Wyalusing

So, allow me set the scene for you: we check in at Wyalusing State Park, the staff is incredibly friendly and about a dozen hummingbirds are buzzing about the feeders outside of the visitor center. Paradise, right? Now fast forward five minutes and imagine this: there's a tent already set up on our campsite, the fire pit has six inches of standing water, and the rest of our site looks like it would be better suited for mud wrestling than camping. Ah, here's to perseverance! Here's to positive thinking! And, most of all, here's to Team Big Yum!

Friday was a challenge, yes, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle. Child's play, really. Once the gentleman who took the liberty of erecting his tent on our campsite moved on, we set up our tent - in the dark. A couple tears and a couple Rocky Arbor Champagnes later and that sucker was standing tall! Now, are we ready to assemble and disassemble M-16s while blindfolded? Ummm...No. Unfortunately, it was far too wet for a fire, so we just made some sammies in the tent and crashed early. This proved to be a wise choice because the physical demands we placed on our bodies over the course of the next two days could not have been anticipated.

After a solid night of sleep - fresh, cool air is so great for sleeping - we got up and had some fun with our new toys. First we percolated some coffee, a first for both of us. Using my parent's Coleman stove from the Jurassic Era, we made what turned out to be perhaps the weakest coffee either of us had ever had. The coffee cups we used were not much help either. Also from prehistoric times, these cups were created before the concept of thermal insulation proliferated the more frigid regions of the planet. Nevertheless, percolating coffee was fun, and we got some pointers on how to do it right next time. After coffee it was time for some scramblers - scrambled eggs with ham, cheese, green peppers and salsa - big yum! Absolutely delicious. My parents maintain that there is nothing like eating eggs out in the woods and I can't argue with that.

After breakfast, we ventured out to explore Wyalusing and all it had to offer. The park, which is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers, features numerous hiking trails, Indian mounds, and caves - all ripe for exploring. We started at Point Lookout where you can not only enjoy a beautiful view of the confluence of the two rivers, but also see for miles and miles. Next we hiked the Sentinel Ridge Trail from the lookout down to the boat landing. It was 1.6 miles of pretty grueling terrain that was only made more challenging by the 500 foot change in elevation from start to finish. A trip to the campsite and a couple of sandwiches later we rented a canoe (editor's note: if a campground offers one-hour rentals, get the equipment two hours before they close-up shop for the day - you will probably get two hours for the price of one). We weren't in the water five minutes and we spotted a bald eagle perched on a rock eating a fish! How amazing is that? It was a gorgeous day, so we just stopped in the water and gazed at what we considered to be a once-in-a-lifetime siting. Once Amanda reached back with her paddle and wiped the drool from my chin, we moved on. While out canoeing, we saw some raccoons running around and we got a cool picture of them peeking out of the hole in a tree.

Our favorite thing to do while camping is having a campfire. In addition to keeping us warm during this icy summer, we usually cook some hotdogs and make smores. Sitting around the fire and talking about what boys we like has become something we both look forward to, perhaps more so than any other aspect of camping. At Wyalusing we had a little trouble getting a fire started, however, due to the damp firewood. Amanda did her darnedest to the get the fire going, but 15 firestarters and two newspapers later (I had to physically prevent her from burning dollar bills), we decided to go buy some of lighter fluid. That did the trick. Amanda bathed the firewood in fire juice and - poof! - we had a blazer. Not concerned that our fire was visible from the international space station, we cooked some food, put some Rocky Arbor Champagnes out of their misery, and went to bed.

Sunday we got up, made some more - big yum! - scramblers, packed up and headed to Iowa.

Best "That's What She Said" of the weekend: That's a long train (Amanda).

To view all of the photos from the weekend, go here. To view our ever-evolving handy-dandy camping checklist, go here.

This post was conceived at Ground Zero Coffee.