A Weekend on the Water

After a particular cool, rainy start to the summer we've been hit with oppressive heat the past few weeks.  It started 4th of July weekend and it has not stopped.  Luckily the afternoon rain showers have reappeared, bringing with them a nice breeze and bearable temps, but the days have been hot.

Instead of trying to fight it, we gave in this past weekend and spent our entire weekend on the water; we just didn't see any other logical solution other than staying inside all weekend (which is what I did last Sunday when I finished up by book after about 7 hours on the couch reading).

Our view Saturday at the Lake

Saturday we headed up to Lake Martin to help a friend break in his new pontoon boat.  We cruised the lake for 3 straight hours and it was glorious! We had the top up so we could sit in the shade and enjoy the boat-made breeze and it was perfect! We cruised up the lake to pick up our friends who were camping for the night, then back to the other side of the lake to look at some cabins, then back up to drop our friends back off at the campsite and then back to the other end to head home.

I wouldn't mind hanging out at this lake "cabin"

The guys contemplating life and discussing the upcoming football season.

Chimney Rock

Well almost....were so close we just had to swing by Chuck's Marina for pizzas since we hadn't had any yet this year. Pizzas in hand we headed for the house. It's amazing how much 3 hours riding on the water will take out of you!

Captain Beau made sure we didn't get lost.

Sunday we were in full-out beat-the-heat mode and headed down to the river where the water stays in the 70s even in the heat of the summer.  We packed the boat down with coolers, a tent, and a grill and drove until we found a sandbar - which was quite a ways down since they had 3 turbines on at the dam.

#riverlife

We set everything up and sat down at the water's edge enjoying ourselves, until we realized the water was creeping up toward our tent.  We moved our things back a few feet, and then a few more feet, and then we gave up on sliding it back and just moved everything to the tree line.

That gave us plenty of time to grill the burgers and hot dogs, and enjoy them along with a little more time in the water.  Unfortunately the water did not seem to be receding any time soon, so we packed everything back up to head home and finished off the evening with a swim in the pool.

We did get to enjoy the view though....I still think the river is one of the prettiest places around!

This view on the Tallapoosa never gets old!

My Second Major

No I'm not going back to school to get another degree....a couple of weeks ago I was fortunate to attend my second major golf tournament.  We attended the Masters last spring, and when we realized that the 2017 U.S. Open was going to be just a couple of hours from my brother's house we turned it into a family vacation (minus Eric because he had to stay home and work).

I am not much for playing golf - I took lessons as a kid but never stuck with it - but I do enjoy going to tournaments. When I was in high school my track team always volunteered at the FedEx St. Jude Classic.  They paid/donated $3,000 to the track team and we ran around the tournament all week.  Our job was to tie up the full garbage bags and put them by the road. We had access to the entire course and I always enjoyed it.

We went to the tournament on Saturday...aka the day that Justin Thomas made his impressive run in his hot pink pants. While the course was no Augusta National, it was still quite impressive.  It was super hilly and there were 0 trees. But those poor golfers had lots of tall grass like marshy grass to deal with.  There were several spots where if they strayed from the fairway there was no recovering.

The 9th Island Green (and Justin Thomas in his hot pink pants on said green)

Since the tournament was only a couple of hours from Chicago, my aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins came up and joined us!

We walked the first few holes just so we could see the course, and then we split up.  The boys continued walking the course while we (the girls) found some lunch and posted up on a hill beside the 9th fairway to watch all of the golfers play through. The guys caught up with us with about 5 groups to go and we watched the leaders play through before heading back to the buses because we were pooped.

No doubt these two are related...like father like son

So I can now cross 2 of 4 Majors off my list (Matt and Dad can check 3 since they've been to the PGA Championship twice), so I guess it's time for us to take a trip across the pond for #4 and the British Open!  Anyone got any extra tickets, free hotel rooms, or a private jet to fly us over there? I'll spring for a couple of pints as a thank you!

Our crew....we missed Eric and Lily, but I guess someone has to stay home and work!

Camping Tips from a First Timer

So we may be brand spanking new to this camping thing, but we learned a lot on our first trip out, so I figured I could pass on some of my newbie wisdom.

1) Bring quality chairs..... I picked up two cheap bag chairs from a sporting good store thinking we'd leave them in the camper. Well one broke the second night and they were just not comfortable.  We were quite envious of our friends' rocking bag chairs and 0-gravity lounge chairs, so we will be reassessing our chair situation for the next time - with these perhaps?!?. But my bag table with cup holders was a hit!

2)........and bring extras.  We had several folks come hang out since we were close to home and none of them brought any chairs so people had to sit on coolers or stand a lot of the time.

You never know who might steal your chair!

3) Go ahead and buy a full-sized garbage can up front....I thought we could get by with a small under-the-counter wastebasket but after making dinner the first night I realized I was mistaken and I bought one the following morning.  We plan on storing it in the bathroom when the slides are in.

4) Don't forget a fly swatter!  Trust me on this one...You need one. Throw it in the cart.

