A month of camping...in a tent

Well, nearly a month. I had planned on doing weekly posts, maybe more if things were interesting enough. So far, I don't think they have been.
The weather has been hot and dry for Southern Michigan. We are actually in a drought right now, with burn bans in the northern/central Indiana counties south of us.  Some cities have even postponed fireworks unless we get an inch of rain by Saturday. Tomorrow. Not gonna happen.
It's rained exactly twice since we've been camping. The first time, it was just a slow drizzle. The ground got wet and the dust around our fire ring became dirt. Yay!!! The same thing happened today, too. There were sever storms south of us, and we got some good rain, but nothing major. No high winds, no leaking tent, nothing. I'm glad of that, but we really need rain!! I never thought I would say that, camping in a tent, but we do.
Our days have become routine. It doesn't get dark until around 10 pm, so the kids dont even get to bed until then. We let them enjoy the nightly fire for about a half hour before putting them to sleep. I was really worried about air mattresses and such, but they sleep on the ground, heavily padded with sleeping bags and blankets. No complaints from them, yet.
Our days are spent by the lake or doing errands. It takes a long time to get anything done, it seems. A large shopping area is south of us as well, and we've been there at least once a week. That trip takes at least 3-4 hours, which really chews into the day.
We've met some long timers, too. Here I thought we were going to be the mayors of our little slice of camping heaven. Wrong! There are people who live here year round, who have been here for years. They live in their RV's like a mobile home. It seems nice and something I would like to pursue in the near future, believe it or not.
A few things this camping experience is teaching me is that I have zero patience. I did not think I was that bad, but I am a very impatient person. I also discovered that 70 degree weather is quite pleasant, and 60 is quite cold at night! The lower 50's is downright frigid! Raccoons sound like thunder coming out of the trees, but once out, you can barely hear them, until you hear a snuffling noise right by your foot and there is a family of raccoons right there, next to you! Our tent is gets amazingly like an oven between 9:30 and 10 am. There is no sleeping in on sunny days, unless you want to broil. But you can take a decent nap, albeit a stuffy one, after 1 pm.  I have slept decadently well on the air mattress. I don't know if it's a mix of the outside air and the comfort, but I don't get my normal backaches anymore, and I find myself sleeping sounder at night.  People who camp are very friendly, and most people when they find out that we are tent camping with 5 kids are amazed. I am too!

In The Beginning...

Our journey has started. We took a small detour, though.
My dad is south of where we will be setting up, so I thought it would be nice to go and visit him for a few days before we put up camp. Once camp gets set up, it will stay up. We aren't going to be very mobile, I don't think.

I am a procrastinator from a long line of procrastinators. It's horrible, really. So when we moved, we didn't get the storage unit until the day before we were to get out. We waited until that day to get the trailer, too. So the storage unit was a bit bigger than we anticipated, but it turned out ok. Seems like we needed that much space since we filled that puppy full. We were supposed to be out of our house by June 1, but we didn't make it. In anticipation for getting out, we weren't ready to travel 45 minutes to pick up a trailer from Uhaul. (What was I thinking, waiting until the 1st to try and rent a trailer???) We didn't get the trailer. So we had to haul everything to storage in our Durango. It worked, but took a bit longer than we had hoped.

Now packing for the summer was going to pose a problem. We had a lot less room without a trailer. If you've ever seen a Durango with 3rd row seating, you know you sacrifice the 3rd row for storage. We have a hitch packer that we utilized and got 2 roof top bags. After packing all the soft stuff in storage bags and sucking the air out, we managed to get mostly everything we need. Of course, we are not in the boonies and there are stores all around us. If we forgot something, we can replace it.

I've been at my Dad's campsite since Monday. We put up the kids' tent and threw our air mattress in and let the kids sleep in the RV with Grandpa. The only problem is that since we can't set up, our stuff is kind of everywhere. We had to get to clothes and blankets, opening our decompressed bags. It's ok, my Dad might have to follow us to our campsite and help with all the stuff.

So for the last 3 days, things have been peaceful. Sort of. His RV is at a park right next to a major highway. It's loud. Very loud. Not really what I expected, but it's tolerable for a few more days. The kids spent the day yesterday fishing. They caught 3 fish and were very excited. I got online a few times and finished reading my book. It's been nice catching up with my Dad and talking around the fire. This morning, we slept in until 10 am! On a Wednesday! The kids love it, I think. They keep pretty busy here and have lots of fun playing in the dirt and at the park, and of course, fishing!! Earlier, they stood near the road and tried to get the trucks to honk. They got quite a few, and it was a fun game for a bit.

I'm excited about getting our own campsite set up and getting into a routine. This preliminary camping is fun, but it's not quite "home". Plus, it's a pain trying to get dressed laying on an air mattress!   This is a mini update for now, and I will post photos once we get the camp set up!