Dawned Fire

Wow, so much has happened in the last week. This past weekend Sox and I joined our friends in the annual Canada Day long weekend camping trip.

All went pretty smoothly getting ready for it. Last Tuesday Sox and I had a planning session at KaptainK’s house. Lists were made, and grocery shopping was divided up.

Thursday was our leave date, so I went in to work really early so I could get home at a reasonable hour and pack. It worked pretty well, although, Yoshi always get a bit anxious when he sees us pack. With the truck ready we were off. A couple blocks away from the house I remembered that I had forgotten my camera, doubling back I retrieved it. I hoped this wasn’t a sign of things to come. Sue and I stuck to our lists, and didn’t really ensure they were accurate.

On the highway we managed to miss most of the bad long weekend traffic. It was smooth sailing … until Chemainus. I was going through what we were going to be doing when we got to the campground, and it dawned on me. I stuck to the packing list alright. The one thing not on the list: the tent. Crap! I pulled off the highway so we could weigh our options. We could go back to Victori and pick it up, but it was already 8pm and the gates at the park closed at 11pm. That was cutting it close. I then thought to call my mom. I knew she didn’t have a tent, but maybe she knew someone who did. We lucked out on that one. A friend of mom’s had a tent, and even dropped it off at mom’s house for us. A quick stop to grab it and we were on the road again.

At the campground I was still steaming about forgetting the tent. The first real thing I did there was crack a beer and gunned half of it down immediately. That did the trick.

The tent that we borrowed was tiny in comparison to our normal behemoth. Actually it was just tiny. I think it was about 6 feet in diameter. Remember that I am 6’1″. I didn’t fit very well, and neither did our airbed. We borrowed some foam from my mom to sleep on. The foam worked pretty good though, and I am considering switching to that for future camping trips. I found that it insulated us a lot more so I felt warmer while sleeping.

With camp set up we started a fire (and drank a couple more beers).

We didn’t do anything crazy on this trip, but like always it was lots of fun. 6 couples, 8 kids, and 3 dogs strewn about 3 different campsites. How can that not be fun? The tradition continues.

I did take my mountain bike though, and Yoshi and I got a nice little ride in at Top Bridge park. Rather fun.

Saturday a couple decided to head home early, so they left their tent for us to use. It was nice to be able to stretch out while sleeping. Before they left there was a sing along for the kids.

On our last day we packed up everything quickly, loaded the vehicles, and got out of there fairly early. The plan was to eat breakfast at White Spot in Nanaimo. Really it is a nice way to end the camping weekend. A good breakfast made for you in a nice restaurant while we are all gross, stinky, and dirty.

The drive home was pretty uneventful, but I knew the Kaptain was a little tired (E had a bit of an ear infection that caused a little havoc on the trip), so I kept her in sight the whole way home. Apparently E enjoyed this a lot.