Chance Is Here Today

First Camping Trip & First Boat Outing of the Season

And what an adventure it was. David had to work on Friday so mom and I were left to get the Motorhome ready to go. First trip of the season means there is alot more work than normal. While mom was getting the domestic stuff done, I was getting the rest of the stuff ready, making sure we had all the hoses and cords that we need along with packing all of my, Chances and Jordyn's clothing. All of this going on while Chance is saying every 5 minutes, "mom, are we ready to go, mom, I just want to go camping, mom are you almost done..." Finally about 10:30 we were ready to go. So, in the camper we hop. We were going to McKinley Park Campground in Soudan. After a stop at Walmart for a tube to pull behind the boat and a stop at Thrifty Bread Store for buns we were off. Finally Chance fell asleep so we had some peace and quite.

After getting to the campground we got our spot and proceeded to level the camper. No matter what I did I was a bubble off (no comments please) both front to back and side to side. So after the 5th time of changing the boards around and backing on and off them, we decided that a bubble off wasn't so bad!When getting me and the kids ready I went to each room, picked out what I wanted to bring for each of us to wear and put it on their beds. My plan was to go with the laundry basket to each room and pick up the stuff and carry it out to the camper. Well, mine and Jordyn's stuff made it into the camper, but not Chances. So, all my son had to wear the whole weekend was the swimming trunks and underwear that he had on and a pair of underwear and a tee-shirt that he had packed himself! Luckily my son doesn't like to wear clothes so none of this bothered him in the least.

Now it was time to start dinner! Or so we thought. But after a few attempts to light the hot water heater and start the burners we found out that we had absolutely no propane! Luckily we had an extra tank (that is what the shower stall is for) and the camp stove so we didn't starve. Then we realized that I had forgotten Jordyn's Pak N Play so we didn't have anywear for her to sleep.

David finally arrived at the campground with the new boat (well, new to us boat). But after setting up the camp stove, eating, and running to the store to get night time diapers for Chance, it was getting late. So we took a short 10 minute ride in the boat and went to bed.

The next morning after Jordyn woke all of us but mom up at 5:00am and we had a good breakfast and some playing in the water it was time for a boat ride. But, right at that time, my son cut is foot on a rock and freaked out. This is the child who can cut himself to the point of almost having stitches and it wouldn't phase him. The only thing I could figure out was that he was so tired. So I took him back to the camper, fixed the cut and put him to bed. David came up to the camper with Jordyn who was also asleep. So I offered to stay home with the kids while mom and David we off on a boat ride. They came back about two hours later from visiting my cousin who lives on Everett Bay. We ate some dinner and then I was ready for my first official boat ride, or so I thought!!!

Chance didn't want to go so he stayed with Grandma and David, Jordyn and I headed out. David had made the comment during dinner that the boat was kind of hard to start at Lisa's house but he thought that since it hadn't been run at all last year that maybe the gas was old. So we decided to head right for Aronson's (where the boat had been on consignment when we bought it) and gas it up. We gassed the boat up and were going to head out but the boat never started. So, I sat the next three hours at Aronson's in the boat with Jordyn. First they spent the first hour trying to get it started, waiting to see if it was flooded etc. Finally we decided to try calling the guy who owned it before. We hadn't had possession of the boat for 24 hours and were quickly deciding that we didn't want it. We couldn't get ahold of Jeff so someone from Aronson's drove David back to the campground to get the truck and trailer. Then we had to paddle the boat around the boat garage and load it onto the trailer. David pulled it up and parked it where we first found it and proceeded to try and get the trailer unhitched. But, the trailer had really never been used because the boat had never been off of Vermillion so the hitch was rusty. Finally after 15 minutes of trying and prying with a screwdriver we finally get it unhitched and move the truck out of the way. David was unloading the boat and I was hauling things to the truck when David said, "What's that noise?" I went over and looked at the truck and there was antifreeze pouring out of the truck and it was overheating. By this time I just shut the truck off and started laughing. It was the only thing I could do. It was 6:00pm and everybody was getting ready to leave Aronson's and I think they all felt so sorry for us. Finally after 3 hours we headed back to the campground without our new boat.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful after that! We finally got ahold of Jeff (the previous owner). Apparently he had been in Texes all weekend and didn't get our call. When he couldn't get ahold of us on Sunday night he called Aronson's Monday morning and told them to fix the boat. I think Aronson's felt so sorry for us they didn't charge any labor. So, anyway, the boat is fixed, I guess it was a temperature problem. When the boat got hot it would shut the gas off or something like that. Now we have our boat back and we took it out Sunday evening for a successful ride on Sturgeon and Side Lakes!

posted by Colleen @ 6:08 PM