Ok, so that’s party true and mostly just kidding around. We made it back from this past weekends camping trip and neither of us were mauled by bears or eaten by raccoons. The whole trip was a lot of fun. The KOA Campground that we were at was a little farther out than I had originally planned but it was a nice site and well cared for. Some of you hard core campers would say it was a wimpy camp site, but for Amy’s first time (and my first in a long while) it was a good start. They had a pool and lots of activities, but we didn’t do much there. The one thing that upset me about the place is that they advertised that many of the attractions were “local.” These attractions were about an hours drive away.
Well we left home around 5ish on Friday evening at got there around 7:30pm. It was still nice and bright so we set up our camp and I got a nice campfire going. It took a while for Amy to get used to all the bugs that go along with camping. By the time we left she was at peace with the bugs (: For our first camping dinner I made us some Hot Dogs. We roasted them on the fire, well, we tried to anyways. Turns out that 1: it as still really hot out and 2: the sticks we got to do our fire roasting things were very short. Those two things combined made for very hot hands. One of the other lessons learned would be to place the ice inside bags, then into the cooler. I am too used to just throwing in Ice and Cider or soda, you know, things that it doesn’t matter if they are wet. So a lot of the food packaging got wet and that wasn’t so good. The tent that Amy bought had a very nice screened top to it so we were able to fall asleep staring that the tree tops and the stars. It was wonderful.
Saturday morning came along quick. I think this would be one of the first times in a long while that I was up by 8am on a Saturday. On of the things I had planned for was a grilling piece over the fire pit to be able to cook food on. So there wasn’t one here. I ended up buying a really cool little BBQ grill ($5) that was perfect for making breakfast. Amy made us some scrambled eggs and bagels. We thought it would be nice to see about Canoeing through the day. After driving for nearly an hour (I said the stuff wasn’t local) we got to the Shenandoah River Outfitters. We got ourselves a canoe and signed up for the 7 mile trip. (This was the easiest and I believe the shortest) After about 10 min of slathering on Sunscreen and deciding what to bring we jumped in the canoe and started the journey! 7 miles is a long way. The weather was perfect for the slow leisurely pace we had going. There were two other canoes following us, but I think they stopped somewhere around mile 2 to swim for a while. Around mile 3 we had our first incident. We could hear the water getting rough from a while back but didn’t think much about it. I steered us over towards the bank because I thought it would be a little easier. Turns out it was much, much, worse. Amy said it was like coming up on a roller coaster drop. Sure enough, we panicked and the canoe went over. I instantly jumped to make sure Amy was ok. She was having some trouble with the current but managed to right herself. She turned and asked about the things in the canoe. Here was our canoe’s inventory before the tip:
- Amy
- Me
- 2 Paddles
- 4 Bottles of Water
- My Sunglasses
- 1 Waterproof GPS
- Amy’s Removed Shirt
- My Cheap Digital Camera Wrapped in the above shirt.
After the tip we recovered 3 of the bottles of water, the paddles, and finally, the camera (after being submerged for about 5 min.) So the GPS (which was bright yellow) Most likely floated away and is in another state by now. My sunglasses, which I had owned for about a year and a half, and my tribes ski team shirt have now been donated to the Shenandoah River Foundation. The most important thing is that we were ok, no one was hurt, and we were able to continue along the river. I was a little bummed about the GPS and thought we might be able to find it if we went back a little ways. Sure enough that led to another tip. It would have been a lot easier to paddle up river if it weren’t a rapid area. So after the second tip over we just let it go and headed back down the river. The downside to this is that I had set the point were we were going in the GPS and was using that to guide us. Without it we were slave to the poorly placed signs along the river. The other two canoe’s managed to catch up to us by now. (Seeing as how we spent about 30 min flailing around in the river) so we stayed near them just in case we had another incident. Thankfully it was a nice peaceful trip the rest of the way. There was one part where I thought I saw a bear in the river (turns out it was a cow) but I started screaming at Amy to “Paddle to the other bank!!!”
Once we finally made it to mile marker 8 we were beat. My arms felt ready to fall off. We poured ourselves into the truck and headed back to the camp site. Along the way we made a few stops, just to check out a few things. One of those stops was at Luray Caverns. I wanted to get an idea of how much a trip in would cost. Apparently it takes a lot to maintain the incredibly large cave that’s been there since time began because it costs 20 bucks per person to go in! It would appear that someone found a niche and is working it for all it’s worth. Screw that! After quickly exiting the Money grubbing bastards at the caverns we made a quick pit stop at a Wal-Mart we passed on the way up. We picked up a few other things we forgot, like cheese for the burgers and some chips. Low and behold we found the holy grail of chips. Chili Cheese Fritos! If you have not tried these, it is a must have! They are by far the best Fritos I have ever had. Sadly, We can’t find them anywhere local! We were so excited, we tore into them as soon as we got to the truck.
Back at the camp, took a few moments to shower the river off of us and lay down for a mid afternoon nap. (The river wiped me out) The Campground had a small trail that we walked part way up, then decided we were too tired to go the rest of the way. Plus it was getting late and I needed to start dinner. Amy had some things she wanted to grab at the store so I started up the grill and the camp fire and commenced with the burger making! Since the grill I bought was a very small one, it took a long while to cook things on it. This was perfect thought because it gave me the chance to break out the drum and do some camp fire drumming. I became the dinner music for a few campsites around me and even got a few compliments. Between songs (I was drumming to my CD player) I would flip the burgers. We had a nice, campfire lit dinner of hamburgers and egg salad. Well, I ate the egg salad, Amy isn’t much of a fan of it. After dinner we made the traditional campfire smores. Another first for Amy. This sugar rush was just enough to clean up the campsite to get ready for bed.
Cleanup time! I think we woke up at around 9am Sunday morning and started the clean up process. I really thought it would take longer then what it did. We were done and out of the campsite by 10:30. This was fine of course because it meant a slow leisurely drive back home. Amy was so excited about the whole trip. She said she had a ton of fun, and I believe her. Even the drive home was fun. We drove a little farther on 81 then we were supposed to and ended up taking highway 17/50 home. The houses and towns along that drive were beautiful. When it comes time to buy the house I may look up in that region. We even saw a BBQ place that was worthy of a few pictures. After we got home we unloaded and started cleaning. At least, as much as we could before collapsing. I managed to squeeze in a little WoW time as well. All in all, it was a great weekend! There are a few pictures in the gallery.
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