The Great Camping Trip

17 September 2012 Dear Everyone, Things here have been going smoothly, and I am very happy that the guys are back in school. The summer seemed loooooong. After swim team was over, I decided to take the guys on a camping trip. I really wanted to see the redwoods in California, and it wasn’t looking like I was ever going to be able to do that unless I did it myself. So, I told the guys that we were going to go on a trip, and planned for leaving on 25 July. It was just me and the guys going – Ron had to stay home because he didn’t have enough leave to go. 25 July We left only an hour after we had planned on leaving – a minor victory. I got all the way to the main street (exactly one mile), and had to turn around and go back to pick up the tent. Yup, drove off without it. We headed back out and then got on the highway towards Phoenix. After driving for about an hour, the phone rang. It was Ron, asking me where I was. Right at that moment, I realized that I had not put MY clothes in the car. I asked him if I had forgotten the clothes, and we agreed to meet up at the Waffle House, one hour toward Tucson from where I was right then. We met up, I found somewhere to put the clothes (I should have realized that something was missing when there seemed to be so much room in the back of the car), and got back on I-10. We drove for about 3 hours, and decided to stop at Dateland. We all had to go to the bathroom anyway, so why not stop and look at the date trees? The date trees were nice. I bought the guys a date milkshake to share (they were $5 each! So we got one and shared.) Once we left Dateland, the road was really deserted. I mean REALLY deserted. As you can see, there is NOTHING out there! We drove for at least three more hours with the road and the surroundings looking just like this. There weren’t any other cars either, most of the way. As we drove, I saw a sign for the Salton Sea. From Wikipedia: The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault, predominantly in California's Imperial Valley. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado desert Imperial and Riverside counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is below sea level. Currently, its surface is 226 ft (69 m) below sea level. The deepest area of the sea is 5 ft (1.5 m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo rivers, as well as agricultural runoff drainage systems and creeks. The Sea was created by a flood in 1905, in which water from the Colorado River flowed into the area. I really wanted to visit this thing because it certainly wasn’t something I was going to get the chance to see often! The guys agreed that we really needed to see this, and so we turned off. This was my plan for the entire trip – I wanted to leave it up to the guys where and when we stopped. I was trying very hard to ignore my control freak tendencies. We finally found a parking lot that was open and pulled in. Apparently, the state of California will be closing all of its state parks because of lack of funding. The parking lot we parked in was the last one open, and was scheduled to be closed permananently in the next month. We got out of the car to find that the air was 117 degrees. It was SOOO hot. We walked over the sand and down to the water, thinking that the water would be nice. Uh, yeah. Not so much. As we walked over the sand, we realized that all the sand was dead fish, scales, barnacles, and fish bones. The line of what I had thought was seaweed of some sort was dead fish. All of it. The fish were white with salt and hard as rocks, also because of the salt. I suggested taking a couple home with us, but the guys were not into that at all. I took off my shoes and put my feet in the water. It was really weird. Unless I was looking at my feet, I couldn’t tell that they were under water. The water temperature was exactly the same as the air tempterature. It was bizarre. There were more dead fish bumping up against my legs too. I got out of the water. We went back to the car pretty quickly after that since it was almost 120 degrees. We got back in the car and headed for our camping place. The camp I was aiming for was in the Los Pinos State Forest and was only $10 per night! I drove past the ranger station because the GPS told me too, but luckily, I realized that there was a problem within 10 miles and got back on the right path. By this time though, it was 7:45pm, and the sun was dropping fast. We drove into the park and followed the signs to the tent camping area. I have never tent camped in my entire life, so I was depending on the guys to do magic with the tent and that kind of stuff. It took a few minutes to get up the several hairpins to get to the camp sites, but once we were there, it was really nice. The camp had a fire pit, a picnic table, and a nearby