| Camping Version 2007 |
Over Labor Day a group of us went camping like we have been doing for years. The group was a little smaller than usual with only about 35 to 40 showing up but I am getting ahead of myself. Lets start back at the beginning.
I was born on a Monday in a city called Wyandotte... wait, I went back a little to far. Lets try that again.
(Wavy dissolve aka Wayne’s world...)
On the Wednesday before camping I was making a last ditch effort to get my Cornhole boards built when I purchased the needed the paint. That was it. There was not way that I could get the games built AND painted in time. The drying time was just to great so I abandoned any thoughts of getting the game boards done (before Labor Day).
I moved into the next mode of getting ready for camping. Cleaning clothes, getting items out and ready to go and packing. It is amazing how much I had to do and how little time to do it. Friday came and I had to work entire day. In the end I did not make it up camping until 10:00 PM. After unloading everything it was time to get the weekend started.
First the fire was so small, I do not think we have ever had such a small fire. For years we have been telling people they need to bring up wood but each year the same few people brought up wood. Well this year I decided I had enough of that and did not bring any. The end result was an embarrassingly small fire. That was taken care of the next day but not before a parking post was ripped out of the ground and stuck into our fire pit for fire. Did I mention we have a rowdy side of the camping group? I thought for sure we were going to get in trouble but who would have thought when we said go and look for some wood that someone would pull a post out of the ground? We had in mind a fallen tree or scrap wood which we have found in a prior year. Needless to day, we did not ask that person to do anything else.
The fire was nice but way to small. The people were huddled in close to the fire, so close that not everyone could get near the fire. Sucks to be late.
There was a lot of laughing and stories and well just general campfire stuff. There were marshmallows, some hotdogs cooked on a stick, and much alcohol was drank including
the Miller Chills I brought up. Interesting but just OK as far as I can tell. I hear it was an attempt at a Corona knock-off. I suppose I need to try a Corona or three, just for comparison purposes you see.
Well I was going to call it a night but I had a problem. The kids were still up. I could not go to bed before the kids. No way! It was finally about two or so when I get into bed.
Oh my but morning came early. I started out the morning by setting up the satellite dish and ran into trouble.
OK, you may find yourself wondering satellite dish, why a satellite dish? I will get to that, really. Oh and that is not normal but...
The TV I brought was not set up to connect to the receiver and I needed the remote control to change that. Grrrr because I had none. A short trip into town and I had some batteries and a remote and a nifty 60 percent off hammer. So at least something good came of this whole mess.
Well I set up the dish, pointed the sucker in the general direction and ... amazing!!! I had a picture once the dish initialized itself. No way. I should have run off and bought a lottery ticket right then and there. I did a few things before I had to head home for stuff I forgot. I can not believe I had to make a road trip again. So before heading out I set the TV up to receive the University of Michigan football game. You see we take our college football serious up here in Michigan.
I ran home, with a shopping list for items others had left behind too. After a little shopping and getting one of the main items, a volleyball (I can not believe I brought the volleyball net, bounds marker, stakes, and even a ball pump and needle but no volleyball), I headed home. Since I was at home I thought, why not take a proper shower?
By the time I got back to camp the football game was over. Well actually it was still 4th quarter but it was over. I can not believe I missed almost the whole game. I also can not believe Michigan lost. For what it is worth, that is the last of TV for the weekend. We are on a mini vacation here!
Between trying to get a dish on to pass for the camp meal that night (frozen Lasagna ala crock pot) and trying to take part in a few games it was a busy few hours. You would swear I was trying to get my sister at the balloon toss. I thought I did better at the egg toss but we went out after about two thirds of the others went out. The volleyball, well I decided to sit out of. We had four teams and the two best teams did well but the two worst teams... I think it took 5 minutes just to get the volley off. As a matter of fact I think one side just said go ahead and serve to the other side. If I were playing I so belonged one of those two teams. I used to be much better but not any more.
The dish to pass dinner went off real well. There was tons to eat and some pretty interesting things too. Even my (frozen) lasagna went well. I am so glad ever enjoyed Gordon Foods (GFS) Lasagna.
That night some of the girls disappeared off to the dance. After wards it was time for theme night. The theme was Disney but mostly only kids took part. My niece play Hanna Montana with her best friend Lille and someone else from High School Musical. There was also an alligator (jungle book?), a princess and a few others. It was an interesting distraction for the evening.
