Camping

Someone recently got the idea in their head that we should dig out our tent, dust it off and attempt a family camping trip.  So they thought it all through, talked to their husband and kid about it and then planned it out ever so cleverly and carefully.  The perfect time? Spring Break  The perfect location?  Well, this took some research.  After some thought and checking out average temperatures for several states for that week, this clever individual decided that South Carolina would be PERFECT.  It is usually chilly in the evenings and very pleasant during the days during the month of March.  Step two was to find a good campground since we're not die hard wilderness scouts or anything.  Turns out KOA has a couple very nice campgrounds right near Charleston, SC.  So now we had great weather, a nice campground, and a great location for sightseeing  - old plantations, Fort Sumter, etc.  Then a week before we were to leave, it got a little chilly here in [normally] warm, sunny Florida.  So I thought, "Hmmm...if it's colder here in Florida than it normally is at this time of year, maybe I better check the weather for Charleston, SC for this next week."  I should at least get credit for figuring out before we got there that we were going to freeze our tushes off if we moved forward with our plans.  It was going to start out fine but by about day two of our camping trip, it was going to turn rainy and stormy with the high temperatures being 50s during the days and then dropping down into the 30s and 40s during the night.  Kaelyn was very young the last time we went camping (for just one night) and she doesn't really remember it so this was kind of like a "first time try it out, see if she likes it" trial run.  We knew that if we went and were cold and miserable the whole time or weren't able to do anything and we had a bad experience, that Kaelyn would decide that camping was bad forever more after that and wouldn't ever want to try it again.  We ended up cancelling our reservations in South Carolina and finding another KOA a couple hours from home up in a more rural, less crowded area near Orlando.

Kaelyn was a very willing helper for awhile.  It took a little more time and effort to find things she could do and show her how to do it but she was so excited about the idea of camping that we wanted to include her in the set up as much as possible.

Unfortunately the cooler weather didn't arrive until later this evening and it was HOT while we were setting up the tent.  Kaelyn ended up starting to get a heat rash.  She was all itchy and had blotchy red spots.  I finally had her lie down in the only shady spot around us to cool off and rest.

She DID work enthusiastically though in the beginning.  :-)

Showing her how to stake down the tarp that we put under the tent.

Getting ready to go to the bathrooms to brush our teeth and get ready for bed.

For a kid who is autistic and doesn't always do changes in routine real well, she did AMAZINGLY well with the whole camping thing and even seemed to see it as novel and fun.  The first night when I told her we were going to go to the bathrooms to brush our teeth and stuff, she kind of balked at first.  When I got the toothbrushes out though, she wanted to carry her own stuff and from that point on, she was just fine with "going off" to the bathrooms to brush teeth, dress, shower, etc.

When it came time to go into the tent, she didn't even act like she thought it felt strange at all.  As a matter of fact, Kevin and I sat outside and read for awhile and she didn't seem to mind going into the tent and crawling into her sleeping bag and going to sleep on her own.

Then came the storms.  We didn't sleep very well at all the first night.  We didn't realize that we were only a few miles from the airport - it sure didn't feel like it since there were fields across the road from the campground on one side and a big lake on the other side.  By about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, all the red-eye flights started arriving in Orlando and I do believe that every single one flew right over the campground at 1000 ft. on their approach to the airport.  We were all a bit tired and strung out the next day.  We had bacon and eggs for breakfast (Kevin is quite a good campfire cook) and then just relaxed.  In the afternoon, we went into the tent to rest.  Kaelyn was playing on my phone and Kevin and I were dozing on and off a bit.  All the sudden, Kaelyn said, "Mom!  Something's wrong with your phone.  It said there was a warning."  Kevin and I both woke up instantly.  We checked the phone and it was sending alerts that we were under a tornado warning.  About that time, a couple guys from KOA were driving around letting everyone know.  We went in the recreation hall with the few other people who were still around the campground for the day.  The weather turned crazy!  It had been very windy all day but the wind picked up even more and there were sheets of rain coming down within minutes.  The tv in the rec room showed that a tornado had touched down  at the airport and the storm was moving right over us.  We had serious doubts that our tent would stay in one piece.  When the worst of the storm passed, we went back to the campsite to assess the damage.  Amazingly, our tent hadn't budged and everything was still fastened down and in place.  We did have some water in some places in the tent.  There was enough breeze and sun the rest of the afternoon and evening that we were able to get damp stuff out of the tent and have it air dry by that night.  We did have to take all of our towels to the laundry room and dry them since we had used them to dry wet spots in the tent etc.  Although most of the campsites right now are RVs, we did have a few tent neighbors.  They didn't fare quite as well as we did.

