Day 3 - We get to stay one more night

I was up bright and early! Quiet time is 10 - 6, gates close at 10 and reopen at 8. People are supposed to keep it down starting around 10, but with the group that was beside us, quietness was nearly impossible.

At 6:40, I was up and ready to face another wonderful day. I also wanted to hit the showers early due to the fact that there are only 3 showers stalls. Why rush though? No hot water!

I got done with the shower only to sit around the campfire to stay warm. Once again, I was the smart one, I knew what to pack. Everyone else was in shorts, closing in ever so close to the fire.

I find it funny that this late in July we are building campfires to stay warm. But it is so enjoyable, especially those mornings that you can see your breath.

This particular morning the campers next to us was frying bacon, that is A LOT of bacon! Along with pancakes! It smelled so good in comparison to the Cinnamon Toast Crunch that we were partaking in. And after eating, we did head out for the much needed cup of coffee, I can only do without so much at one time. So, coffee was not the thing I was going without any longer.

We got back from our trip to get coffee and Chuck and Eric take off to go home to get other things and to go to the store for more food. So, PJ and I were there to go to the river, early in the morning. I packed my chair, camera, coffee and took off to enjoy the stillness of this river, to enjoy the smell of the air that comes with the river and woods.



After about an hour, we headed back to camp. This time of day the water is ice cold, and PJ is swimming in it! I get this message when I get back to camp, "Get a fire going, leaving WalMart in a few with lunch." Now exactly who was that message for? I didn't think he was talking to me, because this old girl never started a campfire in her life! But I did the best I could, I had a general idea because I was watching Chuck over the past few days. I got a small one started, but it did not get hot enough for lunch. Hey I tried!

I noticed that Chuck brought back sweats and sweatshirts, sweats for PJ and sweatshirt for Eric. They must have been cold at night! Since they were gone and no one could protest, PJ and I put the canopy on the tent. Not that I haven't enjoyed the nights looking up at the stars when I couldn't sleep, or listening to the night bugs sing their lullabye, but my nose has been cold enough. Besides, I could open the windows if needed. We had been the only ones without a canopy on the tent and I really thought it needed to go on. If it had rained in the middle of the night, we would have been in trouble.

I decided to go back to the river with PJ. Took my chair, get my suit on, grab a towl and took off with PJ. This time we got to the river before it got too high. I did go in for a little while. But walking on rocks with flip flops is not easy. PJ walked around some, showed me how to skip rocks and had fun. We spotted people tubing down the river. That looked like fun and next time I am going to do that!!!

But when I got out of the water, I watched it slowly rise, I had to move my chair 3 times due to the rising water. It is such a gradual rise, if you don't pay attention, you won't notice it. One little girl put it nicely, "Look Daddy, there are the bubbles." That means that it is on the way.

I watched PJ closely and I saw a little boy get swept away, but caught right before he got too far. There were a lot of adults around, so I took my eye off of PJ occasionally. The current was so strong that even on the boat dock you would get knocked over quickly. But this time I didn't have to watch the kids that didn't have parents with them, I did that once and won't do it again. But there are some that don't ever go down to the river with their kids, maybe that explains why there were some trying to ride their bikes across the river.

Chuck mentioned that the Ranger's Station had the snakes from the night before on display. And that they had molds of animals footprints, pelts and other things that are in the woods in that area. So, I decided that I was going to go. Eric had already been and you never know the mood that PJ would be in. But when I mentioned it, they wanted to go and check it out too. I had been up there earlier and the doors were locked. Eric caught one of the Rangers and asked about it, he told us to knock next time. So, we headed back up there and the same Ranger was there, so he opened the doors for us. If I had known they were closed I would have gone back on Monday morning.



We looked around at the things they had there. The Ranger showed PJ the snakes and told them about them. We also saw the pelts of deer, rabbits, skunks, beaver, fox, coyote and raccoon. The foot molds were neat! Eric held up the black bear mold to PJ's face, it covered his face.

While I was there I grabbed a bunch of information. I figure since we have all this stuff, we can explore our area. Maps, brochures, and even coloring books.

Dinner, like lunch was cooked over the campfire. It was wonderful! The place pretty much cleared out during Sunday. It was nice to have one night that was quiet. We built a huge fire, roasted marshmallows, talked and just sat around.

It was another peaceful evening. Now this time I was looking up at the tent canopy and not the stars. The bugs weren't as loud as what they had been. BUT we were warmer! Our last night camping for a few weeks, oh well, I had a great time!