Awesome Camping Trip: Cartney 3, Raccoons 0

The camping trip at the Shenandoah River was great, despite the problems we encountered with the cabin, the chronic misty rain, and the fact that our kid summoned some kind of inner-redbull and fought sleep on both nights. And as always, the food cooked over the campfire was the highlight of the trip.

The cabin was pretty nice, but its amenities were horrible. The mattress we had was basically, a garbage bag of coilsprings. The in-ground charcoal grill collapsed due to rust and disrepair. The air conditioning didn’t work and the well water tasted funny. And worst of all was the stench of a backed-up septic system that bubbled up from the toilet, filling the cabin alternately with the aromas of ammonia and sulfur.

And sure, we are new parents, and perhaps a bit too optimistic about a toddler’s behavioral patterns, but we were convinced that Cartney would stick to his sleeping schedule. His bedtime is typically around 8:30 at night and he mostly sleeps through the night, waking once for a diaper change. We thought that if he ran around all day smacking raccoons with sticks, he would be very tired and have no problem sleeping in the portable “Lightning McQueen” cot. Boy did that idea ever FAIL. He did all the running around alright, but he refused to sleep, climbing out of his cot to play peekaboo with us until 11 PM. Bleary-eyed, we followed him to sleep 10 minutes later.

But all of the problems were easily eclipsed by the great time we had with family and friends, drinking beers around a campfire and eating yummy beef stew and fire-baked 9-grain bread. Thanks to Alton Brown’s Going Dutch episode for the pointers on curing my dutch oven and recipe ideas.