Camping Over July 24th

Now that the official title of this blog includes my name, it wouldn't be fair to Brittnee nor maintain the accuracy of this blog if I didn't actually write something. So, for my first installment, I'll talk about our camping trip with our friends Darrell and Amanda to a town near Price.


The camping trip took place over the July 24th weekend. Who needs more fireworks when you can go camping, right? As it turns out, Amanda has more than 500 acres (correct me if I'm wrong Amanda) in the family name. On some of the land Amanda's father planted hay and installed huge sprinkler systems with Darrell's help. The other acres were basically unoccupied and open to our choosing. Darrell and Amanda chose the spot. To me it felt like our own private island without any nearby water. It was a shaded spot in the eaves of a hanging rock. It reminded Brittnee of Pride Rock from Lion King, but for me it was just fun to climb and even attempt some rock jumping.


It took us several attempts to back up the pop-up trailer into position and raise it up fully, but Darrell and I managed to complete that task without too big of a knock on our masculinity. By the time camp was ready, it was already getting darker, so the girls cooked our tin foil "hobo" dinners over the camp fire. The rest of the night included typical camping fare - smores and campfire stories. Then it was off to bed in the pop-up trailer (my first experience with that and I must admit it beats sleeping in a tent).



Early the next morning, Brittnee woke me up because nature was calling her name and women for some reason can never do their duty alone when it's dark out. After breakfast, we all went shooting Darrell's guns at homemade targets near an old homestead that Amanda's great grandfather built and lived on to claim the land. We shot a 22 rifle, which was much lighter than I anticipated. We also shot three other hand guns: a 9mm, 22 pistol, and a 380 pistol. My favorite was the 9mm pistol. The pistol was small enough to fit inside the palm of your hand, but gave a big kick for a small gun.



Around midday or so, we went on a few good hikes to some great lookouts over the valley below. Unfortunately it was so bloody hot that we had to cut the hike short and tried to cool off by playing Phase 10 in the shade of the canopy. Half way through the game and 10 million bottles of water later, we were still hot and sweaty, so we went into town for some cold drinks and more ice and to visit Amanda's dad. If you don't quite understand how hot it was yet, look at the photo of Darrell and Amanda's dog Yoko. She chose to roll in the mud to cool off. I thought about following her example, but opted out and stood under the sprinklers instead. Boy did they do the trick!



On our last evening we roasted hot dogs over the campfire, went on a few short hikes, took pictures of the full moon, lit leftover sparklers from our wedding, and watched as each of us transformed into werewolves. Ok not really, but just checking to see if you were still reading. So all in all it was a fun weekend getaway camping trip to a new spot with good friends. Thanks Darrell and Amanda!