Urban Camping

August 15, 2009
Glad to be leaving Hayward. This campground has been crazy! The first night we were here, some people moved in across the “street.” There were about a billion little children who seemed to cry at the drop of a hat. Cry, cry, cry. Festive. They also felt the need to set up one of their tents right next to the fence, banging our truck with their tent poles and stuff as they did so. Later, after we were in our tents, a new bunch moved in across the other street (we were at the end of a street). It sounded like a family reunion or something. Clearly, it was a rude and inconsiderate family because it was dark out and past 11, which is the beginning of quiet time. These people had no clue what to do with the concept of “quiet.” We were treated to the saga of where to put the tent, as in, “What do you think, Chris? Where should we put the tent? It looks pretty level, but there could be a slight incline over here.” Then after awhile, “What do you think Chris? I think it's pretty level, but there could be an incline. Chris?” I am sure that Chris had run screaming from the campground by then. After this scintillating conversation, there ensued the endless repetition about what kind of sausage was available and how many of each. There were two blue cheese and one of a few other kinds. I was hoping that there would not be fights over the limited sausage supply. Stakes were pounded into the ground as the loud guy finally decided to leave the tent where it was, incline or not. Of course no night at the campground would be complete without a discussion about texting. Not about any specific text message, mind you, but just about texting. I had no idea that people could find this fascinating enough to discuss in loud tones in the middle of a campground in the middle of the night.
After finally falling asleep, I woke up the next morning with a completely blocked left ear and some sinus pressure. There were so many people jammed into the small space at the campground, each with their own fire pit. Everyone needed a fire for some unfathomable reason. It was hot, so why fire sounded like a good idea, I do not know. Wood smoke has a bad effect on me, so I was not surprised to wake up as I did. Fortunately for me, my friend, Doctor Ken, had given me some OTC allergy medicine that works well for him. When my head started to pound, I took a pill. I was feeling great in 15 minutes. Thank you, Ken!!
It's a good thing I didn't have to go through the day with a headache, because the Rude Family reunion would have done me in. People kept arriving. They—and several other people—kept their fires burning throughout the day. The loud discussions continued. And though some of the group tried to be considerate and walk around our campsite, a bunch of them kept walking straight through to get to the bathroom, instead of going around. It was like Grand Central Station. People constantly walking back and forth through our campsite, the children across the way crying endlessly, smoke everywhere—it was a zoo.
To add to the fun, our tent pole snapped. We had seen that it was cracked when we put up the tent and we went into town to see if we could find a replacement pole (unlikely) or a new tent (possible). We found neither, but I did get a pair of flip-flops for 99 cents and I came back and spent some happy time crocheting flowers out of some variegated sock yarn that I attached to the toe piece. Anyway, that afternoon, the pole snapped and Bill taped it and dug out some bungee cords. We attached these to either side of the broken pole and trees. It was enough to hold until we took down the tent. On our way to Iron Mountain, where we are now, we stopped at a Super K Mart in Ironwood (we are in iron country) and got a new tent on clearance. At least the timing was good.
Our cooler also bit the dust. It was leaking. Just a small leak, but I really didn't want to have it in the back of the truck when it sprung a big leak, so we left it there. We had it for almost 25 years, so it served us well. And Bill's backpack zipper seems to be shot, too. It's the one for the small front pocket, so he can still use it until he can find another one. He's had that for 12 years or so.
By the time night came, we were unable to muster up the energy to attend the clown show that the campground was putting on. But we could hear it and see the lights they used. The Rude Family had been playing catch—complete with family radar gun to measure the speed of the throws—on the road. Now, call me an old fuddy-duddy, but it seems to me that when there are people everywhere and cars parked in between, this is probably not the best place to encourage children to throw a hard ball around. OK, so they were only throwing at 33 mph, a factoid I knew because they had to announce—in the loudest possible voices, of course—the speed of each pitch. Still, I believe that this is why the campground provides a big field—so that people can play catch. Throughout our stay, other people seemed to have grasped this.
We were curious to see what would happen the second night. The tents were erected. The sausage was, presumably, eaten. There seemed to be little left to say about texting. What would they talk about? How would our neighbor feel about all of this? She had complained to Bill about their behavior on the previous night (it wasn't just me!). On this night, it was the lights. They sat around their campfire with lights blazing. Lights—bright lights—everywhere. Looked like headlights being beamed into the tent. The chattering continued, though pancakes seemed to be a topic of discussion instead of sausage. People kept walking back and forth through our site. It was hot. There were more fires than the night before. And on this night, campground security came and told the Rude Family to turn off the lights and be quiet.
The next morning we packed up and left for Iron Mountain in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We drove on Route 2. There were beautiful wildflowers on the side of the road, more foliage, and lots of trees. We drove alongside Lake Superior for a time. It was beautiful and it was far more peaceful in the truck than it was in the campground!

