I mean we are camping newbies. We really don't know much, just what I could read off of Pop up portal in three days... I still wasn't entirely sure what we were getting ourselves into!
So looking at our calendar, I figured out we could go out Sat afternoon, set up, make dinner then come home. Rob and I play in a worship band for our church and we needed to be back Sunday morning. I asked Rob and he said, let's do overnight. We can get up early, get to church and get back before the 1:00 pm check out time.
I secretly thought he was kind of crazy, but my desire to test things out won out over my husband's craziness. So I booked the night at Little Red Barn Campgrounds in Quakertown, PA. It was only 45 min away, even closer to my dad's should any emergency pop up (no pun? pup? intended).
I have to say, it went as well as about we expected. Definitely lessons learned, but nothing major we couldn't handle. We felt comfortable setting up, tried out some of our "mods" on a trial basis and I trepidatiously inched into the world of campground cooking. And Rob got to practice backing up with the pop up hitched more.... thanks to an experienced camper named Buzz who hung out and gave advice where he could.
Setting up wasn't too bad. First blunder? Stacking our firewood just inside the door. Before we could do anything, we had to move all the firewood out. After that, it was all about getting organized:
It took us a relatively short time to organize, hook up and set up. The kids had their shelf which was a fun surprise for them - I filled it with toys! And their hanging "closet" worked beautifully. I'm pretty sure I can fit a second one in there for shoes. I had stored the outside lights in a basket which then became a handy toothbrush/toothpaste/fluoride rinse caddy.
We opted to leave the dinette down, as you can see, to use kind of like a couch. The 5 of us won't fit around the table, so this was a better option for us. The kids could sit and watch a movie, or play and be out of the way while we worked.
The "adult" side was pretty easy to organize too. We added our own shelf to store our clothing - the soft bags we un-packed went under the dinette/couch to be out of the way. I don't have a hanging pantry yet, but that is on our list of "mods" to get started on soon.
As I suspected, having things stored in boxes sitting around on counters made me nuts. So we have to decide if we will hang a pantry, shelves or add sterilite drawer caddies to store our dry goods.
I was pleasantly surprised at how patient and well behaved the kids were while setting up. Josh wanted to be involved with all the set up, and so we let him work with us. Noah and Katelyn sat patiently just enjoying being outdoors.
With the inside organized, we then needed to set up water, electric and the stove. The stove was the easiest. It went right on, and I had no problems cooking:
We initially thought the water wasn't working....turns out, we were pushing the lever up instead of down. I did take Bob's ( our sales guy) advice and get a rolling blue cooler for our sink to drain into. Worked beautifully. However, the brand new water filter shattered upon installation so I was really glad I had brought "back up" bottled water. While Rob said the water tasted fine, I am a stickler about that - can't stand well water! So I enjoyed having tasteless water!
Last was electric. There was a box on a tree that we needed to plug into. Again, on Bob the sales's advice, he said to buy this long 25 foot essentially extension cord (for campers, not the household variety) and we were pleased we did. He said there's nothing worse than being a foot or so shy of plugging in. He was right - we were about 3 feet shy and the extension cord was perfect.
So we go into the camper, turn on the lights...nothing. Huh? What were we missing? I admit I panicked if just for a moment. Was our new camper already broken? Was this a mistake? Rob calm as ever goes back out to the box in the tree and takes a look. Turns out it's not plugged in all the way. After that, perfect. Hooray! We had lights and air conditioning.
I mean what self respecting camper can hold their heads up proud without something like bright pink flamingo lights adorning their abode?
So after some learning curves, we figured out how to get the awning up and voila! Flamingo lights!
So there you have it, we're all set up. Like I said, we did fairly well. We did forget a couple of things...I forgot the regular graham crackers, all I had was gluten free. That's OK. Kids were completely satisfied stuffing marshmallows and chocolate in their mouths. In fact, I put the very first marshmallow on Noah's stick, and by the time I got the other kids set, I found this:
Yep! Never even made it into the fire. Eventually he figured out he liked roasted marshmallows too. All three kids are a "toasted" preference, not burned like their mom likes!
Other items I forgot....some kind of laundry hamper would have been helpful, a step stool would have been nice when putting up the awning, a nightlight for my scared-of-the-dark kids, a 2 x 4 piece of wood....the plot we were on was not level so even with the camper down in front as much as it could go, we still weren't quite level. Our new friend Buzz advised us to bring 2 x 4's for these scenarios.
What else? I forgot a washing pan...the sink in the camper is just a tad small for washing dishes. And frankly, I think I'd rather dump and clean as I go rather than deal with the "grey water" container at the end. While not forgotten, we found that Command hooks would have been helpful to hang on the front of the stove for a pot holder and a couple of utensils.... and a potty chair.
Oh yes, a potty chair while I thought not necessary really is. We figured out too late that 3 year old Noah, couldn't get out of the end bunk by himself. So first, I awoke around 2 am to find he peed all over his and Josh's bunk...Move Josh to dinette with KAtelyn, move Noah into bed with Rob and I. About 6:30 rolls around and I awoke to Noah peeing on me and our bed!
Uggggghhhhhh!
So he will be sleeping on the low to the found dinette and his little potty training chair will accompany us. Fortunately, having potty trained three kids in the last 8 years, I know how to clean mattresses. The bunks are drying as I type this!
The only other issue worth mentioning is the cold. I felt like I had a lot of blankets and such, but once it hit 48 degrees, we got really cold. The kind of cold that wakes you up and your nose is cold, cold. The furnace is not working and we don't have a ceramic space heater yet. So next time, if it's still scheduled to go below 50, I will have either a space heater or bring the sleep bags.
And that was our trip. We lasted more than 30 hours. No one fell in a lake. No one caught fire and we had fun. The kids LOVED it.
I did end up missing church. Having gotten up several times in the night (did I mention the "Mommy, there's a spider in my bed?" episodes?) I was just wiped. And dirty. And icky. I was simply NOT going to church to stand up in front of everyone on the worship team! Rob went though, while the kids and I stayed back to sit quietly (OK, maybe not so quietly - see tomorrow's review of the campsite) and to make a quick lunch before we started packing up. I found I could even start a fire without Rob - hooray!.
Tomorrow, I'll share my thoughts about the campground, and whether or I would, or would not recommend it to other families.
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