5) While you're at it go ahead and throw that 9' x 12' RV Mat from Walmart in the cart (or a bigger one). They're a little pricey but completely worth it to keep most of the dirt from getting tracked inside.

6) Coordinate meals with your travel partners. My family has always done this when we all travel together, and it's always been a lifesaver. We did this on our camping trip: 3 families + 3 nights = everyone makes dinner once. It was the best thing we could have done.  Instead of everyone having to stock their itty bitty fridges with multiple dinners, we all had just one, leaving space for lunch and breakfast food. Plus it was really nice only having to worry about getting dinner ready one night!

Our campsites came with combination grill/fire pits

7) Speaking of refrigerators.....they're tiny so pack them wisely.  And if you're going to take a gallon of milk make sure the lid gets screwed back on tightly.  Ours did not and I was pouring milk out of the produce bins when we got home...not cool.  And while we're on the subject of food....

8) Divide the number of bags of chips you take in half. Don't bring them just to have something to snack on, especially if you don't typically snack on chips, because everyone is going to being a few bags of "just in case" chips and you'll end up with 2 bags of chips for each person, and all but 3 bags will be open by the time you get home leaving you with lots of open bags of chips.

9) Have something to store your dirty/stinky/sweaty clothes in.  We did not and the second day could not figure out why the camper had a mildew-ey smell that would not go away even though we sprayed air freshener multiple times.  Finally Eric realized it was coming from his pile of dirty clothes sitting on our dresser...I know, gross.  He double-bagged them and the smell went away.  I took them home the next morning and washed them (thank you nearby campsite!), but we're going to have to find a solution for gross dirty clothes on longer trips aside from bagging them up and storing them under the camper until we get home because I would probably need a gas mask to wash them at that point.  Suggestions are welcome.

Watch dog

10) And last but not least enjoy yourself! If you want to go explore, go explore. If you want to sit in a lounge chair and read, sit in a lounge chair and read. If you want to go fishing at midnight, go fishing at midnight.  I think you get my point.  Enjoy being outside and enjoy the slower pace that goes along with a simpler way of life. And I hope you have an awesome groups of weirdos to hang with (another perk of camping close to home)!

A Man Walks onto a Camper Sales Lot.....

When Eric and his best friend were younger they'd do things like go get new dirt bikes or 4-wheelers together because heaven forbid one did something without the other one. Because boys will be boys that has held true in adulthood as they both got new trucks around the same time and as of last month they (along with their wives) are now the proud owners of campers.

Gassed up and ready to go!

Yes campers.  They even went together to make their camper purchases and were told by the salesman that he could not believe they were both able to select and purchase their campers without their wives present.  Lucky for them they picked out the right ones (wives and campers) because it would have been a shame if they'd had to return their new toys if they'd purchased the wrong ones.

I was actually sitting on a hill beside the 9th fairway of the U.S. Open when I received a text from Eric with a video of our new 5th wheel camper, and sat there in complete shock before calling him and asking if it was a joke.  I knew he was thinking very strongly about it but figured it would blow over like it has in the past. But clearly it did not.....

Our set up at the campground

It took me a week or so to warm up to the idea of camping because we did not camp when I was a kid, so I had no idea what to expect.  Once I started filling it up with all of the things we might need....aka shopping for it I really started to get excited. It was love at first sight for Eric and he and his buddies used it as a Saturday night hangout spot in the middle of our yard the first weekend we had it.

We took her our for her maiden voyage this past extended 4th of July weekend along with Eric's best friend and his wife, and another couple.  Somehow we were able to snag 3 lots next to each other at a state park on Lake Martin.....several of the people we stayed near were shocked we were able to get our slots, too.

We packed up the truck with everything I hadn't had a chance to load the night before when Eric closed the slides and headed up to the lake bright and early on Saturday morning.  Once we got there Eric set up the camper - I have no clue how to do any of the backing in and leveling and hooking up to water/power/etc so I played with some fellow campers' dogs....there were so.many.dogs there, it was awesome! We only brought Beau and Peanut this time but I am scheming how to get LG and Hawk included on the next trip.

Part of our canine contingency....our dogs did not win the award for best behaved all weekend....clearly

When he finished up his jobs he headed back home to get his boat - the campsite is only 30 minutes from our house so this was a good "1st trip" distance for us - and I got to work setting up the inside. It didn't take me too long so by the time he got back I was kicked back in a lawn chair reading a book.  (I am working on The Alice Network by Kate Quinn and so far I am really enjoying it).

We spent the rest of our weekend hanging out, reading (me), fishing (Eric), eating (all of us), and not much else.  It was probably one of the most relaxing vacations I've been on in a while, and as packed as the campsite was (there are over 600 camping slots there) we never felt crowded or like anyone was invading our space.  Everyone there was super friendly and helpful too! We did get called out as newbies because Eric's best friend left the warranty sticker on his window, but we all got a good chuckle out of it.

The guys in their gifted "camper shirts"

After such a successful trip we are chomping at the bit to go again!  The boys have been searching for a place for Labor Day already (the place we stayed is already booked), and spent the good part of Tuesday evening looking up campgrounds in AL and GA for our next trip!

Our crew!