A Change of Plans

Crazy, crazy weekend! We were supposed to go camping with the Boy Scouts - our first time with the troop--but my son came down with a cold. In a way I was thankful--his cold bought us some time. We had purchased most of our camping gear, all of it piled in our front living area, during the week. You see, we haven't been camping since before we had kids. Here's why, in the most condensed version: all our camping gear was lost in a flood in 1997, then we had babies, then we were poor, then the boys grew up a little, we were less poor but had very little PTO, then we got older and only liked the idea of going camping, then we decided we better get our boys into outdoor activities and shelve the tech gadgets as forms of entertainment, and then we were invited to join the Boy Scouts and here we are! Our biggest obstacle was that we didn't have a camping friendly vehicle. We thought about renting a truck but HELLO they want anywhere from $90-$150 per day. At that rate we'd be poor again! Then my husband found a small SUV type vehicle to rent and we were good to go! I even took Friday off work. Then my son caught a cold and it changed our plans. Instead of going camping we stayed home and had a yard sale. This meant cleaning out closets and hauling out furniture and whatever else has been precariously stacked in our garage into the driveway. We did use our new shade canopy we bought for camping in our driveway to put our tables under to block the near 100 degree sunshine from melting our treasure hunters. Do you know we had a number of people ask us how much the canopy was going for? Seriously! Anyway, on Sunday we rolled out of bed like tinmen after a rainstorm and made our way to the living room to enjoy some coffee and our newspaper--yes, we still enjoy holding paper in our hands while we read. On the third or fourth page of our paper was a full-page add for a big blow-out sale on cars and trucks. My husband oiled his joints and headed out the door around 11:30, and by 6pm we were proud owners of a big truck that practically screams camping! It's even dark green. My PT Cruiser didn't make it back home, it was traded in, and I am now a truck driving mom. Hmmm..........still getting used to that. Our next camp out is in July. We are so ready! Except we're poor again..............