We decided when stuck in the oncology clinic for 25 hours the week before that we should try and go camping before Cole headed back to school and before Audrey started her next round of chemo that would put us in the hospital every other week for a while.
The last time we decided to go camping it was an entire failure. We had a large tent that was 20 plus years old and had reached its water proof and fabric tear point half-life. Of course the weekend we had picked to go camping was the first June 5th in Arizona to see rain since they started recording weather patterns. It rained so much that we had to abandon ship and head for the truck at about 3:30 AM where we tried to sleep and get warm. After it stopped raining the next morning we discovered everything was soaked and no way could we stay another night. We packed up and called it an early weekend.
I swore that would be our last tent camping trip as a family and it was time to start campering instead of camping. So this time I rented us a 21 foot camper that has slide out beds called a hybrid camper off of craigslist. I picked the camper up at 3PM on Thursday and headed to the house. I noticed that the brake controller wasn’t working. This lead to 2.5 hours of troubleshooting before replacing the controller box and having work manually which was good enough to head north and figure the rest out latter. We loaded the camper got everything set and headed to bed.
The next morning we got woke up by the kids at about 5:30 AM ready to go camping. So we got up and started getting the last of things ready and at about 7 AM we headed out. The drive up went smooth. The truck pulled well and we had decided on the neighbor’s recommendation to head to Forest Service road 300 just passed Pine Arizona. I had looked at the map and found a small pond\lake called Potato lake and decided we would camp near there. After driving for a bit down the dirt road we found a spot that looked perfect. We pulled in and had the camper setup by 11:45AM. 
After all the work getting the trailer level and beds pulled out and setup it was time to have a cool refreshing beverage and start relaxing. Audrey had tea party as soon as we got sat down. She served us all tea cups of water as we sat and enjoyed the forest.
At about 1 we were still just sitting around hanging out and lighting struck scary close. Within a couple minutes it was pouring. We all went inside and took good naps. Cole and I laid down together and Audrey cuddled up on top of Melissa. By the time we woke up the rain had stopped. Melissa and Cole went for a walk to Potato Lake while I got the fire ready. Wet wood made it slow but I had enough gas to counter it. Plus gas and fire is always cool.
Audrey had been asking about roasting the marshmallows all day. So once the gas burnt off we roasted up a few. Then we cooked our hot dogs. For dessert we made s’mores. Watched the fire burn a little and headed to bed.
Audrey isn’t sleeping well still and she is wanting to eat at odd hours of the night. So the first night of sleep didn’t go all that well since it’s hard to cook a hot dog at 12:30 AM with nothing but a stove flame. We finally got it done though and she had her night snack and back to bed. The rest of the night was up and down with her which is nothing new.
Next morning we got up about 7 and decided we needed to head in to town since I needed to fix the rope pull on the generator that had come with the trailer. I tried to get it setup the first day and on the first pull the rope pulled right out of the generator. I tried to fix it with pliers but needed a 10mm socket or wrench to break them loose. Since we were going into town anyway we decided to get breakfast which was very good at Miss Fitz 260 Cafe. Then stopped by Wal-Mart and got the supplies and tools we needed. By the time we got back to camp it was lunch and nap time. While the family napped I fixed the generator and while I was fixing things I decided to look at the trailer breaks again. I noticed the wire harness I had bought didn’t match what I remembered the wiring looking like on the original so I switched a wire around and now the trailer breaks worked correctly! Now it was time for a short nap for me too.
After naps we headed off for a family hike to Potato Lake. It’s about .5 miles into the lake from where you can park. It was so nice to be in the cool air in the middle of nowhere with no one around. Everything was so green and the air had that sweet warm Ponderosa pine tree smell. We walked to the lake and skipped and threw rocks for a while before walking back
.
When we got back we got the fire started and just sat around telling the kids stories about us growing up and the different friends we had grown up with and camped with when we were kids. He all just hung around the fire and enjoyed being outside and in each other’s company then headed to bed.
This night was no better than the one before but we had precooked the hot dogs now that we had the microwave working so we could just pull them out of the fridge when she wanted them. She had one at 1 AM and 5 AM plus was up countless times not happy about one thing or another.
We got up the next morning and decided that we should start getting things picked up then head out for a walk before we finish packing up and heading home. There was closed dirt road just up from the camper that I thought would be good for a walk and to have Cole ride his bicycle. Well it was good for a walk anyway. After carrying Cole’s bike up the hill he rode it for a couple of minutes and decided it was to hard and just walked with us. We had a nice peaceful walk and again enjoyed just being outside and the cool weather up on the rim.
On the way back I figure since Cole’s bike was already up the hill I should ride it down. After I carried Audrey back to the camper I headed back up the hill and got on Cole’s 20″ bike and started my trek back to the camper. It actually went much better than Melissa had expected and I didn’t even crash once. The kids were screaming at me while I was flying down the hill.
After surviving my perilous decent we finished packing up the camper and getting it road worthy for the ride home. Cole helped pack up the small stuff around the trailer while I folded up the beds and raised the legs. We hitched the truck and pulled out head for home at about 11:30 AM. The trip down went super easy and the trailer brakes working correctly made it feel easy to tow while going down the steep down grade coming off the rim. We didn’t stop once between leaving and pulling into the house about 2.5 hours later.
In the end we were super happy to be blessed with Audrey being well enough to go and getting one last family weekend in together before the long hospital visits start and Cole heads back to school. Leaving was bitter sweet. The weekend was amazing and leaving meant we had to return to reality and a week full of test and doctors’ visits. Many memories were made and as we don’t know what the future will look like for this family we need to make them every chance we can.
