The Spoiled Campers

Well I went camping this past weekend. It was a hoot!!!! I gotta tell ya, after camping in California with practically no food and very yucky showers, and practically no one I knew, I have now seen the other side of the spectrum!! We were invited by friends of ours to join their group that camps together every year. Four families...........8 adults, 7 kids, 4 tents (one Taj-Ma-Tent.....i'll explain later), bikes, swim suits, one huge pool, great showers, clean potties, awesome campfires, and food like no other!!!! I ate like a queen in the middle of the woods!!! Ceito was amazed that people could cook like that while camping, which further darkens my lack of abilities in the home kitchen!!! We are truly ruined! We can never camp without these people again. They had refrigerators, toaster ovens, skillets, grills, crock pots.....I think I even saw a wine chiller refrigerator!!! I was amazed. We ate pancakes and sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon, sub sandwiches, grilled veggies, bacon wrapped burgers (none for me, thanks!), fruit salad, garden salad, smores, hobo pies, and other miscellaneous stuff. It was very good eatin'!!!! And very relaxing. We are already thinking about when we can go again. The Winks and Bug had a wonderful time. They were like little natural campers. We got to the camp-site and their shoes came off, and they got the squirt guns out, and started their own version of relaxation. Bug even caught a fish when they went fishing on Saturday. She had no idea what she had just done, but when I asked how big the fish was her arms stretched out to full capacity!! I true fisher-woman!!! Great weather, great fun! We took our first family tent! We had some help putting it up but I think we could have managed. We bought the tent at Kmart about 2 weeks ago, during a sale (of course). I picked it out, it had room for 7 and a little screened in area on the outside of the sleeping area. We started to put it up and realized it was going to be big........no..........huge! It really is the biggest tent I've ever seen! I loved it, the kids loved it, Ceito even said it was a good idea to go big. Now, if the kids ever want to bring a friend (or two, or three), throw 'em in there, and there is still room for a dishwasher! It was very nice. Cold the first night.........but, one of the other more prepared campers in the group had an extra space heater. We plugged it in and although it was cold outside our Taj-Ma-Tent was toasty warm! I was able to bike about 12 miles on Saturday, then run 3.5, so I feel good going into the next 2 weekends racing. Sunday will be my second trip to Walnut Beach here in A-town. A small little triathlon, but well organized. Last year was a downer for that race. I had a lot of trouble with my bike. The chain came off while going out of the beach area up a hill. That was pretty discouraging, because I had a very good swim. Then the chain came off 2 other times. Needless to say, I was pretty crabby by the time the run came! The next Sunday I will make my first attempt at the Cleveland Triathlon. This will be my last scheduled tri this summer. I really need to get my life back in order. I have felt out of it since Wildflower. I think the entire experience was a little overwhelming for me, and I didn't realize how overwhelming until I got close to the starting line. I learned a lot about myself in the experience, but I'm ready to take it down a notch. I will do local 5K's the remainder of the year, and I may change my mind in August and do a tri then, or maybe the women's only in Sept. and, I've been thinking about a 1/2 marathon (Columbus) in October. But, I'm just not scheduling anything for right now. I just want to run for me!! And, school shopping will start soon!!!!