Plans

So, it is that time of the year again...Time to make our summer vacation plans. We typically camp around 5 or 6 times each summer. This year, because of the high cost of fuel, we are scaling back our trips. Gonna stay a little closer to home most of the summer. So today I made my reservations. For your reading enjoyment, I will include links to the places we are going. I wont tell you exactly when we are going though because I wouldn't want any of my fans to stalk me or anything. Cause you know, that totally could happen. lol

First we don't camp in tents anymore. No siree, we gave that up a few years ago. OK, because I know you are just dieing to ask, I will tell you. Every summer we have kids from New York come and stay with us. They are inner city children that are needy and we have them stay with us for 2 weeks or more. One child in particular stays the entire summer -all though this year we are not taking any Fresh Air kids. That is what they are called. We are involved in the Fresh Air fund. It is a wonderful organization that enables inner city youth to enjoy a summer vacation with families in the suburbs or freaking boondocks. I have acted as the chairperson for my town for the past few years but this year, there is a new person taking over for me and we are not taking any kids. It is a much needed break as we have shared our summers for the past 6 summers! And while it was great, it is time to say goodbye. Or at least goodbye for now. Of course we will still be dragging other peoples children along with us camping, etc. We are just weird like that.

Anyway, back to my story about how we came to not be tent campers. That summer a few years ago my daughter and oldest son both wanted to have Fresh Air kids for the summer. So we took two kids in. Yes, two. That makes 5 kids for the summer. I am not quite sure what we were thinking. But we said sure kids, what is two more kids for the summer? We will go camping, and biking, and swimming, you know, all the "ing" activities that we all enjoy participating in over the summer. So we got a nice little boy (crazy kid from the Bronx) and a nice little girl (crazy girl from the Bronx). OK, actually, the girl, Tonisha, we have come here every year since she was like 6 so we knew about her "crazy". Which in all honesty wasn't really crazy at all. She is a nice kid. So, anyway... back to my story. It is 4th of July 2003, we decided to take all of the kids, all FIVE of them camping. In tents. Need I say more? We pitched a kid tent and we pitched a grown ups tent and we pitched a screen tent. Then we put all of our clothes, and bedding, and air mattresses, etc. in the various tents. We were doing good. All set up. Then a storm blew up. I mean a huge storm. A storm that blew all three tents down. Yes, you read that correctly. All three freaking tents blew down. And all of the clothes and bedding got wet. So I spent the entire Saturday afternoon washing and drying all of our clothes and bedding in the Laundromat.

OK so that was bad enough right? I mean, it was a pain in the ass but a month before that we had gone camping with the boy scouts. The boy scouts have this pesky rule that families should come camping during their "family camping" events So we went. But they also have a rule that you have to camp in tents. Which at the time was not a problem since we didn't have a camper yet. So we went off that fine May weekend camping with the boy scouts. Unfortunately for us, it was cold and it rained. And it rained and it rained. And it was cold. Cold and rainy. And muddy. Really, really muddy. In fact it was so rainy and cold and muddy that our tent literally had about 3 inches of water in the bottom of it. It was a good thing we had air mattresses because otherwise we quite literally would have been sleeping in muddy water at the bottom of our tent. So, I endured the torture Friday night but Saturday morning, I was OUTA THERE! No passing go, no collecting $200.00 See ya later sucka! I am not camping in this mud hell hole anymore bitch. So.....Between the mud camping fiasco and the 4th of July blow down, I was done with tent camping. I mean, come on, I am not an Arab. I don't need to be travelling the country in a tent. Give me a great big old RV baby! Yes, that's what I am talking about.

So, we bought a travel trailer. It sleeps 10. Has a glorious bathroom with a shower and bathtub(combination but still..). It has a stove and an oven and double sink and a microwave oven. Best of all it has air conditioning and a steareo and a televisiona and dvd with surround sound and cable and Mike and I have our own bedroom with a queen size bed and our own television in our room. We are living large baby! OK so what was the point of all of this wine induced verbal vomit? Oh yea, I planned our camping vacations for the summer.

First we are going Here.. It looks like tons of fun. The kids especially are excited about the water slides.

Next we are going here. Tom's Cove. We have been going here for , well- forever. My parents camped here before I was born and I am pretty sure they took us camping here every year of my life. I had a couple of years where I didn't camp in the late 80's and so I didn't go to good ole Chincoteague then. But Mike and I started going there again when we were dating and have gone practically every year since. I love it and would love to buy property there. Unfortunately by the time we can afford to buy anything we will probably be priced out of the market on the island. So we will continue to camp there. You may have heard of the famous Pony swim? Well yea, this is where it all happens. So we are planning to spend about 11 days there this summer. I wish it could be more. We will spend the entire time fishing and boating and crabbing and swimming in the ocean. What more could you ask for?

The next trip we are going Here. We have never been here before but it looks like a lot of fun and some friends are coming with us(in their own campers) so we should have a blast.

Then the next camping trip that I have planned is for Halloween camping. We go with a bunch of people. My brother and his family, my other brother, my parents, and several other families that we love to travel with. It is a blast. We all pitch in making meals that we all eat together. The kids dress up and trick or treat.There are pumpkin carving contests, hay rides, a dance, find a needle in the haystack contests, and best decorated site. Then there is the partying. Lots and lots of fun around the campfire. I think we all love Halloween camping.

Other than those trips, I would also like to spend a nice long weekend in the mountains and take the kids 4-wheeling and tubing and maybe some time at our friends beach house. Lots of fun stuff planned.

So what are your plans for the summer?