp didn't take long and we were finally ready to relax and enjoy the weekend.
Oh, but wait...I haven't told you the other part yet. The entire family had LICE! Yep, you read that right. We had lice - well, the girls and I did...not Ryan. But still. Abby got it from school and by this weekend I'd already spent two weeks trying to get it out of our house, out of our hair and out of our lives. Can you even believe that Jamie was willing to bring her two little kids near us? Between lice, Hazel being sick and the general crazy that the McGrath's bring to the table I was sure we'd be camping solo....but Jamie took the risk and they joined us.
Again, thanks to the power of time transportation (or the fact that I'm woefully behind on the blog) I can tell you that we did NOT pass lice to their family on this vacation. Nor did we pass Hazel's little belly bug. We camped, we ate, we drank, we hiked and we laughed and had a great time. A much needed, great time!
And, because I still have more pictures to share, I'm also going to tell you about the adventurous hike we found ourselves on on the last morning. We did a small hike on Saturday, one that was short enough that the big girls could walk. There were streams to cross, mud to play in and rocks for the boys to climb. The kids did so well that we thought Sunday morning we'd have breakfast, pack up some of the stuff and go for another hike. I intentionally picked something easy, flat and short so the kids could handle it and all was going along as planned until we got to the turn around point.
We could either turn around and walk the way we'd just come (as was the plan) or we could turn right and start hiking up. Zach did a quick scout and said it would be fine...so up we went. And up...and up and up. These two sweet girls hiked one of the hardest hikes on the entire map that morning and they didn't complain about it (well...they did...for a minute...and then we promised them ice cream to get them back down) and you know what, they were so proud of themselves. Look at those sweet smiles.
We hiked to the top of the mountain (?) I'm not sure that's what I'd call it...but it was a good hike nearly straight up. At the top there were all sorts of people bouldering and rappelling and all other sorts of rock climbing related activities. The girls found it fascinating to watch. They even had helicopter evacuation sites at the top - thankfully we didn't see any of those in use that day!
I've known this lady for nearly my entire life. We've lived a lot of memories together and I hope we have many more ahead of us.
And someday, I hope these little girls take a picture just like their moms and I hope that they plan vacations together just like our mom's did for Jamie and I. I wish them the friendships that our mom's taught us....I hope we're passing that torch on to them!
(What's so funny is that now, 4 months later I look at this picture and I can literally remember saying "don't touch your hair" as they reached to give each other hugs. THAT is the memory I have from this picture. I have PTSD from lice...I swear!).
Long story short, we might just try to plan spring camping here again next year. Though...we will try to avoid the Mayfly hatch this next time around!
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