TENT CAMPING - LAKE PERRIS

 

I swore I would never do it again.  I mean, you know, been there, done that. Why oh why would I ever subject myself to being cold and uncomfy for an entire weekend???   I really enjoy creature comforts like central heating, fireplaces, and a warm cozy bed.  

Nevertheless, I found myself buying a tent and driving to a campsite where my friends trailered our horses for a fun filled weekend of horseback riding.  I arrived after everyone else and my poor horse was standing in a corral by himself, looking lonely, so I quickly saddled up and met my friends on the trail.   

We enjoyed a beautiful afternoon of sunshine and countryside, then returned to set up camp.   

My “Insta-tent”  was, of course, not so instant.  I’m not very mechanically inclined so the “instant” took more like an “hour” before I figured it out and had it standing and ready for action.  I had bought an inflatable mattress which, to my dismay, needed an electrical outlet to inflate.  What?  How did that happen?  Luckily, our friends, Mary and Bill, campers extraordinaire, had a beautiful horse trailer/camper equipped with all the necessities, including a portable outlet.  Mattress inflated, I piled two sleeping bags, a down comforter, and numerous blankets and pillows on top of it.  Surely this would keep me warm?  

We threw logs into a stone pit to get a warm fire going, listened to music, and feasted on steaks expertly grilled by Chef Bill.  Everyone contributed food – salad, baked potatoes, and wine, lots of wine.  We certainly never went hungry or thirsty the whole weekend.  

The thing about camping is that there isn’t a whole lot to do once it gets dark and COLD.  By 9:30 everyone was in bed.  Shivering under my mound of covers, I realized I was never going to be warm. And of course, in the middle of the night, I woke with the realization that I was going to have to extract myself from sleeping bags and comforters, put on a coat and walk outside in the freezing cold to use the primitive facilities.  

Our good friends provided us with coffee and a hot breakfast the next morning, then we all went for a ride.  We rode around the whole lake, 10 miles, which only took about 4 hours, thanks to our gaited wonder horses.   

Photo by Peggy Jones

It was a nice warm day with a lot of interesting sights.  We saw a rock with ancient petro glyphs, 

and a bunch of crazy people scaling a sheer rock wall with ropes.   

Why?  
 My palms were sweating just thinking of dangling in the air, staring in terror at the ground 100 feet below . 

Lake Perris Dam

 

Our last night was filled with more great food, a beautiful sunset, and lively conversation around a roaring bonfire. 

  

I piled on more clothes, determined to stay warm.  Strange creature noises were rustling outside my tent.  Something was scratching and snooping around and I was keenly aware that I was only separated by this unknown marauder by a paper thin sheet of nylon.  I slapped at the side of the tent, hoping to scare it away. 

Sometime during the early morning hours, I woke to the sound of rain tapping on my tent.  Great.  I thought of my saddle, exposed in the back of my truck, but I was too cold to move.  Peeking outside, I saw a thick layer of fog and moisture hovering over us and it remained drizzly, cold and foggy the entire morning.  We hunkered gratefully inside Mary and Bill’s warm camper, drinking coffee and telling horse stories until noon.  

After that, the sun came out and warmed us up enough for one last trail ride.  We found a spot in the hills for a champagne picnic and sat on a warm rock in the sun, gazing at the gorgeous view and watching our horses munch blissfully on the sweet grass.

We broke down our camp and got ready for the trip home.  My Insta-tent was not Insta-folding which frustrated me greatly.  Guess you have to be smarter than the tent.  I threw my half folded home-away-from-home in the back of my truck with disgust, trying not to let it spoil my mood.  After all, we had great rides, fun with our friends, and I SURVIVED A WEEKEND OF TENT CAMPING!  Yay me!

Perhaps I needed this weekend to be more thankful for things like indoor plumbing and a heated house with walls thicker than strips of nylon.

I patted myself mentally on the back as I walked in my front door, locking it behind me.  I put my purse with the house keys on the counter and went outside to start unloading.  As the garage door slammed shut behind me, a sickening feeling waved over me and I froze in my tracks, paralyzed by the realization that I had just completely locked myself out of my house.  Yay me.