latrine (these things are very important to me). The campsite also had a single guy staying across the way. He didn’t come over to say hello, so we just ignored each other at first. He must have been so thrilled to have the guys move in across the road…. While getting ready for the trip, I had mentally prepared to sh*t in the woods, if I had to; after all, I was camping, right? I had bought How to Sh*t in the Woods, 2nd Revised Edition, and I had studied it seriously since I figured that some of the places we were going to go would not have latrines. Thank God, this did not turn out to be so. But, at the beginning I didn’t know this and I had purchased this thing: This is a portable toilet paper holder. I figured that if we were going to be heading into the woods to do private stuff, I was going to be absolutely sure that my toilet paper 1) wasn’t going to roll away, and 2) wasn’t going to be covered with dirt from the guys dropping it when they were on their trips to do private stuff. I am sort of grateful that I never had to use this, but on the other hand, what a great invention! The only way to improve this thing would be to install a flashlight on the bottom. Then it would be perfect. Andy and Benjamin set up the tent after Elias and James spread out the tarp. They did a fantastic job, finishing just as the sun dropped below the mountains. While they did that stuff, I attempted to get dinner together. We had tuna fish, salt and vinegar potato chips, and apples. The guys were exhausted, and I have to admit, I wasn’t too perky either. I mustered up the courage to visit the latrine. I borrowed one of the guys’ headlamps and started out. There were no lights at all at the campground. There were also no signs at the latrine, so I didn’t know which side to go to. I approached the latrine. I stood there debating if there was a women’s side and a men’s side, or it was free for all. Suddenly, I heard: Go to the other side! This is the men’s side! I’m in here!! in a slightly panic-stricken tone. That was nothing compared to how I felt – I practically ran to the other side and found the door to the other latrine. I did a thorough inspection of the latrine and the hole – never know when something might be lurking down there just waiting to take a big chunk out of your a$$... It was all clear, and I managed to go and then get back to the tent without killing myself. However, I wasn’t thrilled with the experience. I got back to the tent and the guys had set up my cot and sleeping bag. They were terrific. Once I knew someone else was at the campsite, I couldn’t change into my pajamas, so I climbed into the sleeping bag with all of my clothes on, and my car keys clipped to my belt loop. Then I turned over and had a shock – the whole top of the tent was mesh! I could see everything above us! I just wasn’t expecting that; the guys told me that if there had been clouds they would have put the rain fly on. Sleepign wasn’t too bad that night. Benjamin’s night terrors came two or three times, but we got through it once I woke him up and he stopped screaming. I am sure that the guy across the way was more than happy to see us go in the morning. 26 July We got up around 7:30am and packed up the tent and sleeping bags. Of course, everything that had fit into the top carrier the day before in the garage was now refusing to fit in again. This is typical. After policing the area, we drove down to the ranger station to pay our fee and to take the top carrier down and re-pack it on the ground. Yes, I attempted to get the damn thing packed without taking it down – I couldn’t imagine how we would get the thing back up on the roof! A nice lady ranger came out and asked if she could help. I told her that we needed to pay our fee, and she waived it! She also allowed me to use her FLUSH TOILET! I hid in the bathroom with a pack of baby wipes, deodorant, and fresh clothes, while the guys ate cereal and debated how to load the top carrier in the parking lot. When I got back, they had finished loading it and had gotten it all the way zipped up! It was not a pretty experience to get the carrier back on top of the car. It is a damn good thing that Andy is 6 feet tall, or we would have never achieved it. Finally, we were on the road again. We were heading to San Francisco – Sunnyvale in particular. Our friend from high school, Paul, had married a woman named Amy and settled there. They have two kids, Bennett (aka Sonic) and Alynna, ages 11 and 9. I was really hoping that things would go well between the kids and my guys. We were going to camp in their backyard for the 4 days we were going to be in SF. On the way, we stopped at a farm stand and bought watermelon, strawberries, and a pineapple. The guys thought the strawberries were the best they had ever had, and they were. The field was only about 20 feet