Hi friends. We did it. Last weekend we took out the camper for the first maiden trip.
I didn’t go into the trip expecting the perfect outdoor adventure. Camping in July in Georgia? Who in their right mind would? We’ve never. Not until now. Apparently, there are a lot of folks who camp in July in this heat. Those who RV and pull a 5th wheel. And then there’s the few, like us, who have pop up campers. We joined the world of pop up campers y’all.
Taking out the PUP was a mix of nerves and excitement. We were excited to be going on a family adventure to the outdoors but we were nervous about how the kiddos would do. So a couple days before the trip we popped up the camper to do a final inspection and all was clear. On the day of camping, we arrived, checked out our space and then readjusted our parking spot and got to setting up. After pulling out one of the bunk ends I hear Vu say “ouuuuuuu Noi. What is this?” With some exasperation in his voice. I held my breath for a quick second and thought… there’s a huge dent somewhere. A rock hit our camper. But we would have heard it during the drive. Did we run over something? Is our tire flat? I took a deep breath and walked around the bunk end to see Vu gasping at the tear on the canvas. I just stared at the rip hardly believing that there was this separation of the canvas.
Of course my first question was, “did the canvas catch on something when you pulled out?” That’s the anvil is right? And Vu said he didn’t hear a rip. I thought to myself if it ripped, it’s not like it’ll be heard but whatever. I didn’t want to fight with Vu. I inspected the area and noticed a bungee rope still stuck under the board and when I tried to pull it out I saw that it was still attached to the round hook. And I told him he forgot to unhook one of the bungee cords when he put away the camper the other night. Vu let out a big sigh, realizing he was a bit careless in his rush to put away the camper. But it happens. Even those seasoned in setting up will forget a thing a two. I told myself that it really could have been far worse.
We practiced multiple times in our driveway and when finally camping we learned that each day needs a recheck on leveling. The camper can shift just a bit cause the ground will settle and possible sink just a tad. We also learned that one of us has to just sit and keep the kids entertained while the other sets up. We also overpacked, that was all me! We took too much food and packed things we didn’t need. I went into the camp trip packing the way we would tent camping except I did bring more things because there’s so much storage in the camper. So when we got home, I did take a lot of stuff out. We didn’t need as many camp chairs. The kiddos loved playing on the rug in front of the camper with proper shade of course. So no one really sat in the chairs. We sat on the floor with the kids and we also had our hammock. We’ll have chairs of course, but we didn’t need as many as we thought.
I did take some film photos and mostly iphone photos. But for the blog today I’m sharing the polaroids from our trip.
We ate s’mores and it was the best tasting camp dessert. I don’t know if it’s because I was in a happy mood or maybe it’s been a while or maybe because Brayden makes everything seems so tasty, but the s’mores hit that sweet tooth spot! It was gooey, it was chocolatey, it was yummy! I woke up at 6:30am to watch the sunrise and I made my coffee in the camper. Like what you’ll see on Pinterest and Instagram, my coffee moment was picture perfect. I took videos but I don’t know how to really share that in the post. I do share them on my Instagram so if you’re not following along there, feel free to do so on the gram!
The fur babies went with us and they had a great time. It was a hot day out at Mistletoe State Park but they loved being with us and being outdoors. Every had room in the camper when it was time to hit the sheets and it was spacious enough that we didn’t feel cramped at all. I’m super happy with owning a camper y’all. We’re making the kind of memories I’ve always dreamed up for my kiddos!