Hadn’t slept that great Thursday night, which concerned me since I had a lot to do to get ready to go camping Friday night with Casey and whatever other Cub Scouts were going from his pack. Managed to get up on time, and got Casey and I ready for me to take him to school, as is our new Friday tradition since he rides the bus the other days. We got to the school later than I’d expected, so I ended up staying with him while he ate his breakfast too. He ended up just having cereal, but it was nice to see that he was eating the food at school. He really likes their plain vanilla yogurt too, when at home usually it’s something that tastes fruity or like candy.
Came back home and got my latte, then did my usual morning routine. Got on SL to park, got on Wiz to garden, got on DDO for the dice roll, and finally on to Aura Kingdom. Ended up doing some miscellaneous stuff on there for a while, was able to buy some of the stuff I needed for alchemy for a much more reasonable price than I expected considering they were a rare drop that I’d spent hours trying to come up with to no avail. I actually offered a ridiculous price, and the person sold them to me for like 1/8 of what I offered. Then I spent what ruby coins I did have trying to get some stuff off the paragon table. That thing is evil.
Amongst doing all that, I also pecked away at laundry and getting things ready for our over-night adventure. I think the bulk of the time was actually spent on laundry, the packing itself took next to no time.
Got Casey off the bus and had him try and go potty before we had to leave, figuring he might be a while. We ended up out the door later than expected, because I kept remembering last minute things. I suppose that’s why they’re last minute things.
We headed out about 4:15 and stopped at the McDonald’s in Onalaska for dinner. Casey was so knocked out, it took great effort to wake him to go in and eat. We didn’t have a lot of time, and Casey didn’t eat much of anything. I kept trying to coax him to eat, but he was just too tired. Still, though, he wanted to play, and I had to tell him there just wasn’t enough time. We still had to stop at Walgreens for sunscreen and powerade before we drove the last 20 minutes to the campground.
I wasn’t sure if food was going to be served at this thing, and hadn’t packed any, so I really hoped that meals the next day would be covered. If not, I’d just have to drive back to town for it.
We got to the campground about 6:15 and got checked in and met up with our pack. There ended up being just 6 other people from our pack there. Considering the size of our pack, I was disappointed, but also somewhat relieved. So, I guess it was bittersweet. We found out last minute that we were indeed provided a cabin to sleep in, so we loaded up one guy’s truck with our stuff and met him there to unload. The beds reminded me of what you might find in an early 20th century insane asylum. They were very dated, and dingy. But, it’s probably better to sleep on those than to try and pitch our tent we’d brought. I just opened my sleeping bag up all the way, and the extra blanket I’d brought would come in handy to cover me up. Casey could cover up with his sleeping bag. So, it worked.
After we were settled in, we tried heading down to where they were going to have the campfire and smores we’d heard about. We didn’t find a single person along the way, nor could we hear anyone. There were over 100 people there, from other packs in the district, and we couldn’t hear anybody. We ended up finding all of them in the dining hall watching a movie. The Pack leader, Scott, mentioned that he wasn’t too pleased about all the kids (and their parents) watching a movie, because it should be a time to get away from screens. I couldn’t agree more, and had zero interest in watching the movie. Fortunately, it was almost done, and then we all did head on down to the “fire bowl” for the campfire and smores. A few tunes were sung while the fire heated up, and then we got to roasting mallows. I’m not even sure if the adults could partake in that, but I didn’t even try. We were already there at no additional cost, when it should have been a $10 fee, because we were new to Cub Scouting.
After smores, we walked back to the cabin to settle in for the night. Before laying down, I checked my fitness tracker out of curiosity, and saw we’d walked over 4 miles just that night. I was shocked and pleased, because my knee wasn’t hurting! I’d worn the brace, of course.
I didn’t sleep much at all, because I kept hearing other people snoring or coughing. I just tossed and turned all night. We had to be up bright and early, too, to start Saturday’s festivities.
First, we met at the flag pole at noon and they raised the flag to start the day. Then we headed in for breakfast, which was a pancake with sausages and mandarin oranges. Casey only ate about half his pancake, and I ate his sausages and oranges. I was concerned about his lack of appetite, considering how much we probably had in store for us for the day, and not knowing how long we’d be there.
After breakfast, the packs split up to various stations, and we’d take turns going to each one. We had 20 minutes to go to and complete the rock climbing, and I don’t think we made it in time. So, we were going to go ahead and skip a whittling event, since most of kids were either too young to participate or already had. We were still pretty far behind schedule, even by skipping that. Casey spent the entire time at the rock climbing wall telling me he wanted to go home, he was very homesick and didn’t want to stay any longer. I told him about when I was in girl scouts and there was a camping event and I wanted to go home because I was home sick, but my mom wasn’t there with me and at least I was there with him. I’d also found out around that time we were only there until noon, so I encouraged him to stay and have fun. I think he was just exhausted from all the walking, really.
After the rock climbing wall, we walked to the shooting range. We had to wait a bit for our turn, and Casey kept going on about wanting to just go home. Finally it was our turn, and we went in. They were taught about gun safety, and then how to load and fire a BB rifle. I took pictures, but only because there were other adults helping to keep an eye on the kids. And, I didn’t take many, because I wanted to be sure I was helping Casey with it as much as I could.
