Don't you love 4 day weekends??! So Brian had Friday off and then he has the 4th off as well. When he woke up Friday morning, he told to pack up so we could go camping! It was a mad rush to try and get ready. As some of you know, getting a family of 4 ready for a camping trip is not a super quick task.
By about 3 we were finally on the road headed south to Elephant Butte Lake State Park. This was our first longer trip (about 2.5 hours) with Lucas being potty trained, and with a small bladder and a HUGE love of water, we had to pull over twice on the freeway because he had to go potty. Good thing I have boys!
As we pulled into the Three Sisters primitive camp area we were ecstatic that it seemed so isolated and we could get right up next to the water. So we started heading a little closer to the shore (I am a horrible guess but I would say we were still 80 yards? away) when Brian noticed that it looked like the trailer was dragging something behind it. He stopped, got out, and found that it had been the trailer wheel that was sinking in the sand. Brian, realizing that was not a good sign, got in the truck and tried to get out of that area. ... The truck sunk as soon as he gave it gas!
In the end it took 2 hours, lots of digging, a super nice couple in a jeep, and a couple guys in a big truck to get us out. Note - we learned that when you are pulling someone who is stuck it is EXTREMELY helpful to have a tire hooked between two tow cables. It gives a good stretch/shock absorber or something.
Even the hitch was slightly buried, I measured when we got home and it was 22 inches in sand
Sand almost in the exhaust
Digging out with our handy dandy camp shovel
The husband of the super nice couple we waved down. They lived just up the road and went and got more tow straps and a great big shovel to help us. They were AMAZING. He was able to pull the trailer out.
The front end was in at least 18 inches from what I measured once we were home - the track bars were slightly buried in the sand.
The boys had tons of fun playing in the sand, not a care in the world
Once we realized the jeep was not going to have the strength to pull out our 10K lb truck, the guys went down the lake and found these guys camped. They grudgingly helped pull us out.
Assessing the situation...afterwards I talked to my sister and she said that she and her boys would have been panicking, freaking out that they were going to die out there. I was never that worried, I just worried how much it would cost to get some big tow truck/wrecker to come and pull us out.
The view while we were stuck
Lucas was pulling down his shorts to pee about every 10-15 minutes (the entire trip). Maybe that Camelback that he can constantly drink from wasn't such a great idea...or maybe boys just like to pee outside
Our holes
The next morning the "big boys" went down to the lake while Levi took his nap
We had an awesome day playing in the water. The kids (who slept very poorly the first night) were super exhausted and Levi was asleep by 7:15, so Brian took Lucas down to try and fish. They didn't have any luck.
While they were fishing I saw this guy flying around! Super cool to watch. You couldn't pay me to get me up there...unless it was for like a million dollars or something...
The pictures of them fishing aren't super great because see that little dot in the middle of the picture, that's them. I had to be zoomed to the max for my little camera.
I also saw this guy, kind of being an idiot, while they boys were fishing. He was driving around on the sand super close to the water, and guess what, he got stuck (at about 8:40 pm). He saw our truck and came to ask for help. Brian told him he would help him, but only from hard dry land. The guy didn't have a tow strap long enough so he found another guy to help. Who also got stuck. They got a 3rd guy, who also got stuck. Keep in mind that these people, seeing that one guy was stuck, were still driving to within 15-20 feet of the stuck truck. Didn't that give them the hint? They got a 4th guy, also got stuck. By around 10 or 11 there were at least 4 trucks and a jeep stuck down either right next to the water or actually in the shallow water.
Lucas wanted to stay up to watch the fireworks at 9:30. This was his first time seeing them and he thought they were "pretty cool!". He gave me my camera and insisted I take pictures!
After the fireworks the lightning show started. We were surrounded by lightning and heavy winds. Brian was really worried that a huge storm would come and we would be stuck again, so we packed up at finally left around 2 am. The kids were so exhausted that we packed up the whole trailer, did everything but lower the thing with the kids sleeping inside. That even means we opened the sides, slid the beds in, and everything.
I know it sounds like a lot of trouble and no fun at all, but we really did have fun. I am not sure how much Brian really wants to go camping again, so we may be putting the trailer up for sale, but the boys and I had a blast! Gus had a ton of fun swimming and cleaning all the sticks/logs out of the lake. We really need to move back to SG and buy a boat... :(
