After our fun eating and dancing at the Border Inn and photographing the full moon, it was time to start our camping adventure. We pulled to our camping spot under the full moon and found a level place. We transformed the seats into beds, brushed our teeth, and quickly laid down. We were tired, and it was late. But the wind blew, rattling the trailer. My husband got out of bed.
"
Where are you going?" I asked.
"I better turn off the pivots," he said.
It was cool enough and with the wind he was afraid they might freeze. Some folks down the valley had a pivot fall over due to ice. It costs about $10,000 to put a pivot back up, and my husband did not want to have that kind of trouble.
We hadn't separated the trailer from the vehicle, so he did that and took off. That left me thinking about what I would do if the wind blew so strongly and the trailer started rolling towards the lake. Especially because the door is really hard to open. Finally I told myself to stop worrying and go to sleep. And I did.
But my husband said he kept thinking the same thing all night long, so we decided next time we won't leave the trailer pointed towards the water. We had the wheels chocked and knew the tongue would drag in the mud if it fell off the blocks, but one's imagination can go a little wild once in awhile.
Fortunately the trailer didn't move during the night, except when the wind blew or someone rolled over. It was a little wobbly. Okay. It was a lot wobbly. My husband has already bought another jack to try to make it more stable.
We woke up early as the sun streamed through the windows. I mentally added curtains to the long to-do list for the trailer. We transformed the beds back to seats and put up the table. The kids thought it was fun.
We haven't had a chance to hook anything up in the trailer, so my husband cooked over the little camp stove.
Henry had his breakfast, too.
Then it was time to walk around the reservoir.
We all had coats on, but Henry was eager to go for a swim and continually chased sticks that we threw out for him to fetch.
The water level is really low right now. We've had a dry winter, plus water is being used for irrigating the first crop of alfalfa. There's a lot of concern that there won't be water later in the summer, so there's effort to try to get the early crops as good as possible.
It's kind of neat to see all the shorelines. It makes me think of Lake Bonneville, that ancient lake that once covered so much of Utah.
The reservoir looks a little puny. I'm sure some folks wish that it was warm enough to do our annual triathlon with this low water level!
The west side of the reservoir has willows and the inlet, which meant good adventures.
With the low water, it wasn't too hard to swing the kids across the creek.
From the channel, it's clear that the inlet sees some more turbulent times. It was a little muddy in areas, but fortunately we didn't sink too deep.
Desert Boy found some "dinosaur" tracks.
We also saw some tracks that looked like skunk tracks to us.
With the low water levels we noticed a lot of trash. We had two big trash bags with us and filled them both up. Beer cans and beer bottles were the most common trash. Hopefully the reservoir will stay a little cleaner this summer.
The dried mud was fascinating to Desert Girl.
"
Look what I found!"
When we got back to the trailer my husband wanted to eat lunch. As it was only 10 a.m. I vetoed the idea, but conceded that we could eat early in an hour. We played cards, read books, and relaxed. It was cold enough that if we had been in a tent we probably would have just gone home, so we appreciated the trailer.
By 11 a.m. the wind was strong enough we didn't want to build a fire, so we roasted our hot dogs over the camp stove. It still gave them a good taste. Then it was time to pack up and head home.
Mission accomplished. The camp trailer is lots of fun, but still needs a lot of work!
