Coddiwomple Adventures

This is the morning of our seventh day! (nine since departure from Texas. Daniel is making great progress on his journey. God has favored him several times, meeting his needs for places to stay in such a timely manner.)

Yesterday, we had a choice of making a very long day of ten or so hours of driving to visit relatives.... or camp another night between. Becky had friends to meet, so we decided to camp about 2/3 of the way along.

 I found a campground that was amazingly open (plenty of available spaces) and reserved us a tent and an RV spot in Sycamore Grove Red Bluff campgrounds. We got set up quickly... the cooperation is improving daily! Becky took Kimber and Ruby to meet her friend, then to buy groceries. We try to plan/ buy for several days ahead... but the kids eat like ravenous beasts... We are constantly needing to resupply. The park gates close at 10pm. We had a gate code. Two things we didn't know...The gate closing is EASTERN Time. And.. the gates closed means the gates are CLOSED. The code does NOT open the gates after hours. There is no entrance during closed hours. Becky, Ruby,and Kimber were locked outside of the gates. The campgrounds are a mile or so inside of the gates. There was no Camp Host to implore. The girls walked the mile+ to camp, leaving the van and groceries locked in the parking lot outside of the park. (It was a midnight fog walk, without the fog!) They arrived back at camp safely.

  Meanwhile... I had kids at camp! I sent Tyrel to shower while the beans for supper cooked in the instant pot. It was a pay shower. I was back to scrounging for quarters. Ty was once again sent to shower. Two of the bigger girls had showered that morning. I took the four youngest cousins to the showers, with four quarters. I put Jasher in a stall, showed him how to operate the shower. Took the three girls into a second stall and did the quickest three showers you can imagine. Get one wet, move aside and while the second got wet, shampooed the first. Third got wet while second shampooed, then first rinsed off. Quick, quick, quick. Three clean girls and one boy... fifty cents. We even had water time left. 

Just as dark fell, the campers I. the tent across from us arrived back. They were seriously sketchy. Looks can often be deceiving... but in this case we're spot on. The male had numerous loud, angry phone calls. I took the kids inside the trailer and let them watch videos on their devices, lest they learn many new "vocabulary words". I sat outside the door reading and stargazing. Eventually, one of the younger kids came out and asked if they could PLEASE go to bed. (At that point, we didn't know about the gate situation.) I got the younger half of the tribe tucked into the tent. I moved my chair closer to the tent, but where I could still see the door of the camper. They were not far apart, mere yards. The angry couple in the tent across from us continued loud, vulgar phone calls. Ironically, when another group of campers arrived across the campground and used their headlights to set up their camp, the Sketchies complained loudly about the lights, and how some people have no respect for others! We locked the trailer with those sleeping inside.  The tent campers were farther from the neighbors.... and "not defenseless."

I was the first one up this morning, so hiked the mile to the van and brought it back to  camp. I didn't  feel the slightest urge to shush children as we packed up camp this morning.  Grumbling was heard the Sketchies camp.  Hmmm.  Maybe "respect " ought to be a two way street?

 The drive had been through beautiful mountains.. but smoke from wildfire made it a bit of an apprehensive time. When we did break free from the smoke, WOW! Such mountains! One of the kids had commented the day before that California mountains were not Real mountains... like the Rocky mountains in Colorado, where they had gone on Trek last week. His opinion was based on the "lack of peaks" he was observing in the very northern areas of California. I had said, just wait.

Travel lunch was beans, cheese, and tortilla chips in an empty lot that was where our GPS had indicated a park. I THOUGHT I had made enough  beans to have some for lunch and leave enough for  supper.  I tremendously underestimated the love of beans in the tribe. Two kids were left crying when  there were no more beans at lunch. I took time to get a  second pot started soaking before  we got back on the road. Supper  was beans and franks. Today may prove... fragrant.

I hope you enjoying our trip!