Camping

John and I enjoyed our very first camping trip by ourselves this past weekend. Though we have been away at the beach with youth, we really haven't had a 'break'. Some people tend to think our trips with kids are a 'vacation', but any and all that think so are more than welcome to join us to see how much work and stress is included in taking a group of teenagers on a week long trip.

Anyway, we hopped in the Jeep on Friday at 1:00 and started a much longer journey than we had anticipated. We had planned to camp at a camp ground in Roan Mountain, TN. It's located about an hour from Boone, but when we arrived they were already filled for the weekend. So, we hopped back in the car and headed for somewhere else.

We decided to 'rough' it out in the middle of nowhere at a special spot for us- Harper's Creek. It was the place that we camped after we got married. So we headed back towards Linville to where we "THOUGHT" it was located. Of course John, my human GPS, had us at the spot in no time. We actually decided to stay right on the creek a little above the trail.

We pulled out our 6 person tent that we had gotten a few Christmases ago and tried to find a spot large enough for it. While there isn't six in this family, we did have to blow up our air mattress!!! We didn't completely rough it! Thank you Lord for power converters!

After we set up camp we started on a mini hike down the creek with Caroline. She loves to run and play out in the woods with us. She enjoys leading the way and often times if we get off of a trail, she finds the trail again for us.

We headed back after an hour or so and made a fire. John decided he wanted to cook his favorite meal from when he was growing up--Corn beef Hash! It doesn't sound appetizing and I never thought that I would like it either, but he makes it really crunchy and it tastes really good with some ketchup. We enjoyed eating it right out of the pan by the fire.

That night I didn't really sleep well. I never imagined that I would be so scared, but sleeping on the side of the road and deep in the woods just isn't appealing to me. Every noise made my ears perk up in attention. It may have been John's lovely dinner conversation about putting our food up so the bears didn't get it or us. It may have been that I read the newspaper, which I never do, as we were finishing dinner. We just happened to have one with us to help start our fire. I am not sure what it was, but I think I asked John what time it was about every fifteen minutes until 4:00. Finally at four Caroline, curled up in my sleeping bag with me and I eventually fell asleep.

The next morning I let John sleep late and I actually started a fire all by myself. It helped that I had carefully watch my boyscout of a husband as he made the one the previous night. He gave me a few pointers too! I made our bacon and eggs over the fire! I was quite impressed with myself.

We packed up and started on a six mile hike towards the waterfalls at the end of Harper's Creek. This is taken at the point where Harper's Creek begins its descent.

And these pics are the beauty that you see at the bottom of the hike. It's gorgeous. A gentle, refreshing breeze blows off the falls.

Overall, it was great trip and good time together enjoying the beautiful creation that we have been blessed with.