Camping. It's different in CA.

Camping. It's always an adventure, isn't it? Last Thursday I was about to make reservations for Justin's birthday dinner, but thought to myself...what about camping instead? Justin really is an outdoor enthusiast. We have enough camping gear to keep a family of 9 happy for at least a month, should they get stuck outside with our storage unit nearby. So I did some quick research on camping spots in the area, found a good one, and waited for JT to get home so I could present him with the camping vs. dinner option.

"Camping!" he exclaimed, and scurried to the computer to make our reservation (In Cali, you can make all reservations online, but must do it a few days in advance). We had missed out on camping last summer because of all the wedding to dos, so we were pretty excited about this, not to mention having an opportunity to use all the new camping supplies we received as wedding gifts.

Select site, review, pay, done. We were soon to be camping at Sanborn County Park. It all happened so fast, we neglected to realized we booked Saturday and Sunday nights instead of Friday and Saturday...we tried all day Thursday and Friday to get a hold of someone in charge of this newfangled, book-online site, but it just so happened that on Thursday, the reservation offices were moving locations and therefore closed. We should have taken this as a sign...Friday, I spoke with a woman who, when I asked about switching the dates, kind of laughed and offered to cancel our reservation instead because there is no possible way they can edit reservations days ahead of your reservation. Absolutely not (weird, I know). So, we decided to stick with Saturday/Sunday, and just leave on Sunday later in the day.

On Saturday we packed up all things necessary for camping, including food for about 5 days. What can I say...cooking things in a fire in a wad of aluminum foil is exciting! We stopped on our way out to get hamburger buns, wood, gallons of water, ice, ice and more ice, as well as a new hiking backpack for Justin (a bday gift to himself). Finally we were off. The car was so full we couldn't even see out the rear view mirror.

At the park we pulled up to the ranger station to check in and asked the ranger where exactly site 15 was, and where to find the drive-in entrance. "Haha, no no, you don't drive in to the site," he said with a wise smirk. "This is a walk-in campground."

Gulp.

"Let's see...," he continued. "Site 15 isn't too far past the bathrooms. It's not a bad walk. You should be ok to park in the top lot, but the park is full today so if you don't see one up there, you'll have to park in the lower lot."

Double gulp.

So we got up to the top lot and park in the very last spot available...it was at the end of the lot. We unload a few things and I decided to sit on the cooler while JT went to see where exactly spot 15 was. About 15 mins later, he came back, looking terribly disgruntled, and said, "This isn't happening."

"Aww, c'mon, it can't be that bad," I said. "We'll just make a few trips in, come back for what we need as we need it. Good thing we brought the small cooler AND the big cooler!" Of course I packed 2 coolers for one night. "Umm, no. I only made it to spot No. 1 and didn't even see No. 2," JT said. "If you want to so bad, why don't you walk up there to see where spot 15 is, and then tell me if you want to haul everything in."

So off I went. Noting about 70 boy scouts out on a mom's weekend camping trip. Some had red wagons (brilliant idea, I might add), some had dollies and others were hauling things in, just as we would have to. I passed spots 1-10, climbing a steady incline, and finally got to spot No. 15. I was a hot mess by that time, and I wasn't even carrying anything. It was a toasty weekend. Standing in our reserved spot, I laughed out loud, shook my head, and started back down the hill.

Roughly 20 mins after I left him, I was back with JT, laughing hysterically as I tried to convince him it'd be an adventure and that we might as well give it a shot. We thought about paying some of the scouts to help us, but they were too busy with their water balloon fights.

So, we repacked a few things, piled the packs onto our backs, and forged ahead. I think we made maybe 5 trips total back and forth. By then, we were both hot messes...it wasn't pretty, but at least we stayed positive. And at least now there was no need for us to go on the long-ish hike we had planned on doing. On our last trip back, we saw a cart at the trail entrance. A CART! #(!@#&%@(*&%@) No one was standing guard at the cart. There was no name on the cart. It just looked like a cart that was there for anyone's use. Turns out it was. So was the other one that showed up later during the trip. But the BOY SCOUTS had been using all of the carts while we moved in...HA! Boy Scouts! Shouldn't they be building muscle or coming up with other crafty ways to carry things into their campsite?!

Finally settled in at the site, about to start the fire, we noticed a lonely, small sign by the bathrooms that read, "Charcoal fires only due to dry conditions." Why hadn't these signs been posted elsewhere? We do not know. We had just finished lugging in all the wood, btw. So, being the law abiding citizens we are, we walked BACK to the car to go to the store for some coal. Good thing we checked at the station just before leaving the park, because as we asked if wood fires really were prohibited, they answered, "oh, we were just informed that we forgot one sign out there...haha...wood fires are ok this weekend. Thanks for asking, though!"

Oy.

Back at the campsite, we spent the rest of the trip reading, laughing, building fires (my fav), eating, sleeping and checking out the rest of the grounds. Oh yeah, we also listened to scout rally cheers, as well the 15+ goth kids cursing and practicing their devil-voice impersonations all night long. Seriously. These cool kids rolled into camp around 9:30 p.m. and left at 6 the next morning. That was fun. We felt really bad for all the families with little kids that had to listen to that all night long. Dear goths: If you're going to practice your demon voice, do it in your mom's basement. Because we paid for Sunday night, but didn't intend on sleeping there, we were able to spend the entirety of Sunday at the campsite. Eventually, we were the only 2 people on the grounds, except for the park ranger. After our late afternoon hamburgers, we walked down to get one of those handy carts, brought it back to our site and managed to evacuate in one trip. Lesson learned? Camping in CA is different than it is in WA. If the camp Web site says "RV or Walk-In camping (1-2 car limit), the 1-2 car limit doesn't actually mean you can drive 1-2 cars to your spot. It means, you can only walk 1-2 car loads of people to your spot. Walk-in means walk-in. No matter how many cars you have. And yes, I'm sure some of you clicked on the link about the park and quickly noted that the 3rd bullet says no cars are allowed up to the sites themselves. We thank you not to rub it in.

We had fun anyway - time spent outdoors is always a nice way to revitalize the soul. Even if you give it the workout of its life getting there.