No Time to Camp
If your family is anything like mine then finding a free weekend for things like camping is almost impossible. Early in April I was looking at my calendar and feeling pretty discouraged by the fact that I literally had 3 days without something scheduled already. All were Sundays. I let it bother me for a few days thinking I might not find time for fun this spring or summer then I thought to myself “This is important to me and I am going to make it happen.”
Some of my best memories revolve around camping trips, hiking, or days at the lake. With the crazy schedule that I have, I find myself craving those times when life doesn’t feel so penciled in. Times where I can relax or enjoy being outside with my friends and family.
So there we were, it was Saturday afternoon after a morning that was very demanding on my family already and I was about to give up on the 1 night camping trip that my husband and I had said that we wanted to make happen. I was starting to suggest that we should just try for another time when my husband, Tim announced that he was finding a campground for us and encouraged us to quickly load the car with our camping gear. So that is what we did. We didn’t have time to find a sitter for our dogs or plan out our food we just winged it. The dogs would have to come, we didn’t need s’mores, I threw some random stuff from the fridge into a cooler, and we were off!
We ended up finding a campsite at Hickory Creek Campground in Rogers, AR and it was right next to the lake (hello, awesome view). It was incredibly windy that day and our tent was about to take flight when a friendly couple in a camper offered us some sturdy tent stakes. They told us that they remember the days of tent camping and how it was difficult at times. They kept a few things like those tent stakes just so they could offer it to a family that might need them sometime. We were very grateful for their kindness and enjoyed talking with them.
Our dogs were happy to be camping with us and settled in right away.
This was our fist time camping with cots vs. an inflatable mattress. It was nice not having to worry about them deflating in the middle of the night but the dogs both decided to sleep on mine with me and I still don’t know how it worked but somehow it did. haha.
Overall we had a great time. Our dogs loved camping with us and we even had some friends show up and set up a tent next to ours for the night. We even did a little fishing. I learned that I can make time for things like camping even when it seems impossible However, I also learned that I should keep a bin in my garage full of my camping stuff so I can just grab it and go. That way it will be a little easier on us next time.