from the stand and the berries were SO FRESH! They were delicious. We arrived at Paul and Amy’s house around 3:30pm, and within 10 minutes, all of the kids were playing video games. I don’t know why I worried. We made dinner and had an early night since we were planning on going into the city the next day. 27 July We got up early since we had heard all about the traffic into the city. They weren’t kidding either! The traffic was ok and then suddenly, it wasn’t at all. We came to a dead stop and stayed there for at least 20 minutes. We finally got off and found Fisherman’s Wharf. By some miracle, I found a parking spot right in front of the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop! The guys felt that this was Providence acting in their favor and wanted to go in immediately. We walked around for a couple of minutes, and then I gave in to the requests to visit the shop. We went in, and the greeter gave each of the guys a Ghirardelli square. That was it – we had to visit every single Ghirardelli shop we saw for the rest of the weekend. I did buy the guys the Gold Rush Sundae – vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, hot peanut butter sauce, chopped peanuts, whipped cream and a cherry. I only bought one because it was $9! I sure wasn’t going to buy four of them! Well, that thing was gone in about 90 seconds. Seriously. Once they had cleaned up the carnage, we headed over to the wharf to see the tall ship. The pass to get on the tall ship (the Balclutha, previously the Star of Alaska) and the other old ships at the wharf (two old tug boats, and a ferry), was $5 for me, and the guys were free. This is my kind of thing! We climbed on to the Balclutha and it was AMAZING! I love the Patrick O’Brien books and this was my chance to inspect a ship just a little newer than those in the books and figure out all kinds of things that I had questions about. The guys loved it too – they thought that the wheel was really cool. We got to go through the entire ship and see how the cargo was loaded and how it was set up so that the ship would stay upright as much as possible. We got to look at the crew’s quarters – very small, and the Chinese crew’s quarters – even smaller with open spots where ocean could come in!! This was a horrible place to live! I don’t think you would have been dry at all for the whole trip between the water coming on deck, and the water coming into the sleeping area. And it was COLD in there! You can see that it was cloudy in the morning, but it did clear later that day. Once we were done with the ships, we headed back to land and the shipping museum, which was excellent. I wanted to get back on dry land since I had managed to get seasick on the Balclutha. You would think that a large ship, attached to the dock, would not move enough to make me sick. At least that is what I though; but I was totally wrong on that count. We got back to land, and the guys walked down to the beach to inspect the water. While they were down there, I bought them Angry Birds hats. They got to pick out what they wanted, and wore them the rest of the day. My friend Ian from high school met up with us around noon, and the plan was to have lunch and then he would show us around the city. He took us to a burrito place that was way cheap (yay!!) and the guys had the biggest burritos I had ever seen, until then. They loved it, and then we walked around The Mission and worked our way back to Ian’s smartcar. Each of the guys got to ride in the smartcar, and this was a highlight. Andy in particular was very impressed that the smartcar didn’t drift back down the hills. Ian is a film-maker and was taking video of the guys several times that day. They peppered Ian with questions for every single moment we were all together. Once the guys had finished eating, I never got another word in with Ian – he was monopolized by the guys. He didn’t seem to mind, and I hope he wasn’t too overwhelmed. We went to some of the overlooks and high places in SF and saw the whole city. It was really awesome. Then we went home and collapsed. 28 July We got up later in the morning since we weren’t going as far. We met my friend Anita from high school and her daughter at the Henry Cowan State Park which has a large redwood grove. We got there and parked – it was a gorgeous day! It was cool, maybe 75 degrees, and sunny. This was at the gate to the park – and it wasn’t even close to as large as some of the trees we saw. I was stunned at how big the trees were. I knew they were large, but I just didn’t have any concept of HOW large until we were looking at them in person. Now, this is three redwoods that grew together, but still! That is one HUGE TREE!! We found a redwood that was hollow on the inside and had been used as a campsite for someone for several years. It was really cool. Seventeen adults could fit into this tree! I went inside and tried to get a picture of the guys inside the tree, but my flash just wasn’t up to the challenge The little girl is Anita’s daughter, Thallia. If this picture weren’t fuzzy, it would be fantastic. We had a picnic in the redwoods and talked and then went to Anita’s house to swim in the pool and hang around. It was a terrific afternoon. 