Well, I'm back. A day early too, we actually got back yesterday afternoon, after listening to the weatherman say a heat index of 105 yesterday, we decided to cut our trip short a day.
Got to Meramec State Park on Friday night. Great campground, we got two basic lots, set up our tents and proceeded to hunt for firewood. Our nephew managed to hit the motherload, and found some perfect firewood and drug in back to the campground, so we could get the fire going to start roasting hot dogs. Ate supper, and everyone was pretty well whipped, so we headed to bed.
Got up the next morning, to a nice shower, actually felt great, and we had the raincovers on the tent, so nothing important got wet. One important tip though, when they say to put your trash up, because racoons love to dig through it, they are apparently serious about this, as we had the trash from the evening before spread throughout our campgound. After I ran to town to get coffee for the wife and I, we started to try to cook breakfast. Well, wet wood doesn't like to burn much, so we ended up having cereal. We then went to the canoe rental cabin and rented 4 canoes, and got on a shuttle that took us about 4 or 5 miles up the river. Lazily floated down the river, this was the best part of the trip, stopped at a couple sandbars so the kids could get out and play in the water, and had a great time. Got back to the campground around 3 or so, and started the fire up for the evening meal. Hamburgers, this meal went pretty good, and the fire burned great, just love the taste of grilled burgers, a little smoky, they were great. Stayed up a little later Saturday night, talking to the campers in the next lot over, he was a Frito Lay salesman, so he brought us a couple bags of chips, that was cool, as the kids had pretty well cleaned us out already. (Note to self: Bring lots more food next time.) Went to bed again, had a rather uneventful night this time, except the ambulance that showed up around 2 in the morning, it was up at the other end of the campground, so we never did find out what happened. Got up and was able to cook our bacon and eggs Sunday morning, then started packing up to come home. Made it home around 11:00 yesterday morning, and everyone took a nap yesterday afternoon.
All in all, we had a great time, learned alot about what else to bring the next time, (AIR MATTRESSES), and the kids had a real good time without television, playstation, or any other electrical devices. I even did ok without my computer!
Got to Meramec State Park on Friday night. Great campground, we got two basic lots, set up our tents and proceeded to hunt for firewood. Our nephew managed to hit the motherload, and found some perfect firewood and drug in back to the campground, so we could get the fire going to start roasting hot dogs. Ate supper, and everyone was pretty well whipped, so we headed to bed.
Got up the next morning, to a nice shower, actually felt great, and we had the raincovers on the tent, so nothing important got wet. One important tip though, when they say to put your trash up, because racoons love to dig through it, they are apparently serious about this, as we had the trash from the evening before spread throughout our campgound. After I ran to town to get coffee for the wife and I, we started to try to cook breakfast. Well, wet wood doesn't like to burn much, so we ended up having cereal. We then went to the canoe rental cabin and rented 4 canoes, and got on a shuttle that took us about 4 or 5 miles up the river. Lazily floated down the river, this was the best part of the trip, stopped at a couple sandbars so the kids could get out and play in the water, and had a great time. Got back to the campground around 3 or so, and started the fire up for the evening meal. Hamburgers, this meal went pretty good, and the fire burned great, just love the taste of grilled burgers, a little smoky, they were great. Stayed up a little later Saturday night, talking to the campers in the next lot over, he was a Frito Lay salesman, so he brought us a couple bags of chips, that was cool, as the kids had pretty well cleaned us out already. (Note to self: Bring lots more food next time.) Went to bed again, had a rather uneventful night this time, except the ambulance that showed up around 2 in the morning, it was up at the other end of the campground, so we never did find out what happened. Got up and was able to cook our bacon and eggs Sunday morning, then started packing up to come home. Made it home around 11:00 yesterday morning, and everyone took a nap yesterday afternoon.
All in all, we had a great time, learned alot about what else to bring the next time, (AIR MATTRESSES), and the kids had a real good time without television, playstation, or any other electrical devices. I even did ok without my computer!
