What does Father’s day mean to me? Well, nothing really. But I do enjoy our annual weekend tradition. Every Father’s Day weekend we gather up the kids and families and head out to camp all weekend. I did very little with my cell phone as well so I more or less disconnected from everything for a few days. I did use it some, check scores for the Sox games and such, but did very little Facebooking and of course texting, which is a given since most of the people I text were there with me. My mom, wife and brother, that’s pretty much the extent of my texting. Told you I didn’t have crap for friends. But I’m ok with that, less people I have to deal with.
Friday
Actually, we’ll go back to Thursday night. The kids were with their mother so I texted her to find out if her JackAss could meet me in the morning since she was working Friday. He said he had to go to Fort Wayne early in the morning so I asked her who was watching the kids. She said she was going to leave them alone for a few hours, but it was ok, because she would leave them a cell phone. My kids are 9 and 7, too young to be left at home by themselves for that long. So I told her I didn’t have time to drive all the way out there and asked them to meet me that night. Then all of the sudden JackAss’ story changes and he’ll be home after all and will meet me at 10am.
So back to Friday, I wake up to a text from JackAss that Tina left with his keys in her purse so now I have to drive all the way out there to get the kids. I don’t believe his stupid ass but what can I do. I go get them. I meet up with my brother and his family at my mom’s at 1:30 and after some maneuvering of supplies and a quick lunch, we head out. I rode with my brother in his new Jeep pulling a trailer. My son and his son rode with us. And my mom just about lost all the men in her family in one fail swoop. Here we are, doing 65 down a highway and this idiot in a truck starts to pull out, see us and stops, right in front of us. Had he not made up his mind to go ahead and go, we would not have been able to clear the rear end of his truck. My wife, who was following, said she thought she was going to lose her husband right in front of her.
We arrived at the Indiana Dunes state park and got all the tents set up, pulled out 
our chairs and relaxed and waited for the rest of our family to arrive. That’s my brother and I in the pic, doing the relaxing. It’s one of the few pics we took this weekend. We apparently matched up our wardrobes before we left. Anyways, we picked out our lots last fall when we were there so we knew what to reserve at the beginning of the year. We grab a couple of spots between a restroom and a playground. And right next to the restroom, was the path that led to the beach. They were pretty huge lots, not quite big enough for 3 so they only made it 2 with a lot of extra space. Which was good because we ended up, with a pop-up camper, and 4 tents. Including my tent, which they call “the Mansion”. It can be divided up to 3 rooms, plus has a screened in porch. My brother’s tent is about the same size without the porch, and then 2 smaller ones. We got all set for the evening, grilled some burgers and hot dogs for supper and hung out around the campfire till bed. We had 14 people stay the first night.
Saturday
Cheri and I woke up, didn’t sleep worth a crap. We use this huge air mattress bed that my mom used to use before she got the popup. It stands at about 3 feet tall, all air mattress. It’s the only way Cheri can survive with her back. But we set it up in the tent on a slope and it was hard to roll over so we didn’t sleep well. We got up and had some breakfast. Cheri got hooked on “Amish Crack", or at least that’s what my niece called it. They were donuts but I guess they bake them. She loved the Caramel Cinnamon ones, she couldn’t put them down. After breakfast we packed some food and drink coolers in our car and headed down to the beach. Samantha played in the water with my niece and nephew while Trevor pretty much stuck to the beach and dug in the sand. He went into the water here and there, but for the most part, he dug just outside the water. It wasn’t as horribly humid as it was supposed to be so it wasn’t bad. It was still too hot for Cheri because it kicked her ass. We were there most of the afternoon until Cheri and I had to leave to go meet her mom and give her our son back because they were heading back to Virginia. The air condition in the car (and some sweet tea’s from McDonalds) did Cheri some good. She got some of her energy back before we got back to the campground. But she was still tired. We got back to an announcement by the DNR that their was a pretty big storm coming with possible hail. So we buttoned down the hatches and waited. Then decided to eat while we waited so we grilled our marinated chicken under the back van door and Cheri cooked her potatoes in our screened in porch through a little bit of rain. By the time everything was done, the rain had stopped and we gathered around and ate. Played some cornhole and had some smores. But just as it was starting to get dark, more rain came. Along with some thunder and lightning. So we headed to bed early. Little did we realize the night we were in for.
We turned our bed so we weren’t fighting the slope and we were looking forward to a good nights rest. Until we started to get dripped on. We started turning on lights and somehow, the rain was getting under the rain guard and running down and dripping on us. So I made multiple trips out into the rain in my boxers trying to throw towels down between the rain guard and the top of our tent. We also cut small holes in the top of the tent so Cheri could direct the towels where we needed them. Eventually we got everything stopped, at least from dripping on us. We also took time between fighting the rain to take a picture of my kids, you know, to torment them with later. We told Samantha she was probably dreaming about her boyfriend. Mainly because she gets upset it you call anyone her boyfriend.
So for those who know me and have been around before this blog, this would be the 2nd time in the last 3 years that we had a huge rainstorm nail us. Not last year, but the year before (2010) we got the tents set up just before a huge storm hit us all night long. Ended up being tornados in the area. I spent that evening standing up against the wall of our tent while the kids slept so it didn’t get blown over.
Sunday
Today, we had eggs, bacon and sausage when we got up and then packed up and headed out. Sometime this week, we’ll have to run over to my mom’s and set up the tents and clean and dry them. We got home, unloaded and then realized that we didn’t have any laundry detergent so Samantha and I ran over to Walmart and picked up some detergent, and a few other essentials. Samantha took her money and decided to buy a movie with it. So we came home, had some lunch and watched her movie together while Cheri crawled into bed and slept all afternoon. Camping really drained her. After the movie, I turned on the White Sox game and fell asleep on the couch.
It sounds like we didn’t do much this weekend but that what I like about our camping trips. It’s nice and relaxing and I always have a good time with my family. I’m not sure Cheri wants to go back again, but we’ll see. She secretly loved it too, she just won’t admit it.
I did spend a little time this afternoon setting up a FB page for this blog. So head over and like it to be notified of new blog posts and maybe get a little interactive with me. I haven’t found where I can get the html to put it on the side bar yet, but when I do, I’ll add it over there. Until then, you can go here:
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