Depends on What You Mean By Sun

August 8, 2009
Weather. I am always interested in how that will be. I hate summer heat and sun. Love rainy, grey, overcast days, precipitation and coolness. Since we're camping in tents, it's become even more relevant than usual. So the other day when we saw that it was supposed to be in the upper 80s/low90s with sunshine on Friday and Saturday, I began my mental preparations. I would be uncomfortable, but we have had such mild weather for the most part on the trip that I figured it would be ungrateful to complain. Sleeping temps have been good. Of more concern was the “isolated thunderstorms” that were supposed to be around, but we figured it would rain hard for a little while and then stop and we would be dry.
Thursday night, the rain began. Then it stopped. I went back to sleep. Bill got up at an unknown hour, but when I opened one eye to see what was going on, I could tell from the light outside that it was far too early to be moving around and I promptly fell back to sleep. I am not a morning person. I don't know how long I dozed there before I woke up to the sound of raindrops falling on the tent. It was still too early to get up, but when he got back from his shower, I got up and took one, too. I later discovered that it was about 6:10. Ridiculous. I am sure I was on autopilot, because I do not function at such an hour. And as it turned out, I needn't have bothered!!
It was still raining after my shower, but not very hard. I moved some stuff around and got into the truck and picked up my book. After awhile, Bill joined me. When the rain stopped, we fired up the stove and heated a pot of water for coffee and then another to pour into the thermos. By the time the second pot was almost done, the rain had started again, so I got out the umbrella and stood with it over the stove so it could finish. We got back into the truck with our coffee and the heavens opened up! The rain came down. And more came down. It kept coming down. Rain, rain, rain. The fire pit, which consists of a big tire rim sunk into the ground at a depth of at least 12-15 inches was half full of water. I looked around for some sign of that sunshine they had said was going to be the main weather feature of the day, but I couldn't see it because the sky was full of black clouds. It kept raining. We kept reading. After awhile I noticed Heather's tent rocking from side to side and bulging momentarily in various places. Suddenly she was sprinting to the bathroom. Then she sprinted back and I got out of the truck to let her in the backseat. There was soaking number one. I sat back in the truck dripping. Then we figured we'd better get our pillows out of the tent, so we did that. Soaking number two. I dripped some more. Then I had to go to the bathroom and change my shirt, since I apparently had not placed the cover tightly enough on my coffee cup and I dribbled coffee on my shirt. Soaking number three. I sat in the truck with a drenched, but clean shirt on and used my coffee stained T-shirt to try and dry my hair. The windows fogged up. The tent was leaking and the rain wasn't stopping, so we figured it was time to get out the backpacks that contained our clothing. Soaking number 4. Bill decided that we needed to seek some shelter, because, try as we might to find what the Minnesotans apparently refer to as sun—at least the meteorologists—we were never successful.
Since we basically had no clue where exactly we were in relation to anywhere else, except that the Twin Cities were north, and Bill did not want to drive in the urban area where we did not know our way around in a torrential downpour, we decided to head south. We'd seen a couple of motel signs so figured we could find something in Belle Plaine. We started off down the road after wiping down the inside of the windows. The windshield wipers were on as high as they were going to go. Bill could not see. Big trucks barreled by us sending us the spray from their tires. We had the windows open to prevent more steaming. The windows were dripping on the inside and the outside. Bill could not see. We passed a giant sign for this place that sells 83 kinds of licorice. I did not know there were 83 kinds of licorice. One is quite more than enough for me. The same place also has something called jalapeno eggs, which, as Heather pointed out, would be useful as an early morning wake-up breakfast. We saw a blue sign that said, “LODGING” and got off on that exit. Then we were directed to go in either direction for lodging. We took the right turn and drove. No lodging here. There were some lovely cornfields, but no lodging. Bill turned around and we got to look at what I suppose is downtown Belle Plaine. After driving parallel to the road we'd just left, I looked across it and saw an AmericInn. Cute. We had no clue how to get there. So we kept trying to head in that direction. I kept trying to keep the water from dripping into my face from my hair. We finally found the parking lot after driving around Emma Krumbee's apple orchard. Seems to be some kind of restaurant chain. Not sure if they all have accompanying orchards and markets. But this one has an accompanying AmericInn, which was the most important thing for our purposes. We parked and made a run for the lobby. Soaking number 5. I am sure I looked like quite a sight standing there dripping on the carpet.
We asked about a room. “For how many nights?” asked Tammy, the very helpful and kind woman behind the desk. We weren't sure. We explained the situation—we were camping, the rain, etc. We were thinking that since Saturday was supposed to be sunny and hot, things would dry out and we could go back to the campground. But then, should we trust the forecast? After all, at that moment, I was supposed to be dripping sweat, not creating my own personal rain shower. She looked up what she had available. She said she had one room left for 3 people for both nights. Then she said she would give it to us for both nights and if we decided on Saturday morning that we didn't want to stay, we could let her know before 11 and she wouldn't charge us for the room for the extra night. I thought that was very nice. Usually there are all kinds of time restrictions on cancellations. Then she said that we'd get a Triple A discount. Then she told us that none of the rooms were cleaned yet—it was still a quarter to noon—but she would get one of her housekeeping staff right on it so the room would be ready in half an hour!! And check-in time wasn't even until 3!! I decided that I really liked Tammy a lot! I began to have visions of a hot shower and some hot coffee.
But we still had to go back and get a few things from the campground. We left the tents there and picked up some other stuff. The fire pit was overflowing. We grabbed some lunch. It had stopped raining, but that sun was still nowhere to be found. The wind was blowing. I was soaked and cold.

