Last weekend, my friend, Rachel, and I embarked on a camping adventure at Piney Bay Recreational Park. We had been trying to organize a camping trip for the last few years, but our plans always fell through. About a month or two ago, I texted Rachel and asked if we could get a plan in action and actually go for real. We picked last weekend since her last day at school was Friday.
She was supposed to get done with school at noon on Friday, go to her parents' house to pick up the camping stuff, and then drive to Russellville to meet me. She texted me sometime that afternoon and said that she was running late. I don't think she actually left Harrison until about 4 pm. I got off work at 4:30 that day so I offered to go to her parents' house in Morrilton to pick up the camping gear.
I headed to Morrilton after work and took everything that Angie gave me then headed back to Russellville to meet Rachel at the grocery store. We picked up all the essentials at Kroger (Turkey dogs, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, trail mix.... all the good camping stuff that wouldn't require much work!) and headed to the campsite.
Now begins the interesting part ---- Mind you, I hadn't been camping since I was in middle school when I used to go with my dad and he did all of the work! And Rachel had gone more recently with family, but this was the first time either of us had to be responsible for the trickier parts of camping.
Upon arrival, we unloaded my car and started unpacking everything. I got the tent bag out and Rachel looked inside of it only to discover that there was no tent included --- only a tarp and some poles. Whoops.
So Rachel called her parents and we decided to meet them in Russellville. In the meantime, we decided to try our hand at building a fire.... and we failed. We collected leaves, twigs, sticks, a log, and some newspaper. We lit it; it died. Repeat that step. Three times. A man in the campsite witnessed our feeble attempts and came over to help us. He was brilliant; he had lighter fluid. Genius, I tell you.
After that, we decided that we might not survive this camping trip. Not because of a bobcat or bear, but because we seemed to be more of a hazard to ourselves. Anyway, I left Rachel at the campsite and met her parents in Russellville to get the rest of the equipment (who knew you needed a tent to camp?!). I decided to stop at the store on the way back to get some lighter fluid and bug spray (another item we hadn't thought of; go figure!). I made it back to the campsite around 9:30 pm, so we had to put the tent up in the dark. It took a while, but we finally managed. We only found two stakes so we put those in the back and hoped that the rest of the tent wouldn't fall down. We got creative at the front and held it down with a log and a tote.... but it was finally up!!!
We finally got to bed around 11:30 pm. It ended up being really cold at night. I was in a sleeping bag and had three blankets and a sheet on me. The second night I found a sweatshirt in my trunk to use as well. Who knew it could be so hot during the day and so cold at night!
Saturday was significantly less eventful. We went for a lovely walk in the morning, then decided to go fishing. This is all we caught:
I was pretty proud of that stick. In our defense, the water was really shallow there and we didn't have proper bait. I think we stayed out for about 10 minutes.
The rest of the day was filled with lounging around, reading, swimming, putting a puzzle together, making smores and hot dogs, and just chatting and laughing! The trip was very relaxing once we got our groove! It's very peaceful just being outside listening to insects and birds and looking at the stars. Life is crazy sometimes, but this world is still very beautiful! :-)
How fun! It makes me want to go camping--I've never been. I should add it to my bucket list : ) Thanks for writing this post. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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