After shooting the BB gun, Casey said he felt very anxious and still very homesick and really wanted to go home. It had occurred to me by that point that we wouldn’t be able to get our stuff back to my car anyway, so I explained that to him.
Once we left the range, we headed back down to a game where the kids would just try and nail a huge nail into a log. Casey was hanging by me at first, but then went over to investigate. Next thing I know, he has a safety helmet on and a hammer in hand. He went to town for a bit on that nail, but wasn’t having much luck. He handed me the hammer, and I gave it a shot. It was really hard! I gave up after a few hits, too lol.
After that, we headed back to the dining hall for our final activity. It was a simple craft, they made picture frames out of popsicle sticks. Casey enjoyed that, except that he wanted to do it a certain way and was getting frustrated by the hot glue gun not working for him.
After the craft, we headed back to the cabin to pack up our stuff and load it back into Ben’s truck. Then we headed back to the flag pole for the lowering of the flag at noon. Once the flag was loaded, we walked back to where our cars were parked and got our stuff put in our cars and headed home.
We stopped at the McDonald’s in Onalaska again, because we were both hungry. Casey ate more than he had yesterday, but not by much. He then played in the play area for a few minutes, and then we headed back out to the car to go home.
Got home and started a bath for Casey. I went out to check the plants, and when I came back in he wasn’t still in my recliner where he was when I’d gone out. The bathroom door was closed, and I needed to check the bath water anyway, so I peeked in. He was trying to go potty again. A short while later, he had, so I got him cleaned up and into the tub. He soaked for a while, but then said he had to go potty again, so we got him dried off a bit and back onto the toilet. He sat there for a while and went again. I guess camping is relaxing lol. Got him back in the bath to wash him up, and then got him settled in his bed with his shows playing on his computer while he dried off.
I went ahead and jumped in the shower to wash all the filth off myself as well. Probably the most refreshing shower I’ve had in a while!
After my shower, Casey said he was hungry, so I got him some fresh comfy clothes to wear, got my own PJs on, and made him some mac & cheese.
While he was eating that, I got my computer turned on and loaded all my usual stuff up. Got back on SL and parked, then got on DDO to do the dice roll, and then got on Aura Kingdom to do the Temple of the Eidolons. Then I just kinda stood around on that, while going through emails and Facebook.
Casey finished his mac and cheese and said he was still hungry and wanted some oatmeal, so I made that for him. He hadn’t eaten much, so I was glad to see he had an appetite again.
He’d finished most, but not all, of his oatmeal, and was asking for some cheetos. He said he couldn’t finish his oatmeal. I don’t want to give him more food if he can’t finish what’s in front of him. I tried explaining that to him, and of course he got upset. I told him sorry, but that I wasn’t giving him more food if he couldn’t finish what was in front of him.
He stayed in the kitchen watching TV, so I went back to the computer. Went ahead and got caught up on my free book and paid emails while chatting a bit with Autumn. I’d noticed she was in the next map we’d unlocked after that difficult dungeon, so asked her about it. I also mentioned that I’d meant to ask if she wanted to quest together. She had been questing, but not much, so I got caught up to her.
Then I was hungry myself, so I heated up some food. When I mentioned that, she said she just sat down with some herself. So we were both just kinda standing by the quest giver. I finished eating, and then kept having to get up for one thing or another, like closing all the windows I’d had open since we’d gotten home. I’m beginning to think it was silly to try and quest together, there’s no guarantee we’ll ever get anywhere if we are constantly having to wait on one another.
Then Dave got home. When he first walked in the door, Casey told him we were out of mac & cheese now and that the bread had been icky, and asked Dave if he’d gotten it. He said in an annoyed tone that no, he hadn’t because he didn’t know we were out of those things. I said that I’d told Casey earlier that we’d just see about it the next day. Dave semi-snapped about it having to be us that went to get it, because he had a lot of homework to catch up on.
Then he made a comment about the fish tank, which I already felt guilty about because it was overdue to be cleaned.
I went back to my computer after a couple minutes, and told Autumn that he was home so she knew what was going on.
I was on pins and needles wondering if Dave was going to ask about our camping trip and tell me about his trip to Michigan, because that’s what normally happens when he gets home from a trip. He wandered around doing this and that but never stopped in to talk to me, so idk.
Now he’s in the shower, and I need to start getting Casey ready for bed soon. It’s almost 8 and I’m sure he’s as exhausted as I am. I think I’ll mention to Autumn about it possibly being silly to try and quest together. I don’t want either of us to feel held back by waiting for the other. It would be nice to quest together though. I haven’t had a questing buddy for anything since way back when Colin and I played Wiz together. Now he refuses to play it at all.
And later on…
Got Casey to bed about 9 and picked up questing on Aura Kingdom. Would just figure, I get to a dungeon I can’t complete because the bosses are too high a level. I’m only 90 and the first boss is 93. So, go back when I’m lvl 95 and have lvl 95 gear I guess.
It’s about 10 and I’m getting a bit tired. Been a long couple days. Just going to wrap up some things on Aura that would likely put me to sleep anyway, and get to bed at a semi-reasonable time.
Comments