We got back to the motel, got our room, put some stuff in the dryer, and learned that there was hot coffee available for free 24 hours a day in the hospitality room. Heaven! Hot coffee that I can just pour into my cup. I don't have to make it or clean up the grounds. I just have to drink it. And it is there 24 hours a day and I don't have to pay for it. Ok, I know, I already paid for it when I paid for the room. But still. Shower and a trip down the hall with my big metal cup. It is amazing how little things can bring such joy.
The afternoon passed without more rain. Then at night, I thought I heard thunder. I looked outside and discovered the lightning flashing. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Instead of flashing and then hearing the thunder and then seeing more flashing some time later, this was like someone standing there turning a light switch on and off. It just kept on flashing. The rain was coming down in buckets. Bill commented on the fact that there was a river flowing by our window. The rain was coming down so fast that the ground couldn't absorb it fast enough. I was glad we were not in our tents. But we figured we would go back to the campground in the morning and the Minnesota sun would be out to dry everything in short order. It was supposed to be sunny and 90, after all. But since there was a chance of thunderstorms and severe ones at that on Saturday night, we decided we would come back to the motel.
So we woke up on Saturday morning and made our way to the hospitality room for breakfast. We looked out the window. No sign of that Minnesota sun. just more grey sky. After our waffles, oatmeal, yogurt, coffee, and juice, we headed out to assess the situation at the campground. It wasn't too bad. The air was humid, so we felt like we were wrapped in wet blankets, but the only ones wet blankets around were the ones in the tents. We brought the wet stuff to the laundry room and put some in the big dryer. When our time was up, we went back to check on it and the dryer had not even gotten hot! Well, we could bring the other stuff back to the motel and dry it there, but no luck with the sleeping bags. We looked up at the sky and still there was no Minnesota sun, but there were big black clouds, so we worked a little faster. We tipped the tents to get the puddles out. We put the wet stuff in the back seat. We got things loaded up. It began to sprinkle. Bill turned on the windshield wipers.
Back at the motel, we got the littler stuff into the dryer and the sleeping bags draped over the clothes racks in the room. We brought in the air mattresses one at a time and spread them on the floor so that the wet spots would have a chance to dry. Too bad there's not enough room to set up the tents in here!
We turned on the Weather Channel and discovered that there is now a flash flood watch and a heat advisory going at the same time. More storms are expected to come through here. Torrential rain is expected. The ground is saturated and can't hold any more water. We are here in our room with the air conditioner running and the hot coffee right down the hall. It's there 24 hours a day. And did I mention that I don't even have to make it?
We still haven't seen the sun. Maybe sunny means something different in Minnesota.

