this past weekend, we headed out for our camping warm up of the season. the farm we support for our local farm box was holding its annual camp out. this is our third year receiving delicious produce from this farm and each year they have held this event and each year i have wanted to attend. finally, this year, the stars aligned and the weekend worked with the rest of our busy summer agenda. it was a friday/saturday gig...but since the boys' third birthday was friday, we opted for just a one day stay.
friday, during nap, the hubby and i are packing up the car, attaching the roof box, planning meals, etc and i decide to pop inside to see what the drive to the farm looks like. see, this whole time i was under the impression that it was about an hour away...and, well, no. actually, it is two hours away. hmmmm. okay, well that is a lot of driving for one night, but we really want to see where all that yummy food is coming from and support the farm. i am trying to figure out what the weekend costs when i discover that this camp out is actually sponsored by a local record label and some of their bands will be performing. that sounds cool...the boys love music.
we elect to pack light -- no super yard, no firewood, no canopies -- since it will just be one night away. we get underway as soon as we are done with breakfast and we have packed the final items. we are on the road right on schedule and discussing what the camping situation will look like on a 30-acre farm. we decide that no matter what we have pictured in our heads, it will no doubt be completely wrong. oh, how right we were.
fast forward two hours. the boys have been troopers, but they are starting to get antsy. the weather is clear and sunny and heating up. we arrive at the farm at the peak of the heat, right around 2pm. we turn into the "parking lot" aka field and notice right away that the cars are parked there and the tents are anywhere from 50-500 yards from the cars. oh my. we didn't pack that light. also, it is about 85 degrees (the warmest day so far this year) and other than the orchard, there is very little shade in sight. our tent is only slightly smaller than our house and there is no way it would fit in between the rows of any orchard. we spot some shade, but it is about a 200 yard hike from the car...
by the time everything is shuttled from the car to the shady spot, the boys are hot and cranky, the husband is hot and cranky and i am just glad i didn't get up for the 5:30am boot camp because i have just gotten quite a work out. we get the tent set up and about this time we take a few minutes to check out our neighbors. they seem pretty hippy-ish...but that is normal for campers and farm lovers, right? we decide to wander over to the area where the farm is cooking up some of their produce for sale. it is about now that it clicks for us. we are not at a farm-open-house-family-camp-out camp out. this is about the music. and drugs. and drinking. this is a music festival that happens to be at a farm. oh, shit. the porta potties have no toilet paper. there are people passed out anywhere there is shade. there are very few children. and the music is getting louder. but it is folksy bluesy rock and actually pretty good. ok. let's assess. we have a shady spot pretty far from the "stage." the boys have their own potty. there is a campsite tear down and a two-hour drive between us and home. and they have tamales and beans and rice for sale. we are sure it will be fine. we will just avoid the orchard where the attendants are attempting to fumigate the crops with pot smoke.
we have dinner and make our way back to our tent. the boys seem to be enjoying themselves and the hubby and i pour ourselves a drink. none of the kids took a nap and are getting tired...but it is still broad daylight. we spend the next hour and a half getting the kids to sleep. this involves a major nosebleed from one of them, a couple of poopy diapers, some internal damage to the tent, a music genre change to death metal punk and the neighbors roasting a bowl of their own. charming.
finally, the bleeding stops, some folk comes on, the chilldren are all asleep. we pour another round and seek out our (most likely stoned) neighbors, who appear to be part of one of the bands. how late does the music go? innocent question. 2am. are you fucking serious? yes and the last act is loud and crazy. fan-fucking-tastic. well, what can be done? we pour another drink, take our own toilet paper to the porta potties and head off to bed. where we both lie awake until 2am. but, the kids all sleep through the night. no shit!
not much else to tell...we get up, we pack, we get the hell out of dodge. but while my husband is ferrying supplies to the car and i am cleaning up from breakfast, a woman approaches carrying a baby, a bottle and a pan. she wants to know if i can heat up her homemade raw goat's milk formula for her 8-month-old son, salamander. and that was as close to family-camp out that this camping trip was going to come. time to head back to the real world. next weekend we are camping with our local multiples group, and i am fairly confident that the experience will be the other end of the spectrum. it will be a very welcome change!
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