LIFE'S A GAS

This is how my gas gauge has looked for over a year now.  It is broken, and always tells me I’m on empty, even though I just filled the tank. It’s an expensive repair so I just make sure I fill the tank once a week.  I have poured so much money into this car in the last couple years.  Seems like almost every part has been replaced.

So I’m driving up the freeway late on a Saturday night and suddenly notice my car is slowing down.  I instinctively pull over to the side and am lucky to find a relatively safe spot on the side of the freeway before my car steering and brakes give out on me.  Great, now what?  The battery light is showing and I just had that replaced so what could it be?  I’m a little nervous – it’s late, it’s dark, it’s cold and cars are whipping past me, causing my car to shudder.  I’m hoping nobody is going to smash into me and I lock my doors to protect myself from random axe murderers.  I have to wait an hour for the tow truck to arrive and am glad I have an extra coat to snuggle in because the temperature is dropping rapidly. Yes, I know I'm not in Montana or some other snowy place, but it still gets cold at night here in December, people! I could have died!  OK, maybe not. 
I start getting bored and wonder who I can call and annoy.  I text my son who is at his dad's but he doesn't reply.  Well of course not.  After all, he's 17, it's Saturday night, so obviously he is either fast asleep or reading the Bible.
Now I’m getting sleepy and try to keep one eye open to watch the headlights speeding by in my rear view mirror. Have to keep an eye out for those drunken drivers headed my way.  And the axe murderers. Have to stay awake so I'm not caught snoring and drooling.

Finally the tow truck arrives.  It is a welcome sight.  The driver has me leave my keys in the car and get into his cab.  I feel like I am scaling a mountain.  It is a steep climb into his truck and I grasp at handles and haul myself up as best I can, while tugging on my sweater, which keeps riding up.  The guy is watching me from below and I’m glad I’m not wearing a dress!  I watch out the back window as he loads my huge Suburban onto his truck.  Have you ever seen someone load a vehicle onto a tow truck?  It’s pretty amazing, especially for a big bulging beastly car like mine.  I was mesmerized.   

photo from internet. I was not smart enough to take my own.  Looks more dramatic at night.

When we start driving, he says he can’t figure out what’s wrong with my car.  I describe what happened when it shut down and he thought it might be the alternator or some belt defect but everything looked fine.  I begin to fear I have done something really stupid.  I cough nervously and say, “Um, do you think it might be out of gas?”  He looks surprised and says he hadn’t thought of that but yes that could be the problem.  We drive to the nearest gas station and I descend the mountain I mean truck to swipe my debit card on the gas pump.  You know how different gas stations have different pumps?  I swipe my card and then stand there perplexed because I can’t find the keypad to enter my zip code.  My new tow truck driver friend politely points it out to me.  This guy must think I’m an idiot.  In my defense, though, it was hiding way over to the right, instead of on the screen where it’s SUPPOSED TO BE.  Now I have to get on my tippy toes to reach my car’s gas tank because it is sitting on top of the tow truck, 50 feet up in the air.  As I raise my arm to reach up with the gas hose, my snug holiday sweater creeps up, exposing my tummy and my festive jingle bell belly button ring.  Don’t judge me.  I tug at my sweater and look around nervously to see if anyone saw my flesh display.  Yes.  Oh well.  I’m getting cranky now because I’m tired and it’s really cold and if I’ve run my car out of gas I’m going to feel like a total moran.  (Well, what’s new?) Mr. AAA climbs up onto the truck and into my car and turns the key and waala – my car is running again.  Part of me is glad I’m not looking at another expensive repair, the other part of me wants to crawl in a hole and die, or at least hide for a while.  

internet photo again

I watch the mechanical complexity of unchaining and unloading my car, thank the driver nervously, and hightail it out of there.  I can’t just go to a December holiday party and drive home like a normal person, can I?  No, I have to have a totally blond moment and embarrass myself.  Guess I’m just special that way.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

Big Bear Fun Revisited

My daughter and I saw this truck driving in front of us on the way to Big Bear.  Can you see what’s hanging from the trailer hitch?  A sign on the back windshield said BALZ in case you were confused.  Maybe we’re just easily amused, but we guffawed over this for at least an hour.

