family camping 2007
so, scott and i just got back from the family reunion camping tour 2007. it was hell.
the trip wasn't bad. it didn't seem longer than it was, which is usually how it is everytime we have to travel up into the bowels of wisconson. but the problem with my family planning these things is that they usually pick private campgrounds that have a ton of recreational stuff to do, like mini golf and volleyball and a huge playground. these private campgrounds also usually have seasonal campers, who have a permenent camper that they decorate with packers or bears garb, complete with christmas lights of some sort and the obligatory gnome or goose dressed accordingly. this place was no different. it was overcrowded, packed with white trash hooligans who had too many kids and too many dogs and too many cans of beer at their disposal. but there were a few things in particular that should have made us turn around immediately:
1. there was a bar off of the main office.and you could also purchase beer from their little general store's coolers.
2. our campsite was on a sandy part of the park that used to be their beach. but now the "pond" was about half empty, with reeds and swamp grass sticking up all through it.
3. the guys on the site across the dirt path from us were "the band" for saturday night. they were playing very loud hair band music all night friday and all day saturday. and most of their friends decided to join their group around midnight on friday night/saturday morning, shining their headlights directly into our tent and yelling and carousing like it was 1pm instead of 1am.
4. when we arrived to the campground, we noticed an ambulance parked outside the main office. scott said, "i hope that's not a relative of yours." so did i. when we drove past and parked, i looked at the person straped to the backboard with a c-collar on and didn't recognize her. we asked about it in the office and they said that a branch had fallen on her head. man, that will ruin your camping experience. when driving to our site, we passed by my dad's cousin and we said hi. she said, "did you see mary being loaded into the ambulance?" mary? mary mathewson? yeah, my dad's other cousin's wife evidently got attacked by a dead tree by their campsite while trying to save her 90-year-old mother in law from the offending branch. she wasn't hurt too badly, but just to be safe, the campground called an ambulance. she was back at the site by 9pm.
5. despite the ground being sand, it was incredibly hard and no amount of padding could remedy that. oh, and it was colder than a witch's teet through the night. shivering, bruised hips, sleepless, we decided that we wouldn't spend another night there.
we went out to breakfast with my dad and linda the next morning. then we bummed around a few antique shops in the small town of wild rose. after that, we hung around the campsite, listening to cinderella and bon jovi and faith no more from the nearby sites. at one point, one of my relatives went over to their site and said, "do you really think everyone in this campground wants to hear your music?" they turned it down. but after the group potluck and the passing on of the duties for the 2008 reunion (which i took), the offending campers were set up, amps, guitars and all, and playing heartily. we packed up and went to complain to the office. we said, "the band is playing at their site." the security guard said, "at their site?" we explained the amp and guitar situation. he said that they were supposed to be playing at the pavillion, not at their site. so he left to take care of that, but we still left.
did i mention the christmas decorations? i should have taken a picture, but i didn't want the white trash family to think that i approved. huge, inflatable xmas decor, including, but not limited to, a snowman, a bear wearing a xmas hat, penguins, and a santa. and let me not forget to mention the xmas lights that caused our tent to glow in the night. if i wanted to sleep in the middle of clark street after a nighttime wrigley game, we could have just stayed in chicago.
linda and my dad
the "pond"
the moon
downtown wild rose, wi
the group. aaron ftont and center
the trip wasn't bad. it didn't seem longer than it was, which is usually how it is everytime we have to travel up into the bowels of wisconson. but the problem with my family planning these things is that they usually pick private campgrounds that have a ton of recreational stuff to do, like mini golf and volleyball and a huge playground. these private campgrounds also usually have seasonal campers, who have a permenent camper that they decorate with packers or bears garb, complete with christmas lights of some sort and the obligatory gnome or goose dressed accordingly. this place was no different. it was overcrowded, packed with white trash hooligans who had too many kids and too many dogs and too many cans of beer at their disposal. but there were a few things in particular that should have made us turn around immediately:
1. there was a bar off of the main office.and you could also purchase beer from their little general store's coolers.
2. our campsite was on a sandy part of the park that used to be their beach. but now the "pond" was about half empty, with reeds and swamp grass sticking up all through it.
3. the guys on the site across the dirt path from us were "the band" for saturday night. they were playing very loud hair band music all night friday and all day saturday. and most of their friends decided to join their group around midnight on friday night/saturday morning, shining their headlights directly into our tent and yelling and carousing like it was 1pm instead of 1am.
4. when we arrived to the campground, we noticed an ambulance parked outside the main office. scott said, "i hope that's not a relative of yours." so did i. when we drove past and parked, i looked at the person straped to the backboard with a c-collar on and didn't recognize her. we asked about it in the office and they said that a branch had fallen on her head. man, that will ruin your camping experience. when driving to our site, we passed by my dad's cousin and we said hi. she said, "did you see mary being loaded into the ambulance?" mary? mary mathewson? yeah, my dad's other cousin's wife evidently got attacked by a dead tree by their campsite while trying to save her 90-year-old mother in law from the offending branch. she wasn't hurt too badly, but just to be safe, the campground called an ambulance. she was back at the site by 9pm.
5. despite the ground being sand, it was incredibly hard and no amount of padding could remedy that. oh, and it was colder than a witch's teet through the night. shivering, bruised hips, sleepless, we decided that we wouldn't spend another night there.
we went out to breakfast with my dad and linda the next morning. then we bummed around a few antique shops in the small town of wild rose. after that, we hung around the campsite, listening to cinderella and bon jovi and faith no more from the nearby sites. at one point, one of my relatives went over to their site and said, "do you really think everyone in this campground wants to hear your music?" they turned it down. but after the group potluck and the passing on of the duties for the 2008 reunion (which i took), the offending campers were set up, amps, guitars and all, and playing heartily. we packed up and went to complain to the office. we said, "the band is playing at their site." the security guard said, "at their site?" we explained the amp and guitar situation. he said that they were supposed to be playing at the pavillion, not at their site. so he left to take care of that, but we still left.
did i mention the christmas decorations? i should have taken a picture, but i didn't want the white trash family to think that i approved. huge, inflatable xmas decor, including, but not limited to, a snowman, a bear wearing a xmas hat, penguins, and a santa. and let me not forget to mention the xmas lights that caused our tent to glow in the night. if i wanted to sleep in the middle of clark street after a nighttime wrigley game, we could have just stayed in chicago.
linda and my dad
the "pond"
the moon
downtown wild rose, wi
the group. aaron ftont and center
posted by mikraas at 9:49 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home