Happy Campers, the Next Chapter

Greenbrier Lake

Last Friday after school, the Crazy Train rolled into Maryland's Greenbrier State Park for our second pop-up camper adventure.  We figured, what better way to spend a three-day weekend than in the woods?!  Although it was a somewhat whinier trip than our first, it seems that fun was had by all.  Even the cooler temperatures and drizzly Sunday couldn't spoil the fun for my ladies.

We all enjoyed many of the same activities we enjoyed on our last camping trip.  For example, Princess spent many an hour riding her unicorn Rainbow around the campsite.

Birdie enjoyed exploring the woods and beach to collect treasure and "specimens".

Can you believe the grin on this kid's face?! I'm letting her hold a dead snake in her next school
picture if this is the result we'll get!  The metal detector elicited similar smiles when she found coins in the sand.

Princess is very persnickety about the color
of her mallows-- one bit of black and she
won't eat it!  Birdie was more than
happy to help her dispose of the ruined ones.

Meet the Fire Ninja, Birdie's
smoke-avoiding alter ego

We enjoyed hanging out by the fire and roasting marshmallows.

And our toes.

We weren't crazy about the smoke in our eyes, though.

We geocached some more.  We met some nice people with similar interests to our own.  The girls played in the woods some more. 

 We drank hot cocoa and coffee as we shivered over breakfast.

Also like our first trip, we had some very strange neighbors.  Neighbors that just popped in, built a fire, burned some meat over the fire, took some pictures, and left in less than three hours.  They just came to build a fire and picnic.  Bizarre, huh?  Of course, they could have said the same thing about us, I suppose.  If I looked over at an adjacent campsite and saw one kid riding a purple stuffed unicorn on a stick, and saw another one carrying around a dead snake while commenting that "something by Tchaikovsky would be appropriately depressing to play on such sad occasion" (in honor of the dead reptile I presume), I'd probably crack open a cold one and sit back to watch the rest of the show.  Or pack up and leave before ever setting up a tent?  Hmmm-- I hadn't thought of that!  Oh well... our little corner of the campground definitely had the feel of a three-ringed spectacle at times, but we were all having fun.  And we weren't always the loudest folks there.  (Okay, so mostly we were the loudest-- but there was a time or two when we finished second to the 4 year-old boy one site over that liked to scream "I love rock and roll" at the top of his lungs, so I'll count those as wins in our column.)

The only new thing about this trip was our two-way radios.  Hubby is a hopeless gadget freak, so he couldn't pass up the opportunity to add another item to our battery-powered arsenal of gear.  The kids loved these radios for a couple of reason.  The first is obvious-- they're freakin' cool!  And who wouldn't want to talk on them?!  Second, they provided a greater degree of freedom to move around the campsite unchaperoned.  Birdie was very practical about using the radios.  She assigned us call names, because she thought saying "Mom" or "Dad" over the radio might get confusing if other kids had radios too.  Pretty clever, huh?  She was very professional when she was in charge of the radio.


Birdie: *squawk* Blue Ranger One, this is White Ranger One.  Do you copy, Blue Ranger? *squawk*

Hubby: *squawk* This is Blue Ranger One.  I read you loud and clear, White Ranger One.  What's your location? *squawk*

B: *squawk* White Ranger One and White Ranger Two are located in the patch of woods between the public restrooms and camp.  We will be here until further notice, Blue Ranger One. *squawk*

H: *squawk* Copy that White Ranger One-- in the woods by the potty.  Blue Ranger One over. *squawk*


Princess, on the other hand, was a train wreck on the radio...


Princess: *squawk* Blue Rang-- *squawk*

P: *squawk* Blue Ranger One, this is White-- *squawk*

P: *squawk* One, two.  Blue Ranger One, thi-- *squawk*

P: *squawk* Eeeerrrrr! This is White Ranger Two.  We are-- *squawk*

H: *squawk* White Ranger Two, what's your location? *squawk*

P: *squawk**squawk**squawk* Dang it! Dad-- I mean, Blue Ra-- *squawk*

P: *squawk* One, two. Repeat-- we are *squawk*  

At this point, Hubby and I are both cracking up, and we hear giggling coming from the woods above us, too.

P: *squawk*  We're fine. *squawk*

P: *squawk* Love you, Daddy! *squawk*


The girls took a radio with them everywhere they went, so that we could get in touch with them in case of an emergency, or more important to them, in case of a marshmallow-roasting emergency.  They also took the radio with them to the bathroom when they went without a parent.  My husband found the bathroom trips to be particularly entertaining.


H: *squawk* What's your location, White Ranger Two? *squawk*

P: *squawk* Bathroo-- *squawk*

H: *squawk* This is Blue Ranger One calling White Ranger Two while she's making #2. *squawk*

P: *squawk* DAD!! *squawk*

H: *squawk*  (cracking himself up) Plop, plop, fizz, fizz-- OH, what a relief it is! *squawk*

P: *squawk* DAD!!!!! There's other peop-- *squawk* *squawk* -n HERE!!! (possibly giggling, too) *squawk* 

And then there was nothing.  Princess got wise and turned off the radio.  Take that, Potty-time Serenader!  I guess she wasn't laughing as hard as we were down by the campfire.

Those radios-- and the camping trips-- are going to be worth their weight in comedic gold.

When you're in demand, you have to give the
people what they want.  LOL!