adventure – Jesus is for the Wounded

So you want to go camping do ya?

Published on May 12, 2017May 12, 2017 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

Camping is not for the faint of heart, even in the “posh” conditions of a travel trailer! Having a trusty companion or two and the right tools can make the difference between success and failure. For me that would be the guard dog, handy husband, jugs of water, and very long extension cord. Gotter done!

Camplite, husband, kayak, Scorpius, rack, roof, outrigger, canoe, man, towing, camper, travel, trailer, home, Nissan, Frontier, camping

I am grateful for our Camplite (aka Tin Can Ranch) that allows me to go places with my hubby and stay in a mobile “clean room,” away from the hazards of hotels and limited choices of restaurant menus. Preparing for these trips is an incredible amount of work all by itself: just about the same amount of tasks need to be completed for a week-long vacation as an over-nighter. I have a sense that we won’t be doing the latter again anytime soon! Regardless, I rallied the strength and off we went with great expectations to the Illinois Beach State Park north of Chicago, Illinois. I was to attend the day-long Designs for Health: A Prescription for Wellness seminar at the beautiful Chicago Botanical Gardens and Steve was to tackle the surf along Lake Michigan. Later we planned to meet up with some friends for dinner on the north side of the city before heading south around the city and back to NE Indiana into the wee hours of the morning. Whilst the latter plans were complicated by severe rain and traffic issues for all parties, it turned out to be an “easier” part of our itinerary!

Our wacky adventures began soon after we pulled into the campground along the shores of Lake Michigan. Up first: hooking up the electrical. Not! For the next several hours we battled a worn breaker system that kept tripping no matter what we did to avert the issue. Was it the breakers in the trailer that were overloaded? The eroded contacts in the refrigerator switch plate that requires a few minutes of babysitting to turn on? Figuring this out required much problem-solving with wifey-poo dressed in early Spring/Winter garb, very weary from travelling and following orders from the friendly but not-so-helpful front office staff. To sort this out, we ran our extension cord to a few adjacent sites to no avail. Very likely it was the campsite breakers that were worn and not our camper since everything had worked fine at home the day before. Too bad the real on-site expert had the day off!

Finally my husband figured out two work-a-rounds: 1) hooking up our battery charger to the battery to run the water pump and 2) running our 100-foot extension cord to a 3rd campsite and through the kitchen area window to run the electric heater. In the morning I disconnected the heater and attached it to my blow dryer to make some order of the bed head that came with the morning. What about just taking a shower you ask? Well don’t! That didn’t happen . . . for me anyways. The campground did not have water or sewer hook-ups so we had filled our modest, 30-gallon water tank at home thinking it would be enough for bathroom needs with quick “Navy-style” showers. We were wrong. Steve did get a shower . . . then a paddle in Lake Michigan . . . then another shower in the only open bathroom facilities in the campground. I made the most of things and had a quick cooooold sponge bath before heading out to the seminar! Oh well. I was definitely AWAKE for the day of lectures to follow!

A few other tidbits further enhanced our experience such as Steve gashing his lip on the rusted breaker box in the midst of trying to figure out things! So glad for our first aid supplies! Then there was the brand new hot water pot that I had plugged in through the cord dangling in kitchen window to make some hot tea ended up not working; I used an electric frying pan instead! Additionally I took every remedy that I had with me to ward off noxious symptoms from ongoing illness and to consume before-and-during the seminar (with copious amounts of food-n-bacon, of course). And guess what? The seminar was incredible! Steve had a great time paddling our outrigger canoe 7 miles along the lake shore and the pup got in a few long walks at the beach. Cool beans.

woman, seminar, Chicago Botanical Gardens, flowers, planter, Designs for Healing, sitting

Forrest Gump logic applies very well to almost all of our camping experiences these past 3 years: you never know what you are going to get! This trip was no different. We are now home and pooped. Massive loads of laundry and cleaning are now underway to decontaminate everything for our next adventure having something to do with trailer demolishen derby races or something. With our luck, let’s just hope we don’t end up on the figure-8 track. Should be fun. Or maybe not. I’ll be sure to letcha know. Eeeeek!

