It's that time again – time to start prepping for our next adventure! We have a little less than a month to go before we head out to the beautiful outdoors to spend 5 days near the shores of Lake Michigan. We'll be taking our new experimental setup with us – the new truck and a small cube trailer rental towed behind. We also have added a few things to our gear so we are definitely excited to try it all out!
Since we've been talking about prep, prep, and more prep - guess what I'm doing? Thinking about prepping this trip! This usually pleases the compulsive list-maker in me and I will spend these next few weeks making lists and more lists of all the things to take, the gear to check, and things we are missing. Then I revise those lists and make more lists – kind of a never-ending organizing loop in my head and on paper.
First on my list for prepping this adventure – check the gear!! I already have 3 items that need repair before we leave, but I need to make sure that everything else is in working order BEFORE we get to the campsite. There’s nothing worse than discovering something doesn’t work when you need it the most!
We have two self-inflating air pads, not quite air mattresses but enough to keep mom and dad a little cushy while we sleep. We have only used them twice, but they seem to have developed air leaks in that brief period of time so they are in need of some repair. I’ll be tasking this job out to my number one daughter, who recently discovered she has a keen ability to find air leaks in rubber tubing while working on her robotics team – a skill that she figured out all on her own I might add!
The second task will be a bit more difficult and involves some research on my part. The bonnet of our tent (basically the outer roof) was severely damaged at one of the tie lines on our last trip. There were some rowdy teenagers in the campground, unsupervised and playing tag in the dark, barreling through all the campsites. My Superman was watching this, growing angrier by the second as they flitted in and out of the tents and RVs, knowing that one of them was going to get hurt or hurt one of our kids. Sure enough, some poor teenage girl ran straight through our tent lines and landed SMACK on her face in the dirt! Superman was literally steaming out the ears while I went to check on the girl, who seemed to be suffering from only scraped knees and a terribly bruised ego; she scampered off after she saw Superman’s angry face. The bonnet, however, did not fare as well and was badly torn at the stress point right where the line ties into the material. Thank goodness for our trusty purple duct tape, though – he was able to put a temporary patch on the bonnet and loosen the line enough so that the bonnet stayed put the rest of the trip.
One really nice outcome of that little disaster, though, was seeing how concerned the campground owner was when he heard what happened. In addition to herding the teenagers and speaking to their chaperones about not running through campsites, he then went around to all the other sites and told everyone to keep the kids from running around after dark. He was very apologetic about what happened, too, and spent some time talking to us about it. Gotta love the small family campgrounds!
Plus, the teenage girl redeemed herself in Superman’s eyes the next day when she came into our campsite, bravely walked up to him and apologized profusely for what happened. He softened quite a bit as she spoke, and at the end of their exchange I think even he felt a little better about the whole episode…
Now, off to repair that bonnet – wish me luck!