29 July The guys were up early today because I had told them I would take them to California Extreme – an arcade game/video game/pinball game conference only 10 minutes from Paul and Amy’s house. It cost $15 for each guy to get in, but the manager let me in for free (saving me $30!) when I promised to not touch any machine. I had brought my Kindle, and had a couple of books ready to go. California Extreme took up two huge ballrooms in the hotel it was in. Here is a picture of the gaming floor: It was nerd central, and my guys were right at home! There were tournaments throughout the day, and the games were all free, so the guys could play as long as they wanted to, as much as they wanted to. I am sure they thought they had achieved nirvana. It was really loud in there, but I just found a chair, or sat on the floor and read my Kindle while the guys played games. We divided the area up into sections and went section by section. Once all four of them were done in a section, we would move on to the next one and I would find a new spot to read. This went VERY well. We got there at 10:30am, and the doors opened at 11am. We walked back to the car at 2:30pm for lunch in the car (told you I am cheap!), and then back to Extreme at 3pm, until we finally left at 7:30pm. Here is Elias playing Addams Family Pinball with James watching (you had to keep pedaling so that the game had power – stop pedaling, the game went dark). Below that is Andy playing Joust and Elias is right beside him. The guys had a super time at the arcade convention, but were very hungry when they left. I googled Man vs. Food and there was a place that Adam Richman had gone only 1 mile from the convention! We drove over there for dinner and ordered the five pound burrito. Now THIS is the biggest burrito I have ever seen! My plan was to have that tiny piece on the far right, but I had one bite and then James ate it. On the way home from the burrito place, all of the guys had a peanut butter sandwich or two, fruit, and granola bars. Total fail on the five pound burrito. 30 July We packed up early and headed out to Monterey. It turned out to be an easy drive and only about an hour from Sunnyvale. I followed the directions in my Moon Camping Guide to a campground that was “only 300 yards” from the beach. We got there and I walked in and found out that they did have room, and rented a site for one night. We pulled in and set up our stuff and the guys wanted to go to the beach immediately. We went to the beach. Was it 300 yards? No way. It was almost a mile (or at least it took at least 20 minutes to get there) and it was 300 yards DOWN. We could have rappelled down the cliff to the beach. It might have been easier than climbing back up. The clouds had rolled in and the water was rough and I could see the riptides from the top of the beach. There was NO WAY I was going to let the guys swim in that. They aren’t used to the ocean and would be swept out immediately, I knew it. They were very disappointed that I wouldn’t let them swim, but a mile to the south was a state park beach and the water was much much calmer there. It was also very cold – 60 degrees, at the most, so we had to stop at Goodwill and buy jackets. We spent the afternoon at the state beach and then I cooked dinner on the camp stove. I made a huge amount of baked beans and hot dogs and it was all gone after dinner (four cans of beans – the large ones – and a package of hot dogs for the guys, and trail mix for me). We settled in to bed early. Everyone was tired. The guys decided that we would have to spend another day at this campground and go to the beach tomorrow too. 31 July First thing, we had to drive back up to Sunnyvale to pick up all the stuff that we had left behind. Of course. Thankfully, it was only an hour or so drive. On the way back, we stopped at Santa Cruz to go to that beach. I got a parking spot right across from the sand and once I downloaded the software onto my phone, my meter was paid for 12 hours!! I didn’t have to keep feeding the meter the whole day – that was all taken care of and sucked out of my checking account directly. The guys swam and played most of the day on the beach, while I read and covered up. I also spent some time harassing them about putting sunscreen on. It finally warmed up after about 11am, and we spent another couple of hours on the beach. Once we left the beach, which had a shower so the guys could get in the car sand-free… or