Four-Wheeling in a Travel Trailer

Published on November 16, 2015November 18, 2015 by Jesus is for the WoundedLeave a comment

getting lost, moon at night, moon, camping, campground, campsite, Georgia, November sky, October sky The River Falls at the Gorge Campground promised to be a lovely place to be along the Tallulah River this past week. Our reservations and multiple modes of directions were in tow with the GPS programmed to get us there, MapQuest directions handy between the seats, US Atlas turned to the State of Georgia, verbal directions written on our reservation confirmation sheet, and a back-up of directions from a Google search if needed. But it was the map linked to the website of the campground that eventually got us there around 6:00 in the morning. Yes, the River would be beautiful at sunrise . . .

But it didn’t go the way we had it planned! Of course we knew that it would be a 12+ hour drive from Indiana but not over 15! Well that sum includes completing the hook-ups once we arrived of water, electric and sewer. O.K. so it’s kind of a modern way of “camping” yet still more rustic than the Bed-and-Breakfast accommodations to which I had become accustomed many years ago! This is my version of “roughing it!” There still is a lot more interaction with the elements than you might expect, (more on the mud another time!) especially trying to find a place in the dead of night on a long and twisty dirt road somewhere in northeastern Georgia.

“Something just isn’t right,” confessed my beloved Steve when the horse paths we were travelling on for almost 30 minutes ended in in 3 driveways, 2 of which were blocked by metal gates. All of them had signs posted next to them from respective security companies. Oh dear. That would not be typical for a campground for sure! It had been raining for hours and the dirt road was largely ungraded for heavy traffic, especially for a wide range of local to out-of-State travel trailers and motor homes. How in the heck would a bus-sized RV ever make it up the road we had just traversed? Yes indeed something was very wrong!

We decided to take some time to assess our situation. We had already turned around twice on the main road, trying to find the campground which was supposed to be “one mile past the State park and off Highway 441.” Well that just wasn’t our reality. I reprogrammed the GPS and the scavenger hunt in backwoods was our third attempt to find our river-front paradise. We had no other ideas at that time: about 5:30 a.m. We got out our umbrellas, Sure Fire flashlights, and hiked around. Probably no one would mind at that hour that we were blocking everything with the 40-foot total length of my mid-size pick up truck and our 16-foot Camplite! Steve walked closer to one of the open gates as I exclaimed, “don’t go in there! There’s probably a laser light across the road that we might activate if we cross a line hidden by the trees!” (I had seen this before in the homes of my home health care patients who lived in more remote areas.) We backed away and looked up the rutted road that had led us astray. We would need to re-trace our course.

Steve decided to pull out the manual for the brake controller and make some adjustments right there in the wilderness. The timing was as crazy as it was brilliant. An adjustment was sorely needed to manage the hills and valleys of our obstacle course back to the highway. We were also concerned about the softening of the terrain as it continued to rain; four-wheel drive was already engaged. And what if we were not alone out there? I thought for a moment what I might do if a bear or wild hog might greet us before we had made our decision to get the heck out of there. I was packing a pistol in my pocket but the caliber wouldn’t do much for a beast taller than my knees. Oh yeah, I could flap the umbrella around and make a lot of noise. Sure, that’s it! Gratefully, we were alone out there having another Steve-and-Julie bonding experience and never encountered another soul.

Back down the road we went. Steve made an incredible 5-point turn with the trailer in-tow with me scouting out the lay of the land outside in the dark. I was never so grateful for having decided to wear my hiking boots during this trip. Kind of odd, really, to wear them in the truck. Kind of extremely helpful though in these conditions! We bid our unknown neighbors “good night” as I hopped back into the truck whilst the sky was lightening slightly: morning was breaking.

By the grace of God we found the campground with the re-programming of the GPS and retracing our original steps. Funny, the campground was 1 mile from the State Park in the OPPOSITE direction than we had been instructed. Had not we mentioned we were coming from Indiana? Oh well. We probably drove right past the place on our first pass through the area. Chalk it up to the folklore of giving us directions with landmarks as if we were locals. Sish.

While the light was out that illuminated the lettering on the building, the other lights clearly identified a big building just 200 feet or so from the road. It was the office of the River Falls at the Gorge Campground! We had made it! A little more scouting, misinterpretation of a parking lot for the camp road, and final identification of our campsite out in the rain with the umbrelli brought us to a real stop for the next three days. Steve hooked us up and I prepared the inside for us and our pup, Elle. By 7:30 a.m., we were showered and asleep.

