Seth putting in some tent stakes on our semi-modern camp site. That means they put you on a sand base which is really not all that user friendly if you camp much. We will now have sand in our tent until Kingdom come!
The boys preparing a fire for breakfast. Seth wanted to help a bit too much at times.Did you know that female mosquitoes are the ones responsible for all the pain we Minnesotans suffer each year? Being a female myself I understand this could be stupid to share - but those are some mad girls out at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park! We arrived in time for supper, though I think the mosquitoes ate more than I did. Even with pants and long sleeves my whole family has plenty of nasty bites. Of course I was wearing sandals and really paid the price. I tried to count them and lost track around 40 and that was on one foot by the way. (Since our return nothing short of ice packs every couple of hours has allowed me to walk around without severe pain!)
Enough about the mosquitoes, they may have ruined my trip but there was some fun to be had, well before the rain came that is. Yeah, this was one camping adventure we hope not to repeat. After the first blood bath of those aforementioned bugs we set up our tent for protection. As night came we expected sleep to come alongside it, but no luck this time. Seth finally closed his eyes just before 11 pm and then awoke in the night around 3 am to spend the rest of the morning in and out of sleep between my sleeping bag and his. At 6 am I was so frustrated and overtired that Jason took Seth to the car for safety. (I was in that state of motherhood where you start to understand why some animals eat their young - I was ready to lash out like a you know what kind of bug and be relentless about it!)
So where was the fun to be had in all this? That was our pancake breakfast over a fire (oops, forgot the propane). The syrup was everywhere and only seemed to call the bugs in, but then to our relief the bugs flew for this hills...as the rain started to pour down. We tried to keep ourselves preoccupied in the tent, but camping with a two year old is much different than our former camping days. Jason and I would have loved to curl up together and read a book or take a nap and enjoy the sound of the rain in the trees, but Seth was ready to see the world and could not be held down. (Lack of sleep makes our child crazy, not tired!) So it was decision time - do we stay or do we go?
We had booked two nights, but it was time to go and no two ways about it. We tore down camp in the pouring rain and drove our soaked little bodies two hours home to recuperate and scratch our wounds. It was for certain the shortest camping trip in Johnson history! We were in camp for less than 24 hours - yikes!
3 comments:
That sounds BRUTAL! I feel so bad for you! At least you could salvage some of the weekend on Sunday canoeing!
Oh, that's really awful. We were at Kathio last year about this time in the walk-in sites, but we didn't have mosquitoes or a 2-year old. That sounds really rough. I hope your feet recover soon. Reading about you packing up in the pouring rain almost made me get sympathy tears!
So, Even before the rain, I was contemplating heading home early. This was the 3rd weekend in a row that Seth had not slept in his own bed. Additionally, the state of mind for us as parents was not very sound as you have been informed. The rain just emphasized that we need to find some raingear for Seth. The rain actually made me want to stay. However, my wife and "rain" don't mix very well despite her new state-of-the-art rainwear. On behalf of my wife, Thanks for the sympathy.
jj
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