Let It Rain

Well, the rain didn’t stop until the middle of Monday night. It came down steadily and fairly hard for over 24 hours. The tent continued to leak. We got what we could into the truck and hung out there after we got back from the library. I ventured outside in the rain to make myself some lunch. We went back into town for awhile. Then we all tried to get a few winks of sleep in the truck. This was not a very successful endeavor!


None of us could really move, so we had to choose a position and plan to pretty much stay in it--sitting up, legs bent and cramped, and no way to get comfortable. Heather decided to take a shower at midnight and when she wasn’t back after a fair amount of time, we stiffly marched over to the bathroom building to make sure all was well. It was--she said that the hot water felt good so she stayed there a long time. Then she stood outside the truck until 2 a.m. since the rain had pretty much stopped by then. My legs still hurt.
Morning came and we got stuff tossed into the truck. The sun was trying to burn off the fog, so we took the top off the tent and laid it in a sunny spot. We moved the tent there, too, to help it dry a bit, but first we had to turn it upside down to dump out the water! Finally we just folded it up and put it in a trash bag. Then off we went.
We had decided to go to Butte, Montana. We were planning to stop in Missoula for a few days first, but we never heard back from the person we contacted from the Directory for Traveling Friends so we figured we’d skip it. We looked up the mileage from Coeur d’Alene to Butte and it said 232 miles. Turns out it was really more like 275. That was longer than we’d wanted to drive in one day--especially this day when we were all operating on a couple of hours of sleep. Bill had it the worst, of course, since he had to drive! We stopped several times along the way.
When we crossed the border into Montana, it felt like we were making progress somehow, but we were not far into big sky country than that big sky was full of big grey clouds. No rain at first, though, so we held out hope. We really wanted to be able to put up our wet tent and have it dry. We figured we could put the sleeping bags in the dryer. A couple of hours in, there was a mist on the windshield. Half an hour before Butte there was splattering on the windshield and the wipers came on. Fifteen minutes out of Butte we stopped at a rest area again because Bill was practically hallucinating. We sat there, almost in tears, watching the rain fall hard. We all agreed that we could not sleep in the truck again. We were all still in pain and exhausted from the night before. I declared my intention to sleep in a wet and dripping tent if necessary. Bill started the truck and we drove the last few miles.
We found the campground and the rain stopped, though the big grey clouyds still filled the big sky. We got our tent site. We pulled out the tent and the sleeping bags and then--believe it or not--the clouds seemed to disappear and the sun came out. The sleeping bags dried. The tent was ready to go in half an hour. We were grateful. We all began to harbor fantasies of an early night and a full night of sleep!

Camping, Not Kamping

July 9, 2009
Well, we have moved to a campground a few miles east of Coeur d’Alene called Wolf Lodge RV Campground. It seems like it will be a nice spot. We have trees around us and I am sitting in the shade as I type! This will be good as it is supposed to be 90ish on Saturday. I will be grateful for the shade then.

