Cutlips Go Camping

There's some saying about camping being a great for family bonding. In my experience, that's
true...because something always goes wrong. Who would remember a camping trip where nothing went wrong? "Remember that time we went to the woods and camped?" Sharing memories as a family for years and years to come of "those" camping trips will forever bind us together. Hey, we can even laugh about it now.

Tom's mom and dad bought a 32' long, sleeps eight, camp trailer years ago to live in while on our property. Then they found something more permanent with year-round capabilities. We didn't have a truck big enough to pull it so the camp trailer just lived on our property empty. 

After a couple of years of that, a friend shared how she made an Airbnb out of there camp trailer - I had never heard of such a thing! People would pay to sleep in one of those? Being encouraged that it was indeed a thing, we turned ours into an AirBnb for three summers. There was some work involved cleaning the trailer after guests (Livvy, Jon and I helped mostly with that), but it was super fun! We met people from all over the world: Italy, India, South Africa, Russia, missionaries from China. We had singles (one stayed for 2 months), couples, families, groups of gals or guys traveling through to their next destination. If the family had kids, our kids and theirs inevitably ended up playing together so much so that I think our little boys thought they had come just to play with them. For the last six months or so we had a single guy living there that is trying to get back on his feet. 

Last year, however, our truck, "Big Blue" (which really isn't big), died and we bought a new-to-us truck. This is a BIG diesel truck, one that can pull a 32' long camp trailer. Therefore, a camping trip was called for. We planned on joining an older couple from church as they were planning their maiden Arizona camping trip. It was going to be great! Gone were the days of living out of coolers and packing things in 50 gal totes loaded on our utility trailer! We had the means to glamp! I was excited!

Loading the trailer with all of necessities was fairly easy - it was already set up as an AirBnb so it had everything we needed. All I had to do was pack the fridge, have the girl and boys put their luggage on their beds, throw some camp chairs in the under storage and we were good to go. Tom told me to put our big coolers in there too, just in case. I thought he was crazy! We had a fridge. Duh!

The first problem occurred when Ben and Jon were filling up the water tank. It leaked. Big time. As in, it didn't hold water. Somewhere along the way, it apparently got a crack in it. Bummer! Oh, well! We were only going camping for two nights, so we could forgo the showers and just bring our big water cooler. No problem!

Tom and half the kids loaded into the truck and the rest piled into the mini-van (the truck only sits six, so we had to take two vehicles). Sam did a great job driving us to our camp site. With ease we got the chairs out and began glamping. With the generator humming, we ate lunch at the picnic table and prepared for a nice, slow pace of the camping life.

With lunch eaten, Ben took his electric long-board for a spin around the paved loop of the camp-ground. He came back several minutes later. No problems. Nice paved roads. Then Sam asked Ben if he could borrow his long-board and take it out for a spin. Ben happily obliged and off Sam went. The rest of us went on to chatting, cleaning up from lunch, etc. 

Five, maybe ten minutes later, Sam wasn't back but we didn't think anything of it - he was just off exploring. Just about that time, we saw a man running down the road (obviously not dressed for running) past our camping spot. He looked over at us and inquired if we had a kid on a skateboard. Yes. Yes we do/did. "He's lying on the road up the hill." 

My hear sank. Livvy and Ben took off running in the direction that the man pointed. Tom grabbed the van keys and headed up the road in the van. I stayed back with the little boys and with our friends and prayed. I prayed mainly that he didn't hit his head. He's had a couple of minor concussions that I'm always concerned about him hitting it again.

A couple of minutes later, Tom pulled up with everybody in the van. Sam was in obvious pain. Thankfully he didn't hit his head, but his wrist and his ankle were really hurting, along with scraps up and down his side. He had hit a bump going down the hill and his thumb came off the brake and sent him flying - he hadn't ridden the long board enough to know how to control it, especially going downhill with obstacles.

Tom, Livvy and Sam headed off to the urgent ortho that we've been to a number of times. They really should have a family discount plan or a punchcard of some sort.

To make a long story a little shorter, Sam broke his wrist and his ankle. We decided to stay at our camp site figuring Sam needed to rest and it had taken so much to get us to go camping that we should make the most of it without him. As soon as he was patched up and home, his buddies (they are an awesome bunch of teenagers!!) they filed in and vowed to take care of him. That they did. They stayed with him the next two whole days until we came home. They took him out to breakfast, they bought him a huge white unicorn at a garage sale, took him to his soccer game to cheer on his team, took him out for lunch, and took him to the rodeo that night. Though he might not have gotten the rest he needed, he had fun and was in very good hands! 

Poor guy. His whole summer took a turn for the unexpected. He couldn't play summer AYSO soccer (possibly his last year of eligibility). He couldn't practice driving to get his hours for driver's ed. He couldn't work at the job with at contractor that he had literally just started. He laid low for a bit. I convinced him to start some school early; which he did although a little reluctantly. Through it all he had a great attitude! Super impressed with the kid!

His ankle healed a lot faster than expected. He's on the mend and hoping to start playing for NPA's soccer team starting next week (he's been going to practices but not able to participate much or play in a game). Coach said he'd start putting him in as long as he's pain-free. Here's hoping for pain-free!

As for the rest of our time camping trip, it was mostly relaxing. Some fished. Some hiked. We ate. Relaxed. But...the generator failed to turn on again after working that first couple of hours. I didn't get the true feel of glamping (we ended up having to live out of the coolers Tom told me to bring "just in case") but it was fine. 

On the ways home we stopped at Lake Mary to play and eat lunch. Less than minutes on the road again, one of the back tires on the camper shredded into tiny pieces. Our little caravan pulled over and proceeded to each Oreos and change the tire. Changing the tire proved a little more difficult  - something with the original jack not getting it high enough off the ground, needing to switch to the farmer jack (which Tom had "just in case"), but then not knowing how to lower the farmer jack, etc. etc.

There is no way that any of us will ever forget this camping trip! It will last in all of our memories for decades to come! Maybe we should stop bringing things for "just in case". Maybe that's setting us to need it.