A cicada lullaby, snorers and a little water

How’s that for a title?  Well, you’ll just have to read down to find out the meaning….hehehe.

Never in my life has a shower felt so good.  For those of you who know a little about me, I’m a creature of comfort.  My idea of camping is the travel trailer camper with all the comforts of home; AIR, WATER, and tv…..basic stuff.  So I think that a lot of you were surprised by my declaration of roughing it this weekend.  Well, as always, life is an adventure.

I am a worrier by nature.  I guess you could say I’m a pessimist too.  I’d rather not say, but hey if we can admit our flaws, that’s half the battle.  We load up all our camping gear and the dogs and swing by the campground to pick up a few things we forgot to grab.  Seeing how we’d have to back track to get to the freeway (following the directions given) Shannon decides that we can take the State route in the back way.  It’s pretty straight forward and we’ve driven it before.   The part we hadn’t been on, runs along the Little Miami river valley in Southern Ohio.  Hills and more hills.  Well, trying to get the Bronco up one of those big hills, we blow a transmission seal or line or one of those things you really have to have to make your car go.  Fortunately we don’t realize it until we check in.  The campground we all stayed at was awesome and the people we went with have reserved the same 2 sites for the last 5 years.  The sites are HUGE!  We had 10 tents and 2 vehicles on the one site, along with the fire area and eating area.  The other site was right on the water and that’s where we all parked.  We get unloaded and they start talking about the truck and what’s wrong with it.  I hear transmission and immediately I think Big Bucks.  Nothing that we can do about it until the guys can get under it and look at it in the morning. 

I am probably the worlds lightest sleeper.  I don’t sleep well and the slightest noises can keep me up.  I live with a snorer.  I used to tease my dad that he didn’t really need to worry about his little girl shacking up cuz we didn’t sleep together.  We have separate room and I love that arrangement.  Even at the camper, it’s separate.  Well, the tent is a whole nother story.  After about 3 hours of trying and trying to sleep, I give up and go sleep in the truck.  Not the most comfortable, but awfully quiet.

After about 2 hours of sleep, we’re up and trying to get breakfast started, rafts blown up and the day going.  That’s when I find out it’s not looking good for the truck.  Well, while things like this is what credit cards are for, I’m freaking out cuz I have 2 dogs to get home and we’re almost 100 miles away.  So naturally, because when I get mad or stressed, I cry.  Fortunately, I have a terrific group of friends there and they try to reassure me that things will be ok and not to worry about it.  Just have a good time.  Just have a good time???  How is that possible?  Well, after a little time and a few cigarettes (yes, I stressed out and started back up a LOT this weekend) I figured the hell with it, I’m gonna have a good time.  Now the dogs aren’t supposed to be left unattended at the campsite.  We have our 2 and one of the couples have this huge Bull Mastiff.  Looks mean as hell, but just a gentle giant.  Shannon was gonna stay with the dogs, but last minute they convince him that they’ll be ok as long as they’re on leashes.  So after about a minute of fretting and a few more scrambling to make sure they have food and water, we jump in the river and sail away.  And you know what, for about 3 hours I floated and sailed and paddled and laughed.  I forgot everything that had plagued me.  I think it’s a law or something that you can’t float down a river in the sunlight seeing the woods (and canoes) passing you by and have the weight of the world on your shoulders.  It was truly a beautiful trip.  There were 38 of us total in about 20 small rafts, intertubes and one party raft that holds 8. 

It’s really a small world.  When Barb read my post earlier last week about my river trip, she said that her dd and dh were gonna be on the river too that day.  But they were leaving a little bit earlier than we had planned too.  I knew that even though I’ve seen photos I’d never be able to pick out Andy.  But Shannon, her DD I’ve seen so many beautiful layouts of, I thought I just might recognize her.  So as canoe after canoe passed us by (and it looks like they were all working so hard, paddling all the time) I looked and I looked.  We had stopped on a sand bar to wait for a group of stragglers to catch up.  I’m beached but didn’t get out of my raft.  I look up and say “Shannon” and this little girl looks at me, so I say “Andy” and he says yes.  I get all excited.  I’m like “Wow, tell Barb you saw Diane down at the river.  I know her from the scrapbooking online stuff” and they floated away.  It was sooooo cool.  Even though I don’t know them, I feel that I do from Barbs pages and awesome photos.  So Thanks Barb.  That really made my weekend. 

As we got near the end of the river trip (5 hours and a heck of a sunburn on my legs) I start getting anxious about the dogs.  I’d hate it if they found we’d left them unattended and kicked us out of the campground for it.  But really, I was worried that someone would steal my dogs.  So I jump on the first bus back.  I can hear them as I’m walking back into the site and as I get a bit closer, Carmen comes trotting up to me.  She’s not supposed to be able to do that.  The little Houdini somehow got her collar over her head and was running around free.  Most likely taunting the other 2 dogs with her freedom.  She made up for it by sticking around the area.  Now if it was Jazi, she’d have been off to see the sites and make new friends with the other campers.  The thing that really freaks me out is that without her collar on, no one knows who she is or who she belongs too.  I really do have the best dogs though.

Saturday night I decided why fight it and crawled into the truck to sleep at a decent time instead of waiting til it was to the point of leave or strangle someone. :)  That’s where the cicada lullaby comes in.  At least I think that’s what they were.  There were several different nature sounds going on, but those were the loudest and most common.  It was extremely peaceful and after about an hour, I was out like a light.

Sunday morning was spent trying to break down the campsite and figure out how I was gonna get home.   It seemed like the plans were changing every 10 minutes.  That drives me nuts (and you can see it’s a short trip).  Eventually, we got it straighted out.  One of the people had AAA plus which will tow 100 miles and was headed near our place to drop off his son.  So he brought me and the dogs back while Shannon rode in the  toe truck.  So the moral of this story is  All’s well that ends well.  Well until we find out how much it’s gonna be to fix the transmission that is.  But I’m not gonna worry about that for another day. 

So I’m all unloaded and the food (tons of it left) is put away.  I took a 20 minute shower and washed away layers of dirt.  I was ready to watch the race we taped last night, but I hear snoring always, so I think I’m gonna grab my dogs, curl up in my own bed and take a nap.

 Have a great day!

This entry was posted on 24. August 2008 at 20:45 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.