We Went Camping!

Hooray! We finally have the trailer! Before we take the trailer for a long camping trip, we decided to try it this past weekend to work out any kinks and help us remember all the things we forget to bring when we camp. Last year I finally put together a check list on the computer so now we don't forget the same things over and over.

So we packed up and headed out to the lake. It was a beautiful weekend and we had lots of fun. We discovered we can only go about 80 km/h while towing the trailer, and I'm glad we live in Saskatchewan where there aren't any hills. I'd hate to think of all the nasty things people behind us would be saying if they had to wait for us to get up the hill with the trailer.

Bruce had been worried about hitching the trailer up, but he does it better on his own than with my help. Seriously. I tried directing him, and got it all wrong. When he did it himself without my help, he got it on the first try. And he can back it into a space okay, too. He was worried since we had many troubles with our U-haul going places we didn't want it to. But with the trailer being 22 feet long, it seems to go where he wants it to. I haven't tried driving with the trailer, yet. To be honest, I'm a little more than nervous and don't mind that Bruce is doing so well. He can keep driving. =)

But what made the weekend so nice was this was the first camping trip where we just sat. Our site was close to the playground, so the kids were able to go play while we were getting things ready or cleaning up or tending the fire or even just sitting in a chair. And while they were at the playground they met two friends that were their ages. So they spent the whole weekend playing and not asking us to entertain them. I even managed to read a whole book! I read Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen. It was a really good book. The first time I started it, I stopped because I didn't understand what was happening at the beginning. Now that I've read the book through, I re-read the beginning and it makes sense.

Pause to give my thoughts on the book: Sister Light, Sister Dark is told as a story, but it a story based on history and myth. Or, maybe, it's actually better described as history and myth coming from a story. Either way, the book has interjections of myth, history, prophecy, ballads, songs and the story. It is based on religious belief and weaves a tale of a young girl and her destiny. What I didn't realize when I bought the book is it's part 1. (I have the second book, White Jenna, on order at the library.) I enjoyed seeing how we can sometimes see history through our eyes rather than through the eyes of those who lived it. This young girl, Jenna as she is fondly called, begins life rough and is raised by a group of women who worship the Great Alta and walk through life with their dark sisters whom they call to their side when they reach a certain age. The tale is woven leaving suggestions of the greatness that she may possibly be, yet she is not treated as being great. Nor does she think of herself as great. And in the reading, I became quite attached to Jenna and cared about what happened to her. In my opinion, an author has done a good job if I care about his/her characters. I have read books where the people in it are two dimensional. This is definitely a three-dimensional book. I am eagerly waiting for time to sit and read White Jenna to find out what happens.

But to the trailer - we hadn't de-winterized it before we left, and when we got to the campsite, I could smell the anti-freeze. So today Bruce tried to run the water through the taps but had no luck. He tried various things to get the water to run through with no luck. I think he would have been willing to push it off a cliff if we had any close by.

All-in-all, though, we treat the trailer more like a tent. We used it to sleep and store stuff. It was nice not being on the ground. I could definitely get used to that. We'll see how we feel after being in it for a week.