Most of us, including the wild side, sat out by the fire after that. Before you know it, the wild bunch almost all disappeared to bed. Well maybe they were not that wild after all. And most of the wild bunch were 20 somethings. Ha, and they think they know how to party? Actually I would not think to try and out drink any one of them. There were a couple of holdouts. There were more stories going around, lots of laughs and lots of drinking. Oh and a much bigger fire as while I was at home shopping they brought back about 2 cords of wood. Now that was much more like our fires.
Normally Saturday night we do hobo pies but our two main pie makers could not come this year because of work. One of the two, my poor cousin, is working swing shift. That is bad enough but Ford found a new way to torture their employees. They work 2 days on days, 2 days on afternoons and two days on midnights. Then they have some time off. I have worked afternoons before and that was no fun but to work a swing and such a crazy one like this... makes me appreciate what I have.
Well this was another late one with me finally calling it a night at 2:30.
Sunday was canoeing however I have not done that in years. It figures, they had a great time out this time and I missed it. 7 canoes went out for a 2 hour tour and did not return for almost 5 hours. At one point I decided to make some hamburgers. I put it on the grill and lets just say I created some burnt sacrifices. The grill caught the grease and that caught on fire and nothing I did would put the fire out. At one point we worried about setting the table on fire so I picked up the grill and moved it to the pile of wood and allowed the fire to go out. In the end we ended up with dinner. One of the hamburgers was dumped on the ground (mine) and one of them was real burnt (mine again). For being the cook I sure did not fair to well. It serves me right.
Bingo came around and I played 4 cards and the horse race. I WON but only $5. And that is one of the bigger pay offs. I did not even break even. They did have one big pot at the end for $138 but I think they should have had the other wins pay off more and lowered the final pot. Oh my, I did come close to winning the final pot. I was two numbers off on 2 of the cards. So close.
That night someone brought a projector and some Disney movies. The intent was for the kids to have something to watch but we could not find something everyone wanted to watch and also could not get the kids all together. So in the end the adults ended up watching a couples wedding video (they were married last year) and that was really something. We followed that up by Wild Hogs. It was a little troublesome at parts as we had kids flying in and out and there are a few parts in the movie that is not exactly kid friendly. I mean it is rated PG-13 but it was certainly a little much in a few spots.
We joined the rest of the crew out at the fire and discovered they had already did what hobo pies there were going to be but they did not turn out all that good. There is a trick to making them and our stand in cooks just need a little more experience. We sure did miss our cooks.
The final night is where we decide on the theme for next year. This year was Disney and for some reason the only people that did anything were the kids. So we went with a simple theme, one that could be interesting.
Toga, toga, TOGA!!! So I have from now to next year to put together a costume out of a sheet. I think I will follow the master, John Belushi in Animal House. I can do that. T-shirt, shorts and a sheet over the top. Yep, I am shooting to be Blutarsky (John’s Character). Time to get out the sewing machine and see if I can not come up with something that is not to risky.
Another thing we voted on was a theme for the dish to pass night. We went with Greek food. Oh dear, I have never made anything even close to Greek food. Now I have looked up several recipes. If nothing else I should be able to pull of Avgolemono (lemon rice soup) or a Greek salad I think. I could also attempt baklava. I would love to do Souvlakai (Lamb Shish-Kabob) but I think that may be hard to pull off camping. If nothing else I should be adding some interesting new recipes to my collection.
Well that is basically the camping trip. I am afraid it was not filled with as much excitement as usual. A lot of words, a little action and a we bit of alcohol.
I was born on a Monday in a city called Wyandotte... wait, I went back a little to far. Lets try that again.
(Wavy dissolve aka Wayne’s world...)
On the Wednesday before camping I was making a last ditch effort to get my Cornhole boards built when I purchased the needed the paint. That was it. There was not way that I could get the games built AND painted in time. The drying time was just to great so I abandoned any thoughts of getting the game boards done (before Labor Day).
I moved into the next mode of getting ready for camping. Cleaning clothes, getting items out and ready to go and packing. It is amazing how much I had to do and how little time to do it. Friday came and I had to work entire day. In the end I did not make it up camping until 10:00 PM. After unloading everything it was time to get the weekend started.