that was the theory, we headed to a local ice cream shop that had gotten rave reviews. We all had an ice cream cone and then we headed back to the camp. It was late when we got back, so I made the ultimate sacrifice and went into the Wal-Mart (OMG) by the campground and bought sub sandwiches and we had dinner while watching the Olympics in the camp clubhouse. That night, Benjamin had night terrors at least six different times. I was beginning to lose my patience. I know he cannot control these things, but he is so afraid and screaming and he wakes everyone in the county up! This night, he had been screaming every hour or so, and then finally vaulted over my cot screaming “MOMMY! DON”T LET HIM EAT ME!!” I empathize with Benjamin – I have had night terrors for years, and it took until I was about 25 to learn how to control them. When we got up the next morning, I was soooo tired. We have talked to the pediatrician about this and next time Benjamin is going to be sleeping in a tent, we have a valium prescription to give him that will stop the terrors from happening. Thank God. 1 August We got up and packed up the van. We were getting to be old pros at this! The lady at this campground told me that Asilomar Beach was the best place to go look at tidepools, and the guys wanted to do that, so off we went. This beach was so COOL! It was covered with rocks and the waves were coming in fast and bashing against the rocks and there was spray everywhere. We climbed all over everything and found several pools that were occupied by crabs, fish, and about a million snails. I was afraid that I was going to slip off the rocks any moment and die. The rocks were slippery, and I didn’t have sneakers, so it was slippery at times! We left Asilomar and made the decision to do the 17-mile drive around Pebble Beach. It was amazing! The houses in there are breathtaking, and I am betting that they cost way more than I could ever pay, even if I sold all four of the guys. We didn’t spend a lot of time looking around because, as you can see from the next picture, it was grey, cloudy, and cold. Here is the Lone Cypress Tree in Carmel. We saw bunches of otters here too. They kept popping out of the kelp and paddling along on their backs. After the Lone Cypress, we made our way to the Pacific Coast Highway. The plan was to drive all the way down the highway and find a campground at the end. So we started driving and got to Big Sur. Holy Cow. It was stunningly beautiful. I haven’t ever seen anything like this in my life. When you look down the cliff and see the dark things in the water? Those are rocks and kelp forests – the water is so clear that you can see straight to the bottom!! It was breathtaking. Be sure and notice the house in the second picture. How would you like to live there?? We continued on, and eventually found a beach that was in habited by elephant seals. This particular beach was for adolescent seals – they were only about 2000 pounds each. The full grown male elephant seal weighs around 5000 pounds and is 15 feet long. Can you believe it?? The guys got a big kick out of watching them move across the sand. It was like ripple ripple ripple grunt bark grunt grunt ripple ripple ripple…. Toss sand over body, sigh, go to sleep. We kept driving and it seemed like we were never going to get off the road. On a gas stop, I looked up the campsite we were aiming for. It was $35 a night. Then I checked Priceline and found a hotel in Palm Springs for $40! Guess where we went?? Yup, the hotel. We stayed that night in the Caliente Tropics Hotel in Palm Springs, which was decorated circa 1964 and had a Tiki theme!! It was SO AWESOME!! I LOVED THIS HOTEL! We got there about 12:30am, and the desk guy upgraded us to a room with two queen beds and a sitting room! AWESOME! This is the first thing I saw when we got into the room: I need to buy one of these. I wanted to weep when I climbed into bed. The sheets were soooooo nice; the pillows were sooooo soooofft. Benjamin woke me up only three times that night…. 2 August We got up around 8:30am, feeling refreshed. At least those of us who hadn’t been woken up several times were feeling refreshed. We went to breakfast at a local diner, and then I insisted on looking in some of the consignment shops that we had seen driving into town. It turns out that Palm Springs is a mecca for Mid-Century Modern furniture! This is one of my favorite styles, so I was in heaven. The guys were not too thrilled, but they went along and were mostly pleasant. We got on the road about noon, and it took about 7 hours to get home. It was really good to be home. It was really wonderful to climb into my own bed and have my own pillows. 17 September It was a great trip. Everyone behaved, everyone helped, I managed to not yell all the time, and I think we will do it again sometime.