Girls Rule! Cowgirls that is....

I made it home from my first horse camping trip as an adult! You know the kind where you are in charge. Where if you don't set up the tent you sleep in the car or if you don't figure out the scary Coleman stove you starve ... or if you forget the TP ..... you get the point.

My friends Mary Ann and Jenny and 5 of our girl children went on the trip to James River State Park waaaaaay down in Virginia. Well, 2 hrs or so hauling 1600 pounds of horse butt behind you. I trailered my friend Vicky's horse for me to ride. CiCi is a Norwegian Fjord Draft horse. She is beautiful but young and Vicky wanted miles on her (and to see how close to death I would come trying to get her to cross over a creek!) Mary Ann picked up Merlin (Riley's horse) for me.

We got to the campsite around 4 pm, set up camp, settled the horses in the stalls and had a much deserved beer. Jenny got there after us... we watched a whole bunch of dark clouds moving in, saw some streak lightning (my favorite NOT!) and listened to thunder. I thought, well isn't this gonna be fun. First off I hate camping for various reasons- no potty close enough, no showers close enough, bugs, bears, crows that eat your hot dog buns, peck your apples in 2 places and move to the next apple. You get the point?

So I'm watching this storm moving in (did I mention that I was filthy dirty already, sweating like crazy already and still had a tent to set up!) and I think "PERFECT ! I get to sleep in a tent while the wind howls and we get soaked! Mary Ann offered for Riley and I sleep in her trailer in the bunks by the way. Wonderful friend that she is. The storm seems to blow by a little - we cook dinner - I figured out the stove AND set the tent up (I look at NOAA.GOV and the radar on my phone - YIKES!). Riley is looking at me with blind admiration and is really excited about sleeping in a tent, with mommy, and riding her horse tomorrow. She could care less about the typhoon getting ready to hit that night.

We go up to the showers illegally letting 5 kids ride in the back - is it illegal if you don't get caught? Come home and go to bed. Then it starts raining and it's really humid. Riley asks while reading her scary Nancy Drew mystery "is the rain gonna get in the tent" I lie and say "of course not! I put the rain fly on!"Because I KNOW that no matter what you do, the tarp I put down first, the neat sheet on the floor of the tent, the rain fly. It won't matter if tornadic strength winds blow rain sideways... it will soak on top of the tarp and spread... oh welll....

Thankfully, none of that happened. It rained pretty hard that night. Funny how loud rain is when you are in a tent - I slept maybe 3 hours at best. Riley slept less. We woke up, the rain stopped, the sun came out we ate, tacked up horses and rode for hours!

Only one person got dropped (Jenny's littlest girl hit the ground when a bird flew between her pony's feet) good thing Trixie is a very small pony and Ginger only had a short distance to fall.  We had lunch after we put the horses away and went tubing down the James River. Funny thing : the lady in the shop threatened us within an inch of our lives if we got to the pick up point past 6 pm. It was 3 pm and the float is like 1.5 hours. We though, good Lord she's kinda psycho about that pick up time...$12 per hour for every 30 minutes you are late - like we'd EVER do that. What does she take us for ? Irrisponsible hoodlums or sumthin'?

Strangely, we encountered a head wind... not to mention Mary Ann fell asleep in her tube and floated WAAAAY behind and too far to one side. We had to stop and wait while she caught up. Meanwhile we are getting blown back toward the put in area - geesh!

We were all together...we floated and the wind died down a little, we still had to paddle but after 4 rapids and lots of seaweed stuff we made it to the pick up point. BTW not one of us had a watch on. We get there paddling like crazy because the wind is back up. We get in the van ... guess what time it was....????? 6:37 pm... HUH????? The tubing lady let us off with a stern warning and cursed under her breath about headwinds screwing up her dinner plans....

Saturday nite was peaceful. We had spaghetti, bread on a frying pan, salad and BEER! Not the kids..they had Root Beer - we adults had Corona Beer. And well deserved! We built a fire, the kids put on a silly play , we had smores, feed horses, watered horses, mucked stalls, showered and went to bed.

I almost forgot, we got blue lighted buy the park popo for having the kids in the back of the pick up this time. So we had to take 2 cars.. dang cops ruining our fun...

Saturday nite was great camp sleeping weather - cool temps, breezy and a 1/2 a benadryl (for me and Riley)...ahhh  good sleep. Sunday morning was socked in with fog first thing but turned clear and sunny quick. We had coffee- cereal, protienCiCi (who was more than eager to get on the trailer and get the heck outta this place! - she told me she would never have agreed to getting on the trailer in the first place had she known WORK was involed) Vicky I think CiCI may have a few words for you. :-)

Ariel and I made it home around 6 pm yesterday - Ariel had been at camp for a week and then went camping with us! She looked like she may drop dead at any moment, her mother and I decided a kid trade would be best for everyone. We got home tired and dirty and smelly - So I turned her towards Denton's bathroom for a real shower and she put on good clothes and then they walked to DQ and I'm pretty sure they didn't eat supper... that's the kind of mom I am...

I personally, slept like the dead in my big king bed (I rhymed) with the tempurpedic mattress - ugh I hate camping. I really do, BUT I'd go again with my girl friends... it made it tolerable and really fun! I do have a few extra bug bites and pulled 2 ticks off Riley before I left yesterday. I haven't heard from Jenny who is bringing Riley home as we speak. I do hope that child behaved and took good care of her horse in my absence - I know she is exhausted and I'll bet she'll be glad to see me when she gets home :-)

Best of all  I did NOT trash the tent and I did NOT blow off an arm or put out anyone's eye with the propane stove thing. Life is good....

NOW- it can rain...... I hear thunder.... and Jenny just called and her truck has overheated in Lovingston... oh boy!

ps check my FB page for picks! not of the truck overheating mind you....I'm at home all unpacked and clean...