Dad and Kids Weekend

It has been a challenge to get out camping this year.  Usually our first spring camping trip is the May Long Weekend, and then we get out pretty regularly after that.  This year the weather conditions were not great on the long weekend, and I did not have our trailer out of storage and ready to go in time, so we stayed home.  I think this was the first May long weekend in twenty years that I did not get away!!!  The weekend following was supposed to be the annual "Dad and Kids" camping weekend.  This ended up getting postponed due to poor weather and limited attendance.  We finally headed out for a re-scheduled "Dad and Kids" camping trip this past weekend.  A lot of Dads that had originally expressed interest, ended up making excuses and bailing out.  The weather forecast was not great, but we headed out all the same.  I left with my trailer in tow and my three daughters in the back seat, on Friday right after work.  We met up with my friend Frank down in the badlands along the Red Deer River.  He was already there when we arrived at the campsite around 9:00PM.  Frank had his trailer there, his daughter, and her friend.  It was cool and overcast, there were a lot of mosquitos, but it wasn't raining.  We set up camp and relaxed around the campfire before turning in relatively early.

The next day, after breakfast, we were just hanging around the campsite when a brief shower rolled in.  It didn't last long and eventually the weather improved.  Later in the afternoon my co-worker John, his two sons and his daughter rolled in.  Some of the kids ended up going fishing, while others went and checked out the horses at the nearby dude ranch.

 

That evening we threw together a BBQ, stoked up the fire, and settled in for the night.  It quickly became obvious that our festivities were going to be limited to three Dads and eight kids.  Frank made a beer run to nearby Trochu, while I got the BBQ going, and John took some of the kids fishing down to the Red Deer River.  When we were here last year, with a similar turn out, the Dads stayed up all night working on the stock pile of beer that we had brought along.  Sunday breakfast that year was a bit of a spectacle.  This year it was a little more tame.  We stayed up pretty late, and put a good dent into the beer supply, but things didn't get out of hand.  Maybe it was because the weather was a little unsettled, and it was sprinkling a bit off and on.  On Sunday morning, after breakfast, three of the girls wanted to go for a trail ride, while the rest of the kids wanted to go fishing.  We split up into groups and kept everyone happy.  My two oldest daughters, and John's youngest went for a one hour trail ride in the badlands.

 

 

While that was happening, the rest of the kids went fishing.  The weather was pretty good on Sunday morning and everyone had a great time.  After lunch, we all decided to give fishing one last try.  We walked the quarter mile from our trailers over to the old fishing hole and cast a few more times.  A couple more goldeye were landed, in addition to the eight or so that we already had.

 

 

My girls finally got down to the river, made a few casts, and then the clouds opened up.  We were hit by a heavy thunder shower, and it just poured.  By the time we packed up and walked the quarter mile back to the trailer we were soaked to the skin.  We were a little concerned about how hard the rain was coming down, and how muddy the trail out of the camping area was going to get.  We quickly packed up all our gear and just tossed everything into our trailers.  We watched as a couple of other campers struggled to negotiate the trail out of the campsite with their trucks and trailers.  We left together, and it took four-wheel-drive to drag our gear out of the pasture and back onto gravel.  There we stopped and properly packed up before hitting the road for home.  It was great to finally get back out camping and to spend some quality time with my girls.  When I asked them later what they thought was the best part of the weekend, the concensus was that the horseback riding was number one, and getting caught in the rain was number two.  I hope that this weekend together is something that they will fondly recall for years to come.

I had hoped to be able to get out camping right away again on the two upcoming weekends but it appears as though that will not be possible.  Not only do the girls have a soccer tournament and a wind-up soccer party scheduled, but the weather is once again very cool and wet.  It seems as though we may have to wait until the end of the month and the Canada Day long weekend before we are able to get out again.  Hopefully this does not turn into a cool, wet summer like we had last year!!