Right now I am actually slightly chilly--something I am not at all used to in July!! We got here and got out of the truck to decide where to put the tent when this guy rode up on his golf cart to greet us and ask us whether we needed anything. He said he wanted to make sure we had the tent site we wanted and that if there was anything at all we needed to let them know at the office. What a totally different experience than the last place! We are in a spot that is in a little bowl shaped area and we set up the tent next to the creek. I think we won’t be able to hear the water go by because the freeway is right there, but maybe there won’t be so much traffic at night. In any case, there is no train! And the view we have is beautiful. We have some tall grass and small trees that block our view of the freeway and across the street there is a big forested hill. It all seems so green! There’s something else I’m not really used to seeing in July--green.
We both decided we didn’t feel like going out again yesterday, so we will go to the Farmers’ Market on Saturday. It’s not downtown, but I think it was the original one in the area. It was nice to just get some work done, have some supper and relax. We are rested and recharged now and figure the couple of nights in the motel did us all some good. I will say, though, that I was finding it to be a little bit stuffy indoors and was kind of looking forward to getting back outside.
We’ve been noticing how much people seem to care about this community. It’s pretty evident in how they have clearly poured resources into downtown. And in yesterday’s paper there was a little blurb about how they are soliciting ideas for projects that will benefit low income people and neighborhoods. I guess they’re giving grants to individuals or groups who can present a good plan. It seems like a community that really works well, though I say that from my perspective as an outsider. It may be different if you live here. And in today’s paper there was an article about this guy who is running for mayor and has declared that the current constitution of the United States does not apply to him. He is a believer in the 1787 and 1791 versions. I do not know whether this means he would take away women’s right to vote or reinstate slavery--the article really didn‘t say. So there’s an element of the absurd here as well. I guess it’s not too alarming that someone like this would run for mayor--people have strange ideas everywhere. What would be alarming is if the guy actually won the election. My guess is that he won’t. There just seems like too much good stuff is happening here for a majority of the citizens of this town to vote for someone like that. But what do I know? I’m just passing through!

Kamping, Not Camping

July 5, 2009
So we got to Spokane Friday. We were in for a surprise. We soon realized that we had been under a misperception of what camping is. Or, perhaps to be more precise, we discovered that we really didn’t have a full grasp of kamping. We’re at a KOA campground and their slogan--which seems to be plastered all over everything--is “remember, it’s not camping, it’s kamping.” We found the place and Bill went in to register. He came out with our campsite number and we went there. It was grass--a welcome change from the dirt and rocks that we had at the last place. But there was no shade at all. This was the case for many sites--a few had a scraggly tree that would provide some shade at some times of the day. We had a bush growing up against the fence. There was enough shade to place the cooler there. OK, then, it is what it is. We now understand that while camping, one may expect some level of nature actually in the campsite itself, when kamping, trees are apparently some kind of bonus that those places lucky enough to be tree-rich use as a way to advertise. The reason we decided to stay in this particular place was that most places do not take reservations for tent sites and we were concerned about being able to find a spot over a holiday weekend. This place solved that problem. It would be hot and we would have preferred shade, but we would deal with it. After putting up the tents and getting what we’d need out of the truck, we went to use the restroom. I walked into a stall and found it filthy and apparently clogged. It remained this way for a couple of days. Bill told me that the one available stall in one of the men’s rooms was the same way. Fortunately, there was another restroom, but there were many tent campers this weekend, many of them male, so I am not sure the facilities were adequate. Then we tried to find the place on our map (which we got when we signed in) where we could plug in our computers and connect to the internet. We’d used the wifi connection earlier, but we needed the electrical outlet as well at this point. We didn’t see it so we asked the young women behind the counter in the store where we could plug in our computers to recharge our batteries. They seemed puzzled. “There are plugs in the store,” one of them said. I just sort of looked at them. I mentioned that it said there was a place to plug in shown on the map. She brightened. “Oh, you want to PLUG IN,” she exclaimed, removing a yellow modem connector cord from someplace underneath the counter. I declined her offer, repeating that I needed to charge my battery. They suggested the Starbucks a few miles away. I left it alone for the night and the next day charged my battery in the car as we were driving into Spokane.

