Camping trip

I'm a few days behind in blogging, so I think I'll break it into two entries.  First, we had a great camping trip, but not without some crazy adventures!  Getting over to Waukee was quite a challenge for my tummy.  We had to go quite a bit under the speed limit so I didn't get too sick.  Darrin did a great job telling stories at the Waukee Public Library.  They really loved him.  Then we went on down the road to Griswold, in far SW Iowa.  We camped at the lovely Cold Springs State Park.  We were the only people there.  I felt great starting about 5 pm.  We made pie iron pizzas over the fire, and s'mores and popcorn.  It was a really cool evening, so the fire was great.

We have a little Coleman pop-up camper that we bought from some friends a few years ago.  It's over 30 years old.  When we got it, it just needed to be recanvassed, and it was pretty much as good as new.  That is, until this trip. :)  At about 4:30 in the morning, Darrin rolled over and our bed fell right out of the frame and collapsed!  Scared us to death!  There was nothing we could do at 4:30, so he and I slept in the van the rest of the night.  The boys were all fine on their ends.

In the morning we got up to assess the damage.  I don't understand it completely, but some parts had sheared off that were vital to holding the bed in place.  We had to break it further to get it to push back in so we could put the camper down.  The good news is Darrin found the parts we need and we should be able to fix it.  But even if we can't and we have to have it professionally done, it would be worth a few hundred dollars.  We can camp for $12 a night.  A hotel for 5 of us would always cost around $100 or more. I'd say it's definitely worth fixing!

On Wednesday, Darrin told three different sets of stories at the Griswold Public Library.  They all went really well.  After he was done at 3, we went over the tour the Hitchcock House, a National Historic Site and a member of the National Underground Railroad Heritage Sites.  It was a neat tour.  Darrin does a program on the Underground Railroad in Iowa and doesn't have a lot from western Iowa, so it was a good business opportunity, too.

We got on the road around 4:15.  We decided to have me drive, since sometimes motion sickness is better when you're driving.  I actually felt really good all day.  We stopped for supper at the Culver's in Newton and ran into some old friends that had moved over there a couple years ago.  It was wonderful to catch up for a few minutes.

Darrin took over driving after Newton. We had just gotten past the Williamsburg exit when a trucker pulled up next to us and honked and wildly gestured to us to get off the road.  This kind of freaked us out, but we did it.  Somewhere along the line, the pin holding our hitch in place had fallen out and our trailer was being pulled by only the chains  connected to the bottom of the hitch.  The hitch was still there, the ball had gotten stuck at a weird angle, but it wasn't attached to the van in any way.  Praise the Lord the trucker had noticed it!  We called Darrin's dad and he brought us a new pin.  It was a very easy fix.  I absolutely shudder to think what could have happened if the trailer had come off the van.  Andy called the trucker our road angel.  There have been a few times we've had trouble on the road, and there has always been someone who has come along side to help.  We pray before every trip that the Lord will protect us as we travel.  He always does!!

So, other than some adventures that make good stories, we had a great time and I was blessed with an evening and a whole day of feeling good.  I hope we'll be able to camp again this summer or fall, but if not, at least I got one fun trip!!