Thank you for taking the time and energy to create this trip report! This is something that I would love to do with my family and it's what I read or look for updates every morning. When you get some time, how was camp life with three young ones? I read that swimming was popular but what was "daily life or camp life" like?
thanks!
Lance
Lance,
Camp life varied greatly based on a number of variables as you can imagine. Much depended on the terrain, the temperature and the time in/out of the car. However, a normal day looked something like the following: I would wake up with the sun, get out of the tent as quietly as possible, dig a hole or use a baggie and then start heating water up. About the time our youngest would be awake up in the RTT and I'd get her out, put a jacket on her and put her out on our tarp or inside of our pelican cases. She loved both places.
Mornings were usually oatmeal or cereal and I'd have that ready by the time the kids were stirring and saying they didn't want to get out of there sleeping bags because it was too cold. But the smell of food or need of bladder relief would usually do the trick quickly. Speaking of, the first few nights in Arkansas my four year-old wet her sleeping bag. That's fun to clean up when water is scarce! We started making her go to the woods as late as possible and that was that. As soon as the kids got out I'd take the sleeping bags out for some air and set the seats and carseats (ugh) up so that they couldn't lay back down. As wife and I packed they would play in the car or out on the ground. We would usually put the youngest in the back or in the front seat where she would stand at the wheel and pretend she was driving. It was nice to have a sort of cage for her. Sometimes she'd go straight to the carseat for a nap. It normally took us two hours to get going.
We would usually stay in the car until noon or thereabouts and stop for an hour or so for lunch. Often we'd do snacks and pee breaks in the mid-morning but they would be short stops. Lunch was always roadside and often we'd be in a town for lunch since we never slept in or near towns, so we always looked for parks with playgrounds and grass. Another short stop in the afternoon for an afternoon snack and then we'd quickly come up on dinner.
Setting camp took about as long as breaking camp. We did not often pull out our aluminum table and benches as the six - ten minutes of extra setup didn't seem worth it. We'd often set the stove on a stump or a rock. The stove was the first thing out. The kids entertained themselves usually but were just as often whiny because of hunger. The youngest would go on the tarp or on one of our backs or crawl around if we didn't mind her getting filthy and it was safe. Steph would usually cook and I would morph the car into a sleeping-car. That was a pain in the ********: moving all the seats, unpacking everything except the storage drawer, moving carseats (ugh), tucking anything that couldn't stay in the car under it. You hit your rhythm though after a week or so it just became life.
The kids did a good job of entertaining themselves in the car and at camp. At camp they would explore, play tag, run around, play cars in the dirt, play house. We'd all play tag sometimes.
Eating was easy and the only quiet time there was and that only lasted a few minutes. We'd usually feed the little ones, clean them off (messy), get them in bed and then eat our own meal if we could wait that long. Once in the bed (around dark) I would play a book on tape to help them calm down and keep them from playing. Most nights were hard but great, some nights were utter hell.
Maybe that answers your questions, maybe not. I should get my wife on here to write about it. She'd probably do a better job.
