(not really us)*

…And there we were, just the two of us, eating by the light of the latern.

Guess what the Saldanha’s did this weekend??!? We went CAMPING!! After Christopher’s selfless gift of Wicked tickets for me, my mom, and my sissy, I really wanted to make sure I gave him a gift for our anniversary that would make HIM feel very very loved.

We headed to the Ledges on Saturday afternoon, not really sure where we were going to spend our evening. I had been ATTEMPTING to reserve a rustic cabin for us (since temps were going to be in the mid 30′s overnight), but since Nancy from Camp Hantesa never got back to me**,  we knew we were going to have to sleep outside. No big deal. Our friends Kelli & Marcus shared with us their camping bounty and we had plenty of blankets, mummy bags and a nice huge tent.  Armed with a lantern (see above), cooler, and other fun stuff from E & J, we headed towards the campsites. And stumbled upon…

Electric campsites.

People had their RV’s in campsites, all decked out like they had been there for awhile and weren’t planning on leaving. Seriously, plastic flamingos decorated someone’s “front” “yard”. One even had a SATELLITE DISH set up! Does anyone else see the irony in living in an RV and making sure you have access to HGTV?  Slightly discouraged, but moving onwards and upwards, we traversed over to the NON-Electric campsites.  Now we’re bordering on really discouraged, because our dream of a quiet, peaceful, PRIVATE campsite was dwindling due to the fact that the tents in the N.E.C.S, were 10 feet from one another. And it was PACKED! Thankfully, Chris read somewhere that the Ledges offer 12 “Hike-In” sites, which we soon found. You had to walk quite a ways to get to them, but they were isolated, quiet and truly in the middle of the woods. Phew!! We unloaded our stuff and Chris set up the tent while I GATHERED STICKS FOR OUR FIRE. (I’ll give you a moment to re-read that sentence)

We were able to get some hiking in in the Lower Ledges. BEUTIFUL! It was so lovely to be on those trails…such amazing fall colors…the smells of fires and leaves…ahhh…we took some “senior pictures” that I will post later. Because c’mon! How can you refuse to Arm Shelf when you have such naturally beautiful backdrops??                                                                                         

 We made our way back to camp and Chris started the fire. Since the wood was kind of damp, it wasn’t a blazing inferno that he had hoped for. Still good enough to keep Ol Chilly Pants warm and enough to make some S’Mores!!  We brought some Jax-issued freezed dried mac and cheese that you just pour boiling water in and voila! mealtime. It was…well, I had graham crackers and a banana for the rest of my dinner.

A couple times, raccoons wandered over NEAR us, but Chris chased them away with his whacking stick.

Bedtime came around 8:30 or so. We snuggled up in our Mummy bags, and by the light of my head lamp, I read Chris the first part of “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”, starring Mr. Sherlock Holmes. It was KINDA eery reading about the low whistle heard in the distance right before Hildebrand was murdered!!! eeep!!!!

This is a long post since I don’t know how to make paragraph indentations. 

I wasn’t able to fall asleep because I was so chilly, and I will admit, there were a COUPLE tears shed around 11 since I hadn’t slept yet, and my toes were ice cubes and I had to go to the bathroom (squatting outside, by the way). But after Chris helped me go potty (“no, you’re not peeing on your pants…keep going”) we got “warm” and “cozy” again, and were able to finally fall asleep.

Until a raccoon scratched at our tent.

He ran away, but my heart was pounding so fast! Was that a low whistle I hear in the distance? Hildebrand!??!?!?!

We woke early the next morning to a beautiful sunrise…still cold though. We made hot cocoa and packed up our gear.

Had it maybe been 20 degrees warmer and the wood was dry, our camping excursion was delightful. I will definitely go again. I’m glad I’m married to a BoyScout…a member of Order of the Arrow, thankyouverymuch.

Love you Bubbs. Thanks for keeping me safe!!

*I generally do not like posts that don’t include pictures, but since we can’t find our cord to get said pictures off the camera, you’ll have to settle for a picture of two children, whom we can only presume are named Jack and Madison.

** I hope you’re reading this, Nancy from Camp Hantesa! SURE, you have dry wood, but we…we…had…we had EACH OTHER! So there!