The real fun, though, occurred when we were sleeping. Suddenly we were jolted into wakefulness by a train horn screaming and the earth shaking underneath us--the train was a few feet away rumbling down the tracks. It was 4 a.m. Festive. We hit the jackpot this morning as the scene repeated itself at 3, 5, and 7 a.m. Can’t wait to see how many we get to experience tonight! Needless to say, this is not conducive to a good night’s sleep.
I will say that there is coffee in the morning and the people seem friendly enough. The whole thing is just kind of strange. I used to camp with an aunt and cousin as a kid in their Skamper (there’s that “k” again) and I just don’t remember it being like some sort of kamping suburbia. There were trees. There was green space. And there just seemed to be space in general. There is a lot to observe in these places and some ideas are bubbling around in my head about what it all means. It is rather odd to be in the tent listening to people’s air conditioning, TVs, and vacuum cleaners running.

One guy has his TV outside in his “yard.” I was puzzling about why he might do this and it occurred to me that maybe he couldn’t fit it into its appointed spot inside the RV. It’s kind of big. Yesterday the Direct TV guy was there hooking him up. Now every time we go by his spot, he has the TV on. Other people avoid the whole TV installation problem by carrying around their satellite dish. I am not sure why they do these things. If you consider what they pay for the house-on-wheels to begin with, then add in gas, insurance, and upkeep, it’s already pretty expensive. Then add the site fees, TV fees (and in the case of the guy above, installation of Direct TV) and whatever else they have to pay for and I am wondering why they don’t just go to a motel or something. It’s not like they’re out there enjoying nature or anything. If anyone has any experience with this kind of thing and can offer any insight, I’d really be very interested in what you have to say!
It’s been in the 90s since we got here, but comfortable at night. Last I heard it was supposed to cool off some. I hope it does. And we will see what the train schedule is for early tomorrow morning!

Camping

June 21
We have been noticing camping gear for the past month or so as we have been gathering what we will need for the trip. We had a tent that was a couple of decades old. It got used when we lived in Portland , but not so much when we lived in Fairbanks. We used it a couple of times here and the last time we discovered it leaked when it rained really hard. Fortunately, it was set up in the backyard for us to sleep in during the hot summer nights, so instead of getting wet we could just go into the house! But we figured we would need a new one before heading out, so a couple of weeks ago, after looking at sale ads, we went and got one. It was a bit smaller than the old one--very basic and simple. But as always seems to be the case, once we started looking for tents, we saw them everywhere. Today they were all over the weekly ads. And we continue to be amazed at the kinds of tents they have! We had noticed before a shower/changing room tent. Also, a cottage tent. It had rooms and everything. Today there was a lodge tent, which is apparently somewhat bigger than the cottage. And they had a tent with closets! This seems like quite a concept. Closets in a tent! I can see that have a space to put your stuff that is out of the way might be a good thing, but it seems kind of amusing to think of it as a closet! Anyway, I have chuckled at the idea that you could go out for a camping trip and spend quite a bit of time setting up something like a whole little village. You could have your cottage and your lodge, which may or may not come with closets--the ad didn’t really say. You could set up your shower/changing room tent. Then there are the portable toilets and I suppose you would need to have some kind of tent like structure for that, unless you wanted to use one of the existing “rooms” in your lodge or cottage. Maybe one of the closets could serve as a bathroom. And you’d want one of the portable kitchens they have as well, though probably that would have to be outside. I am exhausted just thinking about it. I can see the utility of this stuff if you are going someplace and staying there for a fairly long period of time. But for a night or two, or even a few, it seems like a lot to go through. I knew that RVs were getting larger and fancier, but I honestly had no idea that the same thing was happening with tents. It’s a far cry from what it used to be. I wonder how it will all evolve.