At the end of the year Alli’s Girl Scout Troop uses any of the leftover funds they have from selling cookies to do a bigger activity together. They had the girls vote between spending the night at the zoo, or spending the night at a horse ranch and then going on a horse ride the next day. The majority of the vote was for horseback riding. That is what Alli voted for much to her delight.
I asked Alli if she wanted me to go with her or let her do it alone. It could go either way with her. She said she wanted me to come so I signed up with her. It has been about a year since either of us has camped. We went camping as a family last summer. This is our first just her and I camping together though. We picked up her bestie Carlee and her mom and carpooled together to the ranch. The girls have actually rode horses at the ranch we stayed at before but this is the first time they spent the night.
We set up camp when we got there. I brought our little three person tent so that only her and I could fit in it. (Cranky lady-yes. Happier camper-yes.) I started setting it up a bit away from the other tents (for noise purposes) and went to get some stuff from the car. When I got back one of the leaders had moved my tarp and started staking it next to the other tents with barely enough space to walk between the tents. She smiled at me and said something like she wants us to all be cozy and in the action together. Later that evening the same leader announced she would be sleeping in her car instead of the tents-not very cozy of her if you ask me.
The leaders brought all the food so it was nice to not have to worry about packing all that stuff. They said to being a water bottle which we did, but they neglected to mention that meant and water to refill it the whole time. Luckily my kids annoying habit of opening a water bottle taking two sips then getting another one the next time they need a drink came in handy. I found enough partially filled water bottles in the back of the van to last for the time we were there. Which wasn’t very long but it was HOT!! It was in the 90’s with a 100+ heat index.
Friday night we went on a short hike to the lake, ate dinner, played games, played soccer, walked around the horse pens, played with the local dogs and cats, roasted smores and had a fun time together.
Allison doesn’t like eating smores but she is a very good marshmallow roaster so she kept the smores coming for me and then anyone else that would take them.
About 11 o’clock the leader called it for the night and sent everyone to their tents. Then one leader left and went home to return in the morning and the other one went to her car and closed herself in a quiet private sleeping area. The other three moms and myself were left with 8 hyped up on sugar girl scouts. Our tents were so close we might as well have all been in the same one. It was a long night and I was quickly reminded how much I don’t like camping in the summer in Kansas, but also in general. I am becoming less and less a fan everytime I do it. Everyone finally fell asleep sometime after midnight and we were able to sweat and try and get comfortable in silence until 5 am when some dog started barking and woke everyone up. At which point I discovered that at some point between 1-5 am I actually had slept deep enough to let a spider that was hiding somewhere in our tent-my sleeping bag specifically- had bitten me 7-8 times and I had huge welts starting all over my legs and torso. Reason number eleventy billion I don’t like sleeping in a tent. Since everyone was up we packed everything up and ate breakfast and got ready for the horse ride…and waited almost two hours to go. Did I mention the girls woke up at 5 am. We were supposed to ride at 10, but because of the heat and our early rising, they started getting the horses ready sooner and we started at 8:30 am.
It was quite a group of us, between the girls, moms, and guides there was about twenty of us. Alli road a horse named Luna which one of the guides told me was sometimes short for Lunatic because she was a little onery and sassy. The guide told Alli that she would have to be stern with her and give her a little kick if she didn’t want to listen or she would do whatever she wanted (eat, go a different direction, just stop). Alli thought that was great. She loves a free spirit take charge kind of attitude. Her horse did stop and hold the line up a few times too. One time it started running to catch up, the guide was worried Alli was scared until she heard her squeels of delight. I rode on Nelly. She was a little wobbly sometimes, I kept thinking we were going to fall on our faces, but she was a good horse and nice and calm. It was an enjoyable ride.
Once we got back from the ride, the girls helped put the saddles away, brushed and groomed the horses, lead them back to their pens and mucked out the stalls to earn their equestrian badge. I went on a short walk around the barn to loosen up my knees from the ride because I am getting old and could barely walk when we got back. When I returned from my walk the girls were just finishing cleaning the stalls. Allison was talking to the lady in charge about coming to clean up the stalls for her whenever she wants for just $5… the lady said, “sure you can pay me $5 to come clean them out.” Obviously it wasn’t her first offer from a girl scout. Ha!
We headed home shortly after that. The boys were at the Royals game for Matthew’s Christmas present, so the girls helped me air out and clean up all the camping stuff and we went to the pool. We had it all to ourselves so I laid in the zero entry part and dozed a little while they played. It was wonderfully relaxing. I’m a beach girl not a camper.
By that night I had about a dozen chigger bites pop up all over me to go along with my spider bites. Apparently the bug spray expired between the time I sprayed Alli and then myself. Luckily she didn’t get any bites. I was an itching miserable mess for the next few days.
I asked Alli if she had a fun time and wanted to do it again. She said she loved the horses part but didn’t really like camping. I am cool with that. We can do other fun activities together that don’t involve bugs, dirt, sweat, and port-a-potties all night long. Emilee who is usually inseparable from me is not an outdoorsy person either. She does not even like picking strawberries or blueberries with us because its to ‘melty and bugsy’ (hot, humid, and to muchnature). When I gave her a kiss goodbye before the campout she asked where I was going. When I told her she said, “See you tomorrow!” without a second thought. I guess we will all be softies together and save camping for ‘only when necessary’. At least in Kansas.
