Spontaneous Camping Trip: FAIL. FAIL. Success?

Friday after Jared got home from work, he said: "Let's go camping".  I said "Great idea!" So we threw a few things in the trunk including a meal we planned to warm over the fire for dinner, and were on our way.

Because this happened a week ago, I am a little blurry on the details, but lucky me (and you) I documented the trip as it was happening on my iphone. I will now copy and paste (beware it's long, and really for my own purposes of remembering this camping trip, so you might find it boring) ps. there are lots of grammatical errors that I am too lazy to fix :)

-We just drove to hours, and the road to South Mountain is closed.

-Lucky for us we have a Gps! Calculate alternate route.

-We are in the middle if nowhere. I'm pretty sure we just passed an Amish community.

-Oh hey look! A golf course!... the GPS says to take the mini golf cart road? Okay!

-It is 30 min later...and we are right back where we started at the closed road >:(

-We calculated a new route, and are finally at South Mountain! (an extra hour later) Oh well! At least we are here.

-Every camping spot is full.

-The park ranger makes us pay a fee and shows us which trail we need to hike up to get to the available camping spots. She tells us that she hopes we are in shape. What does she mean?

-Did I mention it's getting dark?

-Hike hike hike

-It's completely dark now, and we are sharing a flashlight to light the way.

-I'm paranoid that I'm going to step on a snake.

-Hike hike.

 -Ky is being very fussy, so I give him a few pieces of candy that I plan to roast over the fire. If we ever get there.

-This camping gear is heavy, and so is Kyler!

-Are we there yet?

-We just hiked over another river and up a mountain.

-We are there!

-There is only one other person camping.

-Is it creepy that he is camping by himself? He seems suspiciously friendly to me.

-Tried to make campfire but it is so humid all of the wood is too wet to light!

-I'm attempting to put our sugar high toddler to bed in this tent we set up in the dark (I hope it holds).

-Jared did his magic and got the soggy firewood to light! However, we are too tired from the hike to cook, and are getting eaten alive by bugs! In the tent we stay.

-No dinner.

-No s'mores.

-I have to pee, but do I wanna risk getting poison ivy on my bum in the dark?

-Nope! I'll hold it!

-Kyler refuses to sleep and is squealing and dancing in delight at the thought of the whole fam sleeping in this tent. He is literally a happy camper.

-11:30 Ky is finally asleep!

-Jared and I see flashes of lightening in the distance. He asks me if our Walmart tent is water proof. I have no idea.

-I can't sleep. Is that creepy loner camping guy going to murder us in our sleep?

-Why are the dang crickets and birds so loud? Don't they sleep? I'm pretty sure we set our tent up on rocks.

-Everything just went silent...too silent. I'm scared.

-IT IS POURING DOWN RAIN.

-Sweet it turns out that our 20 Walmart tent IS waterproof!

-Whew! That creepy loner camping guy won't wanna get wet in the rain to murder us so I think we are safe!

-I guess I fell asleep for an hour or so because it is 2am now, and the rain is still coming down hard.

-Drip drip...I checked on Kyler and his blanket is soaking wet!

-Our $20 walmart tent is not as water proof as we thought >:(

-I'm hungry.

-Jared just woke up too with his side of the tent leaking water.

-CRAP Kyler just woke up, I know he is going to cry and we are in for a long night. There is no way we can hike back down the mountain in the rain and dark.

-Kyler is a maniac! He is so happy and hyper! It's the middle of the night! What the heck? He's hilarious.

 -I just changed Kylers sopping wet PJ, and we all just scooched to middle of tent to try to stay dry. We are all 3 sharing the same pillow.

-It is 4am now and it is still raining, I am still awake, and I still have to pee. Really wishing I had a few hours ago right about now.

-I just heard a soft growl. Are there bears in NC? CRAP I just remembered we have our dinner we never cooked sitting in our tent! It probably smells so good to hungry wild animals!

-Turns out the growling I heard was Jared snoring. How is he sleeping?

ll

And that is the last thing I wrote. Next thing I know, it was 9am, the sun was shining and I woke up to this (which I of course took a picture of)

I love how they are sharing a pillow and Jared is all wrapped up in Ky's blanket :)

I actually completely forgot about all of the things that happened previous to this moment, and if I hadn't written them down, I still wouldn't remember! We had such a fun day when we woke up, hiking and exploring, seeing waterfalls, and watching Bauer swim in the river. I'd say it was a successful camping trip, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. (Well, after re-reading this post, maybe next year :p)

Here are a few more pictures from our Spontaneous Camping Trip:

This was in the middle of the night before I changed Kylers rain drenched clothes.

This is us hiking down the mountain the next morning. We were all muddy and Kyler looked like a ragamuffin in his footy pjs with shoes over the top (only dry clothes left). We got some pretty weird looks from other hikers.

We hiked past some HUGE boulders!

We hiked up next to some beautiful waterfalls too!

Also at one point during our camping trip, Jared got this HUGE tennis ball sized bruise on his arm.  The story of how he got it is HILARIOUS, but he made me promise not to tell anyone what happened. So I will post a picture of it instead :p  Here is what it looks like almost a week later: