Camping in the Midwest

We started our summer early with a camping trip. Tyson has been missing the mountains and all the activities that go along with the beautiful outdoors of Utah. He decided to try and duplicate Utah mountain camping in Iowa. It wasn’t quite the same.

We decided to go the weekend before Memorial Day to miss all of the drunken, potty mouthed Midwesterners. Tyson heard that Johnson Sauk Trail State Park in Illinois was a great location for camping so we gave it a try. The campgrounds had planted trees so all of the tress where in straight lines. That was a little weird for us.

We picked a spot located near an area we could get access to our car and not too close to a bathroom or garbage can. The spot we picked had a family with a little girl Lilly’s age and some dogs. We figured if they had little kids they would behave.

Once we got everything set up we wanted to explore but Lilly announced she needed to go to the bathroom. I took her to the nearest flush bathroom but it was too dirty for her and she refused to go. So we went back to the campsite. She then said she needed to go again and we tried the outhouse which she also refused to use. We spent about 1 hour going back and forth and trying to find a restroom she would use. It was the most frustrating thing I have ever dealt with for Lilly. We finally drove down to the campsites main bathrooms which were flush and she finally agreed to go bathroom.

After that situation was taken care of we made dinner (hot dogs), checked out the lake at the campsite and played in the meadow. The lake was man-made and supplied with fish. It wasn’t the cleanest lake. I wanted to do the paddle boats but the rental place was already closed.

When it got dark we made S’Mores and then retreated to our tent and watched a movie on the IPad. Bennett slept in the pack-n-play. He did pretty well. It was cold and I had to cover him in blankets. I was so paranoid the whole night that he was going to suffocate in all the blankets I piled on. Our neighbors ended up being awful. They spent the whole night drinking beer and talking very loudly with very rude language. I don’t think they went to sleep until around 2:00 am. Combining that with my paranoia and sleeping on the ground in the cold made it a really rough night for me. It also rained a little but our rain cover for the tent did a good job protecting us.

In the morning we had breakfast burritos in the tent. Tyson made them under the rain flap of the tent to stay warm. While Lilly and I made the trek to the bathrooms Tyson started cleaning up and getting ready to go home. I came back to Bennett fast asleep in the tent.  I guess he wasn’t ready to wake up yet. We had to pack everything around his sleeping body.

 

 

It wasn’t the most fun I have ever had camping but Lilly enjoyed herself so that is really all the matters, right? It was also enjoyable just being together as a family and the food was yummy.