Up we rose the next day, cleaning up the trailer, getting ready, packing up the truck and van. Being so type A, it was good for me to let go and let C. head up the project…for the most part. I will be finding out more about this later on in our trip.
We finally take off, headed to Ontario, OR. It’s gonna be a long day of driving. There isn’t a lot of things to see, outside of desert scrub, along the way. Honestly, it’s one of the most boring drive every, with the high points being a bar in Orvada, NV and then another in McDermott, NV, that claims to not be friendly, because no one is welcome to use the bathroom unless you’re gambling. Whatever. Seriously.
We make our way into OR and then into ID to make our way back to Ontario, OR. We hit a bit of a snag in ID when a truck had caught on fire and we are stopped at the fire. Screaming halt to progress. I mean serious halt. Traffic backed up for quite a few cars, indicating that it will be quite some time. We think it’s a forest fire initially. Nope. Well, that’s kinda good, so at least the earth isn’t on fire. However, a vehicle is and and we must wait…and wait…and wait. To the tune of at least an hour or more. Again, almost 100 degrees like in Winnemucca.
We finally get the go ahead to head down the road. We do and try to get to Ontario and the state park with a vengeance. We roll up with both the truck and the van, different than we had reserved, which was our trailer and our van. Person at the little hut says no problem. Great. We’re really happy.
We roll into our little space, between a cabin and other tent camp spaces. This was meant to be for a trailer but whatever. C. and I begin to grab tents and get ready to go because we know we’re working against daylight. Boys have a innate ability to understand that we are busy and may be under pressure. This is license to jack. Jack as in “jack around”. As in be difficult and understand that we are busy and play on it. As in try to screw with each other knowing we can’t possibly police it all.
On the flip side, the 4 man tent went up great. The 10 man, well, that was a whole different story. We try and we struggle. All of the pieces, some connected, so not. Some higher than the other and some not. We have to figure out what is what. Once we do…at least 1.5 hrs. later…a huge windstorm kicks up. This is not a breeze. This.is.a.windstorm. The big tent, which took incredible effort to get to stand up, becomes like a sail. No trees to protect it. Nothing but the river behind and a RV pad around. Definitely not a recipe for success. Wind continues to blow. Big tent collapses. Big tent pipes to hold it up bend and break. No 10 person tent for 7 people. OMG. What the heck do we do? Never mind we had planned to roast hot dogs over a fire for dinner. That ain’t gonna happen. If we light a fire, there’s a good chance that the whole park could catch on fire. It’s now getting later. Approximatley 8p to 9p. Still no dinner for the kiddos and only one tent. Not looking awesome. Not at all. I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine, so I’m somewhat calm. Everyone else, not so much. All the kids are crying. Tired, hungry and have a group that has absolutely zero passion for tent camping are a recipe for a complete cluster…and it was. C. wants to go to a hotel, G. is crying, boys are crying. I somehow find a voice.
“We will be fine.” “There is no need for a motel and we will get through this.” “It’s called camping” is what I say. This is easier for me because I’ve had two glasses of wine and I can deal with everyone freaking. By now it’s like 10p or so. Nothing good is coming from it. We know the 10 man tent is so toast that we will have to get really creative about sleeping arrangements.
While contemplating the sleeping arrangements with only 1 four man tent and the van and truck, it’s gonna be interesting. G. right away asks to sleep in the van. Um OK…she’s taken care of.
What about those 4 boys and the 2 ‘rents? Gotta make it work. So the kiddos pile into the 4 man tent and we see that we will have to do this. So, that leaves C and I to either sleep in the truck or somehow squeeze into the tent. We opt for the tent since we have a good air bed that we just bought from Costco. Good in theory. Once we provided batteries to blow it up (rechargeable), it promptly became really hot and then just plain stopped working. So, we had some inflation, but not too much. Insult to injury? Well that would be that the airbed would not fit in the “vestibule”, aka “the bug tent outside the door”. We were forced to camp there. On the ground, no inflatable. SO not awesome. We thought we were fairly prepared for the trip. Oh wait! We can’t prepare for wind. But still, a “Weather Master 10” model of tent that collapses and bends? Yeah, not so sure that tent was the best choice. Well, obviously not , since it collapsed.
We have to eat first. This is gonna be interesting since there’s nothing near. We are in a National Park near nothing but a river, fire pit or what we’ve packed in our food tote. No fire for hot dogs, so our other option is freeze dried food. I have a love/hate relationship with freeze dried food. On one hand, essential to have. On the other hand, it’s full of salt and crap, designed to help people survive. I get it. Um yeah.
So, knowing that we had to be prepared (we happened to be prepared, but we really weren’t), we did bring freeze dried food. So we picked 3 since there were 7 of us, to see if we could actually make it happen. Kiddos were still crying, didn’t want to be there, didn’t like the weather. C told the boys that he “asked God to turn the wind machine off”. They believed it, but it was super funny, much needed comic relief during this, very frankly, sh^tty time while everyone cried except for C. and I. I told them that we can do it. That it would all be OK. Let’s just get through dinner. C. shelters the flame of our 1 burner, meanwhile I’m watching the percolator to see when our hot water (aka path to Nirvana) will be done. It’s getting darker and things quieter.
We all eat freeze dried food, which was pretty well received since it was this or that as the choices. Well, the last choice was starve, so whatever works for them. I mean really, hot water from a percolator is all that we had. Well they could have eaten 10 granola bars I suppose, but that sounds less appealing than freeze dried food if you ask me.
e.
So after an incredibly late dinner, we head to bed. Gillian to the van, boys to our space in the 4 man and us to the screened in porch. SO not amazing. Let me tell ya. So we roll around in there…not fun…cramped in so many ways.
C is up first, Ben, as usual is up first for the kiddos. Daddy and Ben have a chance to spend some time together. Way to freakin’ early for me, but doesn’t matter. Life works like that.
I make my first attempt at percolator coffee. It was mostly successful. Doable enough. However, I also think that it takes talent. My parents made it look so easy. After doing it, not so sure, but whatever. Oh yeah…note to self…bring paper cups so we don’t have to drink coffee out of Cars the movie party cups. Just sayin’.
