Four flashlights. And none of them with working batteries. An inauspicious beginning for our first-ever tent camping trip for longer than one night with all our kids. (That’s a thing, right? Like baby’s first tooth and the kindergarten choir… First forced family togetherness in the wilderness!) Which is why we are setting up our tent in the dark. Oh and did I mention it’s raining and supposed to drop below freezing? Yep turns out that old stereotype of deserts being hot – Not always true.
ANYHOW. As you have surmised, it’s spring break here and we are taking a luxury vacation quixotic journey in the red rocks for the rest of the week. Upside: I can finally try squatty pottying like a real cavegirl while singing Natural Woman and sunning my ladybits (not). Downside: I will be MIA from email and internets. Send me warm thoughts! Or a rescue copter!
Blurry selfie of Jelly Bean and I huddled over the flickering light…of my camera phone. We will find wood tomorrow!
Deserts are cold at night.
Its like…a thing.
I took a desert survival class at university. We slept out on the desert. Lived off the land.
Deserts are cold at night.
Light you can make.
What’s really hard is to make tooth paste.
saw this last night and am obsessssing about your house etc.
house sitter?!
What Darwin said; I guess you never heard the stereotype that deserts get very cold at night! NO flashlights? You’re gonna have lots of fun when the kids take turns needing to pee in the middle of the night.
Yes, I heard that as a kid, even up here in the great white north.
So I knew what I was in for when I took that desert survival class, then I got first hand confirmation.
Deserts are cold at night.
(That may be a firewood shelter they set their tent up in. Extra protection from the elements to be certain…so kudos on that front…but its possible they may be asked to move.)
Have a great time!
Oh my gosh! This SO happened to me!!! You have no idea how much better you just made me feel about my own trip-planning skills if this can happen to other people. Several years ago I was absolutely desperate to get away for a day or two, and realized I hadn’t been camping since I was 4 and the only reason I even know about that trip is that there was a picture of me, somewhere, by a tent. But . . . it was February. And it was raining. So I called up my two bravest (read: dumb as me) friends and told them, “But it doesn’t rain in the dessert!” I found a Civil War reenactment we could go to in a ghost town in the dessert and we loaded up on snacks and I dug my parent’s tent they’d purchased at Walmart ten years ago and never used out of their garage. “Do we need a reservation?” we wondered. Nah, let’s just show up around 8pm. Never mind the dessert is the darkest place, like, ever and that campgrounds don’t have light and that none of use have ever set up a tent anyways.
When we showed up, the ranger thought we were nuts and just let slide the fee we were supposed to pay because it was late and raining (how did we not know you have to pay to camp?!). It was pitch black and the tent . . oh the tent. It was this three-room purple monstrosity that was harder to assemble than Ikea furniture with no directions. We took turns standing on the picnic bench shining a flashlight (at least we had those) down on the other two while they tried to assemble the thing. We managed to get one and a half “rooms” up and went to sleep. Well, my one friend who can sleep through anything fell asleep. Me and the other friend shivered and pushed rocks around, trying to keep them poking out hips. Then we realized a couple hours later that, “Hey, I’m wet.” “Me too!” “THE TENT IS FLOODING! ABANDON SHIP!”
We butchered the muddy remnants of that awful tent like a moose and fled the dessert with our tails between our legs, and had to drive about 40 mile to get to a hotel that wasn’t full because of that stupid Civil War reenactment. We had a pillow fight and laughed about it a lot. Gosh, my friends and I prove you can have the stupidest kind of fun without alcohol. Hope your camping trip goes well (and flood-free!)
Way to turn lemons into lemonade!
Very impressive Cavy!
And a hilarious retelling of the circumstances.
Thank-you.
Camping is so fun! Enjoy!
First rule of squatty potty. Make sure your foot is not down hill.
I don’t remember ever using flash lights camping. We always used the campfire for light or the headlights or interior of the car. I do remember many blind walks to the outhouses provided at some campgrounds.
Have fun! I’m sure your kids willbe right into it! X
Hilarious. I remember our first family camping trip very well. It was not without many of the same troubles and fun. It gets better if you decide to try it again. In my experience family camping trips always make for some pretty interesting stories.