I told you the FIL’s boat flooded. Here’s the picture proof:
Tag-Archive for » camping «
03
Jul 2008
… or why I am SO glad we have a camper and aren’t sleeping in a tent….
The camping adventures continue on the north shore of Houghton Lake. The weather has been …. strange. It becomes so windy that the waves grow large and water laps over the side of the sea wall and floods most of the campsites along the lake shore.
We, however, have a campsite that has not (yet) been flooded even though we are right on the lake. It pays to show up early.
Yesterday, the wind grew so bad that the waves were splashing over the side of my father-in-law’s boat, and it sank! I’m not exaggerating. The seats in the boat and everything in it (including the half-filled gas can that was still hooked up to the motor AND seats) began floating away. FIL and I salvaged as much as we could catch. A few things floated away, but we hope to still find them along the lake shore. Today the contents of his tackle box is lying out on a picnic table in the sun to dry off.
Later in the day, a bunch of us went out and lifted the water-filled boat above the lake and starting bailing the water out. It was well over 100 5-gallon buckets to get it all out. I have a picture of the boat when it was still submerged, but it is at the campground, and I’m not.
Bob is back. Bob is a boy a bit younger than Justin that camps around the fourth every year. We first met Bob when he was around 2 or 3 and hard to understand. When we asked his name, we couldn’t figure out what he was saying, so my FIL started calling him Bob. His real name is Braden, but we still call him Bob. That Bob is a character.
While I was gone Tuesday (at home working and feeding dogs and showering), my mother arrived at the campground. She purchased a puppy. Yes, you read that right. I want it known that I had NOTHING to do with this. It is a tan mini pin named Hunter. He will be staying with the kennel owner when Mom goes to North Carolina because I am not dog-sitting or animal sitting. Mom knew this, but I think she thought I would change my mind. I won’t. (For those who don’t know, I once watched my parents animals quite frequently, but I had to bury two of them in my backyard when they died during their time in my care. I’m not doing that again.)
On the plus side, the puppy IS cute. Again, no pictures to prove it right now, but you can stay tuned.
29
Jun 2008
I am camping. Really. The roughing-it kind of camping minus the tent and sleeping bags. That is, I’m sleeping in my camper, we are parked next to a gorgeous lake, which doesn’t sound like roughing it until you realize there is no electricity or water hook-ups available in this campground. It is rustic.
It is also close to home, which is where I really am right this moment. Home. Autumn’s clothes are in the dryer since she went from kayak camp to family camp and demanded a shower and clean clothes. I am home because I’m teaching, which makes it impossible to go very long without the internet. Plus we have three dogs at home that we did not take camping. This means we come home often to feed and water them. It is a good thing the campground is only about 15 minutes away.
Tonight I roasted marshmallows on an open flame and became all gooey as I helped a number of kids (I lost count) build s’mores. Yum. This camping over the holiday is a family tradition — one that brings four generations of Sherwoods together. As Autumn noted yesterday, there are only 14 people camping in this campground right now, and we are related to seven of them.
The number of campers dwindled considerably when the price went from $10 a night to $20 a night. The high price of gas also hurts. But I am enjoying the camping even though I haven’t been at the campground very much. Between Little League and work, I spend large parts of my day away from the campground.
Little League is now done and over for three of the four children, but Amanda is in the middle of her all-stars games. The games are in Tawas. We have traveled there two days so far (Saturday and Sunday). We still have to travel there Monday and Wednesday. And I know it seems like I just did a 180 on topic, but the Little League stuff DOES have something to do with the title.
There has been some vandalism at the local school. A porta-potty was burned down. The next day, someone burned down a shed by the girls’ softball field. This is the field where my kids play. The shed was right next to a set of bleachers, which was also damaged. The shed was a total loss. I did snap a picture, but I don’t have my camera with me right now. The shed was where the equipment was kept like the umpire’s stuff, extra bases, a pitching machine and other stuff. I haven’t heard officially, but it was definitely arson because the shed didn’t have any electricity hooked up to it. It is a shame. Why?
OK, it’s after midnight, and I’ve been camping. What did you expect? The answer should have been “not much.” But hey, I blogged.
07
Jun 2008
at least for the children. I’m still teaching, and I will be all summer long.
In the last week of school, three of the children went on two field trips, and I chaperoned two of the trips. The second trip didn’t involve rain or biking up hills. Justin did get his picture taken holding a tarantula and a small python snake. I’ll have to post those pictures later. Apparently the snake peed on a child in a later group, and it apparently holds up to go quite a lot, and it smells bad. The kid’s mom was chaperoning, and the kid wore a shirt from the gift shop home. When I asked if the place had given him the shirt, the mom (clearly NOT happy) said, “No, they didn’t. I had to BUY it.” That is just wrong! We had a trip home of about two hours. I’m glad the mom was there.
Right now I’m camping in someone’s yard. Well, right this minute I’m connected to their high speed and checking on my online class. But my camper (technically it belongs to Steve too) is parked in their yard along with four other campers. It’s pretty nice. We’re here for Scotty’s graduation party. We turned a party from 2 to 6 on Saturday into a weekend bash. 
In case any of my siblings don’t know, Mom was going to Edith’s house this weekend.
I’m going to go socialize some more. Later.
24
Aug 2007
I have a lot of great photos from our camping trip last weekend, and I wanted to share a few.
First , there is me with my birthday/graduation cake. I thought the cake was huge, but there was also a huge group of people there, so it didn’t last long.
And then there were two adorable cute boys who had won some kind of race. They insisted on having their picture taken with the checkered flags, which are on our rug outside our camper. The dirty one on the left with the strange facial expression belongs to me. The other is my nephew.
While camping, and when not racing, my children hung out in a fort. The picture doesn’t do it justice. They really had a good thing going. The oar came home with us when we left.
