After a much needed vacation away from work, Heather, Savannah, Trenton and I are glad to be back home after taking a 9 day trip out to the Black Hills area of South Dakota.  We camped the entire trip and had a great time doing so.  We took three days to get out there so Savannah & Trenton (and us) weren’t suffering through marathon driving days.  We camped in Welcome MN, Oacoma SD on the way out to the Black Hills.  We camped 4 days in Custer just outside of Custer State Park, and then took three days go get back home.  Stays included Mitchell SD and Winona MN.  We took a ton of photos of our trip and have them posted in the photo section.  Below are some highlights of the trip and places we visited.

Kids enjoying their toys in the car

Wild animals at Custer State Park

Mt Rushmore

Crazyhorse Monument

Wall Drug…yeah I know..ya gotta stop there at least once in your life

The Badlands

Corn Palace in Mitchell SD

All four of us had a great time, we saw some pretty amazing things, and had a great chance to focus on being a family again and let the worries of work fall to the wayside.

Holy crap what a month! The month starts off by me lighting myself on fire and spending a couple weeks recovering from that momentary lapse in intelligence. After reaching a point where I could return to work, two days later I was putting Savannah to bed in her crib and threw out my back. The chiropractor said it was most likely due to me favoring my one leg during recovery in combination with my hair trigger back. That was adding insult to injury. Just when Heather thought she was getting rid of me being around the house all the time, I was back home for a few more days until I could walk upright again. My back is about 95% right now and getting better each day (assuming I don’t bend funky and screw it up again).

Just when we thought things were on the upswing, Heather and I were at Menards the other day for their “Shove all you can fit in the bag for 17% off” sale. So I made a crack “hey, if we get enough bags, could we wrap up an appliance and get it on sale?”… That was Saturday, Monday morning Heather calls me to tell me that the washing machine was making a funky noise. Turns out the motor/transmission was about gone on the washer. How’s that for karma? So we had to pickup a new washing machine last week. Not exactly what I wanted to do this past week.

Just wait, it gets better. Thursday afternoon when I was leaving the house for another chiropractor appointment, I open the door into the garage and see a nice waterfall pouring out of the garage ceiling! Turns out the drain tube for the A/C condenser up in the laundry room came out of the drain in the floor and soaked through the floor. Luckily the damage wasn’t bad and I was able to get things dried out and repaired.

This past weekend was a family camping trip that Andrea put together. In attendance was Andrea, Dominic, Mom, Dad, Auntie Dee, Uncle Ron, Aubrey, Donna, and Nayel (along with Deanna, Brian, Erika, and Matthew). Just like the same weekend last year, it rained on Friday. We hit some good rain storms on the way up there, but by the time we arrived, the skies had dried up. We had a couple sprinkles Friday evening, but the rain was essentially done for the weekend.

Saturday we just chilled at the campground for abit, then headed into the Dells to hit the go cart track and do the tourist thing by walking around the shops in town. Dinner Saturday night was quite a feast as everyone brought tons of great food. Heather and I gave Savannah a quick bath in Ron & Dee’s RV to allow her to chill out before putting her down. She was quite tired and went to bed without a fuss. Heather and I were out by the fire til around 11 (No, I didn’t light the fire!)

Sunday morning (after a great nights sleep) we awoke to start making the grand breakfast for the weekend. I quickly realized that for a second time that I had forgotten the sausage patty’s for my sausage egg mcmuffins. It’s becoming comical at times when we go camping. A quick trip upto the camp store and I lucked out and snagged the last package of sausage. Breakfast was saved and we all feasted on tons of food.

After breakfast we all returned to our sites to begin packing up to head home. None of us were in a huge hurry to leave so we took our time and eventually got everything packed up and headed home. Savannah was asleep before we hit the highway and slept a good chunk of the ride home.

Here’s a link to some pics from the weekend

This past weekend marked our 3rd successful camping trip with Savannah and the new 2 us camper. This weekends destination was Stand Rock campground up at Wisconsin Dells. Andrea and Dominic have a seasonal site up there so we got a site right by theres. Mom & Dad came up Saturday afternoon for the weekend, and Uncle Ron & Auntie Dee met us Friday night.

