Our first camping trip of the year!

  My family went on our first camping trip of the year this weekend.  We'd been talking about an April camping trip for a couple of months and we finally found a weekend that we weren't doing anything.

We went to the campground Thursday evening to set up the tent so we wouldn't have so much to do Friday evening when we arrived for the weekend, since we live an hour away from our favorite campground.  We found a nice corner lot right across from shower house number 2 and set up the tent.  Our tent takes about a half hour to set up.  We paid the campground host, went back to the camp site and put up the ticket and left for home.

We should have went to shower house number 2 to see if it was open or not.  We discovered on Friday evening that it wasn't.  My husband complained to the campground host, and she told him that that particular shower house would not be open until May, due to state budget cuts.  Thanks so much, Governor Quinn.  [/sarcasm] You'd think that they would have put signs on the bathroom doors to let folks know the shower house was closed.  Shower house number 1 was open, but there are only 3 shower stalls in each restroom.  Six shower stalls for 175 campsites - yikes!  Sure, not all of the campsites were occupied, but we had to plan our shower times carefully.  Luckily, shower house number 1 was only about a 5 minute walk from our campsite.

It was chilly Friday and Saturday nights - the temperature dropped into the low 40's.  Most of the week, the highs were in the 80's and the lows were in the 60's and we got spoiled.  Even with a sleeping bag and a comforter, it was still chilly.  I wish I had remembered to bring our space heater to use in the tent.  Our tent has a "power port" - a 1" zipped opening to run an electrical cord through.  I began to be jealous of folks with RV's and travel trailers. 

I also forgot my husband's toothbrush and our hairbrushes.  I discovered that I had forgotten the hairbrushes when I took a shower Saturday morning, and my hubby discovered that I had forgotten his toothbrush on Friday night when it was bedtime.  There's a Walmart Supercenter about 2 miles from the campground, so we went there on Saturday morning to purchase the forgotten items and supper items for Saturday evening.  On our way to Walmart, three does (female deer, not the song) crossed the road about 20 feet in front of our car.  So cool!

On Saturday afternoon, we walked around some of the roads at the campsite.  I saw some beautiful little white flowers with purple stripes (you can't see the stripes very well on the photo above).  Does anyone know what kind of flowers these are?  We also took a hike on one of the trails at the state park that the campground is a part of.  This trail ended at a very old cemetery with graves from the 1860's.  We then rode around the park.

Late Saturday afternoon and late into Saturday evening, we listened to the St. Louis Cardinals vs. New York Mets 20 inning marathon baseball game on the radio.  When the Cardinals scored in the 17th inning (I think - I lost track), you could hear cheering all over the campground. 

When we woke up Sunday morning, the guys were really cold, so I got up and made breakfast.  We then packed up and went home.  :( 

Our next camping trip is set for Memorial Day weekend.  That weekend will be a little warmer (I hope - it wasn't last year) and we'll be staying an additional day.

That's all for now - until next time -

Happy camping!

Diane