Spent part of Memorial Day Weekend camping at the Trail of Tears State Park near Cape Girardeau , MO. It feels strange, though, to not be reeking of that familiar smoky campfire smell. Due to the county’s burn ban, no charcoal or fires of any kind were permitted. That was a downer for me, as I find much pleasure in relaxing by the crackling, cozy embers. Before I headed South on 55, I hesitantly made the decision to unplug from the digital world. In other words, no Twitter. Turns out, I had full bars all weekend, so I didn’t even last 10 minutes. People, I am addicted. Instead of unplugging, I created a hash tag for the weekend (#WCT0512 – Wisely Camping Trip 05/12) so we could all tweet our thoughts and follow the stream – that was fun. I definitely lost some followers because of it, as expected. Oh well. It was still a great weekend.
We fished, hiked, geo-cached, cooked out, and played fun games. Left the makeup at home, not that I’m a big into that anyway, but it was still nice to not even apply eyeliner. We also spent a LOT of time monitoring the dogs – yep, all four of them: my parents’ dogs, Cleo and Frank; my brother & sister-in-law’s dog, Harper; and my dog, Vince. It was stressful having them all, but I really enjoyed being able to take my city dog to the great outdoors. He had a blast.
Because my mom had turned 50 last Monday, we surprised her with a stack of 50 letters. Victoria previously reached out to people our mom has known for years and asked them to write down a memory shared with my mom. It was such a sweet idea from Tori. Travis and Jill did a wonderful job making the envelopes. My mom is a wonderful woman and it was really special to hear her read aloud the stories that so many people contributed.
As you know, I’m all into skateboarding now, so I had to have a Trail of Tears session. Tori graciously documented it. I can’t believe how much harder street skating is, though! Gah. I’m used to smooth concrete at Ramp Riders. The uneven texture of the asphalt tickles a lot and it requires much more effort to push forward. I need to work on that.
The funny thing about Vince is that at my apartment, he is very good about going to bed. He curls up next to (or on top of) me and sleeps through the night; I always have to wake him up in the morning. But whenever he’s around my Dad or Frank, my parents’ dog, Vince cannot sit still or sleep. Therefore, it wasn’t a very restful couple of nights for us. By the time Vince and I left for home, he couldn’t keep himself from falling asleep while perched on the console in my car. It was very cute. I had to snap a photo – it was worth the risk.
On that note, let me just say how much I love driving back home from a short trip. Sunglasses, flannel shirt, windows down, Tom Petty through the speakers. It was a really great end to a really great Memorial Day Weekend.
Thanks for reading.