Upon arrival the skies looked like rain, so we kinda rushed through setup to beat the oncoming rain. We had a few sprinkles then a lull before the main rain hit. It never rained hard, just a slow pissy rain. Ron & Dee pulled in before 5 and got their RV setup in short order. Heather and I chilled in our camper for a bit and watched some DVD’s while Savannah took a short nap.

I was keeping an eye on the replacement roof vent I installed for leaks and I think we’re good to go. The amount of rain we got Friday night surely would have leaked in with the old vent. Friday evening we hung out in Ron’s RV and chit-chatted the night away. Friday night we had a chance to try out our new portable heater for the camper. It wasn’t too cold, but with the rain, there was a moist chill in the air. I set the thermostat for a comfortable 74 and fell asleep.

Saturday morning was beautiful, granted things were still a little wet, but the rain was gone and it looked to be a great weekend. After breakfast and a quick shower, everyone was feeling good. We hung out with Ron & Dee and went for a couple walks around the campground whenever Savannah started to get fussy. Andrea & Dominic showed up in the early afternoon, as did Mom & Dad.

Dinner Saturday night was great, nice steaks and corn on the cob. The weather was nice, the fire was great, and Savannah finally fell asleep! The heater really came in handy Saturday night as it got into the upper 50’s/low 60’s overnight. Inside was a nice comfy 74 again. It didn’t seem that warm inside the camper until I took Otis out and felt the chill in the air. That heater’s one of the best things we’ve gotten for the camper so far.

Now that we have a warming option in the camper, this opens up a few more weeks of possible camping opportunites. Our main concern is making sure that Savannah doesn’t get to chilly (or us) at night. She’s been great on the trips we’ve taken so far. Sunday she slept the whole 2.5 hour drive home!

We have a few bigger trips planned for this year, including a 10 day trip from Chicago to New Mexico and back. We picked up our 1985 Palomino Stallion last month and spent a few weekends going over everything to see what needed to be fixed/replaced.

After getting everything fixed, cleaned, and replaced, we were ready for our first outting. We picked a campground about 30 minutes away. We also opted for a one nighter incase we ran into issues. Oh, and it wasn’t just the first trip for our camper, it was also our first camping trip with Savannah. We figured, keep it close if there’s a meltdown with the her or the camper!

I only had two pseudo retard moments on Saturday. I pulled into the site from the wrong way, so the door was on the wrong side of the site..oops. After getting everything leveled, we went to setup the awning. I zip open the bag and start to unroll it… and I realize the white side is up and the fantabulous 80’s colors are facing down. I seems when I took the awning off the camper a couple weeks ago to clean/scrub it, I put the bag back on the camper upside down..

Other than those two little flubs it was an awesome overnight experience. We got a chance to do a full setup with all the hookups and test everything in a “real life” situation. The bunk end covers I picked up fit perfectly, the tacky lights looked..well..tacky, no leaks from the water and no sparks from the electric. We cooked two meals on the stove inside the camper and everything came out nice.

Savannah was great the whole outting. An occassional gas induced fuss here and there, but she slept through the night. Otis was just loving the camper as he got to sleep in the bunk with me instead of in his crate like when we tent camped.

We can’t wait to get back out again and put some more nights under our belt in the pop up. We have a weekend planned in August up at Wisconsin Dells and then September we’re off on our 10 day trip.

As luck and timing would have it, a friend of our neighbors had a pop up camper that he was looking to trade in for a new camper. The RV dealership was only going to give him $400 bucks for his camper. My neighbor said it was in good shape for being a 1985 pop up. So two weeks ago we went out and looked at it. After giving it the once over, everything important (frame, floorboards, canvas, lift system, etc.) checked out and we said we’d take it. The next day we towed it home to begin cleaning it up and making whatever repairs we needed to make.

So we spent the holiday weekend painting the interior, putting down new floor tiles, some minor exterior clean up, etc. and by the end of the weekend it was looking at least 10 years newer! We’re going to try and make our maiden voyage at the end of this month. I have a few small things left to fix, but I’m waiting on parts to be delivered.

Heather and I are excited to get back into camping more and now that we have a pop-up, it’ll be easier to do with Savannah and Otis.