Nostalgic Memories vs Reality

Philip and I really needed a vacation, a weekend to ourselves without children. So we decided to go camping. We have fond memories of camping when we were kids, youth and as adults. Heck I've even been on a few hikes where you fish for your food and dig a hole for.. you know. We remember those times as fun, exciting, and carefree. We planned everything. The kids were to be dropped off at my folks place and we would drive about 45 minutes to a national campground and stay for three nights of togetherness under the stars and four days of swimming and boating in the lake.
Ha Ha! This is how it really went.
First of all to those people that told me I was crazy to go camping because of the heat, you can say "I told you so". We got there and decided that we were a little farther south than we were used to when camping in the great outdoors.(FYI all of our past experiences camping were done in the forests of California) Needless to say we were HOT. We started to set up camp and get settled all the while both of us were making comments like " it's a bit more humid then I thought". I started the fire while Philip set up the tent. I was still in my sandals and a few red ants decided that I was stepping on their home. Good grief why didn't anyone tell me how much it hurt to be bitten by fire ants. I only got about six bites but it felt like my foot was on "fire" hence the name I guess. I spent the next twenty minutes or so licking my wounds (stomping around and screaming) while Philip was sweating over the tent. So.. to make a long and crazy story short... we both decided that we were getting too old for this kind of thing and our fond camping memories were just that... memories! Twenty minutes after that we had the car packed and were driving full force for a hotel.
The hotel experience was really the motel kind. It took us back again to the days of our youth. I've stayed at total dives when I was traveling so this was actually a nice place for the price. There were only a few spiders and our fellow travelers had most of their teeth. There was a trailer park right behind us, a car wash across the street and a pool.
I think we had a good time on this trip and looking for free things to do we found a grape festival to check out. It wasn't so much as a grape fest but a wine fest, but we got to tour a winery and check out how they make wine and champaign. Who says a Mormon girl can't find out more on how alcohol is made? The picture on the right is of a wine barrel, Philip is 6'2" and his head would be where the letters are on the barrel.
Funny story on how I got the pictures of the wine cellar. After the tour I realized I wanted a few pictures so I snuck in though the back door of the cellar and Philip waited with the get a way car. Yes, I trespassed. The picture of the bared window was during Prohibition when they continued to make wine.


When we were in Altus we saw an old Catholic church. My husband and I like to see old churches so we toured it and I took a few pictures. The cemetery was so old that some of the grave markers were just rocks.




So all in all we had a fun time being together alone with no children for a few days. But by the third day I wanted my little ones. The kids had a great time with grandma and grandpa along with their cousins. We picked them up, drove home and collapsed! Now we need a vacation after our vacation.