Tony's Grove

Have you ever been camping and forgotten something that was pretty important, then the rest of the camping trip just seemed ruined?

Well what if you forgot 4, yes 4, very important items. But the camping trip was still great because you have an engineer for a husband and a child who is just happy she's not at home.

Let me tell you a story.

Last week we decided it was about time to go camping again. So while Bob was at work I tried, unsuccessfully, to gather all of our camping gear together so that we could load it in the car when he got home. We loaded the car to the brim thinking there couldn't be a thing we hadn't packed. Buckled Hannie into her new car seat (which worked better for her, but still didn't solve her back problem). And headed to Tony's Grove. The long drive was pleasant though listening to "tids" (Hannie translation: kids) singing songs over and over got a bit tiresome.

We arrived at Tony's Grove only to find the campground completely full. A little discouraged we backtracked only 1/4 mile and Bob noticed a road that cut down into a meadow. There we found some hidden camp grounds and one free spot. Hurray!

We unloaded a few things and decided to put up the tent because it was getting dark. We unrolled the tent then opened up the tent bag to only find the stakes, but no tent poles! Who doesn't put the tent poles in the same bag as the tent? Number 1 important thing we forgot. I was totally stumped as to what to do and was ready to just sleep in the car. But Bob, being the wonderful engineer that he is, asked the neighboring campers for some rope. He ingeniously strung our tent up and in worked perfectly.

We got the bedding all situated then I went back to the car for Hannalee's diaper bag, but it wasn't there! I forgot that too?! Number 2 VERY important thing we forgot. She had no change of clothes, no socks, no diapers! Luckily there were 2 stray diapers under the seats in the car. But only two meaning we had to use them wisely. So Hannalee was put to bed with a soggy bum. The first thing she told me in the morning was, "diaper change."

That night I made peach cobbler in the dutch oven, but we were too tired to wait for it so we left it cooking and went to bed. Unfortunately it rained during the night and put out the coals. Bob ate some for lunch and later ended up with food poisoning.

After a good nights sleep we got up early, because of an energetic Hannie. Bob got out our little propane burner to cook bacon and eggs for breakfast. But you guessed it, something here was missing. We forgot the connector that goes from the propane bottle to the stove. Number 3 important thing we forgot. So, Bob not being discouraged again, started up some charcoal and cooked our breakfast over that, though it did take nearly and hour and one whole bottle of charcoal lighting fluid. But it was delicious, just ask Hannie.

"Daddy let me have it!"
Hannie found a snack while waiting for the bacon to cook.


We are good parents and don't normally let Hannie down to large pieces of bacon.

We headed up to the lake for some hiking. Hannalee loved her backpack carrier this year. She enjoyed seeing the deer and talked about it the rest of the way. We didn't really hike that far because we are both out of shape. And Hannie really wanted to go back down and put her hands in the water.

Hannalee and I enjoyed a bit of wading and "tid" watching.

We decided to take the long way back around the car and walk all the way around the lake. Hannalee only made it part way. When we got back to camp we all napped for a good two hours.

We all woke up hunger only to find...I had forgotten to pack food for a lunch. Number 4 important thing we forgot. Fortunately we had enough snacks so satisfy our needs.

It was a great trip and we really enjoyed ourselves. We did learn A LOT! And as soon as we got home we organized our camping stuff. Tent poles in tent bag, check!