It’s been our long standing tradition to spend a few days in Big Bear right before Thanksgiving. The crisp, cool mountain air gets us in the holiday mood.  We have been doing this ever since the kids were little.  Somewhere along the way, my ex dropped out when he lost his mind and decided he didn’t want to be with me any more.  (so rude)  I know what you’re thinking – how could anyone not want to be with someone as beautiful, fun, and talented as me.  That IS what you were thinking, right?  OK, just checking. 

Any-who, I have kept the tradition going lo these many years and am happy that my kids still enjoy it.  So, my son, Kyle, his friend, Troy, my daughter, Krista, plus three dogs and three birds, all trekked up there last week.  Alas, the cabin we usually rent which we have become quite fond of and attached to (despite the head bump incident and the fireplace blowing up – see previous blogs) was already booked, so I was forced to scrounge desperately through the internet for a replacement.  We have been disappointed with other places we've stayed in the past, but this time I scored a great find.  In fact, this may become our new favorite  cabin.  It had everything the previous cabin had – but wait – there’s more – it also had a GAME ROOM with pool table, fussball, and air hockey.  There was a nice deck off the living room and master bedroom with a sweeping view and a barbecue.  Hey, that rhymed.  There were two bedrooms downstairs, and another room with a POKER TABLE and a WET BAR!  You could even walk to Snow Summit, which was just up the street.  What more could you possibly want??  Well, the kids wanted it to snow.  Can’t please everybody.  

There was a ghost on the cabin roof.  I heard him every night around 2 AM.   It sounded like heavy footsteps marching back and forth above my head.  I wasn't scared, just wished he would be a little quieter because he was keeping me awake.  Apparently he decided to possess my dog one evening - you will see proof in the picture at the end of this blog - Skeptic.
 

My favorite Big Bear activities are taking long walks in the afore mentioned cool, mountain air, shopping in town and chilling by the fireplace with a nice bottle I mean glass of wine.  Heck, I even enjoy shopping in the local Vons for firewood and food items, just because it’s different than home.  It’s a small town so all the shop people are friendly and easy to strike up a conversation with.  I have been visiting Lorraine at Charleze’s Unique Boutique for years.  She always spends time with me, filling me in on the latest goings on in town.

Kyle, Troy, Krista

  

Krista and Pepper, Big Bear Lake

Snow Summit

As per our tradition, I cooked a turkey for an early Thanksgiving dinner in our cozy cabin.  The oven didn't catch on fire, the fireplace didn't blow up and we didn't put the turkey in too early.  Yay!  Krista and Pepper and I went for a long walk afterwards and were excited to see Snow Summit all lit up for night skiing.  The stars were especially bright in this altitude, hanging like diamonds above our heads.  Walking back down the street, we discovered we could see our breath from the flashlight on our iphones.  It looked like we were smoking.  We could also make giant shadow puppets on the trees and houses we passed by.  We hoped nobody was watching us because it looked like we were smoking and acting like retards.  Don’t say it.

 Big Bear is extremely dog friendly.  When my big dogs were puppies, people oohed and aahed over them as we were walking through town and they were allowed in all the shops and even some outdoor restaurants.  This year my daughter brought her puppy, Pepper, an adorable Siberian Husky, and we couldn’t walk more than two feet without being accosted by someone wanting to pet her.  Hmm, maybe we should have charged people to get their puppy fixes...

My sister and her family joined us for an evening.  We girls snuck away into town for shopping and lunch.  We sat on the outside patio at Trolls which conveniently provided a dog dish filled with water.  Pepper even got to romp with another dog who was conveniently helping its owners eat their lunch.  Then Pepper passed out, exhausted, under the table.

AWWWWWW

"It's good, it's good"

Krista & Calli

It wasn't even Thanksgiving yet but the tree in the center of town was already decorated and Christmas music played in all the shops.

 In the evening, the kids hung out in the game room and my sister and her husband played poker with their Basset Hound, Sadie.  Who knew Sadie was such a card shark?

I think my lab, Chester, was a little jealous of all the money Sadie raked in playing cards.  He watched her from the stairs above, giving her evil Carrie eyes.

Sometimes he pretended he wasn't looking...

But then something weird happened and he was either really angry or possessed by the cabin ghost.  Prepared to be frightened - I'm not kidding....Wait for it.....

Is it Chester or the Cabin Ghost??

I tried to warn you!