We had our first camp trip in 2017.  It was a great trip and set us up to try again in 2018.  That outing, while still fun, had a few bumps. 

As I looked at the calendar for 2019, i realized we had precious few weekends available to camp, with Stewart’s work schedule and his Costa Rica trip.   We established that this would be a good weekend and I used a handful of internet tools to find a lovely campsite near Jamestown, NY, so we could couple the camp trip with a visit to the Lucille Ball museum.

Shortly after I made our reservation, Marie’s Girls’ Bible Study group moved their end-of-the-year picnic to the same weekend.  She prayed a lot about it and in the end really wanted to have that time with her group.  She stayed home from camp and stayed with Nan and Nene.

We got on the road rather late (after John and Stewart got home from work) for our 2+ hour drive. 

Our first clue that this wasn’t going to be the ideal camp trip was when we arrived and there wasn’t a tent in site.  The kids and I sat in the van near a dilapidated barn structure while a woman drove John around in a golf cart.  He came back about 10 minutes later and told us he picked the third site she showed him because that site had a fence to block the cliff down to the lake below.  Hmmmm.

Much like the campground last year, this place was home to many, many permanent campsites.  The kind where the trailer from 1984 is rotting away next to a gorgeous deck that stops inches from the next broken down camper. 

Sigh. 

Our site itself was a patch of grass wedged between trailers overlooking Lake Erie.  The sound of the waves was wonderful, and it promised to be a good sunset.

John tried to start a fire for me because it was already 7PM.  The plan was I would cook while they set up tents.

But first, we had to mow.

I’m sorry.  You aren’t familiar with the long-held practice of mowing your own site?  You don’t say…  Well, see – the man in the camper behind where I am photographing had just brought out his mower to mow around his own trailer and he offered the mower to us.  Meanwhile he was all but irritated with both the camp staff and us(?) for being there.  It seems in all the years he’s been renting his spot no one has EVER CAMPED where they were setting us up.

Hmmmmm.

See how it looks like I am cooking?  Well, I wasn’t.  Seconds later the fire died and it would be another hour or more til I actually had my cooking established…

It was a beautiful view.

I abandoned photography as I worked ForEvEr to try to get a fire going.  John and the boys got our tents up and Tab helped me with the little girls and the cooking.  My new Mother’s Day tent is BEAUTIFUL and large and I loved it.

We ate greasy food in the dark and decided to just get ready for bed.  No one wanted the whole campfire experience.

We went to the nearest bathroom facilities.  OUTHOUSES a little walk away.  The sign said you had to boil the water before you could use it.

Say what?

Boil water to brush our teeth?

Oh no.

We got in our van to drive the 3/4 mile back up the winding road to the main bath house we’d seen when we got here earlier. 

Nope.  Have to boil THAT water too!!! 

We didn’t brush our teeth.

We went back to our tents to go to bed.  It was close to 10 PM.

Kids played loudly outside til well after midnight.

I woke at 2AM to fighting nearby.

Do you know what happens when you wake up at 2AM?  You need to go to the bathroom… that’s what. 

John and I walked to the outhouses past drunk people. 

Somehow it because morning…

We are the blue dot.

Oh – see where it says 5:57AM?

John and the little girls went to TOPS before 7AM.  He went to buy water so we could make coffee.

The site LOOKED nice.

And while Tab and I made breakfast, John and the boys broke camp. 

There wasn’t much protesting…..