Camping In Wine Country, Part One

We survived our weekend camping trip with the Cub Scouts and oh, what a weekend it was!

It started out with me in full-blown neurosis. I was prepared for a difficult confrontation based on some events that transpired on Friday before we left. I am such a crazy person sometimes. I was so worked up, I had drafted two letters to possible send out when I got home, based on what MIGHT happen. That's right, two of them. (In my defense, I was trying to do something in my control to try to make the neurosis go away so I could focus on what I needed to finish to get ready.) I was rehearsing speeches in my head. What will I say if THIS happens. What will I say if THAT happens. How am I going to get through this weekend? ARGH!

----

We left the house much later than I'd hoped to. In fact, we were just a few miles from home when we were supposed to be AT the campsite. Of course we hit traffic. Then when we got off the freeway, we'd hoped to run through a drive-thru to grab dinner. That didn't happen. I think it took us about 30 minutes to figure out where we were going to stop, then to stop and get the take out. As it was, we drove through two shopping centers, settled on Daphne's Greek Food, got Daphne's and when we were back on the road, we passed Carl's Jr with a drive-thru which would've been faster, cheaper and only 7 Weight Watchers points. Oh, well!

The hardest part of the long journey in, besides the anxiety of being late and the tapes playing through my head and the EXPECTATIONS I had built up, was driving through the Temecula Wine Country and not being able to stop at a single winery. Cilurzo, one of our favorites and the original vineyard in Temecula, was sold a few years ago and from the signs on the road we've learned that the new owners have fully transitioned the winery to a new name, "Bella Vista." (The URL still says Cilurzo but nothing else does.) There seem to be a number of wineries there that have restaurants in their tasting rooms now. I must learn more about these restaurants and find one worthy of getting a sitter to try out! This would be a very exciting date night opportunity, me thinks. If anyone is interested in driving out to Temecula to join us in this experiment, contact me. If you know me well enough, you know how to do that...

Ok, back to the fascinating camping story...

----

We arrived to the campground wondering just how bad would it be, based on what other people had told us. Yes, it's just beyond wine country but it's not filled with pretty fields of grapevines, I'm afraid. Driving into the park, it was obviously desert but we did see some green fields of grass. Maybe there was hope? Alas, the group campsite was covered in dirt. No grass to be found. The good news was that there was a smattering of trees, enough to provide a little bit of shade, there was a collection of picnic tables that were partially sheltered and shaded, and there was a lovely view of Lake Skinner from the sites. There was a very gentle, very subtle breeze, but definitely not the winds we would've faced at other campsites which we had considered. We scanned the area and decided that the somewhat shaded area on the north-east side of the group area would be the most comfortable. Another family had arrived before us and really had THE perfect spot, but there was room for our tent just next to theirs. 

Within five minutes of arriving, I learned that the confrontation which I had feared would not materialize at all. I hugged the person who I had built up all my anxiety about. I think she thought I was a crazy woman. Whatever. I needed to hug her. I did not know her but I got to know her throughout the weekend and it turns out that she seems to be a very friendly and nice person and I enjoyed every conversation I had with her. Well so much for THAT waste of neurosis. 

PerkyMommy pauses to roll her eyes at herself.

----

While I ate my Gyros Pita, Daddy Doc and the boys set up the tent. Eventually we had our little corner of the campground set up, other families arrived, I chatted with the people in our area and our weekend was off to a pretty good start.

As the sun went down, we had a campfire with hot toasted schmoes. (They're called S'mores, Buzz.) Right, right, of course. S'mores. (My kids recite those lines at me every single time I prompt them. We are so predictable but I crack me up!)

I am a miserable marshmallow toaster but I'm happy to sit in my chair and handle graham crackers and Special Dark bars to assemble s'mores as the boys toast their marshmallows. I requested a perfectly toasted, not burned set of marshmallows from my dear husband and he produced a perfect set of marshmallows for my personal s'more before making his own. Ahhhhh.

As we sat in our camping chairs chatting away, one of the dads drew our attention to the SCORPION crawling behind my chair!

WOO HOO! Scorpions!

Yes, dears, we're in the desert! What cracked me up is that one of the moms of whom I'm especially fond, a very intelligent person with a witty cynicism about her, freaked OUT about the scorpion. Mr. Genius's den is the Scorpion Patrol so I immediately began to call out the names of the Scorpions and their leaders. The dad who had discovered the specimen asked for a stick and the scorpion, who had been frozen still as flashlights shined on him, posed himself for a fight, which amused the boys and many of the adults who gathered around. (But not the witty cynic or another mom who was wearing flip flops.)

So, here's my thinking. The scorpion was barely 2" long. I was wearing tennis shoes that were more than 2" long. I'm over 5' tall. When it comes to me versus him, I'm gonna win. Plus, I had my very cool camera and lens so I was shooting away. Just think how cool this will be in next year's Cub Scout Scrapbook! We got the Scorpions present to pose for photos with the arachnid and thankfully, the witty cynic pointed out that she would NOT be leaving her shoes outside her tent for this camping trip. Oh, good idea. I made a mental note to put a trashbag down like an area rug on the inside of our tent for storing shoes when we were inside of our tent. (Normally we leave them outside on the fake grass we put down in front of our tent, under the little covered spot.)

With bedtime upon us, we returned to our tents, but for the first time, I could no longer resist natures call. That's right: It was time to face the Pit Toilets.

----

Although Lake Skinner is a Regional park, it's really set up for RV camping. In fact, at the Group Campsite there are two areas: A and B. A does not even have ANY area to pitch tents! It's a good thing we picked site B! And the families with trailers and fifth wheels (we did not have any RVs with us) had not only their own toilets but their own showers, so facilities were not an issue for them. There ARE flushing toilets and showers in the park, but the closest facilities to our tents were porta-potties. One father had already warned me, vaguely, to be cautious and that one porta-potty outshined the first two. 

Oh, what an understatement.

The first two potties had not been emptied in QUITE some time. The stench was unbearable. Nevermind the TWO LARGE BLACK BLACK WIDOWS prominently webbed inside one of them. In fact, had I sat down on that toilet, the one spider would have been mere inches from my right arm. Uhm, no thank you?

Mercifully, the third potty was much newer, was off the ground and had a door that shut such that critters could not get inside. I know it's hard to believe but there was NO foul smell inside that potty. At least not on Friday night. I did my business and returned to our tent.

Our tent is glorious. It is large. It is tall enough for all of us to stand upright and walk around. In fact, a taller person could still walk around inside our tent. There are enough dividers to create four separate "Rooms" but we only use the permanent divider down the middle. We put the boys on one side of the wall and us on the other. The reason for this is not privacy, but so that the boys will go to sleep. We can keep our light on and read while the boys go to sleep much easier when they can't see us. Plus it keeps their mess on their side of the tent and our things on our side. There's enough room on our side of the tent for our queen sized air mattress and our duffle bags, plus extra room to walk around! I love our tent. 

And while DaddyDoc put away things outside the tent for the night, turned off our lantern and such, I laid in my sleeping bag with my sudoku puzzle, in my cozy long sleeved night shirt and lightweight sweatpants, my L.L. Bean travel alarm clock with thermometer read 70 degrees. I was cozy and comfy and content.

Even with the dust, the pit toilets and the scorpions outside.

It's true!