Camping Chaos

We have been trying to go on a family camping trip for the whole summer. We were trying to hold out for Sandbanks in Ontario but there was never availability. So this past week we finally made our way. We gave up on going to Sandbanks and opted for a few nights in the Adirondack Mountains instead. Everything was packed and our boys were so excited to go on a mini vacation. We made it as far as the edge of Plattsburgh and our truck broke down. We got it towed to a shop nearby and sadly it couldn’t be fixed right away. We decided to get a hotel room for the night and wait for the call from the shop that we would be on our way. Unfortunately, that whole week there was a huge golf tournament and every hotel was booked up. We didn’t know about that. We walked into our first choice the Comfort Inn, it has a little water park in it and we’d stayed there before. Upon arrival I was told they had no rooms and was basically given a good luck. Deflated, I was about to turn to leave and the other hotel worker said they had one cancellation and we got the last room in the area!

The brothers thought this was already the best vacation ever and we hadn’t even made it to our campsite yet. Little brother was in his glory watching our vehicle get put on a flatbed tow truck and was beside himself with giddiness when we climbed into the back seat of the tow truck for our ride. Big brother was all about there being watersides at our hotel that all he wanted to do was go swimming. That night we were thankful to all be safe and together while we waited for the repair shop to call about our truck. They called the next morning and delivered the bad news. Our truck wouldn’t be done for a couple more days. It was even worse than we thought and the parts were being shipped. We called my mom to come pick our family up.

A few days went by and we got that phone call to come pick up our truck. But wouldn’t you know it we had one hour to get there before the shop closed. We made it up there and were reunited with our ride. We still had all our camping stuff loaded in the back so we planned on hitting the highway straight to Lake George. We made it there at night and still had to set up our tent. Of course with me being the navigator I got us lost. I took us forty miles south of our destination. That was horrible. I think I should not be in charge of directions ever. I didn’t care that it was dark and neither did the boys. We were just happy to be there and be done traveling and being lost. We had finally made it happen. We were at the campground with our kids and could relax. My husband and I have become pretty fast with the tent so it only took us about ten minutes. We had bought two air mattresses on our way downstate to use. As we were getting ready for bed and getting the air mattresses set out to inflate we realized the batteries we needed to blow them up weren’t included! It was almost eleven and we were miles from anywhere. My husband blew the queen sized bed up himself so I wouldn’t have to sleep on the hard ground. However, he wasn’t going to benefit from his good deed. The kids jumped in the bed right away with their big, sad, tired eyes. We could barely fit. The brothers slept on the big bed with me while my husband hunkered down on the ground beside us. We all crashed out pretty quick.

In the morning, I cooked while the kids slept in. We had a really fast paced day. We went mini putting and hit up the arcade. We hung out at the camp’s beach and rented pedal carts. We ventured into Lake George around lunchtime and had found the Enchanted Forest. It’s still there! It’s like an artifact in theme parks from long ago. It’s all still the same. The brothers loved it until we got rained on. All four of us were on the ferris wheel when the rain hit. We quickly left and started to make our way to a store. We needed to find a Walmart for some dinner supplies and breakfast for the day after. Well once again I managed to get us lost. We didn’t end up at Walmart, but a suburb of Hudson Falls. Why my husband listens to me with my track record of misdirection, I have no idea. When we made it back to the campsite we swam and walked. The rain followed us from town and we took refuge in our tent. The kids thought it was the coolest. They listened to the thunder and told stories. It didn’t matter how bad the storm was or what we did, the kids loved all the camping chaos.