WHAT ELSE CAN HAPPEN?

GOING CAMPING!

DAY ONE

Need to drive to Wisconsin to pick up:  

Tent

Tarp (ha!)

Lanterns

Gas Grill

Fishing Tackle/Fake Bait

Sleeping Bag

Cooler

We have the rest. You are probably wondering what's left?!

 Food

Mallet

Fishing Poles

Canopy

Down Blanket

Tent Chairs

Doggy Stuff

2 PUPPIES

Guns

By 12:30 p.m. we are packed up and ready to fly to Wisconsin to pick up necessities.

We arrive at my mom's house by 2:30 p.m. D unloads the pups and guns while I take off to Rice Lake to pickup camping gear.

By the time I get back and all is loaded up, it's 5:00 p.m.

WE BUST OUT TO JAY COOKE STATE PARK!

Along the way we make a pit stop for gas and Bloody's.

EXCELLENT!

My car starts to make funny noises.

Uh oh....

It starts to sprinkle.

SUCK.

We arrive around 7:45...and it's raining and COLD.

We set up the tent and canopy. They are soaked as well as us.

There is no firewood. The state park stations are closed.

D burns his thumb on a propane lantern.

And no pillows.

We are hungry.

To town we go!

My car sounds terrible. My heart is sinking trying to calculate how much money I can scrounge together in case it's a $2000 surprise.

No restaurant is open for food.

My car sounds like it's about to fall apart while we drive.

McDonald's will do.

We pull into a gas station to buy firewood. I stress eat my McNuggets while checking out my car.

Finally we get back to the tent and try to sleep...on the floor. One blanket and one sleeping bag is not enough to combat a cold, damp floor.

Shiver me timbers.

DAY 2

D accidentally lights the kerosene grill on fire.

We use the fire for cooking instead.

Bring on the grilled Spam, eggs, hot dogs and smores.

Time for a shower except the toilets and showers are CLOSED for the season.

"Please use pit toilets located at..."

Raw chicken has spilled all over the cooler damaging all the food. One of the pups has gotten a hold of the cooler and is chewing it up.

I drive my NOISY car to the mechanic around 2 pm.

NEW BRAKES! But I feel better that the car sounds normal again.

Found a tick crawling up my leg.

I come back to our campsite and WE ROCK CLIMB! And then play cards and laugh, enjoying the beginning of the night.

We stoke the fire and figure out what we can do for food.

Found another tick crawling up my leg.

Okay let’s go to town, have a bloody and get some food.

Within 10 minutes of being at 3RD BASE BAR we met "I'M 39 TODAY!" She refused to leave us. All she said was, "I DON'T AGREE! Where is Tom? I'M 39 TODAY!"

Finally she stumbled away only to be replaced by Tom the Dill Hole. He proceeded to drunkenly slur and hit on me--trying to challenge my boyfriend who is now standing next to Tom the Dill Hole and getting quite pissed.

I am camping to get away from this crap. So we pay up and leave instead of getting in a fist fight with Tom the Dill Hole. Wouldn't have been much of a fight, Dill Hole would've been knocked down with a flick of finger.

He wasn't even worth that bit of energy.

We walk down the street to an open bar sign.

I step in dog crap.

VFW! There we meet Matt the bartender and an empty bar. He pours us huge shots. We listen to music.

I am drunk.

D drives us back.

He also burns 2 more of his fingers on the propane lanterns.

I pass out using one of the PUPS as a pillow.

DAY 3

We wake up. I have a headache. So does D.

D notices a tick crawling near us. He does a tick check.

BULLS-EYE! Yep! A Bulls-Eye tick is embedded in his side. D’s skin is red and the tick’s head is deeply burrowed in.

Squirrels are making a terrible ruckus outside. We peek out the tent to find they ate through the mesh in the chair to get at sunflower seeds.

After they ate the seeds they pooped all over the chair.

I run to the pit toilet to pee. My head is spinning.

I get back.

He asks me to pull the tick out.

So I grab tweezers, alcohol and Jameson. Neither of us drinks the Jameson but we should've.

I scrape at the wound with shaking hands. It's not good enough. So D grabs the steak knife.

I pour alcohol and Jameson on the steak knife...and cut out the tick.

D just stood there while I stabbed at him. I was amazed but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

At one point I held the knife up to him and said, "You made me do this."

Then I smiled.

I pull the body out without spilling any of it's guts but the head is still stuck in there. Another 15 minutes of cutting and scraping and the SURGICAL PROCEDURE IS COMPLETE.

With alcohol poured on the wound and a band-aid attached it's time to let the day begin.

We are hungry but there is nothing to eat except Chex Mix and Spam. And that's breakfast folks.

I rock climb 3 more times making it 10 times I climbed the rock! D didn't feel up to climbing that day but he hit the top of the rock 8 times the day before.

It's time to pack up. I grab the water jug (with snazzy handle) and run to fill it up to douse the fire. On the way back the handle busts and the jug crashes to the ground. I yelp.

And laugh.

D hears the yelp and comes looking for me. He finds me holding the broken jug and laughs.

We take down the tent. We find a hole burned into the tent canopy which we assume came from the kerosene lantern.

And we laugh.

That, folks, is what it's all about.

LAUGHING! Laughing together.

On the way back we stopped at ART'S CAFE in Moose Lake for Hot Beef. I was just craving Hot Beef.

It was AMAZING! And it made us happy. And sleepy.

Back to our respective houses we went, both doing a thorough tick check and massive loads of laundry.

First time camping together, CHECK!

It was quite the experience and has not thwarted our desire to camp again, and again, and again.

Why? Because we still had a great time together. What can happen next time?

We will just find out!