Camping Trip…Sa-weat!

What a weekend! I have to say that this weekend was the most fun and restful trip I’ve had in a long time. From the car-ride on Friday, to the trip back, the weekend was filled with amazing fellowship and much needed rest.

On Friday Laura got to my house after work and we headed to the campground, St Croix State Park, to meet up with Chad. Chad had a conference in the area, so he was able to get to the campsite and setup camp before we got there. I had a great opportunity to talk with Laura and get to know her better during the car-ride. We arrived at about almost 9pm. Chad had everything up and going, including a campfire. We sat around the fire and just enjoyed the nice evening, fire, and fellowship. We headed off to bed for the night. Chad was concerned about the size of their tent to fit us all, but I had brought my own tent with just in case. I figured it would be more comfortable, and a little better for them to be able to have a tent to themselves, so I setup my own tent.

The night started out warm, but by morning it got cold. It woke me up pretty early as my feet were cold. It didn’t help that I had forgotten my down sleeping bag. All I had was a light-weight fleece sleeping bag & blanket. I was able to curl up a bit and get some more sleep. We got up and started on breakfast. We made sausage over the campfire, thanks Chad , and pancakes I made over the camp stove. We forgot syrup so Chad & Laura ran to the campground store and got some jelly, the syrup was expensive. We finished breakfast, cleaned up, and I took a shower so I could get my contacts in and feel like I was awake.

We got ready to head out biking, unfortunately my bike tires were low and the campground didn’t have a working pump. Chad & I ran to a gas station like 10 miles from the park to pump up my tires and pickup some bread for the brats. When we got back we took to the trail. We had a map and decided we wanted to get to a lookout that was like 10-12 mile away. Well it was quite the trip. We got some beautiful snapshots of the ride out. We finally made it to the outlook and enjoyed the view, got some photos. Then came the trek back. We actually made it back in good time, but we didn’t really stop like we had on the way out.

When we got back we had a load of liquids, we really didn’t bring enough with on the trip, and we snacked on some chips & salsa. We showered up then head out to see if Darren & Marit were home. We got there but found no one home. We figured that they were at the hospital and Marit probably had the baby. Chad showed me around the outside, we peeked in the sliding door at the inside. We grabbed some more wood and kindling for campfires and headed out.

Chad & I had talked before we left, about driving to the fire tower to see the sunset. I was driving and drove as fast as I felt I wanted to, trying to get there in time. We got to the park and cruised along the road we had biked earlier that day. Chad wouldn’t tell Laura what we were doing, she really doesn’t like surprises, but her Mom always tells Chad that it’s good for Laura, . When we got the car parked at the based of the tower we tried to get up that tower as fast as we could. It was a little tough as we were wore out from the bike trip earlier. The bummer was was just missed the sunset. There were some people there already that told us that we had just missed it. They joked about showing us the photos of what we missed. We still got a good sky-view of the park. Laura was still happy to have been able to see the view even though we missed the sunset.

We drive back to camp and made some supper. As it was cooking we pulled out the guitars and got them tuned up. We had our brats and did some campfire singing. We played for awhile, Chad doesn’t have the callouses like I do so he couldn’t play as long. We just sat a little while and enjoyed the fire. Laura was tired and headed off to bed. Chad and I sat and talked about stuff going on in our lives. We talked about trying to do a camping trip each year. We closed our time with prayer. We both got very emotional that night. We’ve both been very close, and we’re always there for each other. He has helped me through some pretty rough times. Neither of us have a lot of friends that we would consider as close as we are. We talked some more and then figured it was late and headed off to bed.

The last night I had gotten another blanket from Chad & Laura so I was a bit more toasty. It took me a bit to get out of bed. We did sausage & potatos w/ carrots & garlic for breakfast, over the fire too. It really hit the spot. Oh yeah and I had braught instant coffee which we had both mornings. Just heated up the water over the fire. After we finished breakfast, and saw that the sky was pretty overcast, we decided to pack everything up in case it would rain. So began the process of the take-down. After we got most everything packed up I headed off to the shower. Chad got there for his shower as I was leaving. When he got back finished loading up the cars & bikes. We took my car to go see if we could find out which hospital Darren & Marit were at.

We got to a gas station and Chad & Laura did some calling around. They found out where they were so we head back to get their car from the campground and head to the hospital. We got to the hospital and saw the new little one, and the new parents. Chad & Laura got a photo, I forgot mine in the car. His name is Dane Paul. He was quite the sleepy little one. Things went very well for them. Dane was actually born on Friday night at about 8pm. It was pretty amazing as Marit was due Friday, and that doesn’t happen very often that the baby comes on the due date. After visiting for awhile we got back on the road and headed back. We stopped in St. Cloud for pizza; then I got gas, that would be the liquid kind for the car; then back on the road to home.

Well now I’m home and mostly unpacked. I got my photos from the weekend uploaded to the gallery. Now of course I’m finishing the post. Well that’s all for now. I need to get to bed soon, lol, here’s hoping. Chow for now!