Reflections on the Camping Trip
Friday, June 18, 2010 by Amy
All in all, we did really well financially on this trip. We brought our own food and other than a stop for dinner on the way there, managed to eat it alone. I bought some meat before leaving, but it in a bag with marinade, and froze it. The meat kept everything else cold, and when it thawed out we were ready to eat it, and the meat that we weren't ready to eat stayed refrigerator-cold long enough for us to use it. The girls loved the camp-cooked food and asked that I cook on the green stove at home too. Funny kids.
Other than a $30 Navajo-made pottery thing and some hat pins for the girls' Junior Ranger hats, we didn't buy souvenirs either. The girls had some spending money, so they spent that, but Rudi (surprise surprise) didn't go hog-wild at the gift shops. Sweet.
Gas was a huge chunk of our money because by the time we got home, we had gone 1400 miles. That's nearly the distance to Maryland one-way.
The campground was nice, although we traded shade for proximity to bathrooms, showers, and camp store. We weren't at the camp at all during the day, so the lack of shade didn't really bother us. The campsites were visited frequently by deer which got quite close and the girls were thrilled with that. The girls, however, went to bed way too late and got up way too early. They were regularly up before 7am, which is much earlier than their normal waking. I could only tolerate a couple hours at the campsite in the morning with little to do, so Rudi had to wake up earlier than usual too. He was a sport about it, though.
I'm wondering about those studies on television watching and the detrimental effect on children's imagination and attention spans. I don't know many children who can entertain themselves for 6 days with literally no more than rocks, sticks, and 2 stuffed animals like my kids can, and they watch television. Maybe they studied children with sub-standard intelligence. That was mean, but I'm not taking it back :)
I also got to see true wild horses. I never in my life thought I'd see wild horses! The curious thing about them was that the had unusually short tails, not as if they'd been cut (some tails were half-short and half-long) but as if they'd been pulled out. I bet their tails get snagged on the bramble bushes and cacti. It seemed that no bush is safe to touch in Mesa Verde, so I'm guessing that's it.
Other than a $30 Navajo-made pottery thing and some hat pins for the girls' Junior Ranger hats, we didn't buy souvenirs either. The girls had some spending money, so they spent that, but Rudi (surprise surprise) didn't go hog-wild at the gift shops. Sweet.
Gas was a huge chunk of our money because by the time we got home, we had gone 1400 miles. That's nearly the distance to Maryland one-way.
The campground was nice, although we traded shade for proximity to bathrooms, showers, and camp store. We weren't at the camp at all during the day, so the lack of shade didn't really bother us. The campsites were visited frequently by deer which got quite close and the girls were thrilled with that. The girls, however, went to bed way too late and got up way too early. They were regularly up before 7am, which is much earlier than their normal waking. I could only tolerate a couple hours at the campsite in the morning with little to do, so Rudi had to wake up earlier than usual too. He was a sport about it, though.
I'm wondering about those studies on television watching and the detrimental effect on children's imagination and attention spans. I don't know many children who can entertain themselves for 6 days with literally no more than rocks, sticks, and 2 stuffed animals like my kids can, and they watch television. Maybe they studied children with sub-standard intelligence. That was mean, but I'm not taking it back :)
I also got to see true wild horses. I never in my life thought I'd see wild horses! The curious thing about them was that the had unusually short tails, not as if they'd been cut (some tails were half-short and half-long) but as if they'd been pulled out. I bet their tails get snagged on the bramble bushes and cacti. It seemed that no bush is safe to touch in Mesa Verde, so I'm guessing that's it.
