Camping

The Js embarked on the first camping trip in their travel trailer. It has taken us a while to prioritize this trip – and this is the first weekend we have had it planned and no one got sick (thus, preventing us from going). We decided to go to a state park that is about an hour from our house and we decided to make this our destination whenever we are just going away for a weekend trip. This way, we can get there quickly after work, know what to expect when we arrive, set everything up, enjoy ourselves and get home in time to get everything put away on Sunday. This just sounds smart, doesn’t it?

Friday, we left the house around 5:30 and LJ pretty much fell asleep within 20 minutes. A nap at 6:00 pm just won’t do…so, we stopped to pick up dinner and wake him up. This seemed to work well, but we didn’t end up getting to our campsite until about 7:15. Once we got everything set up it was 8:30 and this is a good hour past LJ’s bedtime. He was tired and went to sleep rather quickly…

...and then woke up every hour from 9:00 – 3:00 that night. This was not desirable. Whenever RJ would go to him, he’d pick LJ up and he’d go back to sleep right away, but still – this was not desirable! Sure, LJ was in a new environment and I’m sure this contributed to the insanity, but I think it was mostly a function of his not going to bed at his normal time. Anytime we try to get him to stay up a little later…it always comes with the consequence of a terrible night of sleep. It is just not worth it. I think people think I’m crazy to be so religious about his bedtime, but a parent knows these things and strives to avoid terrible nights of sleep.

Needless to say, we were all exhausted on Saturday. LJ would not nap in this strange environment, so resting was not an option. LJ wasn’t too grumpy with his lack of sleep, but I can’t say that RJ and I weren’t! Actually, tempers were rather subdued considering…! We went for a hike – about 3 miles…half of that I carried LJ (all 30 pounds of him) on MY back in the backpack. It wasn’t so bad and LJ seemed to love it. Then we got an ice cream bar from the park store and LJ had a good time getting bites of that. He thoroughly inspected every inch of our campsite and loved it whenever he’d hear a dog bark.

We decided to go into town to have dinner…I didn’t feel like cooking and LJ was starting to get grumpy at that point. Within 1 minute of leaving the park, LJ was asleep. So, we drove around for 20 minutes to let him get a cat nap and then we woke him to go into the restaurant. He woke up in a fine mood and that cat nap made him pleasant while we ate dinner. We got back to the campsite and everyone was in bed my 7:30. LJ slept fine that night and RJ and I were happy to get almost 12 hours of sleep ourselves! Actually, RJ had a tummy ache in the middle of the night AND he had to go outside to switch propane tanks. It got rather cold because the heater had stopped heating…it was out of propane.

Sunday, we got up, ate breakfast, and packed up. We were home by 11:30 and LJ slept the whole way home. This gave us time to unpack everything and take the trailer back to storage, and still have time to get everything in order for this week.

All-in-all, I give the weekend a 60% on the enjoyable scale. It was our maiden voyage, so we learned a lot about what the processes are, etc. That information is very valuable, so a 95% on the value scale. I think the next camping weekend should earn a higher percentage on the enjoyable scale!