First the fire was so small, I do not think we have ever had such a small fire. For years we have been telling people they need to bring up wood but each year the same few people brought up wood. Well this year I decided I had enough of that and did not bring any. The end result was an embarrassingly small fire. That was taken care of the next day but not before a parking post was ripped out of the ground and stuck into our fire pit for fire. Did I mention we have a rowdy side of the camping group? I thought for sure we were going to get in trouble but who would have thought when we said go and look for some wood that someone would pull a post out of the ground? We had in mind a fallen tree or scrap wood which we have found in a prior year. Needless to day, we did not ask that person to do anything else.
The fire was nice but way to small. The people were huddled in close to the fire, so close that not everyone could get near the fire. Sucks to be late.
There was a lot of laughing and stories and well just general campfire stuff. There were marshmallows, some hotdogs cooked on a stick, and much alcohol was drank including
the Miller Chills I brought up. Interesting but just OK as far as I can tell. I hear it was an attempt at a Corona knock-off. I suppose I need to try a Corona or three, just for comparison purposes you see.
Well I was going to call it a night but I had a problem. The kids were still up. I could not go to bed before the kids. No way! It was finally about two or so when I get into bed.
Oh my but morning came early. I started out the morning by setting up the satellite dish and ran into trouble.
OK, you may find yourself wondering satellite dish, why a satellite dish? I will get to that, really. Oh and that is not normal but...
The TV I brought was not set up to connect to the receiver and I needed the remote control to change that. Grrrr because I had none. A short trip into town and I had some batteries and a remote and a nifty 60 percent off hammer. So at least something good came of this whole mess.
Well I set up the dish, pointed the sucker in the general direction and ... amazing!!! I had a picture once the dish initialized itself. No way. I should have run off and bought a lottery ticket right then and there. I did a few things before I had to head home for stuff I forgot. I can not believe I had to make a road trip again. So before heading out I set the TV up to receive the University of Michigan football game. You see we take our college football serious up here in Michigan.
I ran home, with a shopping list for items others had left behind too. After a little shopping and getting one of the main items, a volleyball (I can not believe I brought the volleyball net, bounds marker, stakes, and even a ball pump and needle but no volleyball), I headed home. Since I was at home I thought, why not take a proper shower?
By the time I got back to camp the football game was over. Well actually it was still 4th quarter but it was over. I can not believe I missed almost the whole game. I also can not believe Michigan lost. For what it is worth, that is the last of TV for the weekend. We are on a mini vacation here!
Between trying to get a dish on to pass for the camp meal that night (frozen Lasagna ala crock pot) and trying to take part in a few games it was a busy few hours. You would swear I was trying to get my sister at the balloon toss. I thought I did better at the egg toss but we went out after about two thirds of the others went out. The volleyball, well I decided to sit out of. We had four teams and the two best teams did well but the two worst teams... I think it took 5 minutes just to get the volley off. As a matter of fact I think one side just said go ahead and serve to the other side. If I were playing I so belonged one of those two teams. I used to be much better but not any more.
The dish to pass dinner went off real well. There was tons to eat and some pretty interesting things too. Even my (frozen) lasagna went well. I am so glad ever enjoyed Gordon Foods (GFS) Lasagna.
That night some of the girls disappeared off to the dance. After wards it was time for theme night. The theme was Disney but mostly only kids took part. My niece play Hanna Montana with her best friend Lille and someone else from High School Musical. There was also an alligator (jungle book?), a princess and a few others. It was an interesting distraction for the evening.
Most of us, including the wild side, sat out by the fire after that. Before you know it, the wild bunch almost all disappeared to bed. Well maybe they were not that wild after all. And most of the wild bunch were 20 somethings. Ha, and they think they know how to party? Actually I would not think to try and out drink any one of them. There were a couple of holdouts. There were more stories going around, lots of laughs and lots of drinking. Oh and a much bigger fire as while I was at home shopping they brought back about 2 cords of wood. Now that was much more like our fires.
Normally Saturday night we do hobo pies but our two main pie makers could not come this year because of work. One of the two, my poor cousin, is working swing shift. That is bad enough but Ford found a new way to torture their employees. They work 2 days on days, 2 days on afternoons and two days on midnights. Then they have some time off. I have worked afternoons before and that was no fun but to work a swing and such a crazy one like this... makes me appreciate what I have.
Well this was another late one with me finally calling it a night at 2:30.
