We decided to take last Friday off and take the granddaughters on an RV trip. We had taken Bella before, but this would be Lola's first time. Our son, Jason will also join us on Friday night since he could not take Friday off work. We wanted to get out of the heat!!
Planning, shopping and packing while you are working takes some organization; I'm almost exhausted before I even leave!
Jason helped us get loaded up Thursday night; we finally got out of Tucson around 6PM. I always have 'surprises' for the girls; something new for them to enjoy while driving. Lola who is 3, is always so, so excited, saying 'THANK YOUUUUU'; It's so funny the way she says it. We are headed to Ponderosa Campground, which is about 15 miles east of Payson; where it is cool! It is a 3 hour trip which means we probably will not get there until around 10PM, since we have to stop to get something for dinner--did not have enough time to be that organized! We stop at Arby's and eat on the way (we can always clean the truck later, I tell myself) :) Along the way, Lola looks out the window and says 'look Geegee, cacus'; then she wants me to draw a 'cacus'. I draw 4 saguaros. She names them~Pops, Geegee, Bella and Lola.
By the time we get close to Apache Junction, it is nearing 7:30. If we go all the way to Ponderosa, the girls will probably be asleep, but will wake up. That means setting up camp in the dark, after they have been woken up. Doesn't sound like such a good idea now.
I suggest stopping at Usery Mountain Park, a beautiful park near the Salt River and on our way. We have camped here many times and love it. The park has electricity so we will be able to use our A/C. I know, doesn't sound like camping, but it's Margie style camping.
We arrive at Usery Mountain park about 7:30. It is already dark, we quickly find a site and back the RV in. We won't unhook tonight since we will be heading to Ponderosa tomorrow morning.
The girls are excited. We get the lanterns and chairs out so we can enjoy the outdoors for a while before bed. We are teaching Lola to say 'RV'; she keeps calling the RV-'Geegee's house'. Time for baths and bed.
The table and benches in the RV fold down to make a double size bed and the couch opens up to make a double bed, so the girls each have their own bed.
Lola always seems to be the first one up in the morning...even before Ken! I hear her talking, so I lean up and look out towards her bed and she smiles and waves. What a feeling. We all get up now, Bella being the last one. She likes to sleep in like me. :) After I get them dressed, Ken and Bella opened the door to go outside; Ken thought I was still dressing Lola...but I had finished and she was following them...before he saw her, he had partially closed the door on her little finger. Of course she screamed, I came running and for the next hour held her with ice on her finger. I know how bad that hurts and your heart just breaks when something like this happens. Ken feels absolutely horrible. I gently remind him to just ALWAYS assume that she is following Bella, you...wanting to be part of what is going on and that we cannot take our eyes of her for one second,,,not one! She must have been paying attention to the discussion because she was now mad at Pops, blaming him. When he would try to see if she was ok, she would say 'No, Pops'. I had to get dressed and get things ready for travel, so she finally let him hold her. Her little finger was swollen, but looked ok..didn't need to go to the Urgent Care, thank God! That sick, panicky feeling I got when she got hurt made me wonder what some parents must go through when they have a sick child. How fortunate and blessed we truly are!
We decide to grab breakfast for the road instead of messing up the kitchen..we want to get to cool weather as soon as possible. It is already heating up. We stopped at McDonald's. The girls got apple slices and milkshakes; Ken and I got an egg Mcmuffin. I really do not like McDonald's but the egg Mcmuffin is not bad.
It's a beautiful drive up highway 87 to Payson. There are lots of saguaro cacti and again Lola says 'Geegee, cacus'! It's so cute that she is enjoying the scenery.
We stop at Walmart in Payson...Ken wants to get some bait for fishing. We arrive in Ponderosa Campground around 10 am. It is beautiful. Huge, tall pines everywhere; the temperature is in the 70's. We go to the water station first to fill out tanks up. This is a 'dry' campground, meaning there are no hookups--no water, electricity or sewer. The RV is totally self-contained so this is no problem for us. We do have a generator that we mainly have so we can make lattes in the morning. As I said before-this is Margie style camping :)
We find our campsite, back the RV in and set up camp.
The girls are so excited. We spend the day hanging around the campsite.
Bella is looking for bugs and playing with her 'bait worms'. Ken got an extra one at Walmart for her. She shares with Lola and for the next hour, they 'play' with the worms. Lola says 'they tickle'. She knows I am grossed out so she tries to scare me with them. Then Bella and her pretend they are going to eat them. I take pictures. Eventually, Lola has killed her worms, a slow death for the worms, but fun for Lola. She even 'accidentally' broke one in half. Lola also played with her new 'Barbie' fishing pole, casting and tangling it over and over.
Girls and worms
Bella and her friend
Jason and Lola
For lunch we had grilled hot dogs, pineapple and chips. Ken put up the hammock amongst the beautiful pines. I get in the hammock and Lola joins me. Bella swings us. Then Bella gets in and Lola swings us. We must have 'played' in the hammock for over an hour. Ken was gathering firewood. The camp host told us they would look the other way if we wanted to gather dead wood. Normally, you are not allowed to do that. The girls help. In the afternoon, the wind picked up...the tall, tall, skinny pines were blowing back and forth....kind of scary really. Thunder rolled in. Lola says 'ooh, scary'. Then the rain came. We went inside the RV and played a game...well Lola cannot really play the game; Bella is frustrated with her intrusion, but I give Lola a few cards and pieces of the game and let her sit near us and she is fine. The rain did not last long and we were back outside in no time. We took walks and just enjoyed the cool temperatures, especially after the refreshing rain.
