Camping Trip–A Brief Rant

Posted by Jeremy on June 29, 2009 under Uncategorized | Read the First Comment

I’m back from my Eastern Washington camping trip feeling exhausted and sun scorched.  We stayed at a little resort called Sun Lakes Park just outside of Coulee City.  The campground is nestled in a valley amidst two tall bluffs that offer views akin to numerous red-rocked sites in Arizona.  Within walking distance are several recreational amenities including a 9-hole golf course, a scenic lake, tons of biking trails, mini-golf and a state park. 

This is a place that I frequented quite often as a youth and the desire for me to rekindle some of those memories with a family of my own has offered more than enough incentive over the past couple of years to stuff our Ford Escape full of gear, food, and Lord knows what else to head across the mountains.  Last year’s trip was outstanding.  We rented three sites and had several family and friends join us on the trip.  We took my mom’s Sea-Doo and spent just about every sun drenched moment wake hopping and rooster tailing over every nook of that lake. 

This trip was a little different.  While we had some friends accompany us, we did the trip sans Sea-Doo.  No bother, we hauled our bikes and planned to put some mileage on them.  My wife and I found a trail that led to a lake three miles in, which was a perfect distance for my son Derek to pedal.  About two and a half miles in, Derek’s front tire blew out meaning that we had to hoof it back to camp and re-rack the bikes.  By the time that we got back, the sun was starting to set over the canyon walls which, while splendidly beautiful, propogated another problem—wind.  In all of my infinite nostalgia, I seemed to forget the infamous battles that my folks had with the raging wind storms of Sun Lakes Park.  As I mentioned earlier, the campground is located between two cliffs that are probably 400-500 feet tall each.  The wind whips through there as if it was a channel, victimizing many nylon and fiberglass structures in its wake.  I was able to locate some rope amongst our stuff and anchored our tent down to three trees and my roof rack.  While that allowed the main frame of our too-big-for-its-own-good tent to maintain its structural integrity, it did nothing to change the status of the rain fly which flapped noisily with each frequent wind gust.  Sound sleeper that I am, it did nothing to effect my sleep, but it wreaked havoc on my wife Amber’s ability to rest.

The other thing that really stunk about the trip was that the site adjacent to us had the much desired group of 18-21 year old couples that crammed four tents onto one site.  This bunch fulfilled just about every irritating cliche imaginable.  While the guys sported their tribal armband tattoos, the ladies each had their own creations etched into the smalls of their backsides.  Cigarette smoke and the F-word were popular items that wafted their way into our confined camp space.  Bob Marley Greatest Hits on the stereo in the morning? Check.  Follow it up with an assortment of Gangsta Rap, Sublime, Limp Bizkit, Nickleback chasers?  Check! 

Speaking of chasers, how ’bout a rousing midnight game of beer pong?  They were up to it.  As the booze flowed, so did the four letter expletives, squeals from girls, and “huh-huh-huhs” from the guys.  Polite requests from surrounding sites (including ours) for them to quiet down and watch their language was briefly acknowledged and almost immediately forgotten.  As a result, sleep was difficult and ill will toward our neighbors was waaaaay too easy.

On the good side, we took a day trip to Lake Chelan and played at the waterslides all day.  The work that I have done over the past couple of months on getting in shape seems to be paying off.  I had tons of energy for the entire day and was able to enjoy the rides without too much residual soreness.

Additionally, I played a nice round of golf with Derek who is turning into a pretty good little golfer.  He’s got long levers and a fluid line to his swing.  Course ediquette is still in its rudimentary stages (he likes to chat during backswings and takes all of his clubs onto the green), but he’s always willing to adhere to instruction—something he doesn’t always submit to on the baseball diamond or when doing household chores.

Last but no least, dealing with some of the adversity that we did on our trip offered more confirmation to Amber and I that we are great teammates in this little journey called marriage.  There were several things within our environment that peeved us and got us into foul moods.  It is during those times that loved ones take their frustrations out upon one another, disrupting the God-blessed harmony of the relationship with snarky remarks and self-serving attitudes.  We kept our chins up though, and worked together to make the best of what we had.  Those are building block moments not only for our marriage, but for Derek to see and hopefully emulate in his ensuing relationships.  I feel proud of the fact that we were able to add another brick to our firm foundation.

All and all, four days away from the baseball world is way too long.  I am relieved to be sitting in front of this computer once agains parusing box scores and seeing that the market for Tommy Hanson’s cards jumped about 50% since his back to back wins against the Yankees and Red Sox.

Back to the grind, thanks for your patience!