Before I get into that though, I want to give a shout out to the campground hosts at Parks Ferry, Lake Oconee, Greensboro, Georgia. They were amazing. First, we showed up with no reservation, then they let us drive around to find a site conducive to our rooftop tent because they’re tent camping was the type you had to walk into. Even more amazing, later in the day they came by with a camera they’d found at the playground (it was mine, Mr. Stubborn had left it there after taking it without asking) and brought us a couple bundles of firewood. Ah-mazing peeps, would definitely visit again just because of the hosts kindness and awesomeness.
Now onto yesterday. I tried to be the “cool mom” yesterday and let the kids go swimming before we moved onto the next campground. I figured we could go swimming, have lunch and then drive the 3 hours to our next site just in time for dinner. Not one of those things went according to plan.
We made it to the beach to go swimming, but the three older ones couldn’t stop bickering and arguing. I figured I’d leave them to work it out and get some lunch together on the picnic table nearby. Three times I called them saying it was time to eat. Three times they acknowledged and ignored me continuing to swim.
Meanwhile, a storm was moving in and the thunder and lightning kept getting closer and closer. After 15 minutes of the food sitting on the table not being eaten, I started clearing it away, which is when the children finally decided to get out of the water. Needless to say, there were three hungry children who got dressed and loaded up in the truck to start our drive.
It wasn’t long before we drove into the rainstorm that had been headed our way. After seeing a few accidents and nearly hydroplaning off the road and having Little One wake up screaming we stopped off at a rest area.
Trying to be the “cool mom” again, I let the children wander around, have some snacks, and play for a while before we loaded back up and got on our way. We still had 150 miles to go until we got to our next campsite and it was already after 4:00pm. About 100 miles later is when things started to go downhill and I realized my “cool mom” ideas from earlier were definitely not cool.
All four children started complaining about being hungry, even Little One. By the time we got to the campsite, Little One was in full on hysterics and would only quiet if she was being held. The older three were whining about being hungry and not wanting to unfold the tent because it was a new place and they wanted to play. Add to that we couldn’t park in the tent camping areas because they had to be walked to and it was nearly 7:00pm and my stress level was through the roof.
What does one do when confronted with this kind of situation? Take a walk. I broke out the walkie talkies, Little One and I went for a walk, and the older three sat in the truck and watched a movie.
There were four different areas at this campground for tent campers. I walked around to see if any of them would be conducive to parking our truck and unfolding the tent. Only one had potential, but it had little shade and no picnic table. I opted then to leave the truck parked in the parking spaces in front of the beach and next to the largest tent camping area. I parked so we took up two spaces, so no one would accidentally try to park next to us and take out the tent’s ladder.
By now it was nearly 8:30 and everyone was hungry, so I made pancakes. A very odd thing to do at 9 o’clock at night, in the dark, in a parking lot, under a rooftop tent, but it satisfied everyone and by 10 they were all asleep.
Never again will I try to be the “cool mom” and put off getting on the road until so late in the day. The next time we’re due to move on, we’ll be leaving our campsite bright and early no matter how much the kids beg and plead.