On May 31st,
when we discovered that half of our family’s camping gear, which was in a roof
bag, fell silently off of the rack on top of our car and disappeared into the
black top of Interstate 15, I fell more in love with D, my husband. It took about an hour of refraining from screaming
at him or blaming him, before this discovery was made. But as I watched as he
calmly drove back and tried to find our lost things and then being able to
discuss what happened and learning from both of our mistakes, I learned from
his example that freaking out wouldn’t help the situation. I think
most men would scream and swear and be upset.
My guy just smiled and said it was gone. We discussed what went wrong
and instead of getting too immersed in the blame game we learned what each of
us could do better next time. I was relieved that the giant bag didn’t hit
another vehicle and cause an accident. I stayed positive and encouraged knowing
that my children and my husband were safe and by my side. I was so bummed about losing gear that I had
worked so hard to acquire, but hey, it’s just gear.
So that is
how we started out our first camping trip of the summer and the first ever camping
trip with two children; losing our gear storage bag that contained, a borrowed
family tent, 2 sleeping bags, 3 sleeping pads, 2 camp chairs, an easy-up shade
structure, a stroller, a roll up camping table, and some stove fuel. But, at
that point I was not going to give up on this camping trip. It took way too
much effort to prepare for and honesty, I was too lazy to unpack all the food
and other items out of the car. We went to our favorite gear shop and bought a
few things that needed replacing, left everything else loaded in the car and
set out again the next morning.
City of
Rocks has been one of our favorite destinations pre-children. We have mainly gone there to go rock climbing
but my body is not in rock climbing shape and it’s hard to watch an adventurous
toddler while breast feeding an infant, and belaying. Not to mention us-safe.
So the rock climbing was going to be left to D if he could find people to climb
with. His friends backed out of the trip the day before.
Our drive on
rural roads was fun for all. S, especially liked driving through the herds of cattle
on dirt roads and waving at the cowboys and cowgirls astride their horses. I
was amazed that he didn’t sleep a wink on the two and a half hour journey. We had made advanced reservation for our
camping spot and good thing we had. The popular reserve was full for the
weekend. Our site was at the far end of the park and was a perfect place for a
toddler. No traffic, small boulders to
play on, a grassy area, a picnic table, a nearby outhouse, and spread out from other
campers. We set up camp, since we lost
the large tent we had borrowed we had now brought a long two small backpacking
tents from our single days. S and D set
up in one, and the baby, R, and I in the other. Within minutes of S exploring
our camp site he had brushed up against a prickly pear cactus. The spines went through his jeans and
imbedded into his soft skin. Good thing
he is such a grateful little boy. As we
held him down and pulled out the spines he would say “thank you” with each
thorn removed.
Once camp was set up and we made a hot lunch
we drove back into the heart of the park to an area called Parking Lot Rock. We
went for a small walk with my husband carrying the baby in the front carrier
and I with S on the back carrier. It was
a lot of fun and I was impressed with my son’s observation skills. He spotted a Downy Wood Pecker right at his
eye level, we enjoyed watching the bird pound little holes into an Aspen
tree. D, with his always present
friendly disposition, found some folks to climb with. The kids and I went back to the car, found a
shady tree to park under and took a nap.
When we were
reunited with D, we went to the nearby hotsprings and had a wonderful time
splashing and soaking in the four cemented pools. S ran himself tired between
the pools and made friends with some older children who played ball with him. When we returned to our campsite we
discovered we were camping nearby two other families with very young
children. As we chatted with each other
we realized that the men of the group and I worked at the same location about 7
years ago. We had been slightly acquainted at the time and it was fun catching
up and meeting their wives. We hung out at their camp, cooked over the fire,
and the children played in the dirt.
Oh how the
stars shined and there was no light pollution or clouds to block out the
brilliance. It was so good for my soul to be out under an unobstructed
sky. It is necessary for all of us to
connect to the heavens like that on a frequent basis.
In the
morning we joined up with our new found friends. We spent all morning and early
afternoon with them. We hung out at an
area called Bathtub rock. Mostly the
fathers and an occasional mother climbed and took turns leading and belaying
traditional and sport routes. The
mothers and children sat in a grassy area where we shared snacks, watched the
children play and explore the area. As
the morning progressed other groups of young families came up the trail with
children in carry packs, their dogs on leashes, and toys of all sorts to keep
the children occupied. We seamlessly and naturally set up an impromptu summer
camp. Children sat with one father on a
climbing crash pad and colored paper and themselves with markers. Other kids blew bubbles and another group made
pb&j sandwiches. There were squirt
guns, dump trucks, balls, all to share. Oh what an inspirational and refreshing
trip to meet other outdoor mammas and their amazing families.
On our drive
home nothing flew off the roof and we reveled in the thought that a weekend
that could have turned into a complete disaster ended up being just what we
needed to discover that we were not alone in this quest of trying to continue
an outdoor lifestyle with young children.
What else was cool is that a day or two after we got home I was named "Outdoor Gangster" of the Month of May. Check it out. You might have to scroll down a bit in their blog. http://www.outdoorgangster.com/blog/
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