So much has happened, where to start?

I think I will start with a long over-due trip report from that camping trip...

Our goal had been to leave our home by 2:00 pm in an attempt to hopefully avoid some traffic and get to our campsite at a relatively decent hour possibly even before sunset! Doc took the day off to help get everything ready. Unfortunately, as is often our case, our reality differed from our plans and we pulled out of our driveway at 4:30. Somewhere past the 210 we hit a run of craptacular traffic through Devore. We stopped at a Burger King in Victorville for dinner and pulled into our campsite sometime around 7:30.

Doc set up our tent while I supervised and schmoozed with the other parents and leaders. Ok, that's not entirely fair. I helped unpack the car and assembled some of our kitchen items. And in schmoozing, I learned where everyone's campsites were from our group. I even found some volunteers to help Doc set up our tent. Unfortunately, I learned that the KOA did not arrange our sites near each other. The tents were together and some of the fifth-wheel trailers and RVs were together, but we were all separated by other campers. I passed out a few of my famous red velvet mini-cupcakes but not many.

That night I realized that I left two things at home: a key ingredient for what was to be our Saturday night dessert and, more importantly: My thermal underwear.

To put it simply: I was cold. DaddyDoc purchased a knit cap for me earlier in the day and offered a pair of knit gloves. But I was cold. Seriously cold. In the middle of the night, Captain Stubborn squirmed out of his sleeping bag. He woke up disoriented and trying to get out of our tent. DaddyDoc pulled him over and in to our sleeping bag. His body was very cold and he had very shallow breathing. He stayed with us for the rest of that night. We brought a new propane powered tent heater with us but it did very little to help. The batteries outlasted the propane so by the morning rather than blowing warm air, it was recycling the cool air.

Clearly, someone warmed up better than Mommy.

In the morning when we woke up I was still very cold.

We roused ourselves from our tent and prepared oatmeal for breakfast. On short camping trips I like to keep things as simple as I can. I have had limited success keeping eggs well in my ice chest and I knew that we would be a bit busy in the morning. I wanted something quick with easy clean up. Oatmeal: hot water and paper bowls. It's a good thing.

Being very cold I had little desire to take a shower outdoors. That said, I have shower issues. I can't stand not having my hair washed. I put on a baseball cap as we headed out to Calico Ghost town for most of our day.

In the 1800s, miners found silver in the hills of Calico Ghost Town. The last residents lived there in the mid-20th century. Today Calico is a little tourist destination. Calico hosts a Civil War Reenactment weekend every President's Day weekend. We arrived early in the day. We visited a Union Camp and watched President Lincoln review the troops. We visited the home of one of Calico's last residents. We wandered over to the mine area and walked through a once active mine which two brothers lived in for several years.

We came out of the mine onto a hill overlooking Calico. The boys and their friends enjoyed climbing all over the rocks. Doc went to the nearby restaurant and grabbed burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches for our lunch which we ate while watching a "battle" below. The Union overtook a Confederate fort.

Please note the baseball cap.

Afterwards, we walked around some more. We found the rope making area. We waited a few minutes for the rope maker to return from his break. Our boys took the opportunity of being first in line to make their own rope! We wandered around the stores a bit more. CS and I took a break on a bench outside the leather shop while DaddyDoc took Mr. Genius and Sweet But Stubborn to the Mystery Shack. Do you remember the attraction at Knott's Berry Farm? Calico's connections to Knott's are best revealed at the Mystery Shack. If you miss it, you can revisit the Shack at Calico.

Although we did not see every show and display, by 2:30 we were tired and wanted to return to camp. We all wanted showers. Actually, Doc and I wanted showers. He took the boys to the campground showers. I went to visit my dear friends who let me use the shower in their trailer.

There is nothing better than a private clean shower at a campground. Nothing.

We finished off the evening relaxing. Two friends came to my campground where we shared diet sodas and Trader Joe's cheese, pesto and sundried tomato torta on pita crackers for a bit. One of my Scout Mom friends and I had arranged to share dinner. She grilled carne asada and made guacamole and salsa. I brought tortillas, cheese, sour cream and dessert. Without my key ingredient we could not make the dutch oven dump cake I planned but we had plenty of red velvet mini-cupcakes to share.

That night Doc tried to help by lining our sleeping bags with thermarest warmers a few hours before we went to bed. It helped a little bit but really the warmers worked well once we put ourselves into the sleeping bags.

But it was still really really really cold...

...to be continued.