Carroll Family Blog: Adventures in Camping

One of the things we love the very most about being here in Virginia is our proximity to the beach. Despite my fear of being dragged out to sea and eaten by a giant bull shark, I really love playing in the ocean, as long as I can touch easily(silly, since I know that most shark attacks occur in shallow water anyway, according to a documentary on Discovery channel's Shark Week that I was foolish enough to watch). So every summer we have to make at least one trip to the beach, whether it be a week in the outer banks or a weekend camping in VA beach. Having a new baby and limited vacation time left, this summer we decided to go camping at one of our favorite places right on the Chesapeake Bay beach (and just a 5 minute drive to VA beach.) But being as it is mid July in one of the hottest summers on record and with a new baby, the idea of sleeping in a tent was not appealing to me or Tim. So we looked into renting a camper instead. We couldn't find too many places that rented campers out and those that did were taken the week we were planning our trip. So we turned to craigslist(camper + craigslist= red flag numero uno). We found a woman renting an "older" (red flag #2) pop-up camper on craigslist for a great price. The 1"X1" underexposed photo didn't disuade us; we figured as long as the AC works, what else really matters? Well the week before we were supposed to leave, the woman who owned it called to tell us that the previous renters brought the camper back damaged. She said the mechanism that makes the camper pop up is not working on one corner (big, bright, flashing red flag #3) and that she may not be able to have it fixed in time for us and asked us to make other arrangements. When Tim called me to tell me this I was heartbroken. Having been pretty much stuck in my house for the past two months I needed this vacation! So I told Tim to call her back and tell her that we could not make other arrangements, and ask her to please get the camper fixed in time for us to use it. She agreed.

So the following week we picked up the camper on our way down to the beach. It was not the prettiest of campers to say the least, but that didn't concern us. When we picked it, the lady showed us how to crank it up and down and everything seemed to be working fine. Now fast forward to 9:30 pm. We finally get to our camp site, exhausted and ready to go to bed. But as we cranked the handle, one corner of the camper would not come up more than 6 inches. Three hours and lots of help from our camping neighbors later, the camper was still only halfway up. My kids were begging to go to bed and we were all hot and sweaty (especially Tim, who spent 2 hours lying on his back under the camper trying to fix it with only a head lamp, a borrowed hammer and a small pair of pliers). So we finally decided to sleep inside of it despite the fact that it was only halfway up.

After a restless night of worrying that the camper was going to come crashing down on top of us, Tim made a trip to the local Lowes the next morning to get some tools and some 2x4s so that we could either fix it or get it up make-shift style. Again thanks to our very kind neighbors, we were able to get the corner up using some 2x4s anchored in different secure places with zip ties and rope. Then, as we pulled the two bars down to secure the wing beds, the canvas ripped in several places. Ay carumba! This thing just gets better and better! So we then had to secure two tarps over the ends to cover the holes. Make-shift, indeed! Seriously, I was more than a little embarrassed to be seen near this joke of a camper to say the least. But not embarrassed enough (or worried enough about it crashing down on us and killing us all in our sleep) to go home and miss out on our vacation. So after talking to the woman who we rented it from (who, I must take a moment to defend because this was not her fault- we should have listened to her the first time she told us it was broken. And she felt really bad about all of this and offered to refund our money) we decided to stick it out for the rest of the week. Surely the risk of the camper killing us all was no more than the risk of us being eaten by a shark. And I am so glad did. We ended up having three amazing days at the beach, with perfect weather, perfect waves and perfect water. The kids had a blast. Jace was old enough and brave enough to play in the waves this year, and he loved it! It was so fun to watch him on that boogie-board- he is so light that he can ride even the smallest wave. Ethan just loved to play in the sand and build sand castles and Wesley spent nearly the entire trip in the stroller sleeping, perhaps having nightmares about the sketchy looking place he was sleeping in at night. So despite the stress we went through on this trip, it ended up being a lot of fun and a great adventure. But next time we will stick to renting from more reputable companies and leave craigslist for finding baby stuff and pieces of used furniture.

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The camper, in all it's ghetto glory...

Jace and Ethan watching a movie while we finish setting up camp- check out the giant rip to the left of Jace's head.

Wes chillin' on the couch, which he later fell off of when I turned around for one second to pick up an UNO card. Go ahead, say it- I am a terrible mother. But I have learned my lesson- no more propping little babies up on the couch no matter how stable you think they are.

Jace enjoying the surf