July 8, 2009

The campout

I mentioned that we took our staff on a campout in early June, but with the drama Jack caused at the beginning of the month, I kind of neglected to write about it.

This was our 8th time taking staff on this trip (well, my 7th since Kyle took them alone the week after Jack was born) and every year I leave thinking, "We shouldn't do this trip anymore." And every year I come home thinking, "We must ALWAYS do this trip."

There are so many reasons for it . . . time for staff to get away and bond, spiritual renewal and preparation, fun, etc. It's a blessing to us every year (and hopefully to them, as well). We call the trip "rustic" because we have no electricity or running water, but it's actually not. We bring coolers, cook over a fire and take our trash to a dumpster every night. So, "rustic" is quite a stretch.

The hardest part was that it got down to 38 degrees the first night. We brought a travel trailer to carry all of our supplies, so Kyle and I lucked out and slept in there instead of a tent. We were cold, but it could have been much worse. The others were all troopers and there was shockingly little complaining.

It was so hard to leave Jack . . . I think it was a combination of pregnancy hormones and knowing that he was in a difficult stage. Honestly, as great as the trip was, I probably wouldn't go if I could do it over again because of how hard it was to readjust once we were back. I would be lying, though, if I didn't say I enjoyed the break.

Anwyay, because there is zero cell phone reception in the area where we camp, we would drive about 30 minutes each night to call and check in on Jack. On one of these trips, we decided to ignore the route that we knew back to the campsite and follow the GPS. The roads to the site were paved and we just thought we'd explore some uncharted territory.

The GPS eventually lead us down a dirt road. No big deal. We can hand dirt roads. We spent the next hour (which should have been the last 5 mintues of our drive) driving down PATHS. Not dirt roads. Paths. Don't believe me? Here are some pictures I took:




The GPS would say things like "Turn right on Green Road." I think calling these "roads" was a little generous. Though we wasted about 45 minutes, it did make for an interesting adventure. We eventually came to a point where we couldn't fit anymore (even though the GPS kept telling us to go right on through) and turned around and found an alternate route.


I've never been so glad to hit pavement . . .

Overall, the trip was a good one and we caught a beautiful sunset on our last night:


1 comment:

Melanie Eccles said...

I know that trip was a blessing to me, just so you know. I remember it vividly.