Monday, July 17, 2006

Camping Experience


I would rate our first outing in the camping world a 8 out of 10. We'll definitely try it again this summer! On Friday night we reached our campground safe & sound. The man who checked us in was quite weird-boy, was I thankful I had my big strong manly man standing next to me! It took us awhile to find our site because our map wasn't too specific, but we found it. Our site was great! It was nestled in the midst of some campers that you can rent to stay in. Most of the other tent sites were all clustered together looking like a shantytown. Our tent set up was very easy considering it was the first time it was ever set up. We had grabbed some sandwiches from a deli on our way up, so we ate those and continued to set up our camp area. Geoff had brought some wood that he had cut up, so we could try a campfire, but it didn’t catch fire, so we gave up on that & used our citronella candle & lantern. After playing some our Mancala board game, we called it a night. Sleeping went a lot better than I thought it would! I would bring another blanket, but that’s because I’m always cold. We were surprised at how well we did sleep.
On Saturday, we got up around 8am. The sky was quite cloudy, and it started to rain, rain, & rain. This wasn’t even a possibility in the forecast as of the night before, so we don’t know how the weatherman could have missed it! Thankfully we had a large umbrella for me to hold while Geoff made our breakfast on the camp stove. Of course, by the time our meal was prepared, it stopped raining. We didn’t need to be packed up until noon, but at 10:30, we decided to take advantage of the rain respite. We were out of there by 11:00 am which was great because it started to pour harder than before!
For the rest of the day, we walked the streets of a little touristy town called Jim Thorpe, just down the street from our campground. Overall it was a very relaxing & enjoyable experience. The drying out of the tent from the rain wasn’t too bad & amazingly Geoff got it all back into it’s tiny little case – I think it’s because I bet him $5 he wouldn’t be able to get it all back in there. :)
I'm getting ready to schedule our next trip to the New Jersey shore so we can hang out at the beach for a weekend. A $20/night tent site at a campground sure beats a $150/night at a hotel!

4 comments:

Kelli said...

Sounds like you had a good time camping. The Jersey shore sounds like a wonderful vacation spot! Enjoy!

Unknown said...

What a good experience you had! You sure had a good attitude about the rain, girl. Where did you go camping? Is that a picture of your actual camping site? I agree, camping sure is an economical way to get away for the night! Unfortunately, our tent wouldn't accommodate the 3 of us. :( We'll have to get something bigger to hold Chloe and all her required stuff.

pamela s said...

Al,
We went to Jim Thorpe, PA for the night. It's a tourist trap in the Pocono area. The town has cute stores & the views are beautiful. The tent pic is from the Wal-Mart site. It's our tent, but not where we were-we forgot our camera which happens more often than not. I'm hoping when we get a digital camera this will change. :)

Jen said...

Sounds like you had a great time! I just read in the paper Sunday about an island off of Maryland that allows beach camping where you can watch the wild horses run along the beach - cool huh? I would be tempted to try it if I lived out that way.