The guy that was staying in this tent across the canal from us was in Orlando for a convention and decided to  camp rather than stay in a motel.  After his tent caved in in the wind and got soaked, he just packed it up and went to a motel.

This tent belonged to a family from Ohio.  They got back to the campground somewhere around two in the morning. They had been at Disney for the day and pretty much figured that they would come back to what they did.  They had one teenage daughter.  They said, "We've been camping for 20 years and we've had worse things happen."  They slept in their truck that night and started putting things back together the next day.  Their food was all fine but everything else - clothes, bedding, and stuff - was SOAKED!  The tent went back up fine but everything they carried out had water running off of it.  I think I would have been too disheartened to keep camping but they seemed to take it in stride.

The rest of our adventure that day was with the van (we had borrowed Brown's mini van that they are trying to sell).  We had all the doors opened with the lights on too much and the van wouldn't start.  The people in the RV across from us brought their pickup and tried to jump it for probably 30 minutes or more but we still couldn't get the van to start.  We were still getting bands of rain off and on at that point and weren't sure how we were going to grill our hamburgers and hot dogs for supper.  AAA ended up coming out and they guy got the battery to charge with no problem.  Meanwhile, the rain finally seemed to go away for good so around 5:00 we got the van running, were able to get stuff from the tent drying out, and then Kay and I went and got in the pool while Kevin was able to get the grill going and grill DELICIOUS hamburgers and hot dogs.  I figured if nothing would have happened during the camping trip, we would have barely remembered it in the future but with all the adventures we had and crazy stuff that happened, we'll be sure to remember it for a LONG TIME.  :-)

Making dough boys over the hot coals on the grill.

We had a partial Kit-Kat that had melted.  We threw it in our garbage bag.  Kaelyn and I had gone to the bathroom and when we got back Kevin was taking pictures of this crazy squirrel.  He had dragged the candy bar and wrapper out and was going to town on it.  He ended up carrying it off and he finished the whole thing.  :-)

He thought it was his lucky day.  

Peeking at us after we startled him and he [momentarily] ditched the Kit-Kat and ran up a tree.

Monday afternoon and evening we went to SeaWorld.  I wanted to share just a couple pictures from there.  Kaelyn LOVES the sea lions and seals.  We usually feed them and of course, we have to watch the show.  This time we watched a special sea lion show.  During spring break and summer when they have bigger crowds, they do a special show once a day.  They spoof some of the other SeaWorld shows and rides and it is HILARIOUS!  I laughed so hard that my stomach was hurting.  Kaelyn's favorite part was when they pretended to be riding KRAKEN, one of the park's roller coasters.  The sea lion did everything the two people did.  They leaned way to the left and then to the right, then the guy and the sea lion would look at each other and "yell" like they were scared.  After they got off, the sea lion went over and put his head in a bucket like the roller coaster had made him sick to his stomach.  All three of us got a huge kick out of the show.

Kaelyn had her sea lion pal with her that she saved her money for last year and bought with money she earned from doing chores and stuff.  Of course the sea lion gets to sit right on her lap and "watch" the show.  We were able to get a picture with the cast after the show was over and they made quite a big deal over her stuffed sea lion.

Our last night of camping was COLD (at least for us Floridians) and especially for sleeping outside in a tent.  It was supposed to get all the way down to 40 but I don't think it ever got that cold.  Kevin and I got up and went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and it was only in the low 50s by then.  We all put jackets over our night clothes, socks on our feet and brought every blanket and extra jacket available into the tent in case we needed them.  We all just burrowed down into our sleeping bags and blankets though and stayed plenty warm.

I didn't get a picture of our canoeing on the lake Monday morning unfortunately and I didn't think to take the camera over to the playground any of the times Kay was over there.  We had a great time camping though and the best part was that we all wished we were staying for another night or two.  Kaelyn readily agreed to go camping again and she said that she hoped we could go sometime during the summer!