Camping

Does anybody remember their fourth of July adventures? I do. Since I never let you in on all the fun when it happened I figured I’d do a little game of catch up now. Well it all started one dark stormy night…. No I’m kidding. I had you scared there for a minute though right? Ha, okay I’m getting serious now.

Well our Fourth of July weekend was spent lying in the dirt, eating delicious foods, smacking mosquitoes, catching wee itty bitty fish, spitting our food out in front of people, performing social experiments and just having a grand ol’ time.

We went camping in Michigan. The End!

Oh that’s not the kind of story you wanted? Oops. Ok I’ll elaborate just a little bit. Just for you.

We found ourselves camping deep in the woods of Michigan because 1) Rob had spent a month in Detroit, MI doing a rotation, 2) we were tired of camping in a grassy park and calling it camping, and 3) we were ready to have an adventure and we hadn’t done any camping yet this summer. So the Bowlers and I packed all the goodies and headed out to meet up with my hubby on Thursday evening.

As Rob was already in Michigan and closer to our final destination than we were, we had to guide him in the right direction to where we wanted to go camping. He was a little concerned with us when he saw a sign that said “Do not pick up hitch hikers, prison nearby”. I don’t know what he was so worried about. We never heard any sirens or anything. Oh and that man I met wearing that beautiful orange jumpsuit was a very nice person. He really was. *Those of you who don’t know that I’m yanking your chain right now, I am. Rob did see those signs but we never even saw where the prison was. We really were completely safe.

The campground was awesome. It was a small campground with trees and dirt, nobody was sleeping right next to us and the river ran right next to us. It was sweet. We spent the weekend thoroughly enjoying ourselves in our little campground. Friday morning when we woke up and familiarized ourselves with the layout of everything we headed out for some fun. We drove into the nearby city and found some maps and fishing poles. We spent the rest of the day hiking up and down the river a little bit pretending to fish. I say pretending because we didn’t catch anything. That poor little river must not have any little fishies in it. But even with our lack of success in the fishing department, I had a good time. I found myself a nice tree to sit on while the boys tried their darndest to catch something. While we were there we had a good time laughing at all the people floating the river too. They kept getting stuck on a fallen tree. It made for some very good entertainment. After our failed attempt to be good fisherman we went back to camp to make dinner.

While Diana’s idea for dinner was well, a good idea, it didn’t taste very good. I don’t think any of us would recommend making pizza in a dutch oven. Ick!

The next morning was full of all kinds of excitement. Little Miss Diana had found an article for a Cherry Festival in Traverse City that she wanted to attend. Since we all love Diana, we went along with it. We walked the streets of Traverse City and saw some volleyball tournaments, sat on the lawn and watched part of the air show, tasted the many different varieties of cherry mixes (I don’t really recommend putting cherry in everything), ate some yummy cherries then we had a cherry pit spitting contest into the lake. Jason sure knows how to launch those pits. He was the champion that’s for sure.

After our adventures at the cherry festival we went on the search for a lake to fish in. When we neared the lake and realized it was quite busy Jason decided to try and find his own lake front location. We ended up in some crazy secluded spot that was only good for a thrill for the boys and their desire to drive a jeep like it’s a big 4x4. Boys will be boys. Needles to say, we didn’t stay at that lake. We drove around a little more, asked some locals and ended up at a nice quiet little lake. Ahh… it was a breath of fresh air. It was so quiet and peaceful.

Here at this lake is where we caught our fish. They weren’t very good fish, I don’t know anything about fish and I can’t remember what they called the fish we were catching but they were very little and spiky. But no matter what kind of fish they were, it was fun and now I can officially say I’ve been fishing, caught a fish and gutted a fish. Whew, it was a blast. After I caught a few of those little guys I turned the pole over to Rob and let him have at it. Diana enjoyed a little fishing too. She even ended up in the water up to her hips. Actually she had only waded in up to her knees until I got the hook stuck on the one and only stick in the lake. She went in deeper to help us out by un-snagging the hook. She sure is a great friend.

Later that night after we had eaten our yummy chicken and potatoes dinner, the boys put the two dead fish in some trees. They wanted to see which fish our little raccoon friend would go after. It was their “social experiment.” However they performed the experiment a little backwards. They marked their territory around the wrong tree. So of course the raccoon took the fish from the lower tree that wasn’t marked. Once again, boys will be boys.

The next morning Diana and I stayed in the tent to sleep in a little while the boys woke up early to go fishing at the lake. When they returned they were acting a little silly but it didn’t really register with Diana and I since our boys are always acting silly. However, when I became a little more cognizant and was able to focus on what the boys were saying I realized they weren’t acting silly just because they’re silly boys. They had been trying to show us something without actually pointing it out too us. Rob talking to Jason like he was a patient and instructing him to sit down is when I finally piped up and asked “What happened?” you know with that “Ok boys, what did you do this time?” kind of tone. They immediately started giggling and Diana sat straight up knowing that it was her husband who was the one needing medical attention. Yep, Jason caught the biggest fish that morning. He caught himself. With a fishhook stuck in his finger Dr. Rob started the procedure of extracting the object. All I can say is it’s a good thing I had followed the feeling of needing the medical bag when I was packing. So we performed surgery right there next to the fire pit. Thank heavens for Dr. Rob.

Shortly after the operating room was cleaned up we packed up camp and headed home. Not without stopping for some lunch first though. When we stopped for gas we pulled our lunch out and ate right there in the parking lot of Meijers. It was delightful.

And there you have it folks, the Fourth of July camping adventures of Rob, Tiff, Jason and Diana. There never is a dull moment with the four of us together.