For dinner we had Jalapeno cowboy burgers, macaroni and cheese and fruit. Now it was time for a fire. Pops had to use some 'boy scout fire water' to get the fire going as everything was kind of wet. The challenge now is to keep Lola from getting too close to the fire. She loves candles and fires. I get the s'mores out and Pops gets Bella set up with roasting her marshmallows. Why are s'mores so good? Maybe it's the whole process~being outside with your loved ones, it's dark, the fires...it's just so fun! Bella knows how to make a s'more and she quickly is eating her first one. I make one for Lola but she is not interested. She is eating the marshmallows right out of the bag. She throws a few out in the woods for the bunny rabbits. We enjoy the fire for awhile before bath time. Jason has still not arrived. We won't wait up for him...baths, prayers and lights out.
Jason arrives around 10PM..Ken waited up for him. I hear him come in but stay in my cozy bed. It is really cool..in the 50's. What a welcomed relief from the hot, hot desert.
We all wake up around 7:30-8..not real sure..not looking at the clock. We made lattes for the adults and hot chocolate for the girls. I bought these really cute, small children's coffee cups from Starbucks. They have different animals painted all over. The girls feel all important and grown up using them.
Jason researched the Ponderosa Campground before arriving and discovered that the bark of the Pondersosa pines that are so prevalent have a unique smell to them; they smell like sweet sugar cookies. The girls keep smelling the bark and saying ;mmm' cookies!
We sat around, enjoying our coffee for awhile before making breakfast. Is there anything better than frying bacon on the griddle outside, while camping? The smell alone stirs up wonderful feelings. We also had eggs, toast, strawberries and pineapple. After cleaning up, I packed up a lunch, drinks and we headed to to the lake with our fishing poles. Bella brought containers with her; she plans on looking for crawdads, minnows, fish. She likes to make her own habitats for her findings. There are several lakes in the area; we decide to go to Willow Springs Lake. First we have to find bait because we cannot find the extra bait Ken bought at Walmart yesterday. Bella assures us she did not 'play' with both containers. The scary part is, it may be 'lost' in our truck somewhere...that should smell good! We have to drive to the town of Heber, about 5 miles down the road. We find a little store; a woman is selling fresh banana bread. I go in to get a few more sodas, water, snacks for our day. I find coca cola in bottles!! I splurge ($1.50 each); I got one each for Jason and Ken and I shared mine with the girls, backwash and all!!
We arrive at the lake, it's kind of crowded. Ken, Jason and Lola began fishing and Bella started exploring for crawdads. I decided to go with Bella. She met a boy about her age and he began helping her look. I stayed my distance, sitting on a rock, but close enough to see her. She looked up and saw me and ran over and said, "Geegee, he is just my friend, I don't like him". So cute! I said. 'Oh, I know Bella, just have fun!" This boy had fire engine red hair. A while later, she caught a small crawdad and so I went over to see. I sat on a rock nearer her. The boy..can't remember his name... began chatting with me...nonstop. He reminded me of our son Josh at that age....he always was talking nonstop to strangers. The boy really wasn't much help to Bella, he was kind of afraid of the crawdads. She ended catching a BIG one. She put it in her container with lake water. It started to rain, so we decided to leave.
Bella was happy that she had two crawdads, one very small, one large. We loaded up the truck and decided to drive on Forest Road 300 for a while. Forest Road 300 is a gravel road along the Mogollon Rim in Payson. The description of the Rim is: a rugged escarpment that forms the southern limit of the Colorado Plateau. An escarpment is: zone between coastal lowlands and continental plateaus which have a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau. Basically it looks like a mini grand canyon, so beautiful.
Lola quickly fell asleep. We found a nice area with a picnic table to eat lunch. It was right on the edge of the rim. We had turkey and swiss on rye, chips and drinks. Ken and Bella took a short hike down part of the edge and then back up. It was starting to sprinkle again, so we headed back to the truck. We had to stop back at the store to get milk and ice. Once back at camp, Bella played with her crawdads, Jason, Lola and Ken gathered firewood and I began prep for dinner. Our next door neighbors in the campground invited us over for dessert after dinner. They are making pineapple upside down cake in a dutch oven. They use a charcoal grill to cook it. What a neat idea to get acquainted with your neighbors! I guess I will have 2 desserts. April made some wonderful layered desserts that I had been enjoying each night. I'm not sure what they are called; they have a crust layer, then a soft chewy caramel layer, nuts, then the corner is dipped in chocolate. So, so good.
We are having a big dinner tonight. Grilled pork tenderloin, green beans, whole grain rice, homemade coleslaw, and warmed up mac n cheese for the girls. We ate out by the fire. The girls drank their milk from wine glasses and felt very important. We had just enough time to clean up and our neighbors were ready with dessert. It was just a couple, a little younger than us, John and Marla (I think) and their Boston terrier, Bossie. Bossie was so cute and the girls loved her. She was very friendly. The cake was so amazing, moist and still warm. Yum! I think I will learn how to cook like this. A wonderful treat when you are camping.
We say goodnight and head back to our camp. Even though we are stuffed, we must get out the marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers. The night wouldn't be complete without it. Bella and Pops make s'mores, Lola eats marshmellows and throws some out for the bunny rabbits again. It's time for baths and bed. I bathe the girls, get them in bed, say prayers and they are 'out'. Nothing like fresh air to wear you out....including me! I take a shower and go to bed too. The guys stay up sitting by the fire chatting, looking up the millions of stars.
We all wake up about 7:30. We decide to not make a big breakfast and pack up and eat in town. I do give the girls fruit and cherrios. We all help to get things loaded up and head out. We stop in Payson at 'Tiny's' for breakfast.
The girls fall asleep and stay that way for most of the trip home. It's only a 3 hour drive, a beautiful one. We stopped once after they woke up to use the bathroom. It's so nice using the RV instead of going in to a nasty gas station!
We had a wonderful time...time to say goodbye and to go home to rest!
