Camping

We went camping on Monday night to Fenton Lake State park. It was a success - mostly. On Sunday we ran around picking up the last few things we needed, and one of those things was an air mattress. Now, I was totally against the mattress, because all I could think of was that the battery-operated pump that came with it wouldn't work. But we got it anyway.

We headed out Monday morning (or noon) and spent an amazing 2 hours getting there. As soon as we got out of Albuquerque the scenery became canyon-y - all red rock and yellow sand. We followed the Jemez river most of the way, so there were trees and lots of greenery as well. It was beautiful. Then we hit the mountains. The rock formations became way more impressive, the trees (desert willows?) became pines and the river (more of a creek, really) turned into a rocky stream.

The lake itself was small. Man-made from a dam, and pretty green looking. There was no swimming allowed, and I don't know if I would have gone swimming anyway. Our site was a bit away from the lake, which was a good thing - less mosquitoes. So we got our tent set up with much excitement. It was dampened a little by me stubbing my toe on a big of branch (it's still sore - there's a cut). It's a huge tent - 4 man, and we had piles of room. It doesn't seem like the kind of tent you want to bring to somewhere that will have driving wind and rain 'cause most of the inner section is mesh, and the rain sheet only covers half way to the ground.

Then it came to setting up our bed. We pulled out the mattress and got it all set up. Put in the pump and nothing. We fiddled with the batteries, poked and prodded at the pump, and it still wasn't working. So we went to the nearby (like 15 miles away or something) shop and bought new batteries, and still it didn't work. We ended up sleeping on a deflated mattress covered with a picnic blanket, towels and one of the blankets we'd brought to keep warm. And it was comfortable enough.

We cooked dinner on our little gas barbecue (burgers and chips). It was nice, but the mosquitoes spoiled it a little. I had spray on, but they still flitted around and were very annoying. I did get a few bites, but they were from a walk around earlier.

Defeated by their sheer annoyance, we retreated into the tent and played a game of Dominion (a card resource game) by the light of our cool little torch (it was a little hard to read the text at times) and then fell asleep. It was freezing. It was so cold, I could feel each breath in my nose making it a little colder. I slept with a string top, t-shirt and fleece hoodie on. I was still cold, though, and pulled our last blanket over my sleeping bag. That helped a little, but each time I moved around, I had to warm a new patch of sleeping bag.

But we survived the night, and went for a short walk the next day, packed up and came home again. And now we want to go again. We're thinking the 4th of July, because it's a holiday, but I imagine everywhere will be busy. But if we can get somewhere we'll go.