So what is the moral of this story? Probably nothing! We always seem to get lost trying to find our way in the wee hours of the morning in rural Georgia. Yes, this has happened before when we landed at the end of a road in the woods just before daybreak trying to find Phil and Judy’s place a few years ago. Maybe we will wait awhile before heading back to the land of boiled peanuts and peaches. Yeah, that’s it. Hey Babe, it’s time to GO WEST not South, my dear! JJ

There’s popcorn in the bed

Published on January 12, 2015January 12, 2015 by Jesus is for the Wounded4 Comments

Travelling can be both exhilarating and hazardous to one’s health all the same time. Was it Mark Twain who said that life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all? Yeah, he would be right at home in our house or rather our travel trailer!

And so I remain grateful for so much as Steve and I continue to navigate very odd circumstances while on the road. We have now passed the halfway mark in an Indiana, Alabama, Florida, and North Carolina road trip that has provided much material for future blogging already! This stuff ain’t for wimps and we have proven to be mighty in the Lord. Here’s a peek:

This morning I awakened at 11:30 a.m. delighted to have slept in after a wretched night. Steve was arriving home to the tin can ranch after the closing meeting of his United States Canoe Association (USCA) annual meeting. He was energized beyond his lack of sleep, ready to hit the big water off the coast of Florida. A few bites of ham was all he needed: the outrigger canoe strapped to the roof of my truck for the past 1000 miles would see water at last!

A blast of seizures delayed my plans for breakfast as Steve assisted me with a bite to eat and trip to the bathroom. Then he found a deer tick on his back! We had hoped that the dangerous hitch-hiker was a loner but that was not to be. Within an hour we had found about a dozen on his clothing and the floor around the camper entry. Quickly we searched and cleaned, flashlights in hand until every inch of Steve, the dog, and our home away from home was cleared. [Some parts of the search weren’t too bad! ;)] At last I collapsed again, this time into a pile of tears: why does everything have to be so difficult all of the time?

Steve is a saint, this is true. He quickly switched gears (and clothing!) for the paddling adventure that awaited him at Amelia Island State Park with a fellow paddler in from Arkansas. I sent along two bars of chocolate from our hometown chocolatier to thank him for waiting for Steve plus Steve’s lunch that I had quickly assembled. At last I could ravenously consume my makeshift breakfast of thawed lunch meat, canned green beans, ghee butter, and pumpkin seeds: low oxalate on-the-road dontcha know! Steve soon departed after pumping up the tires of my bike for me: a tag-a-long I’d added in hopes of riding here in the warmer weather . . .

But I was just too tired to do anything but eat and check Facebook after my beloved departed. Oh how I longed to be with him! Someday soon we will again bring the tandem outrigger canoe (OC-2) on such trips so I may join my River Bear on the water. Yes, Lord: maybe this year? Instead Don and Steve will take turns paddling the OC-1 and have a blast surfing the ama (which is the float attached by two poles or iakos off to one side) and waves like true racers. Meanwhile I grabbed the remainder of my bag of organic popcorn and prepared to return to my own version of life these days in my pretty bed. And in due time, I did revive.

It’s raining now as this blog comes to a close. My bike is at the ready, leaning against my inner left leg, with my beloved pup feigning off sleep on the floor just beyond my outer left leg. O.K. so we are now also initiated to winter camping with way too many toys! Funny how I don’t regret hardly anything about how we crafted this trip. Most of the delegates stayed at the hotel where the USCA meeting was held and that certainly would have been more convenient than the RV park we ended up at which was a 25 minute drive north in Georgia. The air was stale to me at the Hampton Inn with the stale scent of air freshener in the lobby. Here amidst the palms we have fresh air ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT LONG! I like that! The rain dries up quickly anyways in the reddish soil sprinkled with pine needles. We will avoid the tick path my hubby took with the dog this morning, no problemmo. Here I can even see a few stars at night peeking through the overhead vents we keep open at night. That’s refreshingly cool and very romantic too!

I could be at home right now in the frigid Midwest, writing my heart out amidst the foot of snow around our home and subzero temperatures. This is better. This is good. This is what living a life of adventure is all about. Why wait for a “rainy day” when everything will never be perfect enough to do the things which call one forward TODAY. This IS that rainy day. And hey, the rain just stopped! I do believe I have carb-loaded adequately too! Where is my bike helmet anyways?

Seeya pup. Ima hittin’ my own road ya all . . .