Can it really almost be July?

Summer seems to be rushing by and as usual we have been busy around the Lier House. Memorial weekend has come and gone, spring/summer softball season is nearly over, summer projects have been checked off the list and this weekend is the 4th of July. Where does the time go? Ugg.

A camping we will go...
About a month ago we picked up a "new to us" popup camper from some local sellers on Craigslist. The purchase capped off several weeks of serious shopping including lots of wasted miles looking at complete wrecks and countless phone calls and emails. Apparently buying a popup camper these days is competitive businees - most are sold within minutes of being listed. I don't know if it is threat of higher gas making "staycations" and camping trips the thing to do, but there is quite a lot of demand for inexpensive popup campers here in the Twin Cities. I won't bore you with all the details - but the only reason I ended up getting the camper we have is that I went to look at it at 6 am on a Monday morning - basically stealing it from the buyers that already scheduled viewings after work that day. Maybe stealing is a harsher word than it should be, but regardless my persistance paid off and we are the proud owners of a 1998 Flagstaff 176 ed (end dinette). This is a small camper with an 8' box, 2 full size pullout beds, dinette the converts to another full size bed, 3 way fridge, sink, furnace and inside/outside 2 burner stove. It is very lightweight at around 1200 pounds which is exactly what we needed to be able to tow it with our Mazda MPV or my Jeep Wrangler. Mission accomplished.

Being the inpatient guy that I am, I of course had the camper setup in the street within 5 minutes of towing it home. Later, when we had to run out to Paige's end-of-the- year girl scout meeting I broke a bunk brace in my haste to put it away quickly due to the threat of rain. Dangit! Repairs were done that evening and the camper served it's first 3 nights in our driveway as the guard shack for Nicole's 3-Day Walk garage sale. (As if I needed an excuse to sleep in it, I volunteered to sleep guard over all the garage sale stuff to keep the neighborhood thieves at bay!) The girls joined me one night and had a ball so I don't think I will have trouble convincing them to come camping in the coming months. It later made the first road trip behind the Jeep up to Gilbert without incident so I am more than pleased with it so far.

We took the camper out for the first family trip this past weekend to Baker Park Reserve in western Hennepin County. This is one of the nicest campgrounds I have seen with easy access to a great playground with a zip line, beach, biking and hiking trails, showers, bathrooms, etc. Unfortunately the weather wasn't so cooperative with rain Friday night and high winds most of the weekend but we made the best of it and had a fun time anyway. Some friends of ours camped for the first time with us with their 4 kids so the rain Friday was a bit of a challenge for them in their borrowed tent - but they stuck it and were troopers. Even with the rain coming through the cieling and gallons of water on the floor - they laughed it off and we put up clotheslines Saturday to dry out their gear. Seeing that made me really glad to have the camper, we were warm and dry and the girls slept through the whole thing. Nice.

One thing I found a little ironic...
Here we were in this beautiful campground with hundreds of other people from all walks of life. There were tents, popups, truck campers, 5th wheels, pull behinds, Class C RVs, Class A Rvs and everything in between. Next to us was a gorgeous 40' diesel pusher motorcoach - complete with a matching Lexus RX350 in tow. These "campers" were never outside all weekend other than to get in their Lexus and go back inside their coach. The generator ran most of the night and thier satellite TV antenna was erected on the roof. Not 50 feet away was a young couple that appeared to have biked to the campground on a tandem bicycle pulling a Burley trailer with their gear. They slept in an extremely small 2 person backbacking tent that was not even tall enough to sit up in. As we packed up and left for home on Sunday the older man from the diesel motorcoach came over and was elated at having seen us camping with our 4 adults and 6 little kids. He told us how him and his wife had been "full timers" for the past 7 years and they have been living on the road and taking in the beauty of America. I couldn't help but wonder how he got his start camping? Had he ever camped in a tiny backpacking tent or ridden with his wife on a bicycle built for 2? In the end it really doesn't matter because camping is whatever you make of it. It is about spending time with family and friends and not the price of the equipment or how far away from home you are. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were camping with my family so I really hope the girls will keep these times in their hearts and minds as they grow older and have families of their own.

Our next family camping trip is over my birthday (July 11th) to Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids where they have a water park, bike trails, playgrounds and more. Paige and Addy have been talking about it for months now so I hope the weekend lives up to all the hype! Time will tell...

Philanthropric walkin' and Jeepin'
Nicole has been busy raising money for her coming 3-Day Walk. In May we had a garage sale and raised over $2400 by selling a combination of donated goods and our own stuff. Nicole organized our entire development by passing out more than 750 flyers to have more than 50 sales in conjunction with hers. This made everyone's sale an overwhelming success and the traffic was unbelievable. Could this be an annual event? Hmmm....

I have been working with my fellow TCOR members organizing the 5th annual Crawl 4 The Cure for MS. This event has generated more than $120,000 so far for the MS Society of MN and we are hoping that this year's event will be the best one yet. I am selling raffle tickets for a 1981 Jeep CJ5 that we are raffling off with all the proceeds going to the MS Society. If you are interested in buying tickets just send me an email or post a comment on here.