We Answered the Call

While things didn't go exactly as planned; we still had a blast celebrating the long weekend. 

Friday afternoon, we got the four wheelers loaded onto the trailer, just a couple of hours later than we had originally hoped for due to some craziness at the hardware store for Hugh. 

The Newlyweds didn't mind the delay and we were on the road in no time. Because I am always on call, I took my own car so that Hugh wouldn't have to pull up camp in the event that I got called out, which proved fortuitous, since that is exactly what happened Sunday evening. Anyhoodle, the caravan to the campsite was impressive...

...unless you were one of the poor schmucks who got stuck behind us on the winding road to the National Forest (for the record, we all pulled off at the first opportunity, to let them go by; that's what courteous drivers do on mountain roads).

Once we got to the campground, we were thrilled to discover that the same spot we used last Labor Day weekend was open and available. How that was possible on a holiday weekend, I will never know, but, we were grateful for it. This spot is seriously perfect for our group. There is ample space for Hugh to pull the motorhome in without having to drop the trailer, which makes packing up at the end of the trip so much easier. There is also plenty of space for each of The Newlyweds rigs, while leaving a large circular area for our campfire and all of our chairs in the center of the campers. And, the view can't be beat.

We had plenty of daylight left on Friday to get camp set up and to enjoy the hamburgers that Erin and Kristi made for dinner. Then we called it a night, excited about the prospect of getting up early to ride the trails.

Early was a relative term, considering that we didn't roll out of our beds until 9:00, but, hey! We were there to relax. Except for Hugh; Hugh was there to cook breakfast. Ha!

After breakfast, we hit the trails, riding until late afternoon, when an impressive thunderstorm rolled in and soaked us to our skin. No matter! We made it back to camp, changed into dry clothes, and settled into our campers for naps until dinnertime. There's nothing like a late afternoon nap in the mountains.

As an aside, Hugh is deathly afraid of snakes, so, while I was in San Antonio with Queen B, I picked up a rubber snake and I have been trying to scare him with it ever since. It made an appearance in his gear bag on his four wheeler and it was one of my better pranks.

Before dinner, I set out an epic charcuterie, or, as we christened it, a campcuterie. It ended up being so filling, we skipped dinner all together. But, we didn't skip dessert; once the charcuterie board was gone, I washed it off and threw together a s'mores board. It was a great evening.

It rained for most of the night, but was sunny and lovely by morning, so we ate another great breakfast and then packed up camp before leaving for another trail ride (thank goodness we did, because if we hadn't, I wouldn't have been on the road leaving the campground when my call-out happened and it would have taken me longer to respond. Plus, Hugh would have been stuck packing up our stuff alone).

The wildflowers on this trail were amazing and we took quite a few breaks to admire them, as well as the insects that lived among them. Funny story: Hugh, the Eagle Scout, had no idea that you could bite the tip off the petals of a Columbine and suck out the nectar. Now, one would think that, in all his years of Scouting, someone would have told him that, but, no; it took his wife, who was kicked out of Brownies as a child, to teach him that worthy lesson. I may still be bragging about it.

We had to wait out one short rainstorm while we were riding, but otherwise, it was a perfect day. I'd like to have more weekends like it; minus the part where I get called out, of course. That shit is getting old.