Starting at the beginning of 2009.

We started back into our normal routines slowly at first with my Red Hat LaDieS meetings in January. ( If you don't know what Red Hat LaDieS is, see my blog @ www.qmb2.com/rhlds ) We hadn't gone camping in January or February because we felt mom shouldn't be let alone yet, but she healed a lot faster than we thought possible and so decided to try it out in March. We weren't sure whether my back could handle sleeping on the firm couch surface in the R.V. as I had just started sleeping in my own bed recently. My bed had been the recliners in the family room as lying flat was torture. We planned to go for the night and if my back hurt too badly, we would leave to sleep @ home. Luckily, my back didn't hurt any more than usual and so we were able to stay the weekend. Our home campground is Mountain Lakes Resort in Lytle Creek off the 15 hwy near Glen Helen. It is close enough for weekend jaunts but far enough & up into the hills to feel like we are "getting away" from it all. It takes about 45 min. from home to reach the grounds. They have a recreation area for adults with pool table, table tennis, and a hall where they hold Bingo & other adult oriented activities. The children have arts & crafts counselors and families can participate in activities like food fights, water wars & other games. There is a library with books, puzzles & a large screen T.V. The lake has paddle boats & swan boats & a island to go around while geese and ducks chase each other and fishermen try to catch the fish on the opposite end. There are 2 pools (adult w/jacuzzi's) & a family pool. There are movies and kareoke contests or the best part, lounging around doing nothing.
The R.V. is Kathy's & Dan's and we split the cost of the monthly camping dues and the cost of the food we eat for the weekend. Their R.V. has a queen bed, a table (bed), and a couch slideout (bed), kitchen with refrigerator, stove, & microwave, bathroom with toilet & shower. At the beginning, I would sleep on the couch as the table bed was too hard on my back. Besides, Willy, our cocker spaniel sleeps with me and he's a bed-hog anyway but it was too funny watching Leo sleep with his feet dangling out the side. Now we have learned to extra-pad the table bed and I sleep there, although the bed-hog still sleeps with me. I just give Leo all the clothing bags etc. to keep him company on his side. It works pretty good. Now we just shake our head in amazement because Leo will sleep with his head hanging down the side of the bed. It would give me a gruesome headache but at least his feet are protected from midnight roamings from other occupants.
We really enjoy bringing Willy & I think he enjoys being with us too. We would love to bring Chillie but he just won't, #1 stop barking, and #2 getting out of his collar & running away, so we leave him at home and he keeps mom company. Dogs are not allowed to roam free with out a leash and they are not allowed in the lake but early one morning, we "accidently" dropped the leash. Now, Willie loves to lunge after the geese & ducks & birds that travel throughout the park so we thought since he was a water dog, and it's early morning, and the geese and ducks were in the lake...well, you see where we are going, right? WRONG, Willie took off running into the water about 2-3 feet, and stopped. He looked around, looked at me and came back out. Now the water wasn't too cold, he just knew he wasn't allowed loose or maybe the ducks scared him off?
Camping has been one of the activities that Leo and I both enjoy. I have been camping since I was a little girl and we camped as a family for years in Northern California. Next time, I'll have to show you some of the sights around camp.