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A Girl Should Be Two Things: Classy & Fabulous. - Coco Chanel

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Sunday, April 6, 2014

First Camping of the Season

Many of you know, I got a bunch of new camping gear. I have been getting excited for warm weather so I can start camping.We went to Zion's last month, but it was still a little too cold to go camping. This month, Allison, Quinette and I decided we were going to Moab... and we were going to camp. We were excited about it. It is still a little chilly at night, but this was my chance to finally test out my new sleeping bag (since the Yurt trip I ended up sleeping on top of my sleeping bag).

We got a little of a late start on the road... but besides that, the trip started out so positive. We left after Quinette and I got off of work and we made good time to Moab, it was still light outside when we got there and had good tunes in the car. I knew right where we were going to camp. I camped there before with Monica 9 years ago (the last time I was there) along the Colorado River, it's beautiful. What we didn't anticipate, was that all the spots would be taken because it was the first weekend all of the camping spots were opened. We drove up and down the river looking for a spot to pitch our tent. As it got dark outside, we lost hope and decided we would try camp spot number two up on the other side of town. It was now hard to see the spots because it was dark, but from what we could see... all the spots were taken there as well.

But wait! We see an empty spot! We got excited, but then saw something in the parking spot.... what is that? We shined a flashlight on it to see what it was. It looked like chairs. Maybe the spot is being saved. Then we realize it was people sleeping on cots. Opps! We drove off fast. Great... that was a fail. Now what? We found one of those ghetto camp sites that is basically a parking spot and you can either pitch a tent or park a trailer. There were also little cabins. We can't find anything else and it is starting to get late, so we pay for a spot. When we got to our spot we see how ghetto it actually is. We can't even build our fire we came prepared for (we brought fire wood and fire starters), it was just a little bbq. We decided we would rather just stay in a Motel because it was late and we didn't feel like setting up a tent. We were tired and it wasn't a cool place to camp anyway. We already paid for the spot, but figure we could probably argue to get our money back if we had proof that we stayed somewhere else and because someone else was actually already camping in the spot we paid for... we decided to take a picture of the people staying in the spot we paid for, but when we tried to take the picture they were looking, so we drove around and tried again. Again they were looking, so we drove around one more time, it was starting to get awkward. Allison finally got the picture and told Quinette to peel away! Ha!  So we head back to the city and stop at a hotel that said it had vacancy's. They looked at us and said their cheapest room was over $100.

NEVER MIND! Back to the ghetto camping. At this point it is 10pm. We have been driving around since 8. So we get out the tent that we borrowed from Daniel (who was supposed to come with us but last minute had to take care of family stuff so he couldn't). We did the bare minimum of setting up the tent. We figure it won't fall over because we will be in it. Thank goodness that worked out in our favor. The tent was HUGE! It took all 3 of us to set it up (opposite of my new tent). We put our stuff inside and realize.... the zipper on the door is broken! Awkward for Allison that slept by the door. We created a system to kind of keep it closed. Hopefully there are no critters! Daniel failed to mention the broken door, maybe he didn't know.


We also discovered something else. A Band aide? Why? I mean.... like... why? Seriously. We try to ignore that that is there.


We brought all the stuff for a camp fire. We were determined to have a camp fire even if it was on a little bbq stand. Allison grabbed one of her pieces of firewood and some newspaper. I got out my two fire starters I made (toilet paper roll filled with dryer lint) and my lighter. I have no doubt this is going to work, we are 3 girls... but we got this. Everything caught fire except the wood. Therefore it quickly died out. We try again..... we got some big flames and almost caught the bush right by the pit on fire.


Again... it died out and the wood did not catch on fire. We decide to try to roast marshmallows on the tiny newspaper flames. Why not? We brought them to use them, so use them we shall! Those tiny flames barely warmed our marshmallows let alone cooked them. The smoke from the newspaper flames were starting to come out so I gently blew them away and..... it blew out the entire fire that we had going. Great.... well that was fun. We were over everything and tired so we laughed it off and went to bed.


The trip started out so positive, then I'm not sure went wrong, but it just got worse and worse. Hopefully this was not going to continue for the rest of our trip. At least I got to try out my new camping gear. LOVE IT! I'm also thankful for Allison and Quinette. Why? Because even though everything went wrong, we were all able to laugh about it and make the best out of the situation. They have such a great attitude which makes any trip more fun no matter what happens. :) Can't wait for our many adventures to come. :) Hopefully in the future they will run more smoothly.