Four Aspie's and a Tent

What do you do when Normal doesn't work out, when stress keeps building and you just can't take anymore? You resort to your old bag of tricks...sort of. You all know we love the river. We love the peace and tranquility of it, and often run there when things get a little hard. Well, our river was not an option this week, due to the holiday. There are just far too many people out in the public access places. It is far too much for the children and for us. What are two suspected and two diagnosed Aspie's to do? Well, we are here to tell you. That's right folks, both of us. (In case you were wondering, it was not Normal.) It all started about ten pm on Tuesday....

Hey there, it's Puck.  So I'm at work Tuesday night and Elise had been having seizure clusters the last couple of days.  I was already stressed out and with the way I was treated at work that night....well, let's just call it the last straw.  I gave up and came home early to cry about it and have a couple of beers, which I don't do more than every 3 months or so.  As I'm telling Juanita about my horrible night, and how we can't even go to our spot on the river the next day, (mind you I'm buzzed at this point) I yell, "Hey!  We should buy a tent and go camping!"

(I'm not going to announce every change over, but this is Juanita again.) I did NOT want to buy a tent. I was concerned about how much it costs for supplies and was not having it, so I suggested that Puck text my mother and ask to borrow the supplies. It is eleven at night, mind you. We start rooting around the internet, looking for the most isolated place we could find. We decided on a campground with a funny name and set the alarm for early, with the hopes that my mother would come through. She more than did.

The alarm goes off. We have had 4 hours of sleep, but that is typical. Puck grabs the phone and, lo and behold, there is a text stating we have not only a tent, but a cooler and sleeping bags too. NICE! I call my mother to ask her to bring them to work with  her so we didn't have to drive out of the way to get them. Now, knowing that the place we have chosen is an hour and a half away, I decided to call and make sure they weren't full. The nicest lady picks up and tells me that they are not, but another half hour up the road is a nicer camp ground that many people miss. I am listening to her talk a little about it, but in my head, I am thinking, "What! Less people? More isolation? Yes, please!"

So, now we have camping equipment AND a better place. We gathered what we needed from the house, which was not much. I believe it was swimming clothes, blankets, a pot, pillows, pajamas, and a few random food items we thought we could use and headed for my mother's work. We got the camping gear from her in trade for an extra case of water and headed to the grocery store. Guess what? They had a massive 4th of July sale. We got everything we needed for camping, including wood and ice, for a ridiculous price. BONUS!! Once we had the cooler packed and iced, we headed to Wally world for the two remaining things we needed, a campfire grilled cheese maker and metal hot dog cookers. We were in and out in 20 minutes AND I didn't kill anyone. Anddddddddddddddddddddddddddd we're off!

Mind you, this is a long freaking drive. Two hours in the car with both kids when it is over a hundred degrees outside is not ideal, but surprisingly, it worked out. The first half of the ride was pretty uneventful, but as always, the scenery was gorgeous. We made it through the only big town we had to drive through (and the last big one before going up the mountain) with minimal fuss, found our highway, and headed up. Then....then we started naming streets we would and would not live on. Clinton Drive, no. Mt. Zion Drive, no. Inspiration Drive, no. Then we came across "The Big Toy Store", which was very misleading because it was an ATV store. It was right across from Triple D Ranch and down the road from Climax Drive. Just a very unfortunate trifecta. A little further up the road, there was an 8 foot tall rooster in someone's yard. There were distasteful jokes made. Then there was a cow riding a tractor on a nine foot pole in someone else's yard. It was a very interesting stretch of road, but soon we left civilization and turned onto our camp road. Upon turning, we drove over a cow grate. Now, really. What the hell was a COW GRATE doing in the middle of nowhere in the MOUNTAINS? Are there crazy mountain cows? (When I say mountains, I mean straight drop offs.) The rest of the nine miles before we got to the campsite was all mad mountain cow jokes and bushy roads. This is a picture of the drive up.Notice the bushy roads.

Now, we were greeted by the camp host, who was very informative and helpful. He was even very familiar with Asperger's, as he had immediate family with it. He had a radio, in case of emergency, and let us know if we needed anything, we just had to ask. There was nobody around. I mean NOBODY! We had our pick of campsites and chose the most beautiful view, that was conveniently located right next to the bathroom. (Which was surprisingly NOT filled with bugs and clean.) We set up camp, paid the fee (which totaled us for the whole trip at around 100 and not 400 like my mother's usual trips), and made lunch. Our tent was right on the water. It was really hot and the deer flies were hungry, so we decided to go for a swim. We found a little spot, not too far from us up river, and jumped in.

