Camping in Vogel

Our camp out at Vogel with Rake and Candystick was a great time. Yes, it was cold and wet, but we had fun. Rake has already written a blog about the trip, so I will try not to duplicate too much of what he said.

Meredith and I left early in the morning on Saturday to head over to the Georgia mountains. It was a beautiful drive through some small towns. The GPS was desperately trying to get me to take the interstate, but I continued to defy the machine and force it to go MY way!

We arrived at camp, and after being guided to the site by Rake, we all met at the rain protected picnic table.

After our trip to the "town with no Walmart" we headed back to camp and started a fire. Meredith lounged in the chair and took off her wet shoes and socks. Rake saw a job that needed to be done and got right to work tying a clothes line over the fire. This was a great idea but we had no idea that it was going to rain again in just a few hours and re-soak the socks.

After getting sugared up on marshmallows, we went for a walk around the lake. Along the way, I noticed a large wasp nest hanging over the lake. When I pointed it out to Rake, he smiled and picked up a few rocks. I just kept walking away. He made a couple of direct hits but the rocks were too small to knock the nest down. I don't believe anything came flying out of the nest because Rake didn't come running past me screaming like a girl. Speaking of girls, our daughters had a great time back at camp singing Hannah Montana. I hadn't heard most of the songs previously, but apparently Rake has, because he was singing and dancing along with most of his "favorites". No video or photographic evidence was allowed during his song and dance, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Sunday morning was COLD. Rake said it was in the 30's and I believe it. I was awake every other hour during the night listening to the pouring rain. At 6:30, I had to get up. The rain had stopped and Meredith followed me out of the tent and I started working on a fire.

I only had a roll of paper towels, a box of matches, and a bag of dry firewood. I got something going a few times, but couldn't get the large chunks of wood to get hot enough. While I worked on burning up the last of the paper towels, Meredith sat in the chair shivering. After a few moments, one of the neighboring campers came over and offered help. She was carrying kindling (which I didn't have) and a propane blowtorch! After a few minutes under the torch, all the wood was burning and warming us up. Thanks neighbor!

Forgetting kindling was typical of my packing for this trip. I brought a gas table top stove with no gas. I brought bacon, with no pan, and now I brought matches with no fire wood.

After our breakfast and clean up, Rake and I gave in to the girls' desire to do some gem mining. On the way I begged the group to take a short hike in the cold to see lower Desoto falls. I was happy that everyone agreed to take the short hike and see some great falls.

Both of the girls had fun gem mining and then we headed to our separate homes.

For a weekend that was full of cold and rain we had an outstanding time. At one point earlier in the week, Cari asked if I was going to be camping in the rain. I even doubted for a moment if I would go. Then Rake emailed me on Wednesday night and told me he would be going up a day early. Well, if he can do two nights in the rain, I can certainly do one. I sure am glad I did and Meredith was thrilled to be there as well. Thanks Rake and Candystick for a great camping trip!