The "ALMOST" Ruined Camping Trip!

It was a SHORT camping weekend for us - short being determined by the fact that we would leave AFTER work on Friday and had to be home by Sunday noon! So we had decided to go nearby at a place called Tarryall - which I THOUGHT was only about 1/2 hour away!!

We headed out Friday after work and the journey took us a little over an hour - on the roughest blacktopped, potholed road that we have been on in a long time!! I would have taken a gravel road ANY DAY over this road!

The national forest we pulled into was HUGE - I can't imagine how many road and trail miles there were in this place!! Lots of campers too but we found a nice spot and the first thing Glenn has to do is to take the ATV off the trailer so he can unhitch the trailer - and that's when the trouble started.......... no key for the ATV.........it was in his jeans pocket that he had changed out of right before we left!!

I looked at Glenn - he looked at me - and I was almost in tears as ATV'ing was the reason we had come!! But never fear - Glenn is the most resourceful guy I have ever known and after searching for a paper clip and a screwdriver and burning his finger - he had the ATV started!! HOORAY - the camping trip was on!!

We roasted brats and had them with potato salad - beer for him, peach fizzie for me - life was good!! Except for the fact that Glenn forgot to put the solar light in the truck but I did sleep OK!

Saturday morning was pretty cold with lots of dew!! There had been a storm passing by but it missed us completely, although a few miles away, it hit pretty hard!!! We loaded up the ATV with our picnic lunch, dressed in our layers and headed out!!

We had a great day exploring - lots of streams - beautiful pine and aspen trees - lots of hiking trails that we would like to hike in the future!! I had Glenn take a picture of me just to prove that I AM actually along on these trips!!
You can see the clouds starting to build up in this next picture!

After riding around for about 5 hours, we decided we better head back as the clouds were really getting dark and we pulled into camp just as the rain started - it rained and rained and rained!! We were basically stuck in the camper for the rest of the afternoon and evening - so we played a game of Scrabble - Glenn took a nap - and I started a new book!! Unfortunately it was STILL raining when it was time for dinner so this is how Glenn cooked on the grill!!

Oh well - what's a little rain????

Sunday we rode around for a couple of hours before it was time to pack up - Glenn went to start the truck and guess what - it wouldn't start!! He had just put a new starter in the truck the week before and had made the comment before we left that it wasn't acting right and he wondered if he'd got a bad one!! Sure enough - it was bad!! He tried and tried to get it going but no luck - tried calling a couple of friends but no answer (at least we had cell service) so ended up taking the starter off (luckily we carry a complete tool kit with us) and tearing it apart and working on it - again, his skills paid off as when he put it back on, the truck started!!!

#3 problem happened when he went to load the ATV - we don't have an actual ATV trailer so it's a little tricky loading it as our trailer has open spaces on the sides and driving it up, one of the tires went into it - so we found a large tree pole and used it to wedge the tire up and soon had it loaded - we decided on the way home that an actual ATV trailer is next on the list to buy!!

So although we had a few problems with this camping trip, it all worked out OK, thanks to Glenn and his knowledge of "making do"!!! Think I'll keep him around...............