A few weekends ago the boys, Nicole and I headed out on a camping trip, taking advantage of a long weekend. This was to be the first trip using the new Honda Odyssey as tow vehicle. It performed great. However the trip wasn’t without issue.

The 1993 Coleman has been in need of some upgrades and putting them off really caught up with us on this trip. The hot water heater wouldn’t hold water, and in turn left us with out enough water pressure to run anything. So we ended up using the camping showers and bottled water to drink and cook with. Not really THAT big of a deal. After inspection it turns out I forgot to drain the hot water heater before putting it away for the winter and the tank burst, lesson learned.

We also had both dogs this trip. We usually end up leaving at least one with family. Nicole was not looking forward to this. I had the idea to take Belle’s kennel with us for the ride down, and it turned out to be a great place to put them when things became too much. Looking back on it now, even Nicole agrees that taking both dogs really wasn’t that bad.

Most of our time was spent lounging by the fire, reading and taking in the clean air. We also had quite a few napping moments if I remember correctly.

We needed a good long nap after our neighbors took the boys and I on a 2.3 mile hike. This was the first time the boys had been out for this long of a walk. They handled it ok. Dad only had a few offers of “carry me” and “can I ride on your shoulders”. All in the entire afternoon hike was great for ALL of us. The boys learned quite a bit from the nature signed posted ever so often. Dad even picked up a thing or two.