It felt so good! We are minding our own business, just swimming and jumping. Puck decided to explore upstream a little bit, when I hear JJ say, "Mom, look at that weird tree." I look up and there is the camp host. Now, I know we all drill public behavior and politeness, or try to, into our kids because their filters don't work the same way, but this made me laugh. For the remainder of the trip, he WAS referred to as "the weird tree." JJ has now gotten wet and realized he is peeling. He isn't upset, but what do you think we did? We told him to just drop them as snacks for the deer flies. He wasn't really amused, but the rest of us were. SS starts playing "wolves" on the rocks, which I wasn't really comfortable with. It was getting chilly, so it was time to go and build a fire. Yes, I can build a fire. Dinner last night was hot dogs and grilled cheese, followed by s'mores. The Weird Tree only checked on us twice. (It was sort of feeling like he was a creeper, but he was nice and respected boundaries.) Here is a great one of SS and JJ roasting their dogs!

Well, it was a long trip in the heat, so by 9 pm, we were absolutely exhausted. We grabbed the lantern and the books and headed for the tent for "quiet time." Did I mention we were all in the same tent? Yeah, quiet time did NOT happen. Nobody was reading. It was a mess of jokes and insults all around. I believe it started with SS saying that JJ was getting skin on her from his back. I told him to stop leaving deer fly lunchables in his sister's bed. Then Puck called him a Chinese buffet. There was a lot of giggling going on. The "padding" we brought padded nothing. It was uncomfortable and just plain silly. Then Puck starts speculating on the Weird Tree, and whether he was gonna be peering in the tent to "check on us" when we woke up. It was clear that the four of us were not, in fact, going to go to sleep all at once. Puck and I left the tent for a bit, but when we returned, they had not calmed down AND JJ had stolen my pillow. Nice. Finally, it settled down enough for us to fall out. It wasn't a particularly comfortable sleep and we didn't get much of it, but we got some. (Gonna hand the reigns over for a stanza or so here.)

Now, mind you, I don't like tents.  I don't like outdoors.  I spent most of the night jumping at every sound and making sure there weren't any crazy killers (or crazy mountain cows) in the tent with us.  I slept fitfully and waited for the sun to come up.  I woke up and it was light out so I checked the time.  605?  Oh, hell no!  I tried to go back to bed but then I got worried that someone had stolen our clothes or a bear had gotten into the car, so I took my cold butt outside to be "dad".  This is my morning view right outside the door of the tent:

So I went up and stoked the fire back up.  It was an AWESOME fire.  Then I made everyone else get up so I could publicly gloat over my great fire.  We busted out the pan and made hot chocolate for all, and then stuck some Pop Tarts in the grilled cheese maker and had breakfast.  We then set about breaking camp.  No incidents here except the giant spider that kept re-appearing.  AND we got the tent into it's bag, a feat that Juanita's mother couldn't accomplish.  About the time we got all packed up and ready to head up to the granite falls, here comes the Weird Tree to check on us.  He told us that even though check out was 2, we could stay until someone needed the spot.  We thanked him and headed up river, stopping to take a flying leap into the swimming spot from yesterday just to be sure we were awake.  Mountain stream?  Freakin' cold at 9 am!

Yeah, they all did it. I didn't. Juanita is NOT getting in a mountain stream without getting to know it a little first! Anyway, we walked up to the granite falls and were gonna stay there, but after Puck went down it, we realized it was a bit deep at the basin for SS to use it. Here is a shot of the granite slide down the falls.

I hiked downstream a little and found a watering hole that was perfect. It had a place to swim deep, but was also shallow enough for SS. It had a view that was to die for. There were rock outcroppings to lie on. It was amazing. We played there, ate lunch there, and played some more. Here are a few shots of that area. Notice the LACK of people!

At around 2, we decided it was time to head home. We were all packed up, so really it was a matter of getting on dry clothes and going. We did just that. It was an absolutely amazing last minute mini vacation. Yes, we are all exhausted, but we are all smiling too. We needed it. We have decided that we NEED it every week, funds and weather permitting. I even told my mother not to expect her camping supplies back until she absolutely needed them. The drive was worth it, a hundred times over. As we headed back into town I was feeling down. Our exit sign came up and Puck asked JJ if he was happy or sad to be home. He said, "I'm happy 'cuz of the drive, but I'm really sad too." That about sums it up for all of us. I honestly think that if it didn't freaking snow there every year, I would give up technology and power to stay there forever. Rent is cheaper too!