Since today was my first day off from college teaching, Louie and I decided to take a short trip to celebrate. Since we try to make life so much harder than it needs to be, we made a reservation to camp at Babler State Park, which is about 40 minutes away. We wanted to take the dog, Mackenzie, along, since she is getting older and we thought she’d enjoy being outdoors and camping, and also having us to herself (away from Muriel the new cat.) We almost canceled the trip after we realized Muriel had a little bit of recovery to do after her spay surgery, and then when the weather looked iffy, but we decided all would be well.

The other reason I wanted to get out for a night of camping, besides relaxing and getting outside before it gets toooooo hot, was to check on our gear situation before taking a longer trip this summer. It’s easy to forget what problems occurred, so I thought we’d have this trip to remind us of what we needed. Basically we are in good shape, but there are always a few things here and there to make life easier.

My years of camping experience have taught me how to interpret a campground map as best as possible to figure out what site to reserve in order to best meet our needs. Since we tent camp, we want privacy and shade, or at least as much of each as possible. I’m diligent in my searches, looking online for exact site numbers, looking for pictures of the site, comparing the availability, seeing which sites are MORE popular, and therefore likely better. Since this was only night, I wasn’t too concerned, but I’m pretty sure I got the best site in the campground, or at least one of the best. The only drawback was that it was very far from the restrooms, but it was very close to water, had lovely shade, privacy on three sides and was below the road a bit too, so I’d say we did well. Site 68 at Babler State Park, if you are keeping track.

You know I love taking pictures of my tent in various locations.

Let me back up just a little, since you know I hate to stay on topic too much. Since I’m done with my college teaching for the semester (15 more hours a week, I believe) I’ve already forgotten how hard it was. This happens immediately—as soon as I have a relaxing evening or afternoon I tend to forget how awfully stressed out I was. This is a good sign, I think, but looking back a few weeks, Louie was saying he wished we could get out and about more, that we used to do a lot more outdoor activities. So we planned a trip—we figured even though I’m going into a few busy weeks (playing a two week run of a musical) we’d take a day and do something fun. I realized we could get away overnight and the plan was hatched!

I ended up of course teaching in the morning before we left and then of course had to get back to teach today, but nonetheless we were able to get away. Packing the car for camping is no small feat (and unpacking) but luckily some of our systems were in place and most of the gear was in one box and ready to go. We did forget a few things but nothing we couldn’t live without.

We got to the campground around 4 pm and check in was easy. We bought firewood there, and then set up the tent and the campsite. It was a little sloped and we weren’t exactly sure the best place for the tent, but overall it was lovely. We were at the end of the road on a cul-de-sac, and while we did end up with neighbors across, it was still pretty private.

After we set up, we wanted to take a short hike. I’ve been having a little knee trouble, and Mackenzie doesn’t like walking too much so we picked a short hike—Steve Henry from 60 Hikes within 60 Miles of St Louis said it was his favorite though, so we were okay with our choice. We went on the Hawthorne Trail, which was about 1 1/4 miles.

After the hike we headed back to our campsite and relaxed a bit before dinner. I’d brought Trader Joe’s vegetarian chili for dinner and popcorn for dessert…we made a campfire (well, Louie did) and relaxed a bit first.

Mackenzie couldn’t figure out how to get comfortable (not much grass on our site—they’d put down a lot of straw to cover the dirt, but we didn’t think of that) so she kept pacing around, giving us these looks like, are we heading home soon?, and finally ended up napping in the backseat of the car. Then the storms started. We couldn’t relax because it kept raining off and on, off and on. It wasn’t anything terrible, just the edge of a storm or two that was passing through, but Louie and I kept going into the car, then back out by the fire, and the car, the fire, etc. Finally we realized we might as well just make dinner—we could always hold an umbrella over the stove if needed, so we did that. The rain held off long enough to make the soup, and then started up again. Finally it seemed to be a long enough time without rain and we were able to enjoy the campfire. Fascinating story, right? But the moral of the story is: always be ready for rain. It will likely rain.

This is the other view of the campsite.

Anyway, we finally decided to just go to bed. Note for those camping with an older dog: make sure the pad you brought for her is working. We brought an older inflatable pad for her to sleep on, but it wouldn’t hold air. She was antsy all night until finally she squeezed at the foot of the tent on the thermarest and sleeping bag combo and then she was comfy! Other note for those camping or hiking: it’s definitely already tick season…

Oh, and another thing: camping so close to St Louis, it never really got dark. We kept expecting it to get darker, but it never got totally dark. And before we went to bed for the night, we did hear something bigger in the forest, moving around, but didn’t see anything. So that was a little fun and exciting!

Anyway, we slept well enough, and then got up around 8:30 am. The weather was nice—not too hot, not raining anymore, and we made coffee and oatmeal, and then packed up. We thought about trying to do another short hike, but I think we overestimated what Mackenzie was up for, so we thought maybe she’d better just get home…so we drove home, unloaded the car, and then got back into the workweek. It was a nice diversion and quick overnight trip.

Since there weren’t any photos of me in this post, let me include one from last week after I got my hair done–

That’s totally how I looked while camping as well.