This past Monday dh & I went camping with our youngest son, his wife & 3 kids. We went to a camp ground that's about an hour from our house. We each had a small camper so had to take 2 vehicles. Our son's truck towed our camper and he had just bought an older conversion van which son & dh tested out. It was over heating when they bought it but they said they fixed it. Anyone know where I'm going with this tale? Within less then 20 miles of starting out it started over heating. But having worked on cars for over 40 years dh was prepared. We were carrying several containers of water. So about every 15 - 20 miles we just stopped and poured a few gallons of water over the radiator & engine to cool it down. So a trip that should have taken about an hour ended up being about 2 1/2 hours. Well we finally made it to the camping spot at Villanueva. Which is in a canyon with a very small river running through it. Yah yah, it's sorta pretty but man it was hot. Close to 100º F and absolutely no wind. Not even a scant breeze. We unloaded the coolers & food. Then all went wading in the river. All 6" deep of it. Dh & I went back to camp to start supper. Found a band of thieving squirrels had gotten into a sealed bag of marshmellows. They only got a couple, but still. Ya know. Well we made burgers and hotdogs. Found we didn't remember to bring ketchup, mustard or mayo. But all was not lost, dh did bring a jar of pickles. Tasted pretty good. Or we were all really hungry. After we made smoors. I was beat so went & laid down in our camper. It was only about 90º by then and still no breeze. Dh kept bringing me cold wet wash rags to cool down with. He is a sweet man (at times). We all slept in late the next morning. Made pancakes sausages & scrambled eggs. The squirrels also got the pack of flour tortillas in their raid the day before. We ate, then cleaned up, & packed up everything & were on the road by 11. Again it took us another 2 1/2 hrs to get home. With the same stops to cool the van down. No this camping trip wasn't perfect. Far from it. But we still got some nice memories out of it. The kids are still pretty young yet 7, 4.5 & 3 and they had fun. So we did too. We are already planning the next camping trip. Just hopefully better planned out. Somewhere a lot cooler & somewhere with more water for actual swimming.
oh dear. kids dont see the stress of such an adventure so it is always fun for them. glad you got home safe and sound.
Sounds like you all were good sports. Sounds like the kind of vacation that will go down in the family lore "remember the time...."
