Recently, our family ventured to the great outdoors and picked a good spot at Rose Canyon Lake in Arizona. Below is our our adventure.
July 21:
Our trip started out with gathering up all our camping equipment from there various "hiding" spots. Then off to bed.
July 22:
After two hours of packing almost every nock and granny in our van, we were ready to go. Bubba's best friend would be joining us, unknown to him. We kept it a secret for weeks. We drove by to pick him up. He came out with his gear and Bubba asked, "Where are you going?". He replied with "camping with you". Bubba was very surprised and happy. So off we were to the mountains. About 1.5 hours later we were finally out of the desert heat. Yeah!!!! We found our camp site up on a little hill and began to setup camp. Bubba and his friend stayed in a tent by themselves while the rest of us stayed in our larger tent. We setup a shad structure over our table which was a comedy act in-and-of-itself. There were no instructions so we had to figure it out. After several unsuccessful attempts, we got it setup. For dinner, we roasted hot dogs over a fire Celeste made. After a night of joke telling around the camp fire, we turned in for the night. Sometime that night we had our first rain storm of the trip.
July 23:
After a night of rain (we were dry this time), we woke up and cooked a good breakfast of pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs. All the boys ate well. After clean up, we got our fishing gear (special thanks to my friends Eddy and Sue) and headed off to the lake. This would be the first time fishing for our boys and Bubba's friend. After getting hooks on the poles and figuring out how to cast, we dropped in our first lines. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we met a nice lady to helped us. Here are some pictures of us fishing.
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| Here I am readying the first pole. |
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| Here is G's first time fishing |
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| Here is Bubba' first time fishing |
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| Here is Bubba and his best friend fishing and contemplating the beauties of the lake. |
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| Here is bubba with his "home made" fishing pole. |
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| Time for a snack. Fishing can be tiresome. |
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| G loved to reel in the line. That is all he really wanted to do. |
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| Two bothers just sitting and talking while fishing. |
We gave it our best shot, but we came up empty handed. Better luck next time.
After fishing and lunch, the older boys and I hiked around the forest and found a large outcropping of rocks. We proceeded to climb the rocks. The view from the top was spectacular. The beauties of God are marvelous. While up on the rocks, we began to hear thunder off in the distance. I decided it was time to return to camp. As we approached the camp grounds, the sky opened up and dumped rain on us. We all gathered under my rain poncho and slow continued back to camp. Little did we know that this was an indication of things to come.
The rain did not last long and soon we were cooking dinner. Celeste tried and was finally successful at starting a fire. As we were finishing up dinner, we could again hear thunder off in the distance. Then there was a cool breeze that came through. Celeste and I knew what that meant so we quickly cleaned up camp, put away all that which we did not want to get wet. Then we saw some low level clouds come through camp and we knew it was not much longer before the rain would come. We quickly finished getting ready and no sooner did we get into our tents when it started raining. It started off as a gentle rain but soon became a down pour. After about 10 minutes, our tent began to be flooded. Celeste and I tried to dam the water from reaching the sleeping younger boys, but to no avail. Soon the tent was soaked. I ran out to check on the older boys tent and fortunately they were still dry and sleeping. On my way back to our tent, I stopped under the dinner fly and pondered what to do. I felt inspired that we should gather up the boys and return home and sleep in a warm and dry place.
I ran back to Celeste to discuss the plan with her and see agreed. So we gathered the younger boys and ran to the van. I ran back to gather Bubba and his friend in two separate trips. This whole time it was raining very heavily. We slowly drove down the mountain trying our best to avoid the rocks and sand washed by the flowing water. We finally made it home, dried up and went to bed.
I got up early the next morning and drove back up the mountain to gather all our gear. I had removed the seats and lined the van inside with a tarp.
Here is what the main tent looked like the next morning.
Here is another view.
Even though it rained and soaked everything, it was a fun trip and one that all will remember for years to come.
Stay tuned for a report from our next trip in mid September.
