Back from camping!

We arrived Friday night at Dam West and checked in with the attendant, then set up camp. Then I went back into Carlyle and picked up some KFC for dinner. I had to wait for biscuits, so the nice lady gave me a free soda while I waited. I could get addicted to that Lipton sweet tea!

After we got all set up, we turned on the radio & listened to the Cardinals play the Orioles (the Cards lost :( ). Three girls (well, they were in their early 20's but I'm old enough to be their mother) stopped by and asked if we could help them start a campfire. I volunteered to help and went back with them to their campsite. I had one of them go back to our campsite and get the lighter fluid; I just couldn't get the wood to light. It's OK to cheat a little bit; we use those firelogs to get our fires going. I told them about this blog, so any of them have stopped by, hi!

The campground was all right, but there wasn't a lot for the 12 year old son to do. They had a movie night, but it was on Thursday, a strange night. How many kids are at a campsite on a Thursday night? There was a playground, but he's getting too old for that. There were a couple of programs at the ampitheater, but the son isn't interested in squirrels or water safety. The next time we go camping, we will pay the extra $4.00 a night and go back to Eldon Hazlet.

There was a showerhouse with individual stalls and each stall had an adjoining shower. These smelled rather musty. I was glad I remembered my flip flops for when I took a shower. No athlete's foot for me! I should have went to the big showerhouse at the entrance to the park. It was nicer and didn't smell. It had a laundry with a fold down ironing board - who irons their clothes when they go camping?

On Saturday, we went into town for supplies. We went back to the campsite and filled up the coolers with fresh ice. We then went for a ride and checked out the other two Army Corps of Engineers campgrounds at Carlyle Lake, Coles Creek and Boulder. They appeared to be nice sites, but they take longer to get to and longer to get somewhere to purchase supplies, so we probably will not be going to either one of those campsites.

The water level of the lake was really high, probably due to all the rain we've been getting in southern Illinois these past few weeks. The weather was really nice, not too hot during the day and not too cool at night.

We left around 10:30 AM this morning and came home. We got all unpacked and I discovered that my bottle of shampoo came open in the bottom of the health & beauty duffle bag. We need a new one anyway, so I just threw away the bag rather than attempt to clean up the shampoo.