Goin' Country...First Night in the Camper

Well, life certainly is an adventure. That's for sure. Recently, our family was able to clear enough trees on our 5 acres where we could pull in our camper to spend the weekend and get some work done. We've been waiting for this night for a long time (almost a year) and it was SUCH a blessing to live it out, finally. We're not living in our camper full-time, but our weekends are usually spent there. Then it's "back to the drawing board" during the week. Funny. It's like we're living two separate lives. Two separate hats to wear. Country and city.


The trip didn't go quite according to plan. It was the exact opposite, actually! We planned on leaving our current house right after lunch time, but got a bit delayed. With the cold temperatures at night here, we figured we would definitely need heat. We've been talking about obtaining a generator for awhile now, being able to run our camper's electrical needs wherever we need to. Rob was able to find one and decided it was best to drive to get it, bring it home and try it out first before leaving for the property, depending on this as our only heat source and if it didn't work, we'd be in trouble. Plus, at this point in time, we're now realizing we'd be driving in the dark, probably setting up in the dark.

Sure enough, that's what happened.


(Pictures are from the Civil War Reenactment we saw that weekend.)

After passing THREE separate accidents on the highway, and hours later, we got to our small city. The baby was screaming, quite done in  his carseat. Rob, Isaac, and Linc were in the truck pulling the camper ahead of us. I had Avy, Norah, and an unhappy Titus.

When we got to our city, the street lights continued to diminish as we got closer to our property. In the country, your headlights are your street lights. It was DARK. So dark, that I prayed over our headlights. "Just keep shining. Just keep shining."


There are deer in our area (which we're not used to having to be aware of), so I we had to have our wits about us, driving very defensively. I was also quite worried that our camper wouldn't fit down our little dirt road. Well, it did. The boys did a great job hauling it and parking it on the property. We basically set up camp using headlights and a few flashlights. I never want to make that drive in the dark again!


Never-the-less, we made it. Robbie and Lincoln were able to lift the generator out of the truck (yes, we have an insanely strong 6-year-old) and onto the ground, plugging the camper in and getting the heat going. We also got a campfire going for heat outside. It was quite the adventurous evening! Rob was on generator duty, waking up once during the night to fill it with fuel. (It will go for about 8 hours when full of fuel.)


This trip was full of learning (as with any first experience), but most of all, FUN! We had such a hard time leaving. Our brains were churning. We were designing where everything was going to go. We cleared more trees, taped out areas, went on hikes through the forest, discovered animals, talked with neighbors, and decided to hit the local weekend Civil War Reenactment. What a weekend! Looking forward to many more.


(Please keep us in your prayers this week as we have some big decisions to make.) 

Anyway, I love watching videos on others' sites, so I figured I'd try to post more on our own blog. Sorry if it's overkill. {wink} Here's just a *glimpse* of our weekend.