Ah, the great outdoors, my favorite place to be.
I decided that one of the things I wanted to do most this year was go camping.
Chris had a routine doctors appointment set on the 7th of August, in Eugene. We decided that after his appointment we would head east on highway 126 towards Bend to find a good camping spot. However, we didn't expect Chris's doctor visit to last for over 2 hours.
Since the Doctor appointment took most of our daylight, we hurried with our shopping trip, choosing only that nights worth of groceries and supplies.
I was getting pretty nervous because I knew we only had about 2 maybe 3 good hours of daylight left to find a prime camping spot.
We knew that there were tons of camping sites that you had to pay a fee to camp out that way, but we had high hopes that we would find a free site, since we didn't have any money.
We searched and searched finding sites that were just to rocky and that would not be enjoyable to camp in. We took the Blue River Reservoir Rd hoping we would find something soon. If we had to pay for a site it would have to be cheap, so we crossed our fingers.
When we found the perfect camping spot we were so excited. It was everything we had hoped for. A huge site nestled in the woods with a trail that led down to the river. It was so beautiful and quiet; it was absolutely perfect. We walked around scoping out our site and looking for a sign
or something that would tell us how much it would cost us. We thought about $5, maybe $10 at the most.
Well, along comes Mr. ranger, and he approaches us like we are two delinquents trying to steal a free night of camping.
We approached him with big smiles, happy that we'd found such a cool place, and asked him how much it was and where we could pay.
He sternly replied, "You realize this is a double lot don't you?"
We shook our heads. Of course we didn't, it looked regular to me.
He proceeded to scowl and tell us that we would have to pay him $25 if we were planning on staying here.
We nodded and smiled at him and then exchanged looks of defeat with each other. We were crushed. This was not our spot.
As we packed up to move, we asked him how much it would be to camp in a smaller lot and where we would find them. He pointed up the road and told us we'd have to pay $14 a night, and we’d have to pay by morning if we were planning to stay past noon the next day.
We eagerlessly ventured toward the more affordable lots. Every lot available was extremely small and sandwiched between huge parties of people. The best lot had a big pile of dog poo at the entrance to greet us. This was not our idea of a camping trip.
A knot began building up in my throat as I felt the camping trip begin to fall apart; we were both getting very tired and feeling pretty defeated. Neither of us liked the idea of paying $14 to sleep in the wild, in the middle of a large and very loud party. Shouldn't camping be free? We are sleeping on the ground under the stars after all.
We dug in our car for every trace of change that we could, we found just enough to stay. As we sat tired and frustrated filling out the form to stay, I let Chris know that I REALLY did want to camp, but this wasn’t exactly what I had had in mind. For $14 we had better be happy with the location and this was just not the right place.
We agreed that we were done searching for a
site, it had gotten way to dark, and the options were to either stay here or go home. The knot in my throat grew bigger, because I knew if we stayed we would not have a good time. We voted the camping trip over and we would just have to try again on a different day, with an early start. We once again packed up the car and began to leave the reservoir.
On the way out, we stopped to view the river and watch the moon rise. It was absolutely beautiful. Even though we weren't able to camp that night, at least we were able to explore a little bit of the beautiful Blue River Reservoir.
That was attempt number one, and by golly we tried again, but that is another story.
I decided that one of the things I wanted to do most this year was go camping.Chris had a routine doctors appointment set on the 7th of August, in Eugene. We decided that after his appointment we would head east on highway 126 towards Bend to find a good camping spot. However, we didn't expect Chris's doctor visit to last for over 2 hours.
Since the Doctor appointment took most of our daylight, we hurried with our shopping trip, choosing only that nights worth of groceries and supplies.
I was getting pretty nervous because I knew we only had about 2 maybe 3 good hours of daylight left to find a prime camping spot.
We knew that there were tons of camping sites that you had to pay a fee to camp out that way, but we had high hopes that we would find a free site, since we didn't have any money.
We searched and searched finding sites that were just to rocky and that would not be enjoyable to camp in. We took the Blue River Reservoir Rd hoping we would find something soon. If we had to pay for a site it would have to be cheap, so we crossed our fingers.
When we found the perfect camping spot we were so excited. It was everything we had hoped for. A huge site nestled in the woods with a trail that led down to the river. It was so beautiful and quiet; it was absolutely perfect. We walked around scoping out our site and looking for a sign
or something that would tell us how much it would cost us. We thought about $5, maybe $10 at the most.Well, along comes Mr. ranger, and he approaches us like we are two delinquents trying to steal a free night of camping.
We approached him with big smiles, happy that we'd found such a cool place, and asked him how much it was and where we could pay.
He sternly replied, "You realize this is a double lot don't you?"
We shook our heads. Of course we didn't, it looked regular to me.
He proceeded to scowl and tell us that we would have to pay him $25 if we were planning on staying here.
We nodded and smiled at him and then exchanged looks of defeat with each other. We were crushed. This was not our spot.
As we packed up to move, we asked him how much it would be to camp in a smaller lot and where we would find them. He pointed up the road and told us we'd have to pay $14 a night, and we’d have to pay by morning if we were planning to stay past noon the next day.
We eagerlessly ventured toward the more affordable lots. Every lot available was extremely small and sandwiched between huge parties of people. The best lot had a big pile of dog poo at the entrance to greet us. This was not our idea of a camping trip.
A knot began building up in my throat as I felt the camping trip begin to fall apart; we were both getting very tired and feeling pretty defeated. Neither of us liked the idea of paying $14 to sleep in the wild, in the middle of a large and very loud party. Shouldn't camping be free? We are sleeping on the ground under the stars after all.
We dug in our car for every trace of change that we could, we found just enough to stay. As we sat tired and frustrated filling out the form to stay, I let Chris know that I REALLY did want to camp, but this wasn’t exactly what I had had in mind. For $14 we had better be happy with the location and this was just not the right place.
We agreed that we were done searching for a
site, it had gotten way to dark, and the options were to either stay here or go home. The knot in my throat grew bigger, because I knew if we stayed we would not have a good time. We voted the camping trip over and we would just have to try again on a different day, with an early start. We once again packed up the car and began to leave the reservoir.On the way out, we stopped to view the river and watch the moon rise. It was absolutely beautiful. Even though we weren't able to camp that night, at least we were able to explore a little bit of the beautiful Blue River Reservoir.
That was attempt number one, and by golly we tried again, but that is another story.
2 comments:
That totally sucks. I agree camping should be free... especially if you have to camp that close to someone else! but it's worth it to pay the fee if the spot is perfect eh? Excited to hear about part two :o) Oh and I love the new look of your blog! Very cute!!
Thanks Ju, I'm still playing around with it. The HTML is a little different than myspace so I'm learning. I love learning HTML stuff, makes me feel all smart!
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