Sunday was canoeing however I have not done that in years. It figures, they had a great time out this time and I missed it. 7 canoes went out for a 2 hour tour and did not return for almost 5 hours. At one point I decided to make some hamburgers. I put it on the grill and lets just say I created some burnt sacrifices. The grill caught the grease and that caught on fire and nothing I did would put the fire out. At one point we worried about setting the table on fire so I picked up the grill and moved it to the pile of wood and allowed the fire to go out. In the end we ended up with dinner. One of the hamburgers was dumped on the ground (mine) and one of them was real burnt (mine again). For being the cook I sure did not fair to well. It serves me right.
Bingo came around and I played 4 cards and the horse race. I WON but only $5. And that is one of the bigger pay offs. I did not even break even. They did have one big pot at the end for $138 but I think they should have had the other wins pay off more and lowered the final pot. Oh my, I did come close to winning the final pot. I was two numbers off on 2 of the cards. So close.
That night someone brought a projector and some Disney movies. The intent was for the kids to have something to watch but we could not find something everyone wanted to watch and also could not get the kids all together. So in the end the adults ended up watching a couples wedding video (they were married last year) and that was really something. We followed that up by Wild Hogs. It was a little troublesome at parts as we had kids flying in and out and there are a few parts in the movie that is not exactly kid friendly. I mean it is rated PG-13 but it was certainly a little much in a few spots.
We joined the rest of the crew out at the fire and discovered they had already did what hobo pies there were going to be but they did not turn out all that good. There is a trick to making them and our stand in cooks just need a little more experience. We sure did miss our cooks.
The final night is where we decide on the theme for next year. This year was Disney and for some reason the only people that did anything were the kids. So we went with a simple theme, one that could be interesting.
Toga, toga, TOGA!!! So I have from now to next year to put together a costume out of a sheet. I think I will follow the master, John Belushi in Animal House. I can do that. T-shirt, shorts and a sheet over the top. Yep, I am shooting to be Blutarsky (John’s Character). Time to get out the sewing machine and see if I can not come up with something that is not to risky.
Another thing we voted on was a theme for the dish to pass night. We went with Greek food. Oh dear, I have never made anything even close to Greek food. Now I have looked up several recipes. If nothing else I should be able to pull of Avgolemono (lemon rice soup) or a Greek salad I think. I could also attempt baklava. I would love to do Souvlakai (Lamb Shish-Kabob) but I think that may be hard to pull off camping. If nothing else I should be adding some interesting new recipes to my collection.
Well that is basically the camping trip. I am afraid it was not filled with as much excitement as usual. A lot of words, a little action and a we bit of alcohol.
Posted by barman at 12:29 PM::
Bryan I loved this, just hearing about your family campouts makes me smile!
You are so fortunate to have such a big family, I would love that!
I have been waiting for this post!
And what are hobo pies?????
And try a corona, you will never go back!
LW, actually this is not a family thing, it just feels like it. I have been camping with these people over Labor Day for 19 years I believe. The people come and go.
What everone has in common is my Sister. She is the one that organizes this. In the case of the wild bunch, the "Lick" family, her husband works with my sisters husband. We know them and their 4 kids and a few of their relatives but the rest of that crew just varies. Other groups we know everyone as the same people come up every year. We sometimes do things together outside of camping but not all the time. Anyway it really does feel like family in the end.
We typically have between 5 and 8 people all together (including me) that are related so there is some family.
Hobo pies... It basically is a grilled sandwich. You take bread and butter the outsides. On the inside you put in what ever fixing you like. Usually the pizza one is the most popular. That would be pizza sauce, pepperoni, and cheese. Then you put the sandwich together and place it in the iron with the butter side out (to keep it from burning or sticking).
The iron is then place on hot coals (basically a camp fire that has burnt down. There is no fire but there are a lot of red hot coals). After a little while you flip it. Then after a little while more you take it off the coals and bang it then open the iron and there you have it, a hobo pie.
We have done all sorts of things including pie filling and smores and more. It is always a favorite of that weekend. There is probably two people buttering bread and making the sandwich. One or two people placing the sandwich on and taking it off the iron and plating it when the hobo pie is done, and two people cooking the hobo pies which they usually have one or two on the coals and one being emptied and filled back up again. We make it into a real production line.
You take a tv camping?
That's my kinda camper, right there. LOL!
