Out to sea

We took off last Thursday with my parents for one last camping trip of the year. We traded then tent for the back of the Chevy (more on that later), the four-wheelers for a boat, and the tree canopy for tarps.

Imagine our surprise when, last week just before departure, the weather forecast turned from sunny skies and smooth sailing to cooler temperatures and thunderstorms. We already had the trip planned, the food purchased and all but loaded into our vehicles, and the boat all set. Also, the prospect of bumping it for another weekend was not promising. So what did we do? We went anyway, of course!

It was a little dicey when we stopped in Evanston,WY for gas. The temperature was so cold there that our sweatshirts weren't quite sufficient and it was super windy. As we continued toward Lucerne Valley, the clouds came in closer and lower and the rain started to fall. Mason didn't notice. He had every creature comfort we could possibly give a truck-bound baby for a three hour drive and he made full use of them.


By the time we got to our campground, the rain was coming down and the temperatures were cold. Alan and I did a mad dash to get our tent up without getting it totally soaked. I'm proud to say we succeeded. We also set a personal record by getting it set up in five minutes or so. We kept it dry enough that only a little towel action was needed before we could get the bed all set up. At this point, Alan realized he hadn't packed the air mattress pump as we thought. He took one for the team and blew it up with nothing but lung power and a couple of breaks to help Mason throw big rocks into puddles. Mason also wanted to wear his "Thomas hat", and I guess he's got a little gangsta style because he put it on sideways while he walked the "train tracks" (concrete parking barriers) all around the camp.

The rain did clear out (too late to get the boat onto the water), but it was still really cold so we decided to move our bedding into the back of my truck so we could use a heater if need be. We had survived a pretty cold night the last time we went to Whitney Reservoir, but it was not very pleasant and we didn't want to repeat the experience if we didn't need to. As luck would have it, the back of my truck is queen sized. It was snuggly, but we made it work. We were so glad we had stayed in the truck when it started raining over night.

My dad made a leisurely breakfast for us (I don't think it was so leisurely for him!), and we took our time cleaning up. By the time we were finished, we had warmer temperatures and clearer skies so we got out on the boat. Mason was excited to wear his new lifejacket (it has a turtle on it, don't you know. Even if it's an evil-looking turtle, we'll take it!), so we had no problem getting him on the boat and outfitted properly.

The water was beautiful, just like glass in most places, and we stopped just shy of the Wyoming state line so the boys could fish. My dad bought Mason a Scooby Doo fishing pole. I don't know if I'm ashamed to admit it or not, but Mason doesn't know who Scooby Doo is (not much TV around our house), and asking Dad "Who's that dog?" was the primary focus of the first afternoon.

Fishing, as it turns out, is not a wholly enjoyable activity for a 2 1/2 year old, what with the lack of action and mellow pace of it. After a few exciting moments where Dad thought he had a fish and the bugger ate most of the worm without actually getting caught, Mason was bored with the fishing and learned a whole new activity: feeding seagulls. We had several of them around, and the next day when we went out to the same spot, I swear they were like "Hey, I know that boat! They fed us Doritos!" because there was some suspicious hovering going on.

The third day we were there was absolutely beautiful, and we were so sad we had to leave by mid-afternoon to get home. But we agreed, in the end, things had probably worked out. We've set ourselves up to have a boat-lover on our hands. He got a taste of it, but didn't get bored, which will hopefully keep him coming back for more next summer.