Crabbs, maybe next time I should bring the room air conditioner.
Sounds like you had a fab time. Its nice to be able to have something to look forwards to each year like that.
We make hobo dinners. You take whatever meat (usually hamburger) and vegetables you want and wrap them up in aluminum foil (double, so it doesn't burn). Then you throw them into the coals on the fire. You turn them with a shovel. When everything is cooked, the flavors of the meat have coated the veggies. It's yummy!
I want to know how you made lasagna in a crock pot.
Gab, I missed some things this year but over all I love this time of year.
Wow the hobo dinner sounds good. It reminds me of the milkcan stew. The corn in the milkcan, that has had all the juices of the meat go into the water it boils in, is to die for and everything else is so great. But those hobo pies are pretty good to. I just saw a recipe for one with corned beef, swiss cheese and sauerkraut. I may need to give that a try next year. The Lasagna... it was frozen in a pan so all I did was cut it to fit in the oval crock pot and the heat it on high for more than a few hours. Thank goodness it was not from scratch, that would be crazy.
Bryan, I have never gone “camping” with that many people since I left the army. For me, a wife, 2 sons, and a dog have been more than enough camping buddies.
Sounds like you had a fabulous time! I hope you guys get to do it again!
Bryan how cool that must be to camp with the same people every year, with new people tossed in!
The hobo pie sounds pretty good too!
So your sister is the organizer of this camping trip, wow that must take some work!
Chad we do it every year but you just never know what might happen between this year and next. We do have a good time. I hope a few of the players are back next year. It will make the weekend even better.
LW, it is weird. I have been to several weddings of people from the group, and graduations, and ... but for the most part I just see them once a year. I look forward to it however.
The hobo pie is yummy and just a fun thing to do too.
It is a bit of work. I mean for the most part she reserves the camp space when she leaves for the weekend but then she has to collect money from people and send it to the campground, communicate with them which can be more work sometimes as new owners come on board, deal with collecting the money especially when people turn it in late. buy prizes for the games ... and I am sure it goes on from there. But I think she loves being social director.
Sounds like you had a fun time Bryan despite the little problems, after all burnt sacrifices and wee bits of alcohol are part of camping.lol
tc
Mmmmm....I LOVE hobo dinners for camping. BRYAN...what the hell is a cornhole board??????? LOL...You know where my mind is going with THAT one...LOL!!!!
wooohooooo....lol
To true TC, to true. And yes, despite the little things it still is a nice extended weekend with people you enjoy being with. How fun is that?
Jillie, my favorite is Milkcan stew. It is a little work but in the end it feeds 25 to 30 people and it has always been good. It ends up being a partially boiled but mostley steamed dinner with corn, sausages of your picking, cabbage, potatoes, onions, and carrots in that order I believe. Yum!
Cornhole is basically a variation of a been bag toss game. I have a post from August 12 and one from August 24 about it. It is kind of like jarts or horseshoes only you are tossing bags filled with corn at the boards and trying to get the bags to either go through a hole or stay on the board for points. Basically it is a good excuse to drink too. How could you go wrong?
Sounds like you all had a great time. I'm too spoiled to sleep on the ground. If I ever do go camping again, it will be in a Winabego.
Tony, good news... I was in a popup trailer with a heater. It actually was not bad at all. I hate sleeping on the ground (well actually a blow up matters but still). Of course if my brother in law ever comes back camping I am back in my tent. Yuck! I may need to rent a popup.
Hey Bryan,
I can't believe you guys ripped up the parking stake..!! Hahaha! That's so funny!! And I like Corona. I think you'd like it too. :D
I would have loved to see the kid's plays! Talk about entertainment.
Have fun next year with your Togas!!
--snow
p.s. I hate sleeping on the ground too ;)
Barman,
I love those new Chills!
And the next time you have to make Greek stuff,call me!!
Have a great day..
Snow, I can not believe it either. I do not think any one else in the group would have done that. I can not believe he had that much strength. I sure am glad we did not get caught. I hope it never happens again. It is a shame, some of them focused on the new Disney stuff. If you do not watch the Disney Channel, you do not understand. I am afraid it was a little boring for people. I still loved seeing the niece up there acting like Hanna.
G, I am so so on the chills. We will see, I have a few more in the fridge once I get through this weekend. I would love to talk to you about great